Well carved figure in embossed gold robe and crown, seated in red chair. [DCF Court Team 16/12/2002]

Collection type: Object
Description: Well carved figure in embossed gold robe and crown, seated in red chair. [DCF Court Team 16/12/2002]
Long description: Well carved figure in embossed gold robe and crown, seated in red chair. It is a basic wood carving, decorated with gesso before being painted or gilded. He is portrayed as a seated scholar/official in gilded decorated cross-over robe over half armour. He has a dragon's head on his chest and is wearing a scholar's cap and black boots. He is clutching his belt (girdle) with his left hand whilst his right is held at waist height. He is clean shaven, youngish middle-aged male, with a near smile, and heavy eye-lids and plump face. The front of the socle is decorated with a white on black carver's trademark consisting of the half-flower with eight petals, and quarter flowers in two corners. [MJD 24/03/2014]
Geographical reference: China
Asia > Eastern Asia > China; Fujian Guangdong
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Unknown Collector; PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Date / Period: Date made: Possibly before 1876
Date collected: ?By 1876
Acquisition information: Donated: 1884
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Embossed, Process Painted
Dimensions: Height 290 mm, Width 140 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1884.59.125 PR Cat other PR nos: 2545
Research and responses: This is one of several objects collected by Wood which are not listed in Collectors Miscellaneous [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]
Information supplied by Keith Stevens following visit in August. 2000; Note: dating of images without the original provenance or internal documentary evidence is generally impossible. The carver's trade mark on the front faces of the image [is not] identifiable. An unidentified Chinese folk religion deity [Heterodox Daoist]. It is a basic wood carving, decorated with gesso before being painted or gilded. He is a southern Chinese image, from either Guang dong or Fujian, but more likely the latter and is probably a local provincial or even a country deified worthy. He is portrayed as a seated scholar/ official in gilded decorated cross-over robe over half armour. He has a dragon's head on his chest and is wearing a scholar's capand black boots. He is clutching his belt (girdle) with his left hand whilst his right is held at waist height and clutching a now missing object (hole). He is clean shaven, youngish middle-aged male, with a near smile, and heavy eye-lids and plump face. The front of the socle is decorated with a white on black carver's trademark (unidentified) consisting of the half-flower with eight petals, and quarter flowers in two corners.
See Stevens, Keith, Chinese Gods: The unseen World of Spirits and Demons. Collins and Brown : London, 1997. [LP 19/9/2000]

Search terms: Religion, Figure, Religious Object