Page 11 - Chinese Decorative Arts: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 55, no. 1 (Summer, 1997)

Three Incense
Burners
....................................................................
17th
late
Ming dynasty, 16th-early century urning incense was a highly fashionable Shang and Zhou dynasties, or were miniature
Bronze and bronze with splashes pastime among scholars and merchants versions of the large water-storage jars that
gold
living in the prosperous cities of southeastern stood on the grounds of temples and palaces.
H. middle burner3 7/8 in. (9. 8 cm)
China during the late Ming and early Qing Great skills were employed to give them
H. O. Havemeyer Bequest of
Collection,
dynasties. The active sea trade conducted with "antique" patinations, ranging from rich red-
Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer,
1929
many nations of Southeast Asia from the ports dish browns to dark tea greens. As if to counter
29.100.447, 29.100.548,29.100.550
of coastal China resulted in the ready avail- their austere shapes, some bronze vessels were
ability of a wide variety of incense and aro- splashed with gold, using the fire-gilding
matics. These precious materials, as well as method, whereby the precious metal in the
is
ivory, were exchanged for Chinese goods such form of a mercury amalgam applied to the
as silk and porcelain. The prosperity resulting surface and subsequently heated to drive off
a
from this trade generated lively home mar- the mercury.
ket for fine articles for daily use, including The makers of these objects traded on the
incense burners. legend of the fabulous ritual bronzes manu-
Made for a sophisticated clientele, many of factured during the reign of the Xuande
the incense burners were modeled after shapes emperor (1426-35). Most of the late-Ming
common to contemporary porcelains. These incense burners, as well as these three objects,
shapes, in turn, were taken from those of carried the mark of the Xuande reign on
archaic bronze vessels, such as the gui of the their bases. JCYW

IO