China, a monumental pair of tall hand carved stone tigers, 115cm, 46” high and 60cm, 24” in width, early to middle Qing dynasty, 18th-19th century.

The powerful, benign carved sitting effigies perched on haunches and front paws with round heads and faces exposing defined eye sockets, ears and two fangs a top bases that feature curled tails on side each whole atop a block shaped base and hand-carved from limestone whose surfaces show considerable weatherization from exposure and good age.

Reference: 35 Years Collecting 35 Treasures, Schneible Fine Arts catalog Number 30, p. 66. (see photos)

Provenance: originally found in Fujian Province, our private collection.

History:
Stone carvings of tigers are rare unlike more commonly encountered stone foo dog lions.

From extensive travel through out China, we have seen only one other pair similar to these and that pair carved in smaller scale.