swizzle said:
Hey all, I found this Foo Dog at a yard sale for $5.
That was a steal of a deal. To bad you only have one. They usually came in pairs.
It has a repaired leg and a nice green patina. I was wondering if I could possibly get an age or any history on it. I tried to stick a magnet to it and it wouldn't stick so I'm sure its bronze but it could be brass to I suppose. I'm gonna do a quick polish on the bottom of him tomorrow to see if I can get some color.
NO! Please, please, please, do not polish anything. Let a museum see it and get advice from those with more expertise. From the looks of it, its bronze, although they did come in copper, iron, bronze, ceramic, jade and marble, but from here it looks like its bronze gilt. If there are any markings on it, they would likely be under the feet, inside the body cavity, or most any place where a person wouldn't normally be able to see it. From here, with the limitations of seeing it in two dimensions and under questionable lighting, it appears that it would be over 100 years old and possibly a few times that.
He's completely hollow and the belly is all open. The legs appear to have been filled with some sort of plaster or concrete. There are no makers marks that I can see on it anywhere's. I can take more pics or even a video if anyone needs to see more of it for a positive ID or if you just want to see more of it. Thanx for any help. Swiz
All I could suggest from here is to first take measurements of its height and weight and shoot some pictures of it with a ruler, or tape measure in the pictures. Then write out a description and phone around to any museum and if they can't help you ask if they know anyone that might be able to. Once you find someone with knowledge of Asian foo dog's, either ask to have them take a look at it, or ask if you could email them the pictures you took and let them decide on whether or not to see it based on the pictures. Even a good auction house like Christies, or Sotheby's, might be willing to help you. I've phoned Christies in the past with only a verbal description of an item and they were very helpful.
http://www.christies.com/home_page/home_page.asp
http://www.sothebys.com/
Todays episode of the Antiques Roadshow was yet another show where there were people who did silly "cleaning" and ruined the value of items. And then there were those who happened to run across a couple of little paintings, (about 5" X 8"), that turned out to be worth $30,000 to $50,000 U.S. each and someone who bought a kitchen chair from a yard sale for a buck the same morning as the show, only to find it was a chipendale worth over $1500. Moral of the story is, you just never know what you might find and sometimes even a great find can be trashed by the best of intentions.
Good luck and let us know how things turn out with your foo dog.
F.
