A LATE MING CLOISONNE ENAMEL AND GILT-BRONZE TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER AND COVER

Details

A LATE MING CLOISONNE ENAMEL AND GILT-BRONZE TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER AND COVER
WANLI

Comprising a lower section raised on three elephant-head legs and decorated with chilong between shou-character roundels, below a wide floral flange decorated with qilin galloping over waves, supporting a detachable cylindrical mid-section pierced with archaistic dragon scrollwork and fitted with vertical flanges, the domed cover similarly pierced and surmounted by an openwork dragon finial (small enamel chips)--27in. (68.5cm.) high, zitan stand

Lot Essay

Ming censers of this size are rare

A smaller comparable 17th Century censer with elephant-head feet is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, pl. 3; other censers of this form, in the Imperial Wedding Chamber in the Palace of Earthly Repose, are illustrated by Wan-go Weng and Yang Boda, Treasures of the Forbidden City, pp. 56,57

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