Chinese Censer with Lid and Open Loop Handles

Dragons for handles, a dragon for a knob. Incense was not to be taken lightly.

This censer with lid and open loop handles comes from China and is carved of jade. Lidded incense burners were fixtures of Chinese altars and scholars' studios, and in jade, a stone long esteemed in China, they became objects of admiration as well as use. The stone is richly mottled, with moss green running through gray and brown. A dragon curls through an open ring at the top, and dragon heads with hanging rings flank the bowl, which rests on three clawed feet. Six and a half inches wide and six high.

Every ring and coil came out of the same patient stone, one chip at a time.