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There is a local Auction tomorrow which is offering these two large censers. Not much information is presented with them aside from 19th Century Cloisonne Censers.

There are two, they are identical. I know finding these in pairs can be much more significant than finding just one on its own.

Please offer advice and dollar value.

They are 33" (84cm) tall, and 20" (51cm) wide. They are large, impressive, and in very good condition.

Thank you for your time & expertise.

Hopefully Beadiste will give you in-depth info on this Chinese altar set. The presence of significant metaphysical iconography amidst the wear from use suggests it predates the Cultural Revolution (mid-1960s) but it wasn't necessarily made earlier than the 20th century. Can't help but love those cartoonish improvements on Bronze Age 'taotie' (animal masks), which form a ring around the gilt deer finial. If you need help on worth, suggest you join liveauctioneers.com and search their auction result archive.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you for your quick response.

I have scoured the internet and auction histories and can only find a few items similar to this.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/fine-chinese-ceramics-works-of-art-n09116/lot.359.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2014/03/01/antiques-collectibles/1DhIP9OCfdLysdjY9VWKMK/story.html

And some modern fakes (?) on Aliexpress & eBay.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Royal-Palace-Copper-cloisonne-Red-crowned-Crane-Two-Dragon-incense-burner-Censer/32362147136.html

http://www.ebay.com/itm/30-Marked-Chinese-Cloisonne-Enamel-24K-Gold-Dragon-Crane-Incense-Burner-Censer-/181503964929

There is quite a price gap. The censers in question have a fair amount of black pits throughout, seem to have been used (smoke residue), and there is some bleeding of colours which you may or may not be able to see in the pictures I have already posted.

Just doing a quick Google images search on "cloisonne crane censer" one can see an elaborate and well-executed piece offered by Sotheby's, and a number of overdone contemporary pieces from various auction houses and eBay vendors.

Your piece doesn't show the usual signs of modern repros, but it doesn't look as if it was designed to be expensive, either. The brass work seems rather nice, and the gilded deer is quite appealing. But the lack of gilding overall and the general blackish look makes one wonder whether it was deliberately made to look old, or if it was actually used and blackened by soot and oxidation. ??

If I were going to make up a story about the pair, I'd say they were made for a small temple on a budget.

Where was the "local" auction, btw? US? China? Australia? Europe? Singapore? Hong Kong?
It would be interesting to know if the pair had been exported, or stayed in China.

I did not bid on them as the auction house decided to cancel the last part of the auction due to electronic malfunctions which was affecting the online and phone bidding. Some nice Huang Huali items went for several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The pair is available now through retail purchase but I am still trying to figure them out!

The pair is in Canada from a Chinese man who immigrated from Taiwan in the 80s.

Since I have a bit more time to do some research, are there any other opinions on these pieces?

These appear to be patterned in good measure after a late Ming censer in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, same basic palette but with some differences in the design (legs on the basin instead of the crane base, no taotie masks in the pattern, a gilt dragon vice deer finial, etc.). There's a picture in a book published in 1996 for a joint exhibition by the New York Met & Taipei Palace Museums. I have a copy of the book but no time to prepare a scan at the moment.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Here's a link to an image of the Palace Museum, Taipei, censer.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :Ming Censer

Clones of a quarter-million-dollar pair selling for $18,000 a set? OK, the dragons don't seem to be attached very well.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/40120242_a-pair-of-large-cloisonne-enamel-incense-burners-and

Same crane stand, different burner style, this time for $44,000

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/37953016_a-pair-of-large-cloisonn_-incense-burner

While it's difficult to tell for sure from the various pictures, the style of lotus flower on the set you're interested in seems to be somewhat similar, albeit a bit more spidery, to the examples in the above links. At any rate, not at all like the flowers appearing on the current crop of burners with metal artificially blackened to make them look old, or stupa-like designs such as these:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/9074419_gilt-cloisonne-incense-burner-qianlong-mark

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/9074884_qing-dynasty-bronze-cloisonne-incense-burner-heigh

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/14569460_impressive-chinese-cloisonne-covered-incense-burne

Inspiration for the piece mentioned above?

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/fine-chinese-ceramics-works-of-art-n09116/lot.359.html

Comparing items in the links posted previously.

These are not the same as your burner, of course, but seemed of interest insofar as depicting the popularity of copies of museum and high-priced auction pieces, as well as iconography.

First 3, from left to right:
British Museum, Sotheby's, Live Auctioneers

Second 2, left to right:
Boston Globe auction article Mar 2014, Live Auctioneers Sep 2015

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