Other Boshanlu



Bronze, Western Han (206 BCE - 8 CE )
25 cm H (9-7/8 inches)

       This censer has a conical, removable cover with a pattern of swirling, pointed waves which is cast in openwork. The bowl has three raised-line borders encircling the waist, and is held high by a phoenix with an upraised beak and tail as well as outstretched wings all bearing incised details. The bird stands atop the back of a turtle resting on a flat circular dish with an everted rim.  The flat dish served to catch the ashes.

(Source: Weisbrod, http://www.weisbrodltd.com/createpg.cgi?ctlgcode=14&pagenum=13)




Earthenware, Western Han
21.6 cm H (8-1/2 inches)

(Source: Chinese antique porcelain, http://www.artcn.net/ca/cap/ataoqi094.jpg)




Bronze, Eastern Han (25 - 220 C.E. )
11.4 cm H (4-1/2 inches)

(Source: Kostiner Far Eastern Art, http://www.trocadero.com/jonkostiner/items/67562/en1.html)




Earthenware with relief decoration, remains of pigment,
Eastern Han
22.2 cm H (8-3/4 inches)

(Source: Valenstein, Suzanne G.  A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics (NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; 1975, 1989), B&w Fig. 39 and pg. 39.)



Four Han Dynasty Hill-Censers.


Fig. 1, pottery, 17.4 cm H.  The cover is 6.8 cm H moulded into a hill encompassed by a double row of waves.  The upper part is perforated by four holes arranged in a square.  The bowl is 4.5 cm deep with a 6.5 cm diameter mouth.  The dish measures 51.8 cm in circumference.  The outlines of the bowl gradually merge into the low foot.  Cover, bowl, and dish are coated with a deep, brilliant dark-green glaze in an excellent state of preservation, and veined with a network of fine crackles.

Fig. 2, bronze, 16.5 cm H.  The cover is 6 cm H worked into the motive "hill surrounded by water," with twelve perforations along the lower margin, and seven in the upper part.  The four upper ones are displayed in the same way -- in the form of a square -- as in Fig. 1.  The stem of the bowl is riveted to the 13 cm diameter dish below.  Its slender standard is set off distinctly from the bowl.

Fig. 3, bronze, 9.5 cm H.  The lid is fastened to the bowl by means of a hinge.  Its outer zone appears in open-work of extremely thin metal, characteristic of the Han period.   Only the raised part on the top is worked up into high relief, forming one central hill surrounded by siz waves, which, in their turn, are encircled by another outer row of six larger waves.  Between the waves of this row are six round perforations. The bowl rests on three short feet riveted to the 13.5 cm circumference dish below.  The whole object is covered with a dark-green patina.

Fig. 4, pottery, 17.5 cm H.  The loose cover is dome-shaped and has two circular rows of eight perforations each.  The decoration consists of an eight-pointed, star-shaped figure in the center on the top, around which run two circular rows of squares with their diagonals.  The perforations are in the angles of these squares.  The bulging bowl rests on a high stem fixed in a deep circular bowl.  The glaze, only partially preserved, is a very light green, and the surface has a brilliant silvery gloss.

(Source: Laufer, Berthold  Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty (Leiden: E.J. Brill, Ltd., 1909; 1962 reprint by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.), PLATE LV, pg. 183, with descriptions pp. 183-187.

 
Bronze censer in the shape of Mount Bo
Eastern Han Dynasty (1st-2nd century C.E. )
14 cm H, 11.75cm D
Northern China.

(Source: Asian Art Outlook, http://www.askasia.org/features/AsianArt/slideshow10.htm#.



A wholly original revival of the ceramic copy:
White stoneware censer in the shape of the ancient boshanlu
but now redesigned in the Buddhist lotus-petal idiom with floral medallions.
Early 7th century.  Sui dynasty.  Ht. 24.8 cm (9.8 in).
The Honolulu Academy of Arts.  Gift of the Honourable Edgar Bromberger (Courtesy of the Academy)
(Source: Watson, William  Pre-Tang Ceramics of China, Plate 39, pg. 74 and pg. 186)
Light-Blue Glazed Pottery Coiled Dragon Incense Burner,
Sui Dynasty (581-618 C.E. )
Funerary object, 49 cm H, 27 cm W, 6.0 Kg,
unearthed at LuoYang, Henan Province, in 1976.
(Source: Chinese Dynasty Antique Co., Ltd., http://cgi.ebay.com/Light-Blue-Pottery-Coiled-Dragon-Boshan-Incense-Burner_W0QQitemZ220072868966QQcmdZViewItem,
ebay Item number: 220072868966, 08/12/2007.)



Green glaze censer with a dragon and lotus petals.
Sui Dynasty
(Source: Wu, Ying  The Art of Chinese Ceramics, pg. 63)






Compare the Korean National Treasure Baekje Incense Burner (above),
gilt-bronze from the early 7th century C.E. (64 cm H, excavated in 1994, Neungsan-ri, Buyeo county in South Chungcheong Province) with the Chinese Prince Liu Sheng boshanlu, bronze inlaid with gold from the 2nd century B.C.E. (26 cm H, excavated in 1968, Mancheng, Hebei).

The distance between the two excavation sites is approx. 2100 km,
mostly across the Gulf of Chihli and the Yellow Sea.  If the Chinese object was buried some seven hundred years before the Korean one was, what was the Korean craftsman (men?)'s inspiration and model?  What influence did Chinese artisans or collectors in Korea have in the piece's construction? ("...specimens existed among the antiquities collected during the Tang and Song,  but the boshanlu were no longer said to be made by that time." Stein, pg. 42)

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Baekjeincenseburner.JPG;
http://www.seoulselection.com/weekly_book_info_view.html?bid=272 )

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