Monkey on Horse Shoemaker's Weight

Cloaked in a multicolored drip glaze, this ceramic object would have been used in an early 20th-century shoemaker’s shop to press down large pieces of leather. Doubling as a handle, the central figures depict a monkey riding on the back of a horse. The scene conveys the popular idiom ma shang feng hou (馬上封侯), a pun that translates as "to immediately be invested with a rank of nobility." Perhaps originally used to imbue a new pair of shoes with blessings of quick success and prosperity, this beautiful shoemaker's weight lives on as storied sculptural object.

Available to ship April 22, 2019. Item will be on display through the New York Botanical Garden Furniture & Antiques Fair 2019.