Southern Song / Yuan Dynasty, 13th Century
with bushy mane and long tail, shown seated on a waisted rectangular pedestal with head turned to one side in the aggressive attitude of a guardian, a tasseled bell collar tied around the neck, the left paw resting on a beribboned ball, covered with a glossy translucent glaze of pale bluish tint, the eyes picked out in iron-brown, the hollow underside unglazed revealing the pale porcelain.
Height 5 1⁄4 inches (13 cm)
Provenance
Collection of E. H. Gye, London
Collection of Lt.-Col. A. T. Le M. Utterson, London
Collection of Frederick M. Mayer, New York
Christie Manson & Woods Ltd, London, The Frederick M. Mayer Collection of Chinese Art, 24-25 June 1974, lot 131
Exhibited / Published
Hetherington, The Early Ceramic Wares of China, London, 1922, pl. 43, fig. 2
Lee and Ho, Chinese Art under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty (1279-1368), Cleveland, 1968, no. 106
A very similar Qingbai glazed porcelain lion on pedestal excavated in Inner Mongolia is illustrated by Chen (ed.), Nei Menggu Jininglu gucheng yizhi chutu ciqi (Porcelain Unearthed from Jininglu Ancient City Site in Inner Mongolia), Beijing, 2004, pp. 22-23.
Another Qingbai glazed porcelain lion on pedestal in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum of Art, Oxford, is illustrated by Pierson (ed.), Qingbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, London, 2002, no. 116.
南宋 / 元 青白連座佛獅 高 13 厘米
Southern Song / Yuan Dynasty, 13th Century
Height 5 1⁄4 inches (13 cm)