A LONGQUAN CELADON TRIPOD CENSER

SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

Details

A LONGQUAN CELADON TRIPOD CENSER
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)
The cylindrical body is encircled by three sets of raised triple bow-string bands, and rises to a flat, slightly inward canted rim. The censer is supported on three carved ruyi-shaped feet and a projecting circular base on the underside, and is covered overall with a rich bluish-green glaze which thins slightly on the rim and raised decoration.
5 ¾ in. (14.7 cm.) diam., reticulated silver cover, Japanese wood box

Literature

Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 2012, p. 180, no. 77.

Exhibited

Christie's, The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: An Exhibition of Song Treasures from the Linyushanren Collection, Hong Kong, 22 to 27 November 2012; New York, 15 to 20 March 2013; London, 10 to 14 May 2013.

Lot Essay

The shape of the current censer originates from archaic bronze lian vessels from the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220). Ceramic vessels of this form are often molded with bow-strings around the body, such as the well-known Northern Song Ru censer in the Percival David Collection, illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1977, p. 70, no. 62. An almost identical Longquan tripod censer, in the collection of the Hangzhou Archaeological Bureau, is illustrated by Zhu Boqian (ed.), Celadons from Longquan Kilns, Taipei, 1998, p. 149, no. 116. A small Longquan censer of similar form was discovered in 1991 in Suining, Sichuan province, amongst a cache of ceramics dating from the late Southern Song period, and is illustrated in Newly Discovered Southern Song Ceramics, A Thirteenth-Century “Time Capsule”, Tokyo, 1998, p. 32, no. 23.

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