A Chinese white porcelain (blanc de Chine) figure of a lion-like animal seated on a high, hollow, rectangular base, its left front paw resting on its plaything, an embroidered ball, and its ribbon, not properly attached, clenched between its jaws. It has bushy eyebrows, a mane and tail, and wears a collar with tasselled pendants. On the base at its rear is a cylindrical taper holder, and on the sides are incised plant sprays.

Mythical lion dogs are used in China as guardians - usually depicted in pairs, a female and a male - which stand outside Buddhist temples and palaces. In English inventories, these ‘lion dogs’ were sometimes listed as ‘lions’, and sometimes as ‘Kylins’ (the Chinese qilin, which is in fact a different mythical animal, with cloven hooves, a head like a deer or horse, with either one or two horns, and scaly skin like a dragon).

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.