A CONG-SHAPED BRONZE CENSER

QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

HEIGHT: 14CM;
DIAMETER ACROSS HANDLES: 23CM

Of archaistic form, the rectangular-shaped censer is cast in imitation of a Neolithic jade cong. It has an everted mouthrim and rests on a heavily splayed foot, enclosing a six-character ‘Da Ming Xuande Nianzhi’ 大明宣德年製 apocryphal mark in raised characters cast on its base within a recessed rectangle. Two handles portraying lion-like elephant-snouted beasts with long tusks project from the sides of the censer while the relief notches inside the corner registers depict Daoist trigrams.

SIMILAR EXAMPLE
An elongated example of a bronze cong censer of the same period is published in Ming Qing Guwan Zhenshang 明清古玩真賞, Hong Kong, 1993, Catalogue No. 130.

PROVENANCE
Formerly in a French Private Collection since 1980

清中期銅琮式香爐 「大明宣德年製」款