Page 73 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

above each feiyu separates the crested, long-tailed birds of each pair. A
stylized floral scroll encircles the foot, its ten blossoms, each with four
heart-shaped petals, evenly spaced. Ring-punched patterns enliven the
grounds of the top and bottom registers. The rectangular mark in the
center of the base has six intaglio seal-script characters arranged in two
columns; a single sunken line borders the mark, the gilded ground of the
mark contrasting with the otherwise plain base. Undecorated except for
traces of gilding, the wide lip and footring complement the heavily deco-
rated vessel. The interior is plain, except for the band of gilding at the lip,
though its blackened walls faintly echo the decoration on the exterior, the
result of cold working. Since the vessel was hammered from a sheet of
copper, rather than cast, the foot is hollow, its contours and depressed ring
fully visible on the interior.
The incised mark on the base reads Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi (Made
[by] Hu Wenming [of] Yunjian), indicating that this censer, like the previous
covered box [11], was made by Hu Wenming, the most famous bronze
caster of the late Ming period. Identical in content and closely akin in style
to that on the covered box, the mark on this censer gives every indication of
authenticity, and it compares favorably with those on other pieces believed
3
to be genuine works by Hu Wenming. As the covered box typified the style
and technique of manufacture of his cast vessels, this censer exemplifies
Hu's works in hammered copper.
This censer clearly owes its shape to handled gui vessels from the
late Shang or early Western Zhou period. 4 A vessel for serving offerings of
boiled grain, probably millet, the gui is a deep, handled bowl mounted on
a splayed circular foot. The archaic gui vessel spawned many jade 5 and
ceramic 6 imitations in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties that were used
as incense burners. Especially popular in guan, ge, and Longquan celadon
ware, Song and Yuan ceramic examples seldom have decoration, relying
instead on tautness of form and beauty of glaze for aesthetic appeal; in
addition, such ceramic censers usually have flattened handles in the form
of stylized fish or dragons and their proportions usually differ from those
of the present censer. The similarity of this censer's shape, proportions,
and handles to those of archaic bronze gui suggests that Hu Wenming
drew upon the form of Bronze Age vessels rather than upon Song or Yuan
ceramic interpretations in creating his censers. 7
Although the taotie mask was the most common decorative motif on
Shang-dynasty gui vessels, and confronting birds the most frequently used
motif on those of the early Western Zhou, some Bronze Age gui vessels

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