Page 40 - Fine Chinese Ceramics Sept 2016

VARIOUS PROPERTIES
1227
A VERY RARE PAIR OF IMPERIAL BRONZE TRIPOD
CENSERS AND COVERS
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER CAST SEAL MARKS AND
OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
Each censer is heavily and fnely cast in high relief with three
full-face, fve-clawed dragons protecting a faming pearl, each
positioned above one of the lion-mask-surmounted cabriole legs
and fanked by two dragons also pursuing faming pearls, their
bodies extending around the sides. Further dragons and faming
pearls decorate the rim and the handles, and a pair confronted on
a faming pearl form a band on the cover below a band of eight ruyi
heads that encircle the base of the pearl-form fnial. The seal mark would have visited or sent a relative on the day of the new moon
is cast on the underside of the censer.
15Ω in. (39.4 cm.) high (2)
$400,000-600,000
PROVENANCE
Collection of Phillip Maurice Torf (1922-2016) and Millicent Owen
Torf, House of Props, Los Angeles.
The House of Props was one of Los Angeles’ oldest and renowned
prop houses. Founded in 1948 by Alexander Torf, former prop
master for United Artist Studio Corporation, and later run by
his nephew Philip and his wife Millicent, the House of Props
worked behind the scenes of television shows and movie sets
worldwide supplying rare art objects for over 70 years.
Sacrifcial ceremonies were among the most important rituals
of the Qing court, with the emperor attending, if not performing,
all of the major rites. Buddhism was the primary religion of the
Qing dynasty and there were numerous Buddhist shrines and
temples, as well as altars, in the private quarters of the emperors unlike the current censer, which features a front-faced dragon
and empresses. All of these necessitated ritual paraphernalia,
including altar sets, which were made in various materials
including bronze, porcelain and cloisonné enamel of varying size.
(mark)
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This magnifcent pair of censers and covers exemplifes the
artistic excellence and technical quality of bronze ritual vessels
cast for the imperial court in the 18th century. The present pair is
particularly exceptional as each censer retains its original cover,
and no other examples retaining their covers appear to have
been sold at auction. The creation of such lavish vessels was a
tremendous undertaking, with each vessel being cold-worked
with a hammer and chisel after the initial casting to bring out the
intricate and crisp details, such as the individual scales on the
dragons’ bodies. Two related bronze censers with their covers
are illustrated by Wan Yi, et al., in Daily Life in the Forbidden
City, New York, 1988, pls. 473 and 474, pp. 302-303, where they
are shown in situ in the shrine in the interior of the rear Hall of
the Imperial Ancestral Temple and in the rear part of the Hall
of Ancestral Worship. Wang Yi points out that “this was the
family temple of the Qing imperial house.” The emperor himself
with the most recently available foods for oferings to express
his flial piety and to ensure that his ancestors would “enjoy the
greatest range of delicacies as soon as they were available.”
A Qianlong-marked bronze fve-piece altar set including a nearly
identical censer, but lacking a cover, is illustrated by R. D. Mowry
in China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection
of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, Phoenix Art Museum,
1993, p. 180, no. 38. Mowry explains that “both the style of the
dragons and the relatively small number of clouds (compared to
those on later Qianlong bronzes) indicate that this altar set was
made early in the reign, probably before 1750.” See, also, the
Qianlong-marked bronze fve-piece altar set sold at Sotheby’s
Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, lot 2826, which included a censer
of similar broad proportions to the current example. However,
protecting a faming pearl over one of the lion-mask legs, the
Sotheby’s censer, as well as the other vessels of the garniture,
are cast with pairs of dragons confronted on faming pearls.
Another Qianlong-marked bronze censer with a design of pairs
of dragons, of slightly smaller size (37 cm. high) and of taller, less
broad proportions than the current example, and also lacking
a cover, was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2007, lot
201. Similar cast decoration of pairs of dragons confronted on
faming pearls can be also seen on a pair of Qianlong-marked
bronze vases sold at Christie’s London, 15 May 2012, lot 188.
清乾隆 青銅雲龍趕珠紋沖耳蓋爐一對 六字篆書鑄款