Ball-shaped Gilded Silver Incense Burner

This little cute ball contains a lot of organs. Do you know what it is and how to use it?

Ball-shaped incense burners were used to drive away insects and cleanse the air. When in use, they were usually hung at the side of an oxcart or inside a mosquito net.

Such a burner consists of two hemispheres, one above, the other below. Between the two is a clip for opening and closing the burner. Inside the lower hemisphere are two concentric rings and a small jar for holding incense.

When in place, the axis of the jar and the diameter of the two rings intersect at right angles. The weight of the jar keeps it in a vertical position no matter how the ball turns, which prevents the incense from falling out.

This principle is similar to that of the orientation device in a modern three-frame aero-gyroscope and its use in China over a thousand years ago deserves praise and admiration by people today.

The outer shell of the burner is openwork, easy for smoke to disperse. There were many varieties of incense burners in ancient China, but none can surpass the fine workmanship of this ball-shaped silver incense burner.

Copyright: A Journey into China’s Antiquity– Chinese History in Cultural Relics, Blossom Press

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