Large Bronze Perfume Burner - China - Dynasty: Quing

Charming and large perfume burner in bronze with Chinese brown patina. 
Its tripod base rests on a circular bronze pedestal and is composed of three majestic phoenixes with spread wings, supporting an incense vase, the body of which presents a relief decoration where a magnificent dragon evolves in search of the sacred pearl granting wishes.
The handles supporting the neck of the incense vase show finely chiselled dragons with their mouths open.

Period: 19th century
Dynasty : Qing
Dimensions : Height : 37cm x Width : 14,6cm

Perfumes play an important role in Chinese culture and are present in almost every moment of daily life. 

In the many rituals that organize Chinese society (Taoist, Buddhist or Confucian), the Chinese use resins and fragrant woods to delimit a sacred space or time. 

The mere presence of the incense burner is enough to indicate or define a sacred place.

In everyday life, people have long treated their bodies with the use of odoriferous products and perfumes, as can be seen in the works of medical recipes (fangshu), those devoted to perfumes and even certain collections of poetry (see the treatise Materia medica or Ben Cao Gang Mu, the most complete and detailed medical treatise ever written in the history of traditional Chinese medicine. 
It was written by Li Shi-zhen (1518-1593), a medical expert of the Ming dynasty). 

Perfumes were for many centuries reserved for the elite. 

The common peasant often had to make do with the scent of flowers to escape from the smell of sewage and the other joys of the cities and villages.

For the wealthy Chinese (and more often for the social category known as the literati), aromatic substances were part of daily life. 

The daily life of these aesthetes required the use of many refined objects, such as the perfume burner, which testified to the owner's rank, or which enabled them to exercise their profession, such as the inkwell.