During the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, in order to satisfy his hobby of enjoying incense burners, he ordered a batch of copper imports from Siam, and instructed court craftsman Lu Zhen and assistant minister Wu Bangzuo to design and supervise incense burners with reference to the styles of famous porcelain such as Chai Kiln, Ru Kiln, Official Kiln and Ge Kiln, and the Jun Kiln and Ding Kiln in the Forbidden City, as well as historical records such as Catalogue of Xuanhe Bo Gu and Archaeological Map. In order to ensure the quality of the incense burner, craftsmen chose dozens of precious metals such as gold and silver, and carefully cast them with copper for more than ten times. The finished bronze incense burner is crystal clear and moist in color, which is really a treasure in Ming Dynasty handicrafts. The successful casting of Xuande furnace opened the precedent for later bronze furnaces. In the long history, Xuande furnace became the general name of bronze incense burner. Xuande used this batch of red copper to cast 3,000 incense burners in three years, and no longer produced them. These Xuande furnaces are hidden in the Forbidden Palace, and ordinary people only know their names but not their shapes. After hundreds of years of ups and downs, the bronze incense burner cast by Xuande for three years is extremely rare. In order to make huge profits, antique dealers never stopped copying Xuande furnace from the Xuande period in Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China. Just after Xuande Furnace stopped manufacturing, some officials in charge of "casting affairs" called the original casting furnace craftsmen and copied them according to Xuande Furnace's drawings and technological process. These carefully cast imitations can be compared with the real ones, and experts can't tell the difference. Up to now, there are many Xuande furnaces collected by major museums in China, and none of them can be recognized as true Xuande furnaces by many appraisers. Identifying the true and false Xuande Furnace has become one of the "unsolved cases" in China archaeology.

For the above reasons, the price of bronze incense burners engraved with Xuande is extremely low in the international art market, far less than other ancient Chinese bronzes.

Xuande furnace not only refers to the furnace cast by Xuande for three years, but also refers to all copper furnaces with Xuande model. And it can also refer to copper furnaces without money or other money similar to Xuande furnaces. The furnace that really preached virtue for three years has become a mystery. Generally speaking, the style design has the characteristics of the middle Ming Dynasty, and those with excellent patina and copper can be regarded as candidates for Xuande. However, most Xuande furnaces are not Xuande. The purpose of these furnaces is not so much imitation as respect and memory of the golden age of history.

Usually, when judging the quality of the stove, we mainly start from three aspects:

1, the most important thing is to look at the patina and color. There are five colors in the old saying: Buddha paper, chestnut shell, tomato skin, Li Tang and brown, among which the color of Buddha paper is the first. A bronze stove (19.2 cm high) was auctioned in Shanghai Duoyunxuan 1995, and its color can reach the color of Buddhist scripture paper. In addition, the value of some special copper furnaces is several times higher than that of ordinary copper furnaces.

2, followed by modeling, casting, size and weight. The shape is elegant and vigorous, and those with ears and feet are better than those without ears and feet. The more refined the caster, the better. From the size point of view, the furnace with a diameter of 8- 12 cm is the most common and belongs to small size; The furnace with a diameter of about 15 cm is medium, the number is less than that of the small one, but the numerical value is higher than that of the small one; The furnace with a diameter greater than 20 cm is large, with few skilled workers and high value. Under the same size, the heavier the furnace, the higher the value. The Xuan furnace in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties collected by Ruyou is only 15.8 cm in diameter and weighs 7 kg. It is a super heavyweight in a bronze furnace of this scale, and its value is several times higher than the ordinary 3 kg.

3. Finally, look at the quality of payment. The more exquisite and peculiar the model is, the more helpful it is to date, and the higher the value of the copper furnace is. Xuande furnace was cast in Ming, Qing and Republic of China, but how to judge the age? Judging from the overall shape, the overall style of bronze furnace in Ming Dynasty is elegant and vigorous.

In the late Ming, early Qing and early Qing dynasties, bronze furnaces were still vigorous, but they were not as elegant as before. In the18th century, the style began to be refined, and efforts were made to change in modeling and decoration. Some of them were elegant, but overall they were not rich enough. The following two pictures are collected by the author and auctioned by Christie's in London. They are 3 1.8cm high. During the Qianlong period, the ornamentation was complex and the corals were completely inlaid.

/kloc-in the 0/9th century and beyond, the quality of copper furnace casting went from bad to worse, and the patina decoration and modeling were not as good as those in the previous period. It is worth mentioning that there is a "Shi Sou" model copper furnace. For the textual research of this kind of bronzes, experts have different opinions: Rose Kerr, a British bronze expert, later became a Chinese bronze ware [Victoria &; Albert Museum in London,1990]); Another expert, Paul Moss, disagreed. In his book The Second Bronze Age, he thinks that there was no workshop dedicated to casting "Shi Sou" bronzes in the late Ming Dynasty, and "Shi Sou" was the nickname of a legendary monk who was good at making silver-inlaid bronzes. He thinks that the bronzes with "Shi Sou" are works of19th century. The following "Shi Sou" copper furnaces with silver wires are17th century and19th century.

Because Xuande furnace is expensive, there are many fakes on the market. How to distinguish these fakes is a headache for collectors.

There are three main aspects to distinguish the authenticity of Xuande furnace:

1, look at the patina. The real patina is moist and precious, and it will last for a long time. Fakes wither, and some are like paint. The longer they stay, the uglier they become.

2. Look at the foundry. The quality of genuine casters is average, and the quality of fine casters is quite fine. The counterfeiters of counterfeit products are uneven, good and bad, and rough.

3. Look at the wear and tear. Authentic products have natural and even wear, especially the soles of feet. Counterfeit goods have not been worn or artificially polished.

Stove is an ancient device for burning incense and charcoal, which is divided into fuming stove, incense burner and hand-foot stove. The ancients advocated burning incense, and incense burners have many uses, which mainly have three functions: first, they are used to fumigate clothes; Second, it is an essential tool for research, taking the poem "Reading Black Tea at Night" as evidence; The third kind is used to worship gods and buddhas. The bronze furnace cast in Xuande period of Ming Dynasty is an instrument for burning incense and offering sacrifices. It was specially cast for temples in the suburbs and placed on the sacrificial table. Xuande furnace was very precious at that time because of its exquisite materials selection, exquisite craftsmanship and simple and elegant style. Xuande period in Ming Dynasty was the peak of making bronze incense burners. Xuande burner is rich in color, mainly purplish red, with dozens of colors such as brown, cyan, green, red, blue, yellow, white and gold. The structure of the furnace consists of three parts: the furnace ear, the furnace body and the furnace foot. Furnace ears are: elephant ears, lion ears, ring ears and so on. , all placed in pairs on both sides of the furnace body. Some furnaces are not decorated with ears, and the lights in the furnace are not decorated; Sometimes a small piece of gold foil is knocked on the outside of the furnace body. The wall of Xuande furnace is thick, so it feels heavy in your hand. The style is standard and dignified, and it mostly falls on the bottom outside the furnace. According to records, Xuande furnace was cast only once in Xuande for three years, with 5000 pieces each time, and then it was closed and not cast. Because Xuande copper furnace is famous all over the world, there are many imitations in later generations, but no matter how it is imitated, its color and copper are far from the real Xuande furnace.