J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Chinese Art from the Scholar’s Studio
March 13 - April 11, 2015
65.
A POLISHED STONE CENSER
Early Tang Dynasty, 7th Century
of domed shape, the thick sides rounded up to a rimless circular aperture on top encircled by four clusters of three vertical slots high on the sloping shoulders, the stone attractively mottled in olive-brown and black, polished to a high gloss on the exterior.
Height 5 inches (12.7 cm)
Compare the Tang straw-glazed pottery incense burner of closely related form in the Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated by He in Chinese Ceramics: The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, no. 127, where the author notes the aristocratic practice of fumigating clothing using this type of incense burner, perhaps inspired by earlier ritual practices. A Sui or early Tang straw-glazed pottery figure of a court lady holding a censer of this same form, also in the Brundage Collection, is illustrated by He, ibid., no. 129. Compare also the Sui pottery tomb figure holding a censer of this form discovered near Shachang, Yubei, Anyang District, Hebei province, in the tomb of Zhang Sheng, dated to A.D. 595, illustrated by Tregear, Arts of China: Neolithic Cultures to the T’ang Dynasty - Recent Discoveries, Tokyo, 1968, fig. 352 (5).
初唐 滑石薰香 高 12.7 厘米
