European artists often depicted China as a land of leisure and luxury. These fantasies are known by the French term ‘chinoiseries‘ as these light and decorative subjects found particular favor in France in the 18th century. Chinoiseries soon became popular throughout Europe however, thanks to the lively trade in engravings of famous paintings or popular designs.

The French court painter François Boucher’s designs were much copied by decorative artists as they were available as engravings from the 1740s onwards. His pretty and fanciful subjects came to epitomise the fashionable French Rococo style. The Meissen factory made several models after a series of chinoiserie designs by Boucher entitled ‘Les Délices de L’Enfance‘ (The Delights of Childhood) inspired by engravings by J.J. Balechou.