Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board

Can anyone tell from these photos what this possibly is or may be?

It's about 12 inches across, 7 inches tall, and weighs nearly 12 pounds.

The label on the bottom says "Wildwood Imports 97621".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Appears to be one of those modern tourist curios made of what looks like wood that they typically sell in Chinatown's like the San Francisco. My parents have a bronze one and the color is much darker and their's looks more metalic and more better shaped than this one appears to be. It seems way to clunky and lacking in proper muscle tone. Looks stiff.

Dog of Fu, or temple lion. The material seems to be poured, man made.
Ernest

Ernest and Tim right. This is female lion, with cub and ball. Would be sold in pair with male lion.

Good luck,
Cal

I have more information that may help.

I purchased this at a corporate auction where I worked at a startup telecommunications firm at the time in 1989. We were moving to a new office complex, and the CEO who had his office in an asian motiff had this, along with a number of other items. (There was no matching paired item to this.) He and the company offered all the items of the old office decor up to the employees at the time through an internal office auction. If there was anything in the office you wanted that wasn't destined or needed to be moved to the new office complex, you simply had to offer up a blind bid. This took place in 1989.

I liked the item, always had an interest in asian art, and had no real idea what it was, what it was worth, etc -- I thought it was a dragon and her baby -- just wanted to be part of the auction that everyone was having fun with at the time. I later found out that it was considered a Foo Dog or Lion which was typically placed near the front door of a house to scare away evil spirits. That's where I've had it ever since as well.

After I won this item, the girl from accounting eagerly showed me the G/L asset listing for it. It had been purchased in 1983 for an amount I was very surprised at. She said she hadn't bid on it because she was interested in the oriental style furniture offered up at the same time, which she did win. So I do know the purchase price that was paid for this in 1983 for this item. Of course, that doesn't mean it was really worth that much then ... or now.

It's not wood, and it doesn't appear to be poured -- at least to me. As I mentioned it is very dense and weighs about 12 pounds. It is a stone type material. There are carving marks on it, most noticably in the recesses under the body, behind the ball, in the back of the mouths, etc. The teeth of the larger lion are carved so sharply that I don't think could have been accomplished via a poured method -- but this is just all my opinion.

I've attached a few more up close photos, if it helps. (I can't post a very detailed fine photo due to the 100k limit, but maybe these help.)

Thanks again for all the comments!
Trance

There is imitation-stone materials (something like concrete) used for museum-shop, tourist-shop mass-produce items. Could have lead weight at bottom.

Your lion not in any traditional form. Made for people not know traditional forms.

Not matter what other owner paid.

Good luck,
Cal

Asian Arts | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board