Body of incense burner, missing rim and foot, Cizhou ware

Object Details

• Description

  Body of incense burner, missing rim and pedestal foot.

  Clay: buff stoneware. Glaze: outside only; transparent over white slip; varnish-like material coats unglazed mouth and runs inside.

  Decoration: incised and stamped in slip. Foliate scroll with 3 large blossoms (mallow?) on "ring-matted" ground. Ten-character inscription on panel. 西李大伯施/ 劉香爐 壹隻

• Inscriptions

  Ten-character inscription on panel.

• Label

  Without the inscription that reads "Liu presents this incense burner as one of a pair to a Buddhist temple," modern scholars might not have recognized this fragment as the midsection of a Cizhou-type incense burner. The shape of the incense burner and its "fish roe" background design are copied from a metal prototype that potters could inexpensively reproduce. Cizhou ceramics, which were made for the popular market, frequently bear calligraphy in the form of dedicatory inscriptions, homilies, and the names of pottery workshops.

• Provenance

  From at least 1916 to 1970

  Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) and Agnes E. Meyer (1887-1970), New York, NY, Washington, DC, and Mt. Kisco, NY, from at least 1916 [1]

  From 1970

  Freer Gallery of Art, bequeathed by Agnes E. Meyer [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer lent this fragment of an incense burner to the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition in 1916, see S. C Bosch Reitz, Catalogue of An Exhibition of Early Chinese Pottery and Sculpture, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1916), cat. 111 (ill.).

  [2] The object is included in a codicil to Agnes E. Meyer’s will and testament, dated December 23, 1969, copy in object file.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Beyond Paper: Chinese Calligraphy on Objects (August 18, 1994 to July 3, 1997)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer ((1875-1959) and (1887-1970))

• Origin

  Guantai kilns, Hebei province, China

• Credit Line

  Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1100s, 1000s

• Name

  Meyer, Eugene and Agnes E.

• Place

  Guantai kilns, China, Hebei province

• Topic

  Art, Inscriptions, White slip, Calligraphy, Cizhou ware, Stoneware, Chinese Art, Incense, Ceramics, Flowers, Northern Song dynasty (960 - 1127)

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)