WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

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ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008 15
A bronze incense burner
Western Han dynasty
Diameter: 6G in, 16.2 cm
the globular censer is supported on a waisted
stem and stands in an integral tray with a
flat base and shallow, sloping sides that
turn sharply upwards and end in a flat rim.
The cover of the censer (now fused to the
bowl) is cast with a wide openwork scroll
beneath a quatrefoil and is surmounted
by a small finial in the form of a bird.
The olive-green bronze bears heavy cuprite
and malachite encrustation, now polished
smooth on the bowl of the censer.
For similar incense burners, see Lion-
Goldschmidt and Moreau-Gobard, Chinese
Art, no. 55, p. 83; Shi, Treasures from the
Han, p. 79, in the collection of the Henan
Provincial Museum; and Zhang, Zhongguo
Qingtongqi Quanji, Vol. 12, no. 121, p. 123.
A similar example lacking the tray is
illustrated in Rawson and Bunker, Ancient
Chinese and Ordos Bronzes, no. 44,
pp. 140–1, where it is noted that this type
of censer precedes the invention of the hill
censer (boshanlu).
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An unusual gilt-bronze cup and cover
Western Han dynasty
Height: 4 in, 10.2 cm
of ovoid form and circular section, and
supported on three cabriole legs. The
widest part of the vessel is decorated with
a thickened band and a central raised rib,
and a circular handle is set to one side.
The cover bears three small ring finials that
double as feet when it is inverted. The bright
gilt surface bears cuprite encrustation.
Formerly in a Western private collection.
This rare vessel is obviously closely related
to a dui, a food offering vessel of two
equal-sized matching halves, that made its
appearance in the bronze repertory in the
Eastern Zhou dynasty: see, for example,
Trubner, Royal Ontario Museum: The Far
Eastern Collection, no. 22, p. 28. Note also
a related gilt-bronze ring-handled vessel
illustrated in Zhongguo Wenwu Jinghua Da
Quan (Bronze volume), no. 1084, p. 302.