Archaistic Covered Censer in Hu Wenming Style
1749-1799
Scroll
Archaistic Covered Censer in Hu Wenming Style
1749-1799
Physical Qualities
Metal alloy with gold and silver wire inlay, 18.6 H x 23.2 Diam. cm.
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. W. Lehman Guyton, Cockeysville, Maryland
Object Number
2003.348
Squat body on high foot; twisted handle terminates in deer heads; lid has cylinder knob on top.
High foot is decorated with a frieze of dragons against a leiwen ground. Body is decorated with a wide band of three large, oblong masks around the side, and a narrow band of dragons against a leiwen ground; between these bands, a plain band with inlaid decoration. Four circular medallions inlaid with gold and silver surrounding knob decorate lid. Twisted rope handle terminates in deer heads.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2003; Dr. William L. Guyton, Cockeysville; purchased from Robert F. Skutch, West Chase Street, Baltimore (a "brilliant antiquarian," but the "poorest businessman")
Chinese Ceramics and Paintings from Two Local Collections
William Watson, "The Arts of China 960-1620," New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 241, 246.
Robert D. Mowry, "China's Renaissance in Bronze," Phoenix Art Museum, 1993, no. 42 [for a late 18th-early 19th century bronze Hu Vessel; Dr. Mowry notes that "embellishment of the relief designs with gold and silver indicates a date no earlier than the late Ming for this vessel, and the reliance upon damascening, rather than inlay, points to a date in the late eighteenth or nineteenth century."] and no. 12 [for a late 16th-early 17th century vessel with the mark of Hu Wenming]
Robert D. Mowry, "China's Renaissance in Bronze," Phoenix Art Museum, 1993, no. 42 [for a late 18th-early 19th century bronze Hu Vessel; Dr. Mowry notes that "embellishment of the relief designs with gold and silver indicates a date no earlier than the late Ming for this vessel, and the reliance upon damascening, rather than inlay, points to a date in the late eighteenth or nineteenth century."] and no. 12 [for a late 16th-early 17th century vessel with the mark of Hu Wenming]
Inscribed: None
