White Porcelain Incense Burner with a Lid in the Shape of Baksan Mountain

This white porcelain incense burner is said to have been excavated from a Goryeo-period tomb near Gaeseong; it stands 8.5 cm high with a diameter of 8.1 cm. The body is generally round in form, comprising a lid section and a section for burning incense, and is supported on three curved, rabbit-tail-shaped legs. The domed lid, shaped like overlapping mountains, has a large polygonal opening at its summit, beneath which seven further openings are arranged around the surface so that smoke can escape through them. A thick, blue-white porcelain glaze has been applied, transparent and glossy. The burner is presumed to have been made around the twelfth century, though its country of origin and the kiln that produced it are very difficult to determine. Its form is a simplified, stylised version of the Boshan incense burner, modelled on Baksan Mountain, the imaginary mountain paradise of the immortals in Chinese lore of the Han dynasty. The style seen in this piece — a rounded body with openings pierced in the top of the lid — also appears occasionally among white porcelain incense burners of the Song dynasty. In light of these features, the white porcelain incense burner with a lid in the shape of Baksan Mountain appears to be a work that combines characteristics of twelfth-century Goryeo white porcelain with those of early Southern Song blue-white porcelain.

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Where it is

Region

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물