Page 197 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

ESTING ON A SHORT, VERTICAL FOOT, this hammered copper hand
warmer has a compressed spherical body segmented into eight
R lobes, each lobe identically ornamented with a chrysanthemum, a
peony, and a sprig of bamboo. The medallion at the center of the openwork
cover depicts two boys dancing on a rocky outcropping. An openwork lotus
scroll with spiky leaves and stylized blossoms surrounds the medallion.
Hand warmers were used in the studio, the scholar's hands partic-
ularly susceptible to cold since they had to remain ungloved for writing and
painting. 1 In his Zhangwu zhi of 1637, Wen Zhenheng notes that ancient
bronze pen basins and fu and gui food vessels could be used as hand
warmers (shoulu), as could three-legged, drum-shaped Xuande bronzes
with animal-head handles 2 [22], suggesting that hand warmers and censers
shared similar origins and that some of the bronzes labeled censers today
may have served as both incenser burners and hand warmers. Reinforcing
the association is a group of Kangxi ceramic incense burners fashioned in
the shape of bronze hand warmers. 3
The earliest bronzes distinguishable specifically as hand warmers
bear the mark of Hu Wenming 4 [11 and 12]. Though a few are circular, most
of the small number of known Hu Wenming examples are low and square-
5
bodied with rounded corners. Qing-dynasty warmers are both square and
circular, the circular ones sometimes suggesting baskets in shape. 6
The style of this hand warmer indicates a mid-eighteenth-century
date. The inclusion of plants of several types within the same decorative
7
panel is an eighteenth-century trait, and the depiction of peonies next to
chrysanthemums is like the decoration on Qianlong enameled porcelains. 8
A leiwen band at the foot and the tight decorative scheme recall those on
Qianlong lacquers and bronzes [39], and the cover's lotus scroll with its
spiky leaves resembles floral arabesques painted on Qianlong porcelains. 9
Though it bears neither mark nor signature, this hand warmer can
be attributed on the basis of style to Pan Xiangfeng. 10 Known only from a
four-character mark reading Pan Xiangfeng zhi (Made by Pan Xiangfeng)
on a recently published hand warmer, 11 Pan Xiangfeng remains a virtually
unknown artist. His warmer has the same shape, profile, and proportions
12
as the Clague warmer, including the rare and distinctive vertical foot. With
its large, boldly written, closely spaced characters, the mark on the recently
published piece recalls those on mature Qianlong bronzes [39] and cloi-
sonne enamels. 13 Such relationships, along with the warmers' stylistic
features, suggest that Pan Xiangfeng was active in the Qianlong period.

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T H E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N