Footnotes

清早期 雙魚耳雲龍紋銅香爐
陽文「大明宣德年製」楷書款

Provenance:
Collection of the Hayashibara family

來源：
林原家族舊藏

Xuan tong, meaning bronze of the Xuande period, the term appears widely in mid to late Ming dynasty literatures. This includes bronze vessels bearing a Xuande period or apocryphal mark, of the same form as the incense burners that was believed to be cast during the Xuande period or incense burners in general. The earliest record of using such term as Xuan tong is from the incense chapter of the book Kao Pan Yu Shi [Desultory Remarks on Furnishing the Abode of the Retired Scholar] written by the playwright and litterateur Tu Long (1543-1605). The term was also used for the first time in the Qing Court archives: Zaobanchu records for the 7th day of the first month in the fourth year of the Yongzheng reign (1726), the workshop made a Xuande bronze incense burner together with a coral finial. The style of the Ming dynasty incense burners imitating Xuande period examples was carried into the early Qing dynasty, well demonstrated from the design and the overall proportions of the present incense burner.

此拍品圓口沿，平唇，短頸，扁圓腹鼓起，浮雕雲霧間爭奪寶珠的兩條巨龍，兩側置雙魚耳，頸部與近足處均環繞回紋，腹下圈足，足內底面中心鐫「大明宣德年製」六字款。

「宣銅」一詞在明代中晚期文人著作和筆記中有大量的出現，從其釋義來看，指的是有「宣德」款識的銅爐，即「宣德爐」。或者泛指與「宣德」款爐形相近的不帶款或帶有其它款的銅爐。如明代中晚期戲曲家、文學家屠隆《考槃餘事》中的《香箋》：「官、哥、定窯、龍泉、宣銅、潘銅彝爐、乳爐大如茶杯而式雅者為上。」這也是「宣銅」一詞目前可查見諸文字的最早記錄。清宮檔案中，也有明白無誤的「宣銅」一說，如《清宮內務府造辦處檔案》「雍正四年正月初七日，雜活作：員外郎海望持出宣銅爐一件（隨珊瑚頂），奉旨：著認看。欽此。」 清代初年，仿宣德銅爐還明顯帶著明風，比較拙重古樸，基本沿襲明代的造型和工藝。如本銅爐的整體風格比例古樸傳神，雙魚耳造型飽滿，爐身的雲龍紋刻花細巧工緻，線條流暢鋒利，完美呈現清早期質精形典之意。