Ancient Holy Land Terracotta Incense Burner

Ancient Near East, Holy Land, Iron Age II, ca. 800 to 500 BCE. A hand-built terracotta incense burner meant to be placed atop a vessel filled with smoldering incense. The hollow body exhibits a conical form with seven perforations along the front to allow incense smoke to escape, and a shallow top cup creates a secondary area for incense to be burnt. Segmented bands are applied both above and below a zigzagging central bar for decorative purposes and to enable its owner to sufficiently grip the surfaces. Size: 5.6" W x 11.2" H (14.2 cm x 28.4 cm)

Provenance: private Orange County, California, USA collection; ex-Sands of Time Ancient Art, Washington, D.C., USA; ex-The Hauge Collection of Ancient & Iranian Art, assembled between 1962 and 1966. Foreign service brothers, Victor and Osborne Hauge, together with their wives Takako and Gratia, assembled their collection of Persian, Japanese, Chinese, and Southeast Asian works of fine and fold art while stationed overseas with the US government after WWII. In consultation with academics and dealers, the Hauges assembled over two decades of what former Freer Gallery Art director Harold Stern described in 1957 as "without doubt one of the finest private collections in the world." Victor and Takako published Folk Traditions in Japanese Art to coincide with a traveling exhibition held from 1978 at the Cleveland Museum of Art; Japan House Gallery, New York; and Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Much of their collection was donated to the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute culminating in an exhibition and published catalogue in 2000. The balance of the collection, including this object, was inherited by descent in 2016.

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#156875
Condition Report: Repaired from multiple pieces, with resurfacing and overpainting along break lines, and light adhesive residue in some areas. Nicks and abrasions to base, body, and rim, with light fading to original pigment, and scattered encrustations. Nice earthen deposits throughout.