Period:Qing dynasty Production date:18thC
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:dragon
Dimensions:Height: 31 centimetres (to top of lid) Width: 22 centimetres
Description:
Censer (fang ding-shaped). Open work cover with dragons amongst clouds. Made of openwork bronze.
IMG
![图片[1]-censer BM-1988-0518.1-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/Qin dynasty/Bronzes/mid_00309743_001.jpg)
Comments:Jones 1990Qing dynasty censer in the shape of an ancient fang dingThis copy of an ancient bronze was not simply a collector’s item, but had a distinct function as an incense-burner; it is much less likely to have been made as a fake. Incense-burners stood on household or temple altars flanked by a pair of candle-sticks and a pair of flower vases; the vases, like the incense-burners, often took ancient forms.This censer is based on a vessel type known as a fang ding, current in the Shang and early Western Zhou periods (c. 1300-950 BC). In such later copies the sloping sides and the widely splayed legs betray dependence on a woodblock illustration which imperfectly conveyed the rigidly rectangular shape of the original, with its legs vertical beneath its body. The frequent use of splayed legs in debased dragon forms suggests that such censers were based on a particular woodblock illustration, possibly in the Bo Gu Tu Lu; in antiquity ancient rectangular ding with animal- or dragon-shaped legs were very rare. These late pieces are conspicuous in woodblock illustrations of tasteful interiors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Materials:bronze
Technique:
Subjects:dragon
Dimensions:Height: 31 centimetres (to top of lid) Width: 22 centimetres
Description:
Censer (fang ding-shaped). Open work cover with dragons amongst clouds. Made of openwork bronze.
IMG
Comments:Jones 1990Qing dynasty censer in the shape of an ancient fang dingThis copy of an ancient bronze was not simply a collector’s item, but had a distinct function as an incense-burner; it is much less likely to have been made as a fake. Incense-burners stood on household or temple altars flanked by a pair of candle-sticks and a pair of flower vases; the vases, like the incense-burners, often took ancient forms.This censer is based on a vessel type known as a fang ding, current in the Shang and early Western Zhou periods (c. 1300-950 BC). In such later copies the sloping sides and the widely splayed legs betray dependence on a woodblock illustration which imperfectly conveyed the rigidly rectangular shape of the original, with its legs vertical beneath its body. The frequent use of splayed legs in debased dragon forms suggests that such censers were based on a particular woodblock illustration, possibly in the Bo Gu Tu Lu; in antiquity ancient rectangular ding with animal- or dragon-shaped legs were very rare. These late pieces are conspicuous in woodblock illustrations of tasteful interiors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
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![[Qing Dynasty] British female painter—Elizabeth Keith, using woodblock prints to record China from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China—1915-China Archive](https://chinaarchive.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/image-191x300.png)
