Vintage bronze incense burner Dragon

Beautiful heavy bronze incense burner featuring the depiction of dragons. All dragon mouths have smoke holes in them; when the incense is lit, all dragons exhale their smoky breath.

This incense burner is made with the exuberant aesthetics often referred to as the 'Kowloon-style', a favorite style in the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

In Asian territories, some of the first surviving images of dragons date back to the Hunshan culture (4700-2900 BC), and all through the following Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties the image spread further throughout Asia.

The word dragon is derived from the Greek 'drakonos', which means 'serpent' or 'snake'. Dragons are often depicted as giant snake-like creatures, but then with two, four or more legs and often wings, razorsharp teeth and claws and more impressive features. 

The Chinese dragon has attributes belonging to nine other creatures: eyes like a shrimp, antlers like a deer, mouth like a bull, nose like a dog, whiskers like a catfish, mane like a lion, tail like a snake, scales like a fish, and claws like a hawk. This image most likely can be traced back to the period of Huangdi, the ‘Yellow Emperor’; a mythical Chinese sovereign that is said to be the originator of the centralized Chinese state by bringing the nine tribes of the Yellow River Valley all together under his flag, and incorporating the characteristics of the tribes’ nine (animal) totems into his own dragon totem. 

The dragon symbolizes a lot of different dynamics. Being perhaps the most famous of all mythical creatures, it can be found in mythologies all over the world, where it personifies dynamics such as the mysteries of the universe, chaos, life and destruction. In Eastern territories it is seen as a creature of all elements (water, fire, earth, air and wood) and it is believed that the dragon's breath generates the Qi energy, the all-encompassing life force. The dragon represents masculine, active, yang force, the power of creation and transformation, fertility and prosperity. The dragon is one of the Four Auspicious Beasts, the great deities of the cardinal directions. In that setting, the Azure Dragon (Seiryuu) is the guardian of the east.

Also in the cosmology of traditional shamanism, dragons are very important creatures. It is said that six dragons of sacred colors live in the Black Sky. They are seen as the primary creative forces, that created the whole universe with their breath; The white dragon is considered the creator of the nine heavens, enclosing all the knowledge that exists in the universe there. Blue created the sky and the gods. Green is responsible for nature, multiplied the number of people and strengthened families. Red created the core of the earth and breathed love in all its manifestations into the souls of people. Yellow distributed wealth among people. Black symbolizes the unity of all forces and intentions, and is thus a symbol of all dragons. And together, with their simultaneous breath they created Tengri, supreme deity of the Upper World.

Sizes;
Total height (measured including the lid and the dragon decoration on top of it); 10 centimeters
Height of the cauldron-part without lid; 5,5 centimeters
Maximum outside diameter (measured including the handles); 12 centimeters
Inside diameter of the cauldron; 7 centimeters
Weight: 385 grams

This incense burner is from vintage origin. It has been used before and therefore shows some signs of age and previous usage. But overall it is still in very good condition.

Only one available.