Stone weight (or child's tether?)

This unusual stone sculpture features a lion atop a square base with foliate corners. The base is carved in low relief on top with four bats surrounding a stylized Chinese character shou or longevity. In ancient China, craftsmen often used word-puns and loaded homonyms in creating their works of art. The rebus in this context is the combination of a spoken word and a visual image, whose name is pronounced in the same fashion as an auspicious term. The images in this sculpture, the lion shi and the bat fu, are homophones for power and good fortune. Altogether, the design of this sculpture implies an auspicious message: a wish for official advancement, good fortune and longevity.