Pottery incense burner, boshanlu with bear-shaped feet

Late Western Han to early Eastern Han dynasty, 1st century
Height: 6 3/4 inches, 17 cm
Diameter: 4 3/8 inches, 11 cm

Fig. 1 Pottery censer on bear-formed legs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

A dark grey pottery incense burner, the bowl shaped basin supported on three feet in the form of growling bears with their left paw raised. The conical openwork cover is modelled as a range of overlapping mountain peaks, interspersed with a number of small cavities that hold animals, including bears and a boar’s head. Each of the bear-shaped feet is moulded as a miniature sculpture and is posed in an almost human stance, in minute details with bulging eyes, peaked ears, rounded belly and four strong limbs. The incense burner retains traces of purple, white and red pigments.

This beautifully modelled and detailed incense burner of a form known as boshanlu, meaning ‘mountain censer’, is a very unusual example of its kind dueto its form and its decoration. The use of bear-shaped feet seen on this boshanlu is highly unusual; bears, symbolising bravery and strength[1] are commonly seen as supports on many types of Han dynasty vessels but are atypical for incense burners. There is only one other known comparable incense burner recorded with these unusual bear-shaped feet and with other animals on the cover; it is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 1).[2] The occurrence of mountains forming the lids was fairly common on more typical boshanlu supported on a bowl-shaped base, as well as other Han dynasty pottery shapes: a typical metal boshanlu is preserved in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller at the Asia Society Galleries, New York; [3] several pottery examples are in the Meiyintang collection.[4]

1. Welch, P. B. Chinese Art- A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery, Tuttle Publishing, Singapore, 2012, p. 114
2. Noble Richard, N. eds. Recarving China’s Past: Art Archaeology, and Architecture of the “Wu Family Shrines,” Princeton University Art Museum, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2005, no. 43, p. 407
3. Patry Leidy, D. Treasures of Asian Art: The Asia Society’s Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1994, no. 123, p. 133
4. Krahl, R. Chinese Ceramics in the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Three (I), Paradou Writing, London, 2006, nos. 1151 and 1152, p. 145

熊足博山爐
西漢末 – 東漢初 西元一世紀
高：17 公分 爐徑：11 公分
泥質灰陶爐，子母口，圓腹，下承三足，各足模製成蹲踞熊狀。蓋成圓錐狀，立體表現層疊山巒
與雲氣，並鏤空以為山洞，山壑間隱約若現熊跡。熊足成蹲踞姿，熊左臂上舉似發力承接爐底，
右掌置於胸前，熊首雙目炯然，大嘴咧張，猶若低吼出聲。爐蓋與足均殘有彩繪顏料，依稀可辨
橘紅、藍紫與乳白等色。博山爐於漢代時稱為「薰爐」，後於宋代依其造型改稱為博山爐，用途
為燃香薰衣。一般實用香爐為銅質，陶質為陪葬之用。漢代博山爐多下接承盤，以熊為足極為罕
見，唯一他例現存於美國紐約大都會博物館中，不論形制、大小與質地均與本品極為相似。