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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;springfld.arsenal, post: 58271, member: 54&quot;]Thanks for the educational links.&nbsp; The two bronzes at first and last link represent a musician and a dancer, both are characters that would have been seen entertaining emperors.&nbsp; So the Imperial courts probably had these objects made-there was no other way they&#039;d have been made centuries ago, IMO.&nbsp; If yours is old then I&#039;d suspect it was also made to represent some recognizable figure seen around the Court with a readily-identifiable function, maybe whatever if anything the arms once held would have revealed that.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>It looks to me like the major pieces of the figures shown in the links were cast solid, even though one base has some relief at the bottom.&nbsp; The flute-player was cast in two pieces,&nbsp; base and figure.&nbsp; I&#039;m guessing that pieces made for the courts were cast solid even if cast in more than one piece.&nbsp; Reasoning is that hollow cast was harder to get a quality piece-since harder to ensure the molten bronze filled all parts desired.&nbsp; Hollow cast was used to save a little bronze in each casting so&nbsp; the pieces could be sold more cheaply, but the courts wouldn&#039;t worry about that small cost and the artists making figures for the courts were worried about getting top quality castings.&nbsp; And when such objects were being acquired by the courts, there was zero consumer demand for nonfunctional bronze objects.</p><p><br /></p><p>Above is all my speculation, not verified facts, but I do think a valid question is whether hollow casting would have been used for such items prior to the advent of massive souvenir production in the last century.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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