Our Guardian Lion is in "Ming Style" like those in the Forbidden City.
It is made of top quality crystalline white marble, without veins and sculpted in a very accurate manner.
Size 18x7x9 cm. Weighs 1530 gr. 20th century
A very valuable detail is the marble ball that moves in the mouth, obtained directly from inside the mouth!
A true piece of art!
The "Chinese Guardian Lions" or "Imperial Guardian Lions" are a typical architectural ornament of Chinese tradition.
Typically made of stone, they are also known as "Stone Lions" or "Shishi".
In English they are also called "Lion Dogs" or "Foo Dogs"/"Fu Dogs".
This is a decorative style born in the Chinese Buddhist environment with an apotropaic intent: lions (greatly stylised in shape), often one male with a globe in its claws and the other female with a cub.
Guardian lion statues are traditionally placed in front of the palaces of Chinese emperors and their tombs, temples and palaces of high officials/nobles as a powerful apotropaic symbol, they were meant to protect the building they were placed to defend from both harmful spiritual influences and ill-intentioned people.
Used in Chinese imperial palaces and tombs, lions later spread to other parts of Asia.
