Shou-xing Statue 12" dark wood with gold wire and ivory inserts

Clearly a statue of the traditional Chinese god of longevity transliterated most commonly as Shou-xing. The top of the staff was apparently broken off and glued back on. We were told that the seal making it legal for export may have been fraudulent, meaning that it could have been older than 1882. I found this in a tiny shop built into the old city wall at Nanjing. My group was one of the first allowed into China after the Cultural Revolution, and it seemed that vendors didn't know what their stuff was worth on the US market.