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Subject:Meiji period bronze elephant incense burner
Posted By: Mina 米娜 Wed, May 02, 2018 IP: 2a00:ee2:6201:8e00:9
I am a student of Chinese art and I am currently working on museum cataloging as part of my Master's thesis project. I am trying to analyze a bronze elephant incense burner that used to be part of a private East Asian art collection (see the photographs at the link below).
I have been told it's a late Qing censer, but it seems far more likely to me it was manufactured for the Japanese market during the Meiji period (the dragons on each side of the blanket only have three toes and there seems to be an o-goon-cho dragon at the elephant's rear side). Although, it is quite possible it was manufactured elsewhere in East Asia, such as Korea or maybe even late Qing China (at that time the Japanese expansion would already have started).
I found several very similar objects on various online auction websites and they mostly bear identical markings on the bottom, which read ''褔井吉氏制造'', so ''manufactured by Fukui Yoshi'' (the artist or his workshop). However, the object I am analyzing obviously had the mark on the bottom either intentionally destroyed or the bottom of the censer was sealed and fixed due to a certain damage caused over time (see the photographs at the link below). The missing mark of the artist or workshop on the bottom seems to be the key to obtain any exact information on the object (such as its exact provenance, time of manufacture and manufacturer information).
I specialize in Chinese art and am not too familiar with Japanese art of that period, therefore, I have a couple of questions regarding Meiji period bronzeware:
- Since several very similar items can be found on various online antique shop websites, I am curious whether this kind of elephant and pagoda shaped censers could have been a commodity trend in 19th-century East Asia (Japan, China, Korea)?
- Is it possible that various workshops and bronzeware artists used the same model to cast them? Is there anything known about Fukui Yoshi and his workshop (where it was located, what kind of objects they specialized in, etc.)?
- And does it seem possible that the object of my analysis was manufactured by Fukui Yoshi's workshop or could it have been made by someone else?
Any piece of advice would be utmost valuable and helpful in the process of developing my thesis. I appreciate your assistance and look forward to hearing from you.
Link :Meiji period bronze elephant incense burner
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