Chinese Antique statue

[Stan]

Hi Peter, I would like to get your opinion on this, I purchased it at an Estate sale, it came from a very prestigious estate, in whom the collector was a well known for his Chinese antiques amongst other things, please let me know how old you think it is, it looks like stone ware to me, thanks.

[Stan]

Here is the last set of Photo's to view, I wanted to note that on one side of the statue it looks more deteriorated on one side than the other, that tells us that one side was exposed to the outside elements more than the other, thanks for viewing.

[heavenguy]

Hey Stan,

I may be a noob on this but I think what you have is a chinese roof decoration. It looks similar to the ones found on the forbidding city so you may be up to something there... just google chinese roof decoration and some will show up... gl

[heavenguy]

This will help a little bit more....

hua.umf.maine.edu/China/HistoricBeijing/Forbidden_City/pages/091_ForbiddenCity.html

[Stan]

Hi heavenguy, thanks for the web site, what a striking resemblance, I hope Peter can shed some light on it, when I purchased it at the estate sale there was a lady behind me that said she lived in china for several years and said she thought it was from a temple, but the web site you gave makes me believe it is a roof tile, that would be great if it came from the forbidden city.

[peterp]

The "chicken" has been baffling me...I could not imagine that it would be sitting on a roof.
This page "en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_roof_decoration seems to confirm my suspicion that it should be a phoenix".

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, and Heavenguy, so it is a Phenix bird, I wonder if this could be from the Ming era? I will find out and let you know for sure. Thanks for your help.

[peterp]

It seems that many Chinese temples, and even gates do have such figures. That means even Chinese temples in SE Asia, etc.. Looks as if they are still being made for new temple roofs.

[heavenguy]

According to this website, the color of the roof tile has something to do with the type of structure it was put on. I'm going to quote the website, "Yellow tiles were reserved for use on the roofs of royal palaces, mausoleums, imperial gardens and temples." I don't know if they have imperial places around the country or if they allow to make replicas of this type of tile or color.



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[peterp]

The color yellow was a pregorative of the imperial court. At certain times it could not be used at all, but at times, especially towards the end of the Qing dynasty, this was not observed anymore. That is also the reason why we can see monochrome minyao porcelain in yellow.
As I live among Chinese I can confirm that many temples have yellow tiles; this is especially true for Buddhist temples. You will find some by doing an image search for "Chinese temple roof" or a similar search string. Temples and old gates are the places where you most likely find roof figurines. They are not common on other buildings.

[Stan]

Hi Peter, how can you tell if this is a newer one or is there certain clues to an authentic Ming dynasty roof tile, The estate that this came from, Wallace Kay Huntington, was an architect and a long time member of the Society of Architectural Historians and member of several Museums, his collection was pretty impressive, he collected all the right things, can you tell by these pictures if it is authentic Ming of would you need a hands on inspection.

[peterp]

I did not say it is newer, I meant that from what you have it is difficult to tell from when it is and from where it is. It could be from many places and periods, up to now. Only because it has some age signs does not mean it must be antique. Most are probably only vintage.
The figurines are still made and look the same way. Have a look at this:
tinyurl.com/obdo5s5
Look only at the yellow roofs of Chinese temples, you will find many contemporary ones, even in Malaysia, etc. have them.
Even the Confucius temple near where I live has them, and I do not think that the temple is more than fifty years old.

Based on this I would think that there is only a slim chance that this figure is from the imperial palace in Beijing. It simply is a standard figurine on some Buddhist temple roofs. It is therefore more likely that the palace roofs used figurines made at an outside workshop, using existing moulds, etc.
Further, I doubt that in the old times (Ming) many people would have cared to preserve architectural relics, but these are now more readily available. Temple roof tiles are relatively easily to get, I have a box of them; mostly they come from temples that were torn down or had their roofing replaced. Mostly they are only vintage.

Just my own thoughts ...
Is there any feature that might indicate it was specifically made for the imperial palace?
It may or may not be the same, but if the figures were specifically made for the palace, we have to consider the possibility that they were marked. Could be, but is not necessarily so. Seems unreasonable for an architectural item, doesn't it? But, I have been shown a floor brick that was allegedly from the imperial palace (several times the size of today's wall bricks, but about the same red type of brick). Well, the brick was marked as belonging to the palace. If bricks were marked, there is a chance that other architectural items were marked too.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, for bringing me back down to earth, your right, the odds of getting a real imperial roof tile would be like playing the lottery.