A Pair of Commemorative Bronze Buddhist Lions on Stands Qing Dynasty, Circa 1900

comprising a powerfully and fiercely modeled seated male lion with brocade ball and matching female with cub, both with tightly scrolling manes and bell and tassel-ornamented bands across their broad chests, each with rectangular stands modeled with brocade covers, the sides of the bases with lotus-petal-framed panels of lotus-scroll and ruyi-head scrollwork, the spreading foot modeled with ruyi-head cloud border, bases engraved OFFICERS CHINA RELIEF EXPEDITION TO PRESIDENT McKINLEY PEKING AUGUST 14 1900, polished bronze with dark-brown patination (4)

President William McKinley, 25th President of the United States.
Thence by descent to the present owner.

overall good condition, a few minor scattered abrasions, slight wear to extremities, surfaces cleaned and lacquered
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The present works commemorate the lifting of the siege of the Foreign Legations in Peking on August 14, 1900. The Legations, extraterritorial concessions controlled by Westerners, filled with Americans and Europeans fleeing the combined forces of the anti-Western Boxer Rebellion and the Chinese Imperial Army . The U.S. China Relief Expedition joined with troops from France, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Austria, Italy and Russia to battle the Boxers and the Chinese Army, ultimately defeating and scattering the besiegers and occupying Peking, relieving those who had been trapped within the legations for nearly two months.

President McKinley (1897-1901) initiated a trade policy with China from 1899-1900, known as the Open Door Policy. It was intended to bolster business interests in China by allowing all foreign nations equal opportunity (i.e. eliminating tarrifs or laws favoring one country over another). The Boxer Rebellion, combating Western ideas and practices such as this, forced the withdrawl of McKinley's policy.