White Copper Black Tiger Altar Pendant

The black tiger under Zhao Gongming is never mere furniture in a painting. In Daoist reckoning he is titled the Zhenjun of the Zhengyi Dragon-Tiger Xuantan and has charge of wealth, and the images show him with a whip in one hand and a gold ingot in the other, the tiger couched at his feet. Half the authority in that picture is the tiger’s. Folk New Year prints and the paper horses burned at shop doors generally follow the same arrangement, and temple statues push it further, with the tiger taller than the man.

A pendant like this puts man and tiger on one plaque, which is a harder composition than a head alone. Three elements — figure, tiger, ingot — crowded onto a small surface need a clear order: the figure in the centre, the tiger below, the ingot as an accent. The relief has to step back layer by layer, the face highest, the tiger next, the ground shallowest, and then the light does the sorting for you. Lay it too flat and the plaque becomes a picture, and no amount of wearing will make the carving show. The tiger’s spine should ride above the man’s head; drop that line and the menace goes out of it.

White copper is an awkward material for a dark subject. It runs bright, and it cannot carry the “black” in black tiger. The trade’s answer is to darken the hollows and polish the high points, substituting a difference of light for a difference of colour. Worn long enough, the whole piece oxidizes to a warm brown, which suits the subject better than it did when new. A genuinely black finish means antiquing solution, and that layer comes off, and it stains a sweaty hand. So keep the silver cloth to the high points only. Wipe the hollows and they brighten, and the contrast that makes the thing work is gone.

Two ways to buy it: the pendant alone, or with a Chopin chain. The chain is made of flat links set square to each other, strong enough that a heavy plaque will not stretch it out of shape; the drawback is that the link joints catch fine hair, which is unpleasant against bare skin in summer. On a cord, the pendant reads rougher with leather and plainer with waxed cotton, depending on what you wear. Choose a lobster clasp over a spring clasp; it takes more punishment. In a hot summer, rinse the chain in clean water every few days, because sweat sits in the joints and begins to smell.

For someone in business the wording can be straightforward. Xuantan is a martial wealth god, and what he governs is keeping what has been earned and earning it honestly — not windfall. Shops have said this for generations, customers like hearing it, and it does not promise more than anyone can deliver. If the recipient keeps a statue at home, call the pendant a plaque rather than an image of the god; that is the safer word. Do not bring up consecration, which nobody can source properly and which only creates complaints later. A plaque can be set in front of the statue; it does not need to be worn.