Bronze openwork incense burner

A bronze incense burner of cylindrical form, the straight sides tapering down towards the base, which is supported on three small cabriole legs, the top of each formed by an inverted taotie mask and terminating in a pad foot.  The vessel is cast in lost-wax technique. Its openwork sides form a latticework cage, composed of intertwined, contorted snake-like creatures, intricately detailed.  A broad, stepped rim at the top has a band of engraved stylised floral pattern just below the edge.  A similar band of decoration is engraved around the base of the vessel.  The flat base has a central circular aperture.  The incense burner is covered in an attractive green patina that has areas of ruby and lapis encrustation.

•  The exact purpose of this bronze vessel is unclear, but it is likely to have been used as an incense burner.  The introduction of a revolutionary new technique in casting bronzes, the so-called lost-wax or cire-perdue method, in the preceding Spring and Autumn period (770 – 475 BC), meant that bronzes could now be made with much more intricate detail and openwork than was previously possible.  On the present bronze this can clearly be seen in the decorative device of contorted snake-like creatures, which is strongly reminiscent of that found on bronzes from the Chu tombs, such as the grave of Marquis Yi of Zeng, who was interred at about 443 BC. The state of Chu was one of the dominant powers throughout the Eastern Zhou period.1  Chu state bronzes are renowned for their extremely detailed and finely cast designs, which often include serpent-like creatures, with which the Chu seem to have been particularly fascinated.  A similar incense burner with a strap work pattern to the sides, excavated in 1986 in Jingmen, Hubei Province, is in the collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum.2  Another example, this one of beaker shape with similar snake-like creatures forming the sides, is in the collection of Museum of Jingzhou Prefecture in Hubei. 3

1. Rawson, J. (ed.) Mysteries of Ancient China, New Discoveries from the Early Dynasties, London, 1996, p. 132.
2. Zhong Guo Qingtongqi Quanji (Complete Volume of Chinese Bronze Objects), Vol. 10, no. 79, p. 30
3. Zhong Guo Qingtongqi Quanji, op. cit. no. 80. p.30