.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This rare and charming puddingstone figure of a lion is one of the earliest examples of the usage of puddingstone as a material in Chinese art. "Puddingstone" is a blanket term covering a wide variety of conglomerate stones made up of pebbles held together by sedimentary or siliceous rock. Historically, two types of puddingstone with different mineralogical make-up were used in a Chinese art context. The first type is a limestone conglomerate, thought to be locally sourced from various geographical origins within China, and has a long-standing tradition in Chinese art lasting some 1,200 years. The other type is a quartz conglomerate, which was likely to have been imported to China no earlier than the Qing dynasty and was used for snuff bottles, as well as intricate auspicious carvings.
The present figure is carved from limestone conglomerate and has particularly delicate proportions, with a beautiful matrix of flaked pebble-like inclusions of varying sizes within the stone and a soft, silky patina. Limestone conglomerate has a long history of imperial appreciation and was incorporated as a building material in the Ming and Qing imperial palaces, most notably as floor tiling in the Qianlong Garden in the northeast section of the Forbidden City, Beijing. Limestone conglomerate carvings, such as the current example, are known to have been collected by the Qianlong emperor and are likely to have inspired these puddingstone floorings, which are recorded as being installed by special order of the emperor himself.
Compare the present figure to a similarly seated puddingstone lion of larger size (9 ½ in. high), dated to the Tang dynasty, 8th century, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by Laurence Roberts in Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, p. 39, no. 28. Another example from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, London, is illustrated by Leigh Ashton in An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture, New York, 1924, pl. L.
The present figure is carved from limestone conglomerate and has particularly delicate proportions, with a beautiful matrix of flaked pebble-like inclusions of varying sizes within the stone and a soft, silky patina. Limestone conglomerate has a long history of imperial appreciation and was incorporated as a building material in the Ming and Qing imperial palaces, most notably as floor tiling in the Qianlong Garden in the northeast section of the Forbidden City, Beijing. Limestone conglomerate carvings, such as the current example, are known to have been collected by the Qianlong emperor and are likely to have inspired these puddingstone floorings, which are recorded as being installed by special order of the emperor himself.
Compare the present figure to a similarly seated puddingstone lion of larger size (9 ½ in. high), dated to the Tang dynasty, 8th century, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by Laurence Roberts in Treasures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1979, p. 39, no. 28. Another example from the Eumorfopoulos Collection, London, is illustrated by Leigh Ashton in An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture, New York, 1924, pl. L.