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Carved wood figurines with brass inlay ( China & Japan ) - Anne Wright - Feb 28, 2015 (09:15 PM)

Subject:Carved wood figurines with brass inlay
Posted By: Anne Wright Sat, Feb 28, 2015 IP: 166.170.5.124

Would love to know more about these two statues that have been in my family for generations. I remember growing up with them on my Grandma's mantel, but never realized the backstory until my uncle shared it with me recently. Apparently my Grandma's parents had an old friend/roommate that was a merchant seaman who lived with them when he was not sailing in the early 1900's back in Kansas City, Missouri. He went away to sea and never came back, leaving his sea trunk behind at their house. They never heard from anyone what had happened to him and so when they moved to California in the 1940's they finally opened the trunk and found clothes and these two statues which they gave to my Grandma. I don't know what their actual name is, my grandma always called them "Joss Gods" or something like that which has not helped identify them at all! ;-) You can barely see in the picture they have beautiful intricate brass inlay all over them. They do have some internal damage from wood borers but they were treated by an exterminator years ago and there are only small holes that are hard to see. I don't remember if there were any markings on the bottom, they belong to my uncle now in South Carolina and I've asked him to check if there are and see if we can get a better picture. Would love to know what they represent and if perhaps they might have any historical value. Thanks for any clues anyone would like to share with us!

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