Page 148 - Later Chinese Bronzes from the Collection of Ulrich-Hk 2014

incense burner in the form of three conjoined peaches, also with a Xuande reign mark, sold in our New York rooms,
20th March 2007, lot 573.
Ulrich Hausmann’s notes on this exceptional incense burner read as follows:
“Peach incense burners are usually made from separately cast pieces, e.g. fruit, branches, legs and then assembled
into one object, but the present example is one of only two integrally cast bronze peach censers that I have seen in
my time as a collector. It is almost certainly made from a lost wax process, cast as one unit. Thus it is a unique piece
as the original form is destroyed in the casting process. This process, also widely used in the West, was already
known to Chinese artisans more than two thousand years ago. The body of the incense burner is hollow, the incense
emerging through the open work lid and the trunk of the branch. The vessel is cast with a six-character Xuande reign
mark. The artistic quality, the technical skill, the superb patination, and the exceptional size would strongly point to it
being produced in the Palace Workshops. In forty five years of collecting, I have not seen any peach censer
approaching this quality - it must be as rare as the celebrated peaches of Xi Wangmu".