Thrifted: Foo Dogs

Florida, long touted as the land of retirement, has now been re-crowned by yours truly as the land of thrift stores!  My mom and I went off for a half day adventure of thrifting and I came back with one of my best scores to date.  Feast your eyes:

A pair of vintage, hand-painted porcelain foo dogs for $14!!!  You can't really see it but under the foot of the one on the right is a foo puppy, so cute.

Now if you are like my boyfriend, you might not have any idea what a "foo dog" is.  Let's have a briefing shall we?  The term itself actually refers to ancient Chinese guardian lions which have a dog-like appearance and were thought to have mythical powers of protection.  Many Qing and Ming era Chinese buildings and palaces had these "foo dogs" (correct term is Fu Dogs, but not a term often used) outside their entrance always in pairs, with the male playing with a ball in his paw and the female cupping a cub.  According to Feng Shui principles the male dog should be placed on the right side of the building and the female on the left.

Grand palaces were not the only dwellings to have Foo Dogs, they were miniaturized and made originally out of wood or jade and were found in most Chinese homes.  Foo dogs were a staple of the vintage Hollywood Regency style, and more recently, thanks to modern dwelling magazines, they have become a popular decorative item in chic American homes.

Turquoise Foo Dog Lamps from Furbish.com

$300

Foo Dogs in an entry way via Palmer Weiss

Green Foo Dogs

So, what do you think of Foo Dogs?  Would you put some in your home?