Figure

This statuette of pipeclay is made in the late 15th or early 16th century in Siegburg, Germany by an unknown artist and represents the figure of an ape squatting on a Gothic pedestal.

The material pipeclay is a fine white clay also used to make tobacco pipes and pottery.

Conveniently situated on a major trading route, Siegburg was a centre of ceramic production with well-organised workshops and kilns in which also pipe-clay figures were fired.