Duties included for US ordersShips from Yunnan in 7–12 daysHandmade · no two alike
Cart · 0
The Guardian Series · hand-chased S925 silver · Yunnan

Not a lucky cat.
A tiger in disguise.

For six hundred years a clay cat has sat on the roof ridges of Yunnan, mouth wide open, swallowing bad luck before it reaches the door and holding good fortune in its hollow belly. We brought it down from the roof: three guardians, chased and cast by hand in sterling silver, on a cord you can wear every day.

Shop the Guardian SeriesThe ceramic guardians
S925 silver, stamped12 g · 32–35 mmTwo cords includedFrom $98
Three sterling silver Wamao guardian pendants on leather cords, resting against a piece of driftwood
Skin-safe metal only925 sterling (stamped) or 316L steel posts
Broke in the mail? We resend, free.Ceramics travel in a double box. No returns needed.
Made in Dali, Lijiang & KunmingSmall workshops, a few dozen pieces a week
Signature

Three guardians, one roof. Chased in silver by hand.

Every Yunnan village had its own roof cat. These are three of them, translated into sterling silver by a small Yunnan workshop: hand-chased, cast, antiqued and polished back, so the surface has the soft, matte depth of old silver. Each ships with a black cotton cord and a brown suede cord.

See the pendant page →
SignatureCangyan silver pendant, a horned roof cat with fangs, on a black cord against driftwood

Cangyan · The Flame

Horned guardian of Heqing · peace in the house · 11.9 g · 32 × 30 mm

$98
Shouxin silver pendant with a golden citrine held in its mouth, on a brown suede cord

Shouxin · The Heart

A citrine where the tongue would be · a quiet mind · 12.4 g · 35 × 31.5 mm

$108
Jinxi silver pendant, a round-eyed roof cat holding a gold orb in its paws, on burlap

Jinxi · Gold Fortune

Gold orb in its paws · a full house · 12.3 g · 35 × 30 mm

$108
Jinxi 金禧Abundance at home
Cangyan 苍焰Peace in the house
Shouxin 守心A free, quiet mind
Nachuan 纳川Gathering fortune · coming next
Close-up of the Cangyan pendant showing chased fangs, curled whiskers and a horn
The Cangyan pendant worn on a black cord over an open leather jacket
Shouxin pendant on a black chain against a black background, citrine glowing
White gift box with the pendant, a meaning card and two cords laid out beside it
In the box

Made the old way, boxed for giving

Your guardian arrives in a white gift box with both cords, a card explaining what the open mouth, the horn and the orb mean, a silver polishing cloth and a velvet pouch.

  1. Hand-chased from a clay roof cat, the old Yunnan way
  2. Cast in S925 sterling, stamped inside the bail
  3. Antiqued to a matte finish, high points polished back
  4. Checked, corded and boxed in Yunnan
Silversmith bending wire with pliersSilversmith chasing a pendant on the benchThree finished pendants in an open palm
Signature No. 2

The same four guardians, back in clay. Fired for your desk.

Hand-built by a master potter in Yunnan and finished in four high-fire glazes, one colour per guardian. Each is a working roof cat in miniature: open mouth, hollow belly, and in Jinxi's case a copper ingot sitting in the mouth. Boxed with a collector's certificate and a story card.

Wear it instead →
SignatureJinxi ceramic guardian in ochre glaze with a copper ingot in its mouth, standing on its white gift box beside a scholar's rock

Jinxi · Gold Fortune

Ochre glaze · copper ingot · for the till, tea table or entryway

$198
Cangyan ceramic guardian, cream glaze with cobalt lines and a horn, on driftwood against a deep blue backdrop

Cangyan · The Flame

Cream glaze, cobalt lines · for the study, tea room or desk

$168
Shouxin ceramic guardian in blush-pink glaze on a plinth, with plum blossom, against a pink backdrop

Shouxin · The Heart

Blush glaze on a plinth · for the bedside or dressing table

$168
Nachuan ceramic guardian in sky-blue glaze holding a carp, with blueberries, against a blue backdrop

Nachuan · Gathering Rivers

Sky-blue glaze, with a carp · for the lobby, showroom or front desk

$168
The four ceramic guardians grouped in front of a large bronze-glazed studio piece on black
Kraft gift box, and the box open with the guardian and cards inside
Pots glowing inside a kiln
Jinxi from the back and the front Cangyan from the front and the back Shouxin from two sides
Shop by

Five ways to keep a guardian

Jewelry Charms & tassels Incense holders Cups Ceramic guardians
Jewelry

Silver, gold and glazed clay you can wear

Sterling pendants on braided cord, gold charms, glazed ceramic cats on waxed string, and a ring or two. Every piece ships with a card naming its workshop and what the features mean.

