Antique Stone Fu Lion, China (16394JLM) $195

Description

Chinese stone weights have been used for millennia as measurement that were standardized with each dynasty, although there were local varied  applications.  A parallel non-standardized system for everyday use existed where weights had little economic such as securing a picnic cloth or scholar’s paper to paint calligraphy to serve as garden-accessories. These antique-Chinese-stone-carvings were usually in auspicious shapes like animals, fruit, and vegetation. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, small fu-lions were especially popular in private homes, gardens, or on a home altar, as decorative statues and as weights to bring the blessings of fu to homes and their occupants. They are used extensively in Feng shui for indoor and outdoor use to enhance the flow of energy.  Generally, they were pairs, although sometimes smaller images were lone males. In the Buddhist tradition, even though they are protective guardians, these mythical animals as Buddhist-Statues were often portrayed as more friendly than fierce. Portrayed as a pudgy benevolent fu-lion, everything about this hand-carved creature is comical and light, from the playful position of his thrown-back head, broad whimsical, and infectious smile to his open mouth revealing his tongue curled between two fangs. His eyes are rolled back with a mischievous twinkle under bushy eyebrows in the form of stylized clouds. Although he sits sejant as a lion, with both feet in front of him, there are scant indications that he is a lion –  the suggestion of a mane under his chin and down his back and hints of a spiral tail.  It is durable, in very good condition with definite signs that it has been worn by living outside in the elements that weathered him. As with many cultural and religious objects, many fu-lion statues perished during China’s modernization and antique ones are becoming increasingly difficult to find.