This stunning figure accounts for one of around 130,000 ceramics recovered from the Ca Mau Shipwreck: a junk transporting Chinese export porcelains, which likely sank en route from Canton (Guangzhou) to Batavia (Jakarta). Although this voyage took place around 1723 – 1735, the ship was not discovered until 1998, when Vietnamese fishermen came across it in the South China Sea, off the southern coast of Vietnam.
The hound was a symbol of loyalty, and statues of them were often used to ‘guard’ the entrances to temples or important places.