Unusual and Colourful Ceramic Oriental Lion or Foo (Fu Dog)

by HELEN
(ENGLAND)

Unusual and Colourful Ceramic Oriental Lion or Foo (Fu Dog):- Hi, are you able to tell me anything about this lovely lion please? I picked it up in a charity shop recently. I originally thought that it had be artificially aged but have now found that the dark marks will wash off with warm soap and water. I cleaned a bit around the head but have stopped until I learn some more about him. I think that the decorations is of enamel monkeys holding a flower and some other animal that I can't make out. The closest I can get is that he may be a buddhist temple ornament and that he is crackle glazed.

I have googled endlessly and can't find anything quite like him. He is 10" long and just over 7" high from front paw to the top of his head and there are no makers marks that I can see. Apart from a small chip on one of his bottom teeth he is intact with no chips or cracks.

Many thanks

Helen

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The forum Help Elf says:-

Nice find at a charity shop, I must say. Described as "fu dogs" or "foo dogs" in the West, these mythical creatures are used as a traditional spiritual and decorative motif in Far Eastern art. They were traditionally depicting lions, so really, should be known as 'fu lions' or 'foo lions.

Anyway, this lion-dog is from the Buddhist tradition, as you say, and are thought to ward of evil spirits, being placed at the entrances of a temples and other building (most often nowadays at the entrance of Chinese restaurants). Because the lion dogs are associated with Buddha, the ceramic replicas can be from either China or Japan and there are also Western imitations. This makes identification doubly hard. Yours looks more like a dog than a lion which might suggest Western chinoiserie maybe.

In any case, foo dogs can be anything from several hundreds of years old to contemporary, and only an antique china expert can tell which is which. Older examples from China can be very valuable, particularly if associated with the imperial kilns.

As for your example, traditionally these creatures are often depicted with more square faces and more floppy ears. They also tend to be sitting on their hind quarters on some sort of base and they come in pairs. I can't see all of yours form the photo, but it doesn't seem to conform to the typical stereotype although it does have many of the tell-tale traditional fu dog-lion features.

This is all I know, sorry it's not much. Hopefully, a more knowledgeable contributor might tell us more.

For general free advice on how to research your collection further, Peter wrote this page:

value of antiques.

H.E.