Fabulous 80s style Painted Wood Dog Cutout vintage Burmese box While certainly a functional base

While certainly a functional base for a dramatic floral arrangement

including featured on the cover of Ceramics Monthly

With a few seemingly simple gestures

I believe the animal depicted on the lid of this beautiful presumed Japanese lacquer box is a Shi-shi or Shisa dog-- a creature resembling a cross between a lion and a dog that derives from Okinawan mythology and is perceived to be a ward protecting from evils

It would be especially dramatic filled with large white lilies or a few tall flowering branches

Fabulous 80s style Painted Wood Dog Cutout vintage Burmese box While certainly a functional baseThis dog! I'm obsessed with it! I am not entirely sure if it is one of a kind or if there were a number of these produced, but either way I think it's pretty terrific. It seems quintessentially 1980s to me, and reminds me a bit of the cats of Laurel Burch. I just love the colorful hand painted patterning, the squiggly line for a mouth, and then that eye ball looking out of the corner of the eye! How not to feel happy with this guy around??!! 9 1 2"