Bronze burners as superb as the incense they emit
A royal burner with lotus carving
Qiaosheng Censer Museum in Suzhou, named after master craftsman Chen Qiaosheng, is the only private museum in China dedicated to bronze censers.
It exhibits a fine collection of gilt tripod bronze burners with curved handles and delicate carving.
“It’s a showroom of beautiful incense burners, both antique and modern, and also a tribute to my father’s devotion to traditional metal handicrafts,” said museum director Chen Guancheng, Chen Qiaosheng’s son.
The Chen family has been making bronze ware since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and Chen Qiaosheng, 63, is the third generation of craftsmen.
Beginning in the 1970s, he visited museums, leafed through old documents and experimented in his work studio to try and restore the lost skills of the Xuande burner, which was first produced in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and disappeared in the late 1930s.
He had to master a variety of skills, including copper smelting and casting, to revive the old technique. His son Guancheng has been learning those skills from his father since he was a little boy.
“I often watched him working for hours when I was small,” the son recalled. “This is the family culture that I grew up with and a mission I inherited and am obliged to carry forward.”
In 2011, the elder Chen was honored as a cultural inheritor of the traditional censer tradition.
A Qiaosheng censer, which strictly adheres to the original technique, features an elegant appearance and a smooth surface that subtly shines.
In addition to copper, other metals such as gold, silver, tin and magnesium are added in careful proportions, and the heating process creates a surface as smooth as a baby’s skin.
A dragon-carved incense burner
In 2013, the museum was established to exhibit bronze burners in more than 3,300 shapes, all made or collected by the family.
The entrance of the museum features a Boshan incense burner, a bronze censer from the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). It is cast in the shape of Boshan Mountain, a mythical land of immortality that appeared in a dream of Emperor Liu Che. That marked the very beginning of China’s history of bronze censers.
Dammar resin and oriental sweetgum are burning in the Boshan censer at the museum. The smoke curls out of numerous holes in the burner, creating the sense of a magical mist encircling a celestial mountain.
Production of incense burners reached its heyday in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The most famous, the Xuande burner, was named after Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty, who ordered craftsmen to make censers for the royal family.
The Xuande burner was China’s first brass censer. It usually featured a compressed body with decorative “ears” and tripod legs. It was symmetrical from front to back. The “ears” were usually made in the shape of rings, elephant ears or lion ears. Some of the burners had no ornamental decoration. The seal “Made in Xuande” was neatly engraved on the bottoms.
According to archives, about 3,000 Xuande incense burners were made in the third year of Emperor Xuande’s reign (1425-1435).
What made the censer so precious was its fine, gold-like Siam brass, imported from what is today Thailand. Forging techniques rendered different colors, including chestnut, purple, green red and amber.
Oddly, none of the original Xuande burners survived.
Incense burner with phoenix ears
“They vanished overnight,” Chen Guancheng said. “One possible reason is they were melted down to produce coins in the ensuing civil wars. So far, we’ve never seen a real one, which would be truly priceless if found.”
Many censers carrying the claim that they were made in Xuande’s reign have been proven counterfeit after component analysis revealed they didn’t match traditional proportions recorded in history.
That changed when craftsman Qiaosheng managed to restore the censers in authentic reproductions.
According to the secret family recipe, the metals are soaked in a soup of traditional Chinese herbs for several days. They are then heated and returned to the soup. That process is repeated over and over to render different colors.
The whole recipe is kept confidential, but Chen generously mentioned some of the ingredients, such as vermilion and dragon’s blood, a red resin.
The Qiaosheng burners would have largely remained unknown if it were not for antique collector and history scholar Ma Weidu, who happened to see one and praised it highly.
“The Qiaosheng burner can be on a par with the Xuande,” he proclaimed.
After years of experience in bronze censer making and antique collection, the younger Chen has become an expert in the field, like his father. He can quickly identify what era a censer comes from.
“You have to take one in hand and feel it,” he said. “Burners made in the Qing Dynasty have a thin skin and a gravity center near the bottom. Burners from Ming have ears and a body often tilted a bit upward. I prefer the Ming style.”
The museum is a paradise for lovers of incense and burners. Visitors can view a large number of bronze vessels used in temples and royal courts. It also displays more than 100 gilt bronze Buddha statues the father and son have made.
The museum is more than just an exhibition site for the Chens. It’s a family album that preserves the working tools of ancestor coppersmiths — the heaters, cutters and a portable wooden bellows from forefathers.
Venue: Yuanhe Culture Creative Park
Address: 1F, Building B, 268 Wanli Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province
Admission: Free
Hours: 9am-5:30pm
Note: The museum is currently closed because of the novel coronavirus outbreak. It has petitioned the Suzhou government to reopen and is awaiting a reply. In the meantime, the museum is providing an online tour of its exhibits. It can be accessed on the Taobao account: 苏州巧生炉博物馆.
