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拍品专文
The censer is finely cast as a mythical beast standing foursquare with its head raised, bearing a fierce expression with bulging eyes and mouth open baring its teeth and outstretched tongue. The body is elaborately inset overall with different hardstones in vivid tones, including chalcedony, carnelian, agate, lapis-lazuli and jade.
Luduan is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese legends, depicted with a single horn and said to traverse hundred miles in one day, and comprehends all languages. Luduan often appears in the form of incense burners placed beside the emperor’s throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and Mental Cultivation, signifying the emperor’s wisdom and omniscience.
Animal-form censers are unique amongst incense burners, and the present censer is inspired by bronze prototypes of Han dynasty, such as the gold and silver-inlaid bronze luduan-form censer illustrated in Ningshou jiangu, vol.14, no.46, reflecting Emperor Qianlong’s interests in archaism by recreating masterpieces through innovative designs (fig. 1). According to the Qing court archives, on the fourteenth day of the eighth month in the seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1742), the Enamel Workshop received the order: “…eunuch Gao Yu submitted a hardstone-inlaid luduan. By imperial command: ‘Produce a pair of cloisonné enamel luduan of the same form and size as this model…’” Furthermore, an entry in the Shouhuang Hall inventory from the seventh day of the eleventh month in the forty-sixth year of the Qianlong reign (1781) records: “Chief Eunuch Yongqing and others, by imperial decree, installed a pair of zitan display cabinets, within one of which was placed a hardstone-inlaid gilt luduan (with a stand)…” The present lot was not only once displayed in a zitan curio cabinet in the Shouhuang Hall, but also served as the original model for imperial cloisonné enamel luduan, rendering it an object of exceptional rarity and historical significance.
A Qianlong gilt-bronze mythical beast-form censer is illustrated in Art and Imitation in China, Hong Kong, 2006, no.25, which the inlays and decoration closely resemble those of the present censer; and another similar one included by the National Palace Museum in Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, Taipei, 1993, no.119 (fig. 2). Compare also a gilt-bronze censer without the decorative inlay, in the British Museum, London, included in The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, front cover.
Luduan is a mythical beast in ancient Chinese legends, depicted with a single horn and said to traverse hundred miles in one day, and comprehends all languages. Luduan often appears in the form of incense burners placed beside the emperor’s throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony and Mental Cultivation, signifying the emperor’s wisdom and omniscience.
Animal-form censers are unique amongst incense burners, and the present censer is inspired by bronze prototypes of Han dynasty, such as the gold and silver-inlaid bronze luduan-form censer illustrated in Ningshou jiangu, vol.14, no.46, reflecting Emperor Qianlong’s interests in archaism by recreating masterpieces through innovative designs (fig. 1). According to the Qing court archives, on the fourteenth day of the eighth month in the seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1742), the Enamel Workshop received the order: “…eunuch Gao Yu submitted a hardstone-inlaid luduan. By imperial command: ‘Produce a pair of cloisonné enamel luduan of the same form and size as this model…’” Furthermore, an entry in the Shouhuang Hall inventory from the seventh day of the eleventh month in the forty-sixth year of the Qianlong reign (1781) records: “Chief Eunuch Yongqing and others, by imperial decree, installed a pair of zitan display cabinets, within one of which was placed a hardstone-inlaid gilt luduan (with a stand)…” The present lot was not only once displayed in a zitan curio cabinet in the Shouhuang Hall, but also served as the original model for imperial cloisonné enamel luduan, rendering it an object of exceptional rarity and historical significance.
A Qianlong gilt-bronze mythical beast-form censer is illustrated in Art and Imitation in China, Hong Kong, 2006, no.25, which the inlays and decoration closely resemble those of the present censer; and another similar one included by the National Palace Museum in Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumers Throughout the Dynasties, Taipei, 1993, no.119 (fig. 2). Compare also a gilt-bronze censer without the decorative inlay, in the British Museum, London, included in The British Museum Book of Chinese Art, London, 1992, front cover.