View all 10 →
Charms

For bags, keys, rear-view mirrors and doors

Tassel cords from the Lijiang markets, felt and fabric cats, fridge magnets and tiny clay figures. The entry-level gift.

Incense holders

The guardian on your desk

A stick of incense rises from the open mouth. Black clay, red earth, celadon and sterling silver versions. This is the form already selling in Europe at €35–45.

Cups

Tea cups with a face

Hand-thrown Huaning and Jianshui pottery. Heavier to ship, so sold as the premium gift line.

What is a Wamao?

A tiger in a cat’s skin, on guard for six hundred years

Wa means roof tile, mao means cat. Since the Ming dynasty, families across Yunnan have set a clay cat on the ridge above the front door. It is not a pet and not a lucky charm. It is the house’s guardian, and everything about its shape has a job.

It is secretly a tiger

The 王 (“king”) mark on its forehead is the tiger’s. Yunnan’s Yi, Bai and Naxi peoples have worshipped the tiger for millennia; the Wamao is that tiger shaped as a cat, fierce enough to guard, small enough to welcome.

The mouth is for swallowing

The huge open mouth and bared teeth are not there to bite. A Wamao faces outward and swallows what should not come in: bad luck, bad air, the neighbour’s roof corner pointing at your door, the road that runs straight at your house.

The belly is hollow

It runs open from mouth to tail. Misfortune passes straight through; fortune is held. Before a new one went up on the roof, the maker filled its belly with five grains and five treasures: gold, silver, copper, iron and jade.

A thousand cats, a thousand faces

Every region shaped its own. Kunming cats are long and lazy, Heqing cats grow a horn and come in more than 180 forms, Chuxiong and Wenshan cats bare more teeth. Heqing’s Wamao is listed intangible cultural heritage.

Made by hand, no two alike

The roof originals are local red and yellow clay, high in iron, fired low at 700–800 °C. The body is thrown on a wheel; the ears, nose, teeth and paws are pinched by hand. Glazed ones turn tea-brown, bare ones brick-red or smoke-grey.

It guards people now, not roofs

Concrete houses have no ridge to sit on, but the worry it was built for did not go away. So the guardian came down: to the desk, the tea table, the shop counter, and onto a cord around the neck. Same mouth, same belly, new post.

A tile cat on an old grey-tiled roof A blush-glazed ceramic Wamao guardian on a plinth Two small unglazed grey clay cats side by side
From the roof to you

In Yunnan, every roof has a small, fierce guardian.

It is called a cat, but in its bones it is a tiger. It opens its mouth wide not to bite, but to swallow your unease for you. When the old houses were built, the things a builder could not fix, a door facing the wrong way, a road running at the gate, were handed to the Wamao.

The tile roofs are going, but people still want something to keep watch. So it came down from the ridge, into the study, onto the tea table, into your palm. A different post. The same job: it guards not the house, but the person in it.

Since 2022 the Wamao has become Yunnan’s new emblem, covered by national press, with visitors from Korea, Laos and Thailand travelling to Yunnan to make one. A TV drama named after it starts filming this November.

How to place it

Where a guardian goes

  • Entryway. Facing the door, looking out. This is the traditional post: it meets whatever comes in first.
  • Desk or study. Cangyan, the quiet one, sits beside the screen and keeps the room calm.
  • Tea table or shop counter. Jinxi, with the ingot in its mouth, belongs where money changes hands.
  • Bedside. Shouxin, with the stone where its tongue should be, watches over sleep.
  • On you. The silver pendant is a guardian for one person. Wear it facing out, like the roof original.
Who to give it to

A gift with a job to do

  • New home. In Yunnan a house gets its Wamao before the family moves in. Better than a vase.
  • New business. A guardian for the counter that swallows bad luck and holds the takings. Better than flowers.
  • New year. A mouth that eats the old year’s troubles. Better than a card.
  • A collector. Six centuries of living craft, hand-built, no two the same. Better than a souvenir.
  • Someone who worries. The original reason it exists: something to keep watch so they do not have to.
Which guardian are you?

Take the 30-second quiz, get 10% off your first cat

Lazy Yuxi, horned Heqing or tongue-out Chenggong. We will email you the result and a code.