Chinese Copper-Alloy Quatrefoil Censer with Pixiu Finial, Openwork Dragon Lid and Qianlong Reign Mark, 18.3 cm
Chinese Copper-Alloy Quatrefoil Censer with Pixiu Finial, Openwork Dragon Lid and Qianlong Reign Mark, 18.3 cm
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- United States · usually 4–7 days after dispatch, insured and tracked Check the Shipping Flowchart here
- Import
Duties and customs · View the estimate
A guide for this piece: about $170, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
The final figure is set by US Customs and depends on where the piece was made and the kind of object it is. Many antiques over a century old carry no ordinary duty; most jewellery and leather goods add a single-digit rate.
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- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
Every piece is measured by hand, in centimetres as Japan measures. Please allow 1–2 cm (about ½ inch) for the give of the material and the hand that held the tape.
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Object, sculpture and ceramics
Condition report
Excellent
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
Smoke Through the Dragon Lattice
The pierced lid turns a functional vessel into theatre, with dragons and lingzhi coiling under a pixiu crown. Pixiu-mask legs and dragon handles carry the invention all the way down. A heavy, well-resolved casting with a warm, undisturbed patina.
Best for: Collectors of Chinese metalwork and scholar's objects
Condition notes
No notable marks or damage noted; even patina.
Grades, ratings and commentary are given to the best of our ability, knowledge and experience, and condition remains partly a matter of personal perception. What we stand behind without qualification is authenticity, truthful description and provenance, to the best of our knowledge. How we grade
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A Chinese copper-alloy censer of quatrefoil form, its domed lid pierced with dragons and sacred fungus and crowned by a snarling pixiu, the base bearing a Qianlong reign mark.
The Piece
The body follows the four-lobed mokko outline, the lobes swelling gently between narrow waists, and stands on four legs. Each leg is cast as a one-horned pixiu mask from whose jaws an animal foot emerges, a playful and finely resolved detail. The sides are worked in low relief with thunder-scroll grounds and writhing dragons, and a dragon forms each of the two handles, its head reaching up to the rim.
The lid is the glory of the piece: a lobed dome of openwork in which dragons twist through clusters of lingzhi fungus, rising to a pierced finial in the shape of an open-mouthed pixiu head. Smoke from within would drift out through every gap in the tracery. The surface has a warm chestnut-brown patina, darker in the recesses, which brings the casting into sharp relief.
The underside bears a four-character mark reading "made in the Qianlong reign". Marks of this kind were applied both in the period and long after it; the piece is described here by its mark, and the period is not asserted.
Details
- Origin: China
- Form: lidded quatrefoil (mokko) censer on four legs
- Material: cast copper alloy
- Markings: Qianlong reign mark on the base
- Height: 18.3 cm (7.2 in)
- Width: 21.5 cm (8.5 in); depth 12.5 cm (4.9 in)
- Weight: 1.4 kg (3.1 lb)
Condition
- No notable marks or damage; even patina throughout.
- Every photograph is part of the description.
Condition grade A (excellent, no notable marks) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Checked and photographed in Japan before dispatch. Dust with a soft dry brush and avoid polishes, which would strip the patina.
Delivery from Japan
Packed by hand in Japan and shipped insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
Considered offers are welcome through Send an Offer, and each one is reviewed personally. Read our collector guides, or browse Chinese decorative arts.
Concierge
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