Q & A

M. I. of Nanaimo, B.C writes:

The two attachments are of a Chinese pot brought from China by my great-aunt in 1919. I know very little about it. I think it is made of brass, and others have told me they think it is an incence burner used for religious purposes.

This pot is 5 3/4" tall and approximately 5 1/2" across. The legs appear to be attached but they are hollowed from the inside of the bowl. There are no maker's marks anywhere that I can find. This pot is quite heavy for its size, I would guess 3 to 4 pounds, but I've not weighed it.

I would appreciate any information you could give me. It is a fair part of my family history and anything would be of interest.

We asked Colin Ritchie to respond:

Yes, this is a Chinese Censor or Incense Burner, although objects like this are commonly used as decorative planters or jardinières, especially if they do not have a pierced cover. It is not possible to say whether or not this one had a cover originally. It does indeed look like brass especially when all nice and shiny but really it is bronze (a very closely related metal alloy to brass) only it would have had a nice warm brown patination (skin) covering the brassy yellow metal. Patination can be reapplied to a bronze object and sometimes very successfully, however it is an expensive process and you probably enjoy this one the way it is.

This piece very likely dates from the end of the 19th century or the early years of the 20th century. The resale value of a bronze object is always decreased by the lost of its patina. I would estimate this one in the region of $ 150.00 at auction.