Date:17th–18th century
Culture:China
Medium:Copper alloy with parcel-gilding
Dimensions:H. 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm); W. incl. handles 7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm); Diam. 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm); Diam. of foot 4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm)
Classification:Metalwork
Credit Line:Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2019
Accession Number:2019.317
This incense burner is an unusual example of how Chinese works were sometimes modified when they came to Europe. The censor’s form is a typical Chinese archaistic reinterpretation of an ancient food vessel, but its decoration—Chinese tree peonies in a landscape setting—was most likely chased from the vessel’s original surface by a European metalsmith. A mark on the base (“ALPH GIROUX PARIS”) reveals that the vessel was once in the collection of Alphonse Giroux (1775/76-1848), a French dealer in luxury goods. It is most likely that the cold-work surface decoration was added in his workshop, reflecting the hybrid nature of Chinoiserie in eighteenth-century Europe.