Dimensions: Height 17,5 cm Wide 25 cm Depth 19 cm
Weight: 2044 grams

Modelled after ancient bronze ritual vessels, the censer is raised on three stout legs with stylised animal-mask terminals, flanked by a pair of upright loop handles. The domed cover is moulded with swirling cloud patterns around a central roundel, echoing archaic motifs. The entire vessel is coated in a rich, glassy emerald-green lead glaze, now showing areas of iridescence, burial encrustations, and minor losses consistent with age.

Pottery ding vessels of this type were produced as mingqi (tomb furnishings), symbolically providing ritual bronzes for the afterlife. Their form directly imitates Zhou and Shang bronze dings, while the application of bright green lead glaze reflects Han innovations in funerary ceramics.

Comparable examples are preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the British Museum, both illustrating the continuity of bronze ritual forms into the Han funerary repertoire.

The present vessel, with its cover and well-preserved glaze, represents a rare and authentic example of a Han dynasty green-glazed pottery ding.

REMARKABLE: Accompanied by a thermoluminescence test report (no. 759206), confirming the age.