Beautiful vintage Chinese carved stone marble Fu dogs. Elegantly hand carved with lots of details. One of the pair as a small chip at the base see pictures.

Measurements: 22 cm high, 13,5 cm long and 11 cm large.

Fu Lions or Fu Dogs, traditionally known in Chinese simply as Shi / lion in English and often called Foo Dogs in the West, are a common representation of the lion in pre-modern China. Statues of guardian lions have traditionally stood in front of Chinese Imperial palaces, Imperial tombs, government offices, temples, and the homes of government officials and the wealthy, from the Han Dynasty ( 206 BC-AD 220 ) and were believed to have powerful mythic protective benefits. They are also used in other artistic contexts, for example on door-knockers, and in pottery. Pairs of guardian lion statues are still common decorative and symbolic elements at the entrances to restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and other structures, with one sitting on each side of the entrance, in China and in other places around the world where the Chinese people have immigrated and settled, especially in local Chinatowns.

The lions are usually depicted in pairs. When used as statues, the pair would consist of a male resting his paw upon an embroidered ball in imperial contexts, representing supremacy over the world and a female reassuring a playful cub that is on its back representing nurture.