A Rare Bronze Censer and Cover

TANG DYNASTY (618-907)

Details

A Rare Bronze Censer and Cover
Tang dynasty (618-907)
The circular censer with upright sides and everted rim raised on five lion-mask and paw supports alternating with five smaller lion-mask appliques suspending short chains terminating in a large ring, the stepped, domed cover pierced with three small heart-shaped apertures below a lotus-bud finial rising from a calyx, with silvery patina and cuprite encrustation
5¼in. (13.4cm.) high, wood box

Provenance

Acquired in December 1991.

Lot Essay

A censer of nearly identical form, but missing its cover, was included in the Special Exhibition Tin-Bronze of China, Kuboso Memorial Museum of Art, Izumi, 1999, p. 28., pl. 49; and a complete example, but gilded, unearthered at the site of Qingshansi temple, Xinfengzhen village, Lintong county, Shaanxi, 1985, now in the Lintong County Museum was included in the exhibition, The Glory of the Court, Tang Dynasty Empress Wu and Her Times, Japan, 1998, no. 40.

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