A very rare gold-inlaid bronze 'cloud' censer, 17th / 18th century

Acquired in Hong Kong, 1982.

Of subtle globular form and graceful symmetry accentuated by eight richly gilded clouds, the present lot displays an exceptional level of craftsmanship, rarely applied to censers of this period. One of the most treasured pieces in his collection, Hausmann was keenly aware of the importance of the censer and suspected it could even be of Xuande period. In his records, Hausmann noted:

“The shape of the censer appears at first glance to be of a fairly common gui type, however, on closer examination, it reveals an aesthetic, unprecedented sophistication (...) The handles are of equal refinement. Growing out of the upper part of the censer, they dramatically and powerfully accelerate with the distinction of an outstanding calligrapher (...) The decoration of the surface is of equal importance, refinement and greatest rarity. The base cast with a rectangular recessed six-character Xuande mark of exceptional vitality.”

See a line drawing of a closely related censer, similarly adorned with gilt clouds, illustrated in the Xuande yiqi tupu [The illustrated register of vessels from the Xuande era], vol. 5, pl. 6. Another Ming censer of related gilt cloud design from the Qing court collection is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Li Mijia, ‘“Xuantong” zhi jian: Qinggong jiucang Xuan tongqi fenlei jingxuan dianping / The Identification of Xuande Incense Burner: The Review of Selected Collections in the Palace Museum’, Forbidden City, March 2015, p. 56. Another bronze censer of Xuande style adorned with gilt clouds is depicted in one of the Guwantu (‘Pictures of antiquities’) scrolls, painted in the seventh year of the Yongzheng period (1729) and now preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, which records some 250 ceramics and other works of art apparently once treasured in the imperial collection.