Xuande Censer

　　Casting History

　　During the reign of Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty, to satisfy his fondness for incense burners, he ordered a batch of red copper to be imported from Siam. He commissioned the imperial craftsman Lü Zhen and the Minister of Works Wu Bangzao to design and supervise the production of incense burners, referencing the styles of famous porcelain from the Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln, Ding Kiln, and Chai Kiln in the imperial palace, as well as historical records such as the "Xuanhe Bogutu" and "Archaeological Illustrations".

　　Emperor Xuande

　　To ensure the quality of the incense burners, Lü Zhen cautiously reported to the emperor that to create fine incense burners, the copper would need to be refined six times. With each refinement, some would be lost, so after six times, only half of the original material would remain. Emperor Xuande, with his abundant wealth and strong focus on quality, immediately ordered that the number of refinements not only remain the same but be doubled (twelve times), and that precious metals such as gold and silver be added. Thus, the artisans selected dozens of precious metals, including gold and silver, and carefully refined them with the red copper more than ten times. After tremendous effort, in the third year of Xuande's reign, the exquisite copper incense burners were finally completed.

　　A total of 3,000 incense burners were cast from this batch of red copper. No more were ever produced. Emperor Xuande, upon seeing these incense burners he had personally overseen, found each one exceptionally grand and radiant, giving him a great sense of accomplishment. Most of these incense burners were placed throughout the imperial palace, while a small number were given as gifts to imperial relatives, meritorious officials, and prominent temples.

　　Partial view of Xuanhe Bogutu

　　Quality and Characteristics

　　The Xuande furnace is the first brassware cast in Chinese history. To produce high-quality furnaces, Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty personally supervised the process, a rare occurrence in history. The Xuande furnace is notable for its color, which is internally blended. This Xuande furnace is made of brass, with the inscription "Made in the Xuande Year of the Great Ming Dynasty" in regular script at the bottom, and has a base. Its shape is regular, thick yet delicate and refined, making it a very elegant piece for a study. When incense is burned inside, the weight of centuries of history permeates the air. Its smooth surface showcases the pure quality of the furnace, the copper is excellent, and it feels heavy in the hand. This "Xuande furnace" comes from the Christie's New York auction in September 2012 at Rockefeller Center, having been lost overseas for many years, it has now returned to its homeland in excellent condition, making it quite precious.

　　The basic form of the Great Ming Xuande furnace is an open mouth, with a square or round lip, a short and slender neck, a flat drum-shaped belly, three blunt conical solid feet or split hollow feet, and bridge-shaped, lyrate, or animal-shaped ears on the rim. The inscription and year mark are mostly on the bottom of the outside of the furnace, similar to the style of Xuande porcelain.

　　In addition to copper, precious materials such as gold and silver were added, making the furnace particularly fine and appearing dark purple or dark brown. Ordinary furnace materials undergo four refinements, while Xuande furnaces undergo twelve, resulting in a finer, smoother texture, like a baby's skin. Gilt or inlaid Xuande furnaces shimmer with gold, giving them an extraordinary feel.

　　The most wonderful aspect of the Xuande furnace is its color, which is internally blended, emitting a strange light from its subdued tones. Historical records mention over forty types of colors, beloved by people throughout the ages, and many names for these colors exist. For example, purple with bluish-black, like eggplant skin, is called eggplant color; black and yellow like sutra paper, is called sutra color; black and white with light red and yellow, is called brown; like the earthy patina of old jade, is called earthy ancient color; white and yellow with red, like the color of a pear, is called pear color; there are also yellow-red grounds with multicolored spots, called imitation Song kiln spot color; spots redder than cinnabar, called vermilion spots; and also colors like pig liver, jujube red, amber, tea dust, and crab shell green, etc... Xiang Yuanbian (Zijing), a great connoisseur, collector, and painter of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, said: "The beauty of the Xuan furnace lies in its precious color, containing a pearly luster, and appearing faintly serene."

　　If a Xuande furnace is burned on fire for a long time, its colors become brilliant and varied. Even if it is left on the fire for a long time and then thrown into mud, after wiping off the mud, it will look the same as before.

　　Mao Xiang (the husband of Dong Xiaojuan), a literati of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, loved to appreciate Xuande furnaces. He wrote "Song of the Xuan Copper Furnace", "Notes on the Song of the Xuan Furnace", and "Song of the Xuan Copper Furnace written for Mr. Fang Tan'an", including the lines: "The furnace light is truly strange and extraordinary, its skin is smooth and its spirit is serene. Narrow edges, lyrate ears, sutra color, yellow clouds hidden, exquisite craftsmanship." This is Mao Xiang's description of the Xuande furnace.

　　As the "Song of the Xuan Copper Furnace" sings: "Touching the present and tracing the past, I sigh again and again, pitying you are no different from other copper camels. One furnace is not a small matter concerning one generation, the virtues of successive emperors have gradually polished it." The Xuan copper furnace can be said to be a historical witness to the heyday of the Ming Dynasty. Furthermore, from Mao Xiang's "Memories of Yingmei'an", we can see that the Xuan copper furnace also embodies Mao Xiang's longing for his beloved concubine Dong Xiaojuan. For Mao Xiang, a Xuan copper furnace evoked both his nostalgia for the Ming Dynasty and his longing for Dong Xiaojuan.

　　Historical Value

　　The Great Ming Xuande furnace is a treasure among Ming Dynasty crafts. The successful casting of the Xuande furnace opened a new chapter in the history of copper furnaces, and for a long time, Xuande furnace became the common name for copper incense burners.

　　In pursuit of huge profits, from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China period, the imitation of Xuande furnaces by antique dealers never ceased. After the production of Xuande furnaces ceased, some officials in charge of "casting matters" gathered the original furnace craftsmen and imitated them according to the drawings and processes of the Xuande furnaces. These carefully crafted imitations are comparable to the genuine articles, and even expert authorities cannot distinguish them. To this day, among the many Xuande furnaces collected in major museums in China, not a single one can be universally recognized by numerous appraisers as a genuine Xuande furnace. Distinguishing genuine and fake Xuande furnaces has become one of the "unsolved cases" in Chinese archaeology.

　　For the reasons mentioned above, copper incense burners inscribed with Xuande marks are extremely inexpensive in the international art market, far less valuable than other styles of ancient Chinese bronzeware.

　　Cultural Background

　　The custom of burning incense has a long history in China. Usually, people would scent their clothes for etiquette. More often, ancient literati and refined scholars enjoyed burning a stick of incense in their studies while reading and writing, creating the artistic conception of "a beauty adding fragrance as one reads late into the night." Therefore, incense burners made of pottery, porcelain, copper, iron, and tile appeared as early as before the Han Dynasty. With the rapid development of the copper casting industry in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, incense burners originally made of other materials were gradually replaced by copper incense burners. The Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty was the peak stage of copper incense burner production.