Page 96 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

from rust brown to gunmetal gray and even to dark brown (in the case of
sculptures), though gunmetal gray is characteristic [see 17]. Although
works with the Shisou mark thus show a certain homogeneity, they exhibit
far too much variation for all to be from the same period, let alone from the
same individual artist.
The problem of Shisou ranks among the most perplexing in the history
of later Chinese bronzes. History records a variety of miscellaneous details
about numerous bronze casters, including ones for whom works cannot
be located today, yet it records almost nothing about Shisou, whose corpus
of 'signed' works is the largest of all. If Shisou was indeed active in the
late Ming period, it is curious that his works are not mentioned in such
standard treatises as Wen Zhenheng's Zhangwu zhi (Superfluous Things)
of 1637 and Tu Long's Xiangjian (A Commentary on Incense) or Wenfang
qiju jian (A Commentary on Articles for the Scholar's Studio). Lacking docu-
mentation, perhaps tradition erred, assigning Shisou to the late Ming when,
in fact, he lived in the Qing. Perhaps Shisou was born in the closing years of
the Ming, but rose to fame in the Qing, after the celebrated Ming chron-
iclers of taste had died (Tu Long in 1605, Wen Zhenheng in 1645). 15
In clerical-script (lishu) characters inlaid in silver wire and placed
discreetly on the base, the Shisou mark on the Clague censer conforms to the
traditional description of such marks and it resembles those on numerous
other vessels. The combination of Shisou and Xuande marks - supposedly
representing periods two centuries apart - is a rare, though perhaps not
unique, phenomenon; 16 it does not augur well for the authenticity of the
Shisou mark. This censer and its cousin in the British Museum, mentioned
above, represent a continuation - or possibly a revival - of the Xuande
bronze tradition; while it is entirely possible that Shisou began by imitating
Xuande inlaid bronzes, it is unlikely that his mature 'signed' works would
perpetuate such a conservative manner. The Shisou mark on this censer is
probably a later addition. 17 Many Shisou marks were no doubt added surrep-
titiously, to antiques and to newly made items, to increase their salability.
Traditionally it is considered that works with the Shisou mark range
in date from the late Ming period to the modern era and that in a relative
sense, 'early' works have complex decorative schemes sometimes orna-
mented with carefully placed bands of sheet gold or silver whereas 'late'
18
ones feature simple designs in wire inlay only. Thus, this censer would be
classified as an 'early' work, though the censer's actual relationship, if any,
to an individual named Shisou has yet to be established.

1 10 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E