The copper incense stove made during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty is referred to as "Xuan stove".

The custom of burning incense has a long history in our country. Usually people incense their clothes for etiquette. More often, ancient literati like to burn a stick of incense in the study room where they read and write to create a "red sleeves" The artistic conception of reading at night with fragrance. Therefore, as early as before the Han Dynasty, incense burners made of pottery, porcelain, copper, iron, and tiles appeared. With the rapid development of the copper casting industry in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, incense burners made of other materials were gradually replaced by copper incense burners. The Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty was the peak stage of copper incense burner production.

When Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty was in power, in order to satisfy his hobby of admiring incense burners, he ordered the import of a batch of red copper from Siam. He ordered the palace craftsman Lu Zhen and the minister of industry Wu Bangzuo to refer to the incense burners stored in the imperial palace. The styles of famous porcelain from Chai Kiln, Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln, Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln, as well as historical books such as "Xuanhe Bogu Illustration" and "Archaeological Map", design and supervise the production of incense burners. In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, craftsmen selected dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast them together with red copper more than ten times. The finished copper incense burner is crystal clear and warm in color. It is indeed a treasure among the handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty. The successful casting of Xuande furnace set a precedent for copper furnaces in later generations. For a long period of history, Xuande furnace became the general name of copper incense burner. In the third year of Xuande's reign, he used this batch of red copper to open a furnace and cast 3,000 incense burners. They were never produced again. These Xuande incense burners were hidden deep in the Forbidden Palace, and ordinary people only knew their names but never saw their shapes. After hundreds of years of ups and downs, the genuine copper incense burner cast in the third year of Xuande is extremely rare. In order to make huge profits, from the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China, antique dealers continued to imitate Xuande furnaces. Just after the Xuande furnaces stopped being manufactured, some officials in charge of "casting matters" summoned the original furnace casters to imitate the Xuande furnaces according to the drawings and process procedures of the Xuande furnaces. These carefully cast imitations are comparable to the real ones and cannot be distinguished by expert authorities. So far, among the many Xuande incense burners collected in major domestic museums, none of them can be recognized by many connoisseurs as the real Xuande incense burner. Identifying the authentic Xuande furnace has become one of the "unsolved cases" in Chinese archeology.

For the above reasons, the price of copper incense burners engraved with Xuande's inscription is extremely low in the international art market, far less than the price of other ancient Chinese bronzes.

Xuande furnace not only refers to the furnace cast in the third year of Xuande, but also the collective name for all copper furnaces with Xuande designation. Moreover, it can also generally refer to a copper stove that is similar in shape to the Xuande stove without a pattern or with other patterns. The actual furnace from the Xuande 3rd year has become a mystery. Generally speaking, those whose style has the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty and have excellent patina and copper quality can be regarded as candidates for Xuande. However, most Xuande incense burners are not from Xuande. The purpose of these incense burners is not so much fake imitation, but rather respect and memory for the golden era of history.

Judge a Xuande stove

Usually when judging the quality of a Xuande stove, we mainly start from three aspects:

1. The most important thing is to look at the patina and color. It is said in old times that there are five colors, namely Buddhist scripture paper, chestnut shell, eggplant peel, Tang pear, and brown, among which the color of Buddhist scripture paper is the first. Among the 1995 auctions of Duoyunxuan in Shanghai is a copper stove (19.2 cm high), whose color can match the color of Buddhist scripture paper. In addition, the value of some gold-sprinkled or gold-inlaid copper furnaces manufactured using special techniques is several times higher than ordinary copper furnaces.

2. Secondly, look at the shape, caster, size and weight. The shape should be quaint and rich. Those with ears and feet are better than those without ears and feet. The more refined the casters, the better. In terms of size, furnaces with a diameter of 8-12 centimeters are the most common and are small; furnaces with a diameter of about 15 centimeters are medium-sized, with fewer quantities than small ones, but are more valuable than small ones; and furnaces with a diameter greater than 20 centimeters are medium-sized. Large size, rare in craftsmanship, and very valuable. In the case of the same size, the heavier the furnace, the higher the value. For example, the Xuan furnace from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties collected by friends has a diameter of only 15.8 centimeters and a weight of up to 7 kilograms. It is a super heavyweight among copper furnaces of this size, and its value is several times higher than the ordinary one weighing 3 kilograms.

3. Finally, look at the quality of the item. The more refined and unique the model, the better it can help date it, and the higher the value of the copper furnace.

Xuande furnaces were cast in the Ming, Qing and Republic of China, but how to determine the age? In terms of overall shape, the overall style of the Ming Dynasty copper furnace is elegant and vigorous.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, the copper furnace was still thick and thick, but not as elegant as the earlier one. By the 18th century, the style began to become more delicate, and efforts were made to change the shape and decoration. Some were elegant, but overall they lacked richness. The two pictures below are from the author's collection. They were originally sold at Christie's in London. They are 31.8 cm high. They are from the Qianlong period and the Qianlong period. The decoration is more complex and the coral inlay is intact.

