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1 of 253523 objects
Pair of Dogs of Fo with mounts lions: 1700-20, mounts: mid-18th century
Porcelain with turquoise and purple glazes with gilt bronze | 25.7 x 12 x 8 cm (whole object) | RCIN 4621
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A pair of Chinese porcelain lions mounted with French gilt-bronze mounts. Seated lions, with hexagonal beaker vases at their backs; the male, (4621.2) with a movable embroidered ball on a pole under its left paw, the female, (4621.1) , with a cub. The open jaws with ribbons hanging out, coils of hair on the head and neck, and bushy tails, sitting on a rectangular purple plinth pierced with ruyi-heads. The hexagonal vase is fitted with a small gilt-bronze cover (fixed) from which grow flowers and leaves. The rectangular plinth is raised on a gilt-bronze frame with a pierced apron and acanthus-scroll corner feet.
Turquoise glazes, Islamic in origin, are found in Chinese pottery from the Song period (960–1279) onwards. Used later on porcelain, they were, as a rule, applied to a biscuit fired body and baked at medium temperatures. These wares were especially admired in France in the eighteenth century when the glaze was known as bleu celeste, and were favoured by Queen Marie Antoinette.
Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, Volume II.
Provenance
Almost certainly George IV. Recorded at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, as ‘A pair of turquoise blue Kylins on purple bases, mounted in ormolu, nine inches [22.9 cm]’ (1829B, p. 113); noted in the Queen’s Lacquer Room, Buckingham Palace, in 1921 (1829B, p. 113). Two other pairs of similar gilt-bronze mounted turquoise lions are recorded at Brighton Pavilion, see also RCIN 3572.1–2 and RCIN 3571.1–2.
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Creator(s)
(nationality)(metalworker)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Porcelain with turquoise and purple glazes with gilt bronze
Measurements
25.7 x 12 x 8 cm (whole object)
Other number(s)
