large rabbit statue

[Stan]

Hi Peter, here is a statue of a rabbit, the dealer is saying that it is 17th century but looks to me to be late 19th century, please let me know what you think of age, thanks.

[peterp]

Hi Stan, I'm afraid this is most probably a modern fake.
For those who didn't grow up with animals in the vicinity I will first describe what is wrong with this rabbit/hare.
The overall shape when looked at from the side looks more like a cow or water buffalo. The feet or behind of hares do not look this way when sitting or lying, they are larger, and they do not have this sort of high shoulders. The snout does not look this way, and the head is not pointed like this. To me that looks more like  a rat. The only thing that points to a rabbit or hare are the long ears. My personal view.

Bottom:
I feel the bottom is all wrong. The color is made up. The mark does not look like a Chinese seal, at least not like one used before the 20th century. They were normally square or rectangular.
To my knowledge the cloth traces are mainly visible on items made in the 19th and 20th centuries, and later. When making figurines or plaques a cloth was placed below these, so that they could be lifted off. Why are the tracesof the cloth not covering the whole bottom area? And why does it look as if the seal was applied over the cloth, instead after removing it?
And why is the whole bottom dark brown, while there are areas along the edge that were apparently knocked off recently. If the glaze run down during firing and the item stuck to the ground or saggar, it would have been knocked off then, and the bottom and breakage areas would be approximately the same color.
And what are the black handwritten characters for? Hundreds of years ago such did appear on burial items, or more seldom they were purchase-related notes, but this???

Ah, and one more thing. Large scale production of animal figurines did only start in the 20th century, although a few were also made in the late Qing dynasty.
Chinese animal figures were often highly stylized, but usually the shape head and ears of hares were depicted more accurately than this one.

[Stan]

Thanks Peter, Im glad I asked before buying them, I kinda liked them and would have paid to much, thanks again.