An incense burner is a vessel in which incense is burned, especially during religious services. The main purpose of incense burners include fumigating clothing, sacrifice and keep a cheerful and tranquil mind during reading because ancient people believed incense was beneficial to study for it can appease the spirit and inspire the mind.
Xuande is the reigning title of emperor Xuande of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).
The Xuande incense burner (Xuande Lu), was made during the reign of emperor Xuande of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and is a general name for all the bronze burners engraved with the characters “宣德” (Xuande) or for bronze burners that have similar patterns with Xuande incense burner.
To satisfy the craze for incense burners, the emperor Xuande ordered officials to import fine copper from Thailand and made them into incense burners in accordance with the patterns of porcelains from the historical records and the famous five kilns (including Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln, where those kilns are famous for their porcelain making). To assure the quality of incense burners, the craftsmen forged the copper with dozens of costly metals including gold and silver. After being forged ten times, the incense burners would have smooth surfaces and gorgeous shines. According to the different forging, Xuande incense burners mainly have five colors: chestnut color, eggplant color, birchleaf pear color, brown and Tibetan paper’s color, among which the incense burner with Tibetan paper’s color is most precious.
Xuande incenses burner have decorative ears, body and legs. Symmetrically appearing on the two sides of the incense burner, the burner’s ears usually imitate the figures of rings, elephant ears and lion ears. Instead of decorative ears, some burners only have smooth bodies without ornamental patterns. The bodies of Xuande incense burners are very thick, making the burners heavy in hand, and the seals are neatly engraved on their bottoms. According to historical records, a total of 3000 Xuande incense burners had been forged in the 3rd year of emperor Xuande’s reign, since then Xuande incense burners have never been forged again.
Xuande incense burners were exclusively used for royal court and temples, or bestowed on important ministers in Ming Dynasty. Its forging technology was kept a secret and the burners had never even been seen by common people. Xuande incense burners had become a treasure in the handicrafts of Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, in the last years of Ming Dynasty, the burners were melted into sycees to pay military expenses; only a few of them have been handed down and their prices were unbelievably high.
Seeking profits from Xuande incense burner sales, from the reign of emperor Xuande to the Republic of China era, curiosity-dealers have never stopped imitating the originals. Following the technological procedures and imitated them with the drawings of Xuande incense burners, some imitation burners made by artisans who forged real Xuande incense burners for the emperor Xuande were extremely similar to the authentic ones; even experts can’t tell them apart.
At present, Xuande incense burners in museums and auction markets are imitations from the middle Ming Dynasty, but the knock-down prices of these wonderful imitations are equally amazing. In 2003, Jiade Auction Company auctioned of some Xuande incense burners collected by the famous collector Wang Shixiang; included was a burner with three legs that hit the record of 1.661 million RMB.
By Feng Hui