409.
A GILT AND INCISED BRONZE INCENSE BURNER, GUI
Qing dynasty, 17th-18th century
10 x 12 x 11 cm
Apocryphal Da Ming Xuande nianzhi six-character mark.
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4810.
The compressed body with a pair of lion’s head handles, the incised decoration consisting of floral motifs.
The base has an ancient paper label with the ink inscription 招字百陸陸/ 才信有 (Zhao zi bai lulu/ cai xìn you) which is a Daoist exhortation to have faith.
The shape of this incense burner derives from bronze ritual food vessels already popular between the late Shang and early Western Zhou period.
Porcelain incense burner with this shape were produced from the seventeenth century also in the kilns of Dehua (see as example the piece in the British Museum, London, Percival David Foundation, inv. PDF A441).
