A GRAY POTTERY INCENSE BURNER MODELED AS A TOWER

Details

A GRAY POTTERY INCENSE BURNER MODELED AS A TOWER
HAN DYNASTY

Of square section and thickly potted, the base formed as two inverted steps carved with panels of criss-cross pattern, the facing triangles impressed with a dot pattern deeply hollowed or pierced, with an opening in one side, and raised on a flared pedestal foot with textured sides resembling rough-hewn rock, the cover similarly decorated and pierced with circular holes below the corners of the tile roof which forms the knop (repair to cover)
6 3/8in. (16.2cm.) high, box

Lot Essay

Although a number of related covered stem bowls are recorded, the stepped, tower form of the present example appears less common. Covered stembowls dated to the late Warring States or early Han period are illustrated by Brian McElney in The Museum of East Asian Art Inaugural Exhibition Catalogue, Bath, England, 1993, vol. I: Chinese Ceramics, p. 44, no. 9; in Archaeological Treasures excavated in China during the Cultural Revolution, Tokyo, 1973, p. 100, no. 120; and another included in the exhibition, Spirit of Han, Ceramics for the After-Life, Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, Singapore, 1991, Catalogue, no. 1

This group of ceramics with roughly cut decoration is mentioned by Jessica Rawson, 'A Group of Han Dynasty Bronzes with Chased Decoration and Some Related Ceramics', Oriental Art, Winter, 1973, vol. XIX, no. 4, fig. 12, where the author notes that examples of ceramics with pierced decoration resembling wood are found in both early and middle Western Han tombs