Page 167 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

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censer is paired with an unattached bronze stand. Although they typically
bear (spurious) Xuande marks, the censers and stands are clearly later; in
some cases, the styles of the stands suggest that the pieces might date to
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the first half of the seventeenth century. Unattached bronze stands might
provide the bridge between wooden and affixed trompe I'oeil stands.
These vessels were each cast in two parts: the vase proper with its
flaring base, central knob, and trumpet mouth and the table-like stand
with its circular platform. The vases proper lack floors; instead, each relies
on the stand to cover the opening on its underside, thus indicating that
vase and stand were conceived as a unit from the beginning. Soldered in
place, a horizontal bar traverses the interior of each base; the bar anchors
the long pin that secures the stand to the vase. The dark surface hue re-
sulted from the application of a brown coating and perhaps also from
chemical treatments. The coating makes it difficult to ascertain whether the
surface textures were imparted through casting or through cold working,
but casting seems likely. The gilding was doubtless achieved through the
mercury-amalgam process.

T I I E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N 1 6 3