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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: Skinny on June 02, 2018, 06:43:10 PM
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I just bought this guy for $25 online. It looks old, but maybe someone has just gone to a lot of trouble to make it appear that way. The feet of the animal are attached to the base with some rusted iron or steel nails that can be seen sticking out of the bottom if you flip it over. It's not magnetic. What do y'all think?
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One more pic
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I have no opinion on authenticity our age, but a very cool piece and for only 25 bucks!
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No real information here except that if it was a "really really old" piece you wouldn't see a screw but it would have been welded. Maybe someone else will chime in!
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I can only chime in by saying that those tapestries on the wall behind the lion look pretty cool! 8)
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Ha ha thanks, I like tapestries. I don't think those are screws KC, just iron or steel rods helping hold the feet onto the base. I read that the Greeks did this with some of their bronzes (using iron rods to attach arms and legs etc), but I don't know if its correct for old Chinese stuff or not. The patina and all the corosion looks legit, but it might only be a hundred years old and been outside for the last fifty years or something
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Channel page have a detailed system that says it is not interesting at all.
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Of course I know everyone wants their stuff to be old and valuable and most of the time it isn't. This has a little bit of some kind of pinkish yellow dirt in some of the crevices as well, so it was either buried or someone wanted it to look like it was buried
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They sometimes bury them to resemble ageing and remove the fresh look of something recently made.
I would say its not that old but it might be a 20s, 30s piece which was buried in undergrowth for a time.
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Thanks. If you've got time I'd be interested to know what about it marks it out to you as being not genuine
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Channel page have a detailed system that says it is not interesting at all.
You might want to explain that statement !!
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Thanks. If you've got time I'd be interested to know what about it marks it out to you as being not genuine
I would agree with Ipcress estimate of age !! That base threw me !! Chinese craftsmen would not have left one like that !! They were excellent craftsmen even on inexpensive items !!
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Yeah, you're right about base being a bit too amateurish. It does look like its been smashed though. I think it was probably a little more symetrical when it was originaly made.
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I do not think the smashed theory works !! When bronze is poured its a solid metal,, same as cast iron !! Can`t figure how any accident would leave one looking like that !!
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The base is all banged up, you can see that in the picture that shows a view from the bottom. Its possible it was made that way, but to me it looks damaged. This bronze is hollow I think. I believe it has a clay core. The base may have originally had a bronze surface on the bottom, and that part has been broken and is now gone. Or not, but you can plainly see the exposed clay down there, so that makes sense to me.
I thought all bronze sculptures were hollow, except for very very small ones? Thats what I've read on all the websites I've researched.
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The craftmanship of the lion does not compare to the crudeness of the base,
therefore me thinks its a "married" (conjoined) piece.
The lion figure was probably a decoration that was taken or salvaged from another object/entity.
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Hummm......that is a possibility
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Sometimes the upper figural parts were hollow but I have never seen a hollow base !! That is where the weight is needee !!
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It is a somewhat perplexing object.
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but I have never seen a hollow base !! That is where the weight is needee !!
If its a "repurposed" piece,
and I think it is,
. then the base itself was "repurposed" from something else.
Something else like a cast metal oblong box ...... or a cast metal oblong lid.
And maybe not seen a cast metal hollow base for a statue, but surely seen plenty of them for lamps, clocks, etc.
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Thanks for your logical thinking !! Never thought about a married piece !! Could be !!
Looking at the pics again,, if you set this figure on a table or flat surface,, does it seem top heavy ?? Looking at the paws I don`t see much detail on them !! Cogar may be right,, it doesn`t look correct for standing in that position and there are some pieces by the legs on the base that do not seem to belong there if it was made as it is !!
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His left front paw looks somewhat well executed, while the right one is a bit more clunky. This is kind of true for the back feet as well. It seems to be pretty well balanced. I've got it on a book shelf and it doesn't want to tip over at all
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https://www.google.com/search?q=chinese+dragon+bookends&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
OK !! I think I have this one figured out !! The form just threw me for a loop,,,until you said yo had it on a bookshelf !! Look at the base on the 2,3,and 4 pic !! Now these are usually weighted with gravel or can be clay !! If the bottom part were ruined by accident or whatever you would see the same thing that yours looks like !! If this were one of a pair it would look like the dragons were holding the books up wouldn`t it ??
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Skinney,
You got me thinking wrong with this title.
Chinese bronze lion?
That sucker looks more like a Chinese Foo Dog
.. than it does a lion.
And iffen it is you will surely like these prices,
.. to wit:
https://picclick.com/8-Chinese-Bronze-Fengshui-Guardian-Foo-Fu-Dog-182512165300.html (https://picclick.com/8-Chinese-Bronze-Fengshui-Guardian-Foo-Fu-Dog-182512165300.html)
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Could be !! I was calling it a dragon !!
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Yeah, who knows what it's supposed to be. The lion and the Foo Dog forms look so similar to me. Sometimes the reproductions are just called a Lion Foo Dog, like its either or.The person I bought him from called him an Oriental lion tiger dragon lol
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Oriental lion tiger dragon lol
Ha !! guess we are all right,,