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I found this statue quite odd. It looks like its got some age to it, yet it also looks like it was made of cement looking at the spot where its chipped. Or I guess it could be a grayish clay. Any idea on the country of origin? The person looks oriental in some ways I guess. There is writing on the front, and the back. The front is faded but maybe parts can be read? The back looks legible in certain lights :/ I did a little research on turtle symbolism in a few cultures and some of the depictions of Urashima Tarō seem relevant. Or Bi Xi with Vietnamese writing? Just throwing shots around, but I have no idea. Thanks for any help I sincerely appreciate it.

The writing seems meant as archaic Chinese
(rather than Japanese, Korea, or Vietnamese), though a turtle plinth for Chinese figurines is quite uncommon. Am guessing this is a recent Chinese pastiche, not knowing of other possibilities. Without the head it's not clear whether you have a bixi or turtle, alas. The maker seems to have mixed the flaming halo that sometimes backs Northern Wei gilt bronze figurines with the carved stone stelae that bixi support.

Thanks for the info. Assuming this is a pastiche what timeframe do you see as when it could have been made. Also, does the archaic Chinese say anything meaningful or is this too hard to translate? I briefly tried to google translations but it's hard to come up with much. Thanks

Seems quite recent to me. Despite the missing animal head etc, it doesn't seem to have experienced much wear. The base may be dressed to give it an aged look, but the glaze is quite glassy and in some ways too uniform for me to think this is more than a few decades old. But who knows, I haven't seen another example before.

I can make out about half of the characters but not a coherent message. Usually inscriptions on stelae or religious figurines were documentary in some way (at minimum describing the reason for their creation and including a date for a stele and typically the donor's name and a date on a votive figurine), but this one has none of that and the script it is imitating is Zhou era or even earlier oracle bone stuff, and would not be found on a Wei or more recent carved stele. Unless someone can suggest some comparable and dated objects, I think you have a recent oddity, a knick knack rather than a collectible.

Thanks for the information, Rat. That helped out a lot and everything you said makes a lot of sense. It doesn't show those typical signs on age, but rather looks like applied patina to give the impression that it is old. It fooled me a little as I love to take chances on things that may have a rich history, but I too thought it looked a little funny. Now it makes sense. Thanks again.

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