Dehua White Porcelain Seated Guan Gong Sculpture

Guan Gong sits in armor with the long beard falling over his chest, one hand supporting an auspicious vessel and the other aligned with the separately fitted crescent blade. In white porcelain, the face, scale armor, robe folds and guardian-lion base remain the visual focus.

The figure reaches back to Guan Yu, the general later honored as Guandi. A late-Ming Dehua porcelain Guandi in the British Museum records how the historical hero became a symbol of loyalty and, by the early seventeenth century, also a God of Wealth and patron of merchants. This sculpture draws on that same union of martial bearing and ethical reputation.

For a study, shop, or business interior, Guan Gong represents loyalty, responsibility, resolve, and protection of honorable conduct. Those values explain why merchants have placed his image close to the place where decisions are made. The monochrome glaze keeps the presence composed, while the gold-colored blade supplies one deliberate point of authority.

• Origin: Dehua, Fujian, China
• Material: White-glazed porcelain
• Figure: Guan Gong seated in armor with a guardian-lion base
• Dimensions: 34.0 cm H × 19.0 cm W × 17.5 cm D / 13.4 in H × 7.5 in W × 6.9 in D
• Included: Separately fitted gold-colored crescent blade accessory
• Dimensions are hand measured; slight variation is expected