This bronze figure belongs to a group of small bronze animal models which were very probably made as ornaments or for use as paper or scroll weights. The present lot is especially fine with all the details reproduced in the round, even to the paws and fur to the underside. A comparable model of a lion with hardstone inlays, from the Salting Bequest, dated to 15th/16th century, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, Oxford University Press, 1990, pl. 72.