2006.170.214: Globular censer with attached basin

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2006.170.214

Title

Globular censer with attached basin

Other Titles

Original Language Title: 晋 越窯青瓷香熏

Classification

Vessels

Work Type

vessel

Date

3rd-4th century CE

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China, Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing

Period

Jin dynasty, 266-420

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/146434

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Yue ware: stoneware with celadon glaze

Technique

Celadon

Dimensions

H. 17.5 x Diam. 15 cm (6 7/8 x 5 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[J.J. Lally & Co., New York, 2002] sold; to Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation, Woodside, CA (2002-2006), partial gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2006.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Partial gift of the Walter C. Sedgwick Foundation and partial purchase through the Ernest B. and Helen Pratt Dane Fund for Asian Art

Accession Year

2006

Object Number

2006.170.214

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

Slightly compressed globular openwork censer with knob in the form of a melon and three cabriole legs; attached to a three-legged circular basin with everted rim; censer has three horizontal friezes of sawtooth-edged crescent-shaped openings interspersed with small triangular apertures and one large triangular opening with two sawtooth-edged sides; lightly incised lines demarcate the friezes; basin has lightly incised horizontal lines encircling its body just below rim and stamped circles on the rim; light gray stoneware body with olive-green celadon glaze all over, including the underside; several spur marks on base indicate the piece was slightly elevated in the kiln when fired. From the Yue kilns in the Shaoxing area of northeastern Zhejiang.

Numerous censers of this form, most with celadon glazes, have been excavated from numerous third- and fourth-century tombs in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Commentary

Compare to:
(1) Celadon censer with similar openwork and legs but with detachable basin excavated in 1982 from an Eastern Jin tomb at Lingjiaoling, Shengzhou, Zhejiang province, now in the Shengzhou Museum. See Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Ceramics Unearthed in China], vol. 9: Zhejiang (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2008): no. 77.
(2) Dark brown-glazed censer with similar openwork, knob, legs, and attached tray dating to the Western Jin period excavated in 2000 at Xiaoyuetuoshan, Shangyu, Zhejiang province, now in the Shangyu Museum. See ibid., no. 61.
(3) Celadon censer with stepped pyramid shaped openings, bird finial, legs in the forms of beast heads, and attached tray excavated in 1982 from a Western Jin tomb dated to 298 in Shengzhou, Zhejiang province, now in the Shengzhou City Office for Preservation Management of Cultural Relics. See; Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji, vol. 9: Zhejiang province no. 54; and Wenwu [Cultural Relics] 4 (1987): 50, fig. 3.
(4) Celadon censer with similar shape and knob but with triangular openings and no tray excavated in 1953 from a Western Jin tomb dated to 297 at Zhoumudun, Yixing, Jiangsu province. See Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji [Complete Collection of Chinese Ceramics Unearthed in China], vol. 7: Jiangsu Shanghai (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2008), no. 38; and Zhongguo taoci quanji [The Complete Works of Chinese Ceramics], vol. 4: Sanguo, liang Jin, Nanbei chao [Three-Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, 2000), no. 50, pp. 77 and 247.

Subjects and Contexts

• Sedgwick Collection

Verification Level