Live Auction 5305Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
AN INSCRIBED GILT-BRONZE CENSER
Lot 274

AN INSCRIBED GILT-BRONZE CENSER

18TH/19TH CENTURY

Closed15 May 2012

Price Realised

GBP 73,250

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AN INSCRIBED GILT-BRONZE CENSER
18TH/19TH CENTURY
The base of the twin-handled tripod censer has an apocryphal two-character Xuande mark, flanked by two dragons. The interior bears the three characters for Qian Qing Gong, the Palace of Heavenly Purity, with further inscriptions to the sides of the interior reading 'shang yong' and 'wu nian gong bu nei zao'.
9½ in. (24.2 cm.) wide

Specialist note

Besides the seal reading Qian Qing Gong, the other two inscriptions read 'shang yong' and 'wu nian gong bu nei zao'. 'Shang yong' implies that this censer was for imperial use, and 'wu nian gong bu nei zao' suggests that this was produced by the Imperial Ministry of Works in the fifth year.
See a similar imperial bronze censer depicted in the painting 'Hongli Appraising', showing the Emperor Qianlong in an interior setting featuring numerous antiques and scholarly objects, illustrated in The Golden Exile: Pictorial Expressions of the School of Western Missionaries' Artworks of the Qing Dynasty Court, Macau, 2002, pl. 41.