Incense burner and lid.
Research by Maria Fabrizi – FEB. 1988
This object has a fifteenth century reign mark on the underside of the burner. It is one of a number of objects that were analysed by spectrographic methods, in Oxford, in about 1960. Both parts had been drilled for metal samples. The burner shows a drill-hole in the abraded underside of a foot, and the lid reveals a hole filled with resinous black material in the underside of the bamboo border. The results showed that both lid and burner were made from a copper-zinc alloy, with small amounts of tin and lead, and with quite low levels of impurities. The impurities seemed to be similar in each part, and antimony was absent from both.
The lid was cast to have openwork designs, with a border in the shape of bamboo stems. The elaborate knob is in the form of a beast on a pedestal, surrounded by what looks like a fringe of petals. The interior of the knob appears to have remained unfinished, and a probable sprue or runner remnant can be seen inside it. It would have been very difficult to remove once the object had been made, but can only been seen a little from the outside. This lid seems to be a product of lost-wax casting. It is possible that the whole lid was cast in one piece. There are several tool marks inside, which seem to be from finishing of the object, and the colour is red-brown. The exterior is smooth, and is mostly yellow-brown. It has yellowish metal where it has been abraded.
The burner seems to have been made in one piece, except for two handles, which were apparently added with rivets and solder. The body shape is rectangular, and there are four legs in the shape of bamboo stems, connected by a bamboo border. Further decoration is in relief, and is a patterned band similar in design to the openwork of the lid. A plain band and another bamboo border complete the body. The metal is rather yellowish where abraded, but is mainly yellow-brown on the exterior.