Abstract
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is fortunate to contain in its collection seven examples of
high quality metalware from Pakistan. The earliest work is a copper alloy censer dating from the
Buddhist period (Fig. l). It was likely made around the fourth century in the region of ancient
Gandhära. The Los Angeles censer (M.91.350.4a-c) is made in three parts: bowl, lid, and handle.
The bowl and the lid together form a combustion chamber shaped like a lora. The lid has a flat
flared mouth on a short neck, which functions as the primary escape channel for the smoke. The
upper shoulder of the lid features a radiant register of lotus petals with pierced interspaces, which
served as subsidiary escape passages for the smoke. Adjoining the lotus petals is narrow band of
marching chevrons that serves as the border for a broad register of a scrolling grape vine with
alternating bunches of fruit and clusters of leaves. A narrow plain border completes the cast decoration
of the lid. The bowl is unadorned apart from a shallow foot. The lid is secured to the bowl by a pendant
loop that is locked into place when a tang extending from the bowl is inserted through the loop and
into the mouth of a makara spout that forms the near end of the handle. The tang cannot be inserted
completely, however, which suggests that the current handle may have once belonged to a different but
apparently contemporaneous combustion bowl. The handle has four parallel ribs immediately behind the
makara head, and then a long fluted shaft that terminates in a flared collar and a macelike knob
terminus.
STEPHEN MARKEL . (2010) Metalware from Pakistan in the Los Angeles County , Pakistan Heritage, Volume 2, Issue 1.
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