Collection of Chinese Buddhist lions of various sizes

A group of Buddhist guardian lions under a turquoise monochrome glaze, on rectangular plinths, in graduated sizes and mostly in pairs. They are properly shizi — Chinese guardian lions — rather than the trade name foo dogs, and they are not dogs: the form derives from Buddhist lion imagery that reached China along the same routes as the religion.

A pair conventionally comprises a male with a brocade ball beneath one paw and a female with a cub. Sold as a group here; individual pairs can be split on enquiry.

Buddhist lions in context

The lion is not native to China; it arrived with Buddhism, as the guardian of the Buddha and the dharma, and became the guardian of gateways, temples and tombs — usually in pairs, a male with a brocade ball under one paw and a female with a cub. In the West they acquired the nickname “foo dogs”, a corruption of fo, Buddha, with the confusion of dogs added; they are lions, and Chinese sources call them lions. In porcelain they were made as incense-burner covers, joss-stick holders, roof-tile finials and pure ornaments, in every size from a few centimetres to architectural scale.

A collection of figures of various sizes is exactly the kind of lot that rewards being looked at piece by piece — glaze, modelling and base differ from one to the next, and so does date. Each figure here is described individually and its base photographed. We have noted in our records that this group would very likely realise more sold as separate pieces, and we may do so.

Read more: Qing porcelain and reading the base.