Lot Essay
This shape, borrowed from the ancient bronze li, was produced from the Southern Song through the Yuan period for the domestic as well as the export market. The numerous examples of Longquan tripod censers retrieved from the Sinan shipwreck provide evidence that this shape was much sought after in Japan, the original destination of the ship's cargo, and where they have since been widely collected. Compare