Porcelain incense burner with imitation bronze glaze and dragon-shaped handles, Qianlong reign (1736-1795), Qing dynasty-China Archive

Image Number: K1B015030N000000000PAB
Dynasty: Qing dynasty
Category: Ceramics
Function: Incense set
Material: Minerals/Ceramics/
Description:
In order to show his ambition for cultural undertakings, Emperor Qianlong copied the style of the “Xuanhe Ancient Painting” of the Song Dynasty when he was in power, compiled the “Ancient Mirror of the Western Qing Dynasty” and “Ancient Mirror of Longevity”, and sorted out and recorded the ancient bronzes collected in the Qing Palace one by one. Although from the point of view of today’s research, there are also many fake works in the two books. However, through the process of dialogue with the ancients, the wind of courtly admiration for the ancients came into being indirectly. In this case, the official workshop that produced imperial vessels, in addition to imitation of ancient bronze ware, also burned ancient bronze glaze. In particular, comparing the glaze color fired in the Yongzheng period, it can prove that the ancient bronze glaze is indeed one of the innovative glaze colors of the Qianlong official kiln. Although the size of this work is small, its shape is extremely fancy. The mouth edge is closed inward to form a circle of flower mouth, the furnace body is round, the shoulders are slightly swollen, the abdomen is gradually closed inward, and the bottom is connected with three cloud head shaped feet. Both sides of the body