A LARGE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF A FEMALE IMMORTAL SEATED ON A BUDDHISTIC LION

17TH/18TH CENTURY

Details

A LARGE SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF A FEMALE IMMORTAL SEATED ON A BUDDHISTIC LION
17TH/18TH CENTURY
The elegantly attired woman wearing a fur capelet and an apron of leaves tied over long robes finely incised with foliate decoration, her hair drawn up into double topknots behind a tiara, holding a basket of lingzhi, peonies, peaches and Buddha's hand citron as she sits atop a striding lion with tripartite tail, its head raised and mouth open in a roar, the lion carved from stone of mottled ivory and reddish color, the figure from warm ivory-colored stone, with traces of gilding and black pigment
12¼ in. (31 cm.) high

Lot Essay

This figure is very similar to a pair of soapstone groups included in the exhibition, Chinese Imperial Patronage: Treasures from Temples and Palaces, Christopher Bruckner Asian Art Gallery, London, 1998, no. 30, where it is noted that another very similar but smaller group in the Schlossmuseum, Gotha, Germany, is illustrated in Schätze Chinas aus Museen der DDR, Mainz, 1990, p. 152, pl. 206.

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