A lovely carving of all three of the Sanxing, the Chinese star gods. They are carved from a greenish soapstone with orangey overtones. They are all firmly attached to a dark brown soapstone base. Their eyes, brows and lips are picked out with red and black paint.
As is typical with old soapstone there are plenty of little chips here and there. But there are two areas where there is more damage - the middle ones headdress is missing a larger chunk, and the one pictured on the right has had his shoulder re-glued. I have pointed out these areas with my blue pencils in the last photo.
18 cm tall, 16 cm wide, 5 cm depth.
Weight 674 g