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A RARE BRONZE ‘CHINESE PHOENIX’ HANGING INCENSE BURNER
奥地利
06月12日 晚上7点 开拍 / 06月10日 下午3点 截止委托
拍品描述
A RARE BRONZE ‘CHINESE PHOENIX’ HANGING INCENSE BURNER

Japan, 18th-19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)

Published: Resonance of Wa - The Japanese Spirit. Casal Collection, 2025, p. 115.

Finely cast in the form of a ho-o bird (phoenix), the hollow body ingeniously conceived as a censer. The wings are elegantly folded against the body, the plumage meticulously articulated, and the head proudly raised with an open beak and sharply defined crest. Both the head and tail are pierced to accommodate a suspension chain, allowing the vessel to be worn or hung, in a manner traditionally associated with portable incense burners.

LENGTH 19.8 cm, HEIGHT (when suspended) 105.5 cm
WEIGHT 697 g

Provenance: Ex-Collection of Ugo Alfons Casal. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, bequeathed from the above and subsequently de-accessioned in 2021. Ugo Alfons Casal, of Swiss-German origin, was born in Florence, Italy, in 1888. He moved to Japan in 1918, working first at the Osaka branch of George H. McFadden & Brothers and later at F. S. Morse & Co. in Kobe from 1920 to 1938. Primarily involved in the cotton trade, Casal spent most of his life in Kobe, with a few years in Yokohama, until his death in 1964. Throughout his time in Japan, he remained passionate about collecting Japanese art. In the late 1930s, amidst deteriorating relations between Japan and the United States, Casal planned to move his collection to America. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 halted this plan, and the collection was instead stored in wooden crates at Kobe Port. With the help of his personal connections, Casal successfully moved the collection to the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, where it was kept in storage during the wartime and postwar years. After his death, the collection was bequeathed to the museum, where it remains one of the most valuable collections in Japan, with over 4,000 items.
Condition: Very good condition with surface wear and casting-inherent irregularities. Expected traces of handling and use. Occasional minute nicks. The bronze surface with a dark, naturally grown, warm patina.

This koro is exceptionally rare due to its unusual and highly imaginative form. While functioning as a hanging incense burner or perfumer, its conception may reflect a broader exchange of ideas across Asia. The suspended format recalls portable vessels such as Central Asian and Persian kashkul, ascetic bowls worn on chains, which are known to have circulated along Silk Road trade routes and may have influenced artistic forms in China and Japan.

In the present example, however, such a format is fully reinterpreted within a Japanese aesthetic framework, taking the form of a ho-o bird, a powerful auspicious symbol associated with renewal, virtue, and imperial authority. The fusion of function and symbolism results in an object of both sculptural elegance and cultural resonance.

Auction comparison:
Compare a related bronze ‘Zhang Qian and boat’ hanging incense vessel, Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century, 25.5 cm long, at Bonhams, Michael Goedhuis, London, 17 May 2023, lot 368 (sold for GBP 12,750 or approx. EUR 16,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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拍品估价:1,500 - 3,000 欧元 起拍价格:1,500 欧元  买家佣金:

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