Late C19th Italian carved alabaster 'Grand Tour' souvenir sculpture, after the antique, "The Medici Lion". Carved alabaster model of good scale with subtle grey veining to the stone. Mounted on an integral canted-corner plinth base.

The lion with the raised right forepaw was first recorded in 1594 by Flaminio Vacca (1538 - 1605). It was originally carved in high relief but was cut from its ground by Giovanni Sciarano, the Tuscan sculptor. Vacca then carved its opposing pair to match, hewing the lion from a massive marble capital that had been discovered behind the Palazzo dei Coservatori. This one he signed. The pair were moved to the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence in 1787, where they remain.