˜A SPANISH COLONIAL BONE FIGURE OF THE CHRIST CHILD, PROBABLY PHILIPPINES, MANILA, 17TH / 18TH CENTURY the Diviño Nino carved with his right hand raised in blessing, his left on his stomach, set with glass eyes, with stained detailing to face and loosely curling long hair 14cm high excluding later wood stand During the 17th through to the 19th century, many Christian subject ivories were worked in the Philippines by a mixed community of originally emigré Chinese sculptors. From the 16th century, Spanish traders and missionaries had fostered a trade in Christian ivories from the artisans of Southern Fujian Province in China. The trade spread to the Philippines: by 1639 some 30,000 Chinese were living in Manila, many of them craftsmen and traders, known as 'sangleyes', in the Parián (meaning market place) area of the city, an enclave just outside the city walls. The present lot is unusual since it is carved in bone (or marine ivory), rather than the predominant elephant ivory of such figures, but the subject, pose, glass eyes and the style of carving (particularly the hair and face) corresponds closely with analogous figures from the Philippines under Spanish rule. Provenance: a Greek Private Collection since the 1940s