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Subject:Re: What is this large Asian carving?
Posted By: mikeoz Fri, Oct 06, 2017
Your first picture is the front of the stand, while the third is the rear.
The front is decorated with several LingZhi 靈芝 mushrooms (in the stylised form often seen as the 'head' of a RuYi sceptre). Additionally, towards the right hand lower section there is a bat. These are powerful symbols in Chinese culture.
I suggest that this might have been the base for quite a large statue of one of the immortals, and the small cup-like depression at the other end of the base may been the resting place for the bottom of a staff. The immortal who comes to my mind first in this instance would be Li TieGuai 李鐵拐, who was closely involved with the care of the sick and disadvantaged, hence the specific LingZhi mushrooms (famous and very important in Chinese medicine).
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