Lot Essay
Previously sold in our London Rooms, 11 July 1977, lot 24.
It is unusual to find a complete garniture set, made up of censer, vase and covered box, in cloisonné enamel. The burning of incense was an important part of many Chinese rituals, from as early as the Han dynasty, and a set like this was popular as part of the paraphernalia for a scholar's studio from the Ming dynasty onwards. The small box was used to store incense in strip, coil or pellet form, and the tool vase was used to accommodate implements such as chopsticks and spatula to rake or smooth the bed of ashes in the censer. A cloisonné enamel incense set with a spatula, was sold in these Rooms, 1 November 2004, lot 962; another three-piece set with Qianlong marks was also sold in these Rooms, 28 April 1996, lot 14; while examples of complete sets made of other materials were included in the Special Exhibition of Incenser Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1994, illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 82-89.
It is unusual to find a complete garniture set, made up of censer, vase and covered box, in cloisonné enamel. The burning of incense was an important part of many Chinese rituals, from as early as the Han dynasty, and a set like this was popular as part of the paraphernalia for a scholar's studio from the Ming dynasty onwards. The small box was used to store incense in strip, coil or pellet form, and the tool vase was used to accommodate implements such as chopsticks and spatula to rake or smooth the bed of ashes in the censer. A cloisonné enamel incense set with a spatula, was sold in these Rooms, 1 November 2004, lot 962; another three-piece set with Qianlong marks was also sold in these Rooms, 28 April 1996, lot 14; while examples of complete sets made of other materials were included in the Special Exhibition of Incenser Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 1994, illustrated in the Catalogue, nos. 82-89.