A Large Ming Lead Glazed Earthenware Elephant Form Architectural Ornament, Ming Dynasty Jiajing to Chongzhen (1522-1644). From the Brodie & Enid Lodge collection, purchased from John Sparks on the 12th of October 1949. This substantial sculpture of an elephant is made from a gritty open textured hard earthenware and was probably made in Shanxi Province. According to traditional Chinese belief, roofs are platforms of communication between the words of the living and spirit realms. Consequently, they were decorated to ward off evil and to act as a magnet for blessings and good fortune.  Xiang (elephant) is a homonym for the word happiness. An elephant with a vase forms a rebus meaning `perfect peace in the universe`, this is expanded if there is a saddle cloth to mean `perfect peace and harmony in the universe`. The elephant is also closely connected with the Buddhist religion. This Ming pottery object would have had a finial on its back, perhaps supporting an auspicious emblem, this is missing. The support for the missing finial is hollow and goes through to the flat base, there would have been an iron rod that would help connect it to the roof. There is thick white residue, this is rice glue. This is a traditional adhesive that was used in Ming architectural fittings, such as this pottery elephant. Rice glue was used as a mortar in the Great Wall of China, to this day there are sections of the Han dynasty wall where the rice is still fulfils its function after 2,000 years. There are two small drilled holes relating to a previous TL test, one in the top inside of right leg, the other at the back on the inside of the handing green fabric. There was no test result with the elephant when I purchased it, unfortunately. Perhaps it got lost or the test was inconclusive. However, with a provenance back to 1949, it can't be a fake. The provenance is of course from experts of their day. I have had many of these Ming architectural ornaments and ridge tiles over the years and this piece is clearly genuine. For more information about Chinese roof tiles and elephants, see lower down the page. This Ming pottery Elephant weighs 10 Kilos (22 pounds in weight), so will be expensive to ship, especially to America.   See Below For More Photographs and Information.