China, Tang dynasty, 618 - 906
Height: 7 1/2 inches, 19 cm

An incense burner of beehive shape, carved from a single block of steatite, with a slightly recessed, flat base. The sloping shoulder is engraved with two pairs of parallel lines; in between these lines the stone is pierced with four stylised floral motifs. The shallow domed cover is carved with convex ridges and has a small mushroom shaped finial. The grey-green material is flecked all over with black inclusions.

Steatite - or snakestone as it is sometimes referred to, due to the black flecks in the material - is a relatively soft mineral stone that is easy to carve, which enabled Tang craftsmen to use a lathe to hollow out the stone to make comparatively large vessels. Evidence of lathe turning can clearly be seen on the inside of this intriguing vessel. On one side the vessel is stained a burgundy colour, most probably caused by prolonged proximity to a metal piece. Although the pierced decoration appears to suggest that it was used as an incense burner, it is possible that it was made as a hand-warmer; a ceramic version of this form in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is described as such by Watson.1 The vessel Watson refers to is of similar shape but proportionally much larger in size, and carried by a seventh century figurine of a lady servant, suggesting that it might indeed have been intended as a hand-warmer.2

1 - Watson, W. Tang and Liao Ceramics Thames and Hudson, London 1984, no. 133, page 152-3
2 - Li, He Chinese Ceramics, the New Standard Guide, Thames and Hudson, London 1996, no. 129, p. 88