a pair of foo lions famille verte

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I need your expertise on this one, as if I don't need it on all of them, right, I just purchased these from the collector that is selling his collection, the story goes, he inherited  these from his aunt who bought these in England in an antique store in the mid 20th century, he said that he had them appraised at at the Portland museum where he is a member and said that they are mid 19th century, I have never seen ones like these, they stand 45.72 cm tall, I could not find any marks but I can see that it is all made by hand and hand painted, the colors are very transparent and the yellow has a little more green to it than yellow almost a yellow green but more yellow, I am sending 18 pictures to view, thank you for your Expert opinion.

[Stan]

More photo's to view.

[Stan]

More photo's to view.

[Stan]

Here are more photo's to view.

[Stan]

Last set of photo's, please let me know if you need anything else, thanks from Stan.

[Stan]

I quess these are foo dogs and not lions, also the eyes did not show in the photo's that they are weighted in the back in side the head, I guess so when it was fired in the kiln it would keep them from falling out, that is my observation, I don't know it that is exactly why they were weighted but sounds logical, here is a photo taken inside under poor lighting, but you can still see how the eyes were weighted.

[calder]

Hi Stan they look incredible.
Nice items.
Cant help though.

[Stan]

Thanks Calder, I haven't had any luck either, I have not been able to find anything like them, Im beginning to think that the guy I bought them from is right about the period, early to late Qing.

[Stan]

I meant to say early to mid Qing.

[peterp]

Foo Dogs are  Lions. The Chinese name for all these is just Lions. They are always a pair. The male is the one with the foot on the ball.

Not sure why they would think it is mid-19th century.
The base decoration could be late Qing (Guangxu) or early republic, in my view. At least that is when this type of decoration appears often on other items. Generally said, figurines were not plenty before the republic period. The large majority of the older figurine was probably made in the early 20th century, with a smaller number being from the 19th.
You will have to admit that the lion figurines themselves have no clear age signs. Large ones would have been placed on gate posts, etc. but the bottom shows no sign that it ever was fixed with plaster.

The green hue shown in the 3rd image from top, where the sun rays do not change the colors, shows the green colors which were common in the late Qing dynasty.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, when he said early to mid 19th century I said to him more like the Guangxu period but not being able to find anything like it made it hard for me to compare, thank for letting  me know the the age, but I still have not seen any thing with the eyes done in this fashion

[Stan]

Peter, I meant it ask you what exactly is a gate post and how would the foo lion be set on plaster, if you don't mind me asking, thanks.

[peterp]

I should say that it would be better to say that they are guarding "passage ways". That means also temple gates, bridges or anything similar. But those are usually carved of stone, and the large ones are placed on the floor. The example I mentioned came to my mind because of specific glazed lion I know, and this is at the gate of private premises. Many Chinese houses are enclosed by walls. To the left and right of the entrance through it, there is a post (cannot say it is a pillar, because those with lions are usually low), square in shape, made of stone or a similar material. The lion sits on top of this. Sometimes, if they lions are big, they sit in front of the gate (or passageway), to the right or left, looking outward.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, Im glad I asked.