A PAIR OF MASSIVE BRONZE CENSERS AND COVERS MING DYNASTY

each of compressed globular form, the low rounded walls rising from a stepped base and splayed circular foot, the exterior with a relief cast band of archaistic masks on a leiwen ground above a row of cicada lappets, flanked by two handles issued from horned beast masks, the domed openwork covers with scrolling leaves interlaced with ruyi clouds and suspended lingzhi, with flat, broad rims rising to a separately cast flame-form finial with openwork ruyi and further scrolled foliage, raised on tapering openwork bases formed from sinuous chilong terminating in a circular foot (8)

This pair of censers is remarkable for its massive size, which endows the pieces with an architectural quality. The large size would have allowed for an impressive display that was heightened by fragrant fumes ascending through the openwork cover when incense was burnt. Censers of this colossal size were cast after archaic bronzes and often produced to be placed at the entrances of ceremonial or ritual halls, such as the two large censers in front of the Jingangbaozuota pagoda, part of the Zhenjuesi temple complex in Beijing, and illustrated in situ in New History of World Art. Ming dynasty, Tokyo, 1999, pl. 244.  While many of these censers are tripods, modeled after archaic bronze ding, the present pair is reminiscent of bronze gui and pan, which are seldom found of these large proportions.

A much smaller gui lacking the cover and with a heavily splayed foot, in the Musée Cernuschi, is illustrated in Bronzes de la Chine Impériale des Song aux Qing, Paris, 2013, pl. 18, and was included in the Xiqing gujian [Catalogues of antiques in the Xiqing pavilion], which was compiled during the Qianlong period, where it is described as a pan.