Xuande incenses burner have decorative ears, body and legs. Symmetrically appearing on the two sides of the incense burner, the burner’s ears usually imitate the figures of rings, elephant ears and lion ears. Instead of decorative ears, some burners only have smooth bodies without ornamental patterns. The bodies of Xuande incense burners are very thick, making the burners heavy in hand, and the seals are neatly engraved on their bottoms. According to historical records, a total of 3000 Xuande incense burners had been forged in the 3rd year of emperor Xuande’s reign, since then Xuande incense burners have never been forged again.
Xuande incense burners were exclusively used for royal court and temples, or bestowed on important ministers in Ming Dynasty. Its forging technology was kept a secret and the burners had never even been seen by common people. Xuande incense burners had become a treasure in the handicrafts of Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, in the last years of Ming Dynasty, the burners were melted into sycees to pay military expenses; only a few of them have been handed down and their prices were unbelievably high.
Seeking profits from Xuande incense burner sales, from the reign of emperor Xuande to the Republic of China era, curiosity-dealers have never stopped imitating the originals. Following the technological procedures and imitated them with the drawings of Xuande incense burners, some imitation burners made by artisans who forged real Xuande incense burners for the emperor Xuande were extremely similar to the authentic ones; even experts can’t tell them apart.
At present, Xuande incense burners in museums and auction markets are imitations from the middle Ming Dynasty, but the knock-down prices of these wonderful imitations are equally amazing. In 2003, Jiade Auction Company auctioned of some Xuande incense burners collected by the famous collector Wang Shixiang; included was a burner with three legs that hit the record of 1.661 million RMB.
By Feng Hui
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