In the 19th century and after, the quality of copper furnace castings deteriorated, and both the patina and decorative shapes were worse than those in the early period. It is worth mentioning the copper stove with the "Shisou" style. Experts on the verification of this type of bronze have different opinions: British bronze expert Rose Kerr proposed in her book "Late Chinese Bronze" that "Shisou" was the "trademark" of a Jiangnan workshop that began in the late Ming Dynasty (Rose Kerr , Later Chinese Bronzes [Victoria amp; Albert Museum, London, 1990]); another expert, Paul Moss, disagrees. In his book "The Second Bronze Age", he believes that in the late Ming Dynasty, the bronzes of the "Shi Sou" style were cast. The workshop does not exist. "Shisou" is the nickname of a monk who is said to be good at making silver-inlaid bronze wares. He believes that the bronzes with the "Shisou" designation are works from the 19th century. The picture below shows a "Shisou" style copper stove inlaid with silver wire. One says it is from the 17th century, and the other says it is from the 19th century.

Understanding Xuande Furnaces

Because Xuande Furnaces are valuable and there are many fakes on the market, how to distinguish these fakes is a headache for collectors.

There are three main aspects to distinguish the authenticity of Xuande stove:

1. Look at the patina. The genuine patina is warm and moist, and contains precious essence that will remain unchanged for a long time. Counterfeit products have dried up patina, and some look like paint, which becomes uglier the longer they are kept.

2. Look at the caster. The genuine casters are of average quality, while the fine casters are quite refined. Counterfeit castings are uneven, some are good and some are bad, or the casting is rough.

3. Look at wear and tear. Genuine products have natural and even wear, especially on the soles of the feet. The fake product has no wear or polish.

The stove is an ancient device for burning incense and burning charcoal. It can be divided into incense burner, incense burner and hand and foot burner. The ancients advocated burning incense, and the incense burner has many uses. The main functions are three: first, it is used for lavender; second, it is a necessary tool for the study, as evidenced by the poem "Red sleeves add fragrance to the night reading"; third, it is used to worship gods. Buddha. The copper stoves cast during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty were for burning incense and offering sacrifices. They were specially made for large temples in the suburbs and were placed on the sacrificial table. The Xuande stoves had exquisite material selection, exquisite workmanship, and simple and elegant styles. precious. The Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty was the peak period for the production of copper incense burners. Xuande burners were rich in color. It was based on purple-red and had dozens of colors such as brown, cyan, green, red, blue, yellow, white, gold, etc. The structure of the furnace consists of three parts: furnace ears, furnace body, and furnace feet. Stove ears include: elephant ears, lion ears, ring ears, etc., which are placed in pairs on both sides of the furnace body. Some furnaces have no ears and no decorations on the furnace body; sometimes small pieces of gold foil are knocked on the outside of the furnace body. The Xuande stove has thick walls and feels heavy when held in the hand; the markings are standard and dignified, and most of them are placed on the bottom of the outside of the stove. According to records, the Xuande furnace was only cast once in the third year of Xuande, with a quantity of 5,000 pieces. After that, the furnace was closed and no longer cast. Because the Xuande copper furnace is famous all over the world, there are many imitations in later generations. However, no matter how they are imitated, its color and copper quality are far from the real Xuande furnace.

Color and quality of Xuande furnace

After 6 to 12 refinings, the Xuande copper furnace is basically close to pure copper, so the color is purple-red. Although gold and silver and other materials are added, The quantity is small and the color quality of the finished product is not changed much. Therefore, the imitations after Xuande did not dissolve gold into the copper material in the casting furnace, but decorated the surface of the furnace with gold materials such as sprinkling gold, gilding, gold interlacing, and gold cutting to achieve a beautiful effect.

The surface of the Xuande furnace has been oxidized for a long time, forming a maroon red oxide layer. This is the basic color to distinguish between authentic and fake Xuande furnaces.

During the smelting process of Xuande furnace raw materials, the different alloy compositions will also cause some differences in the color of Xuande furnace materials, and also lead to differences in the color of the oxide layers on the surfaces of these copper alloys. But it remains unchanged, and the surface color of the real Xuande furnace is consistent with the maroon red color.

Therefore, it is very clear to distinguish the true and false Xuande furnace from the surface color. If the oxide layer on the surface of the copper furnace appears black or black with a green tint, it means that the lead content in the copper material is too high and it is not pure copper; if green rust forms on the surface of the copper furnace, it means that the tin content is too high and is close to a bronze alloy; if If the surface of the copper furnace turns yellow and rotten when rubbed, and the oxide layer is not dense, it means that the zinc content is too high and it is a brass alloy. Judging from the surface texture, if it is oxidized and rough, uneven, or can see blisters, it is brass alloy casting or blister copper casting. In terms of weight, a furnace with a diameter of 12 cm weighs about 1 kg or more, a furnace with a diameter of 15 cm weighs about 1.7 kg or more, a furnace with a diameter of 18 cm weighs about 3 kg or more, considering that the thickness of the furnace wall is the same In this case, most of the Xuande stoves of the Wu Bangzuo model on the market, which are approximately the size of a hemispherical ring, were imitated during the Republic of China.