Chinese Drum-form Pedestal or Base

A stone drum that will never be played, sitting on animals that never left.

This drum-form pedestal or base comes from Hebei Province, China, 18th century, in stone. Stone bases in China kept the wooden columns of a building up off the damp ground, and drum shapes also appear at gates and in courtyards, often carved to signal good fortune. A smooth, rounded drum sits on a six-sided block. Low relief animals, now softened, move across the panels of the shaft. The foot below carries a scalloped band with two ring-like details. The stone is pale gray with a crazed, weathered look. It stands 28 inches high and 16 wide.

It has been holding things up for a long time without comment.