A large and extremely rare bronze incense burner and cover (Ding), Mark and period of Kangxi

New York Private Collection.

Sotheby's New York, 8th May 1981, lot 93.

The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th April 2014, lot 208.

The principle repositories of the Qing court collection in Beijing and Taipei are rich in examples of Kangxi reign-marked vessels in porcelain, painted enamel and cloisonné enamel, and there are also several published marked bronze vessels from later reigns, especially the Qianlong era. However, there are very few Kangxi reign-marked examples, and this is arguably the finest example preserved in any museum or private collection.

For a Kangxi reign-marked incense burner of liding form in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, see Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, 1990, cat. no. 25. For examples at auction, see the smaller incense burner and cover sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 20th November 1984, lot 316, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2005, lot 1455.

The incense burner is likely to have been produced in the Palace Workshops, Beijing, possibly made for an Imperial temple. The form derives from the most majestic ritual bronze ding vessels of the late Shang / Western Zhou dynasty, such as one preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Shang Ritual Bronzes in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, 1998, pl. 17, and a similar example offered in this sale, lot 94. It shares the same monumentally cast body as its prototype, with similar inverted 'U'-shaped handles and powerful tubular legs, but the decoration on the exterior has been modified from the wave band and taotie mask on the Western Zhou example to the lotus flowers and lingzhi on the Kangxi example. The elaborate pierced cover and reticulated dragon knop on the current piece is also a Qing innovation.

For a smaller Qianlong reign-marked bronze vessel of fangding form, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace. Special Exhibition to Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Palace Museum, Macau, 2005, pl. 1; while a large Qianlong reign-marked pair of bronze vases of fanghu form, decorated with dragons and phoenix, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2007, lot 1322.