AN EXTREMELAY RARE IMPERIAL PAVILION SHAPED INCENSE BURNER 'XIANTONG' China, Qianlong six-character mark and period H. 110 cm Very elegant part-gilt bronze incense burner with decoration of dragon and lotus as aroma burner, in the shape of a pavilion, with square body and stand. The finial in form of a pavilion with two-story eaves with excellent decoration of lotus. The body in finely executed aperture with gold-splashed dragon decoration. The stand with decoration of kuilong dragon and curved leafy branches. Marked daqing qianlong nian zao (made in the Qianlong period of the great Qing) below the eaves on the body. Dragon heads have been decorated on the four corners of the attachment as holders for hanging tassels. These hooks correspond to the hangings of a Chinese classical lantern stand and were described in the imperial archives as longgua (dragon hook). The stand of this incense burner is a so-called xumi stand in Chinese Architecture. The Chinese word Xumi refers to the Buddhist sacred Mount Meru as the center of the universe. The Xumi stand was very often used as the stand of the seated Buddha in Vajrasana and is therefore also known as the Vajra stand in Chinese Buddhism and classical architecture in China. During the Ming and Qing period, such large incense burners in a size of more than 1 meter in height were used more as aroma burners and usually placed as a pair in front of the imperial throne in the great hall, such as a pair of imperial xiangtong in a size of 112 cm in the form of a pavilion with two-story eaves with decoration of swastika and character shou (Long Life) made of gold, made in Tongzhi period, which are still in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing. According to the research of the scholar Wan Xiufeng of the Palace Museum in Beijing, all xiangtong in the main large halls including Taihe Hall, Zhonghe Hall and Baohe Hall in the Forbidden City which were placed there, had covers in the form of two-story eaves, while xiangtong with attachments in the form of one-story eaves were placed only in smaller palaces. Important German aristocratic private collection, assembled in China prior to 1904 and owned by the family since then In the imperial archives of the Qing period, these aroma burners were usually recorded as xiangtong (pipe for aroma) and sometimes as xiangting (pavilion for incense), but xiangting also referred to the architectural construction of a pavilion in which the emperor had incense used during a ritual. The xiangtong incense burner usually consists of three parts: a lid in the shape of a one-story or two-story pavilion roof, the body in the shape of a round or square tube, and a stand. In the archives for the palace interiors and in the archives for the works of the imperial workshop zaobanchu in the Qianlong period, there are many notes on xiangtong made of various materials such as gold, gilt bronze, cloisonné, zitan, jade, etc. Some of these large ones, like the present lot, were placed as objects in front of the imperial throne and some as small scented containers were placed on furniture such as desks. Most of them had a body in the shape of a round tube and rarely these were worked in a square shape. For example, in the published imperial archives of the zaobanchu in the Qianlong period, one can find the following notes about the making of the large bronze xiangtong with a body in the shape of a square tube for the palace hall to perform according to the imperial order. According to the archive in the zhuluchu (burner casting department) in the zaobanchu on the 6th day of the chin. 3rd month in the 7th year of the Qianlong period (1742), "Mr Fobao, with the official title Langzhong, submitted a painted design on paper of kuilong dragon and luduan for the emperor to look at. The Emperor issued the order: 'Make kuilong and luduan, each in two pairs according to this design, add two matched pairs of fang longgua xiangtong (square xiangtong with dragon hooks)