HAN DYNASTY (3RD CENTURY BC-3RD CENTURY AD)

Details

A BRONZE 'HILL' CENSER AND COVER, BOSHANLU
HAN DYNASTY (3RD CENTURY BC-3RD CENTURY AD)
The censer is raised on a tall splayed foot which is decorated with two bands of stylised animal-form scrolls. The cover is cast in openwork as overlapping peaks. The surface has a pale greyish-green patina with russet, blue and green encrustation.
9 5/16 in. (23.8 cm.) high

Provenance

With Sansaido Co., Kyoto, Japan, 17 November 1962.
From an important private European collection.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The cover of this hill censer depicts the mystical overlapping peaks of Mount Peng, regarded in Han dynasty Daoist tradition as a paradise realm for the spirits of immortals. Perhaps due to the popularity of this motif, there are several comparable Han dynasty censers; see the British Museum collection hill censer, (Museum no. 1936,1118.52) of similar simple stem-goblet form. Another classic stemmed goblet boshanlu but with a bird finial is illustrated by H. Brinker in Bronzen aus dem alten China, Zurich, 1975, p.105, no. 57. See the boshanlu censer with an elaborate bird stem in the Avery Brundage Collection, illustrated in Ancient Chinese Bronzes in the Avery Brundage Collection, California, 1966, pp.159-160. Also see a bird finial example in the Sze Yuan Tang Archaic Bronze Collection sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 890; and a censer and dish sold at Christie's New York, 19-20 September 2013, lot 1495.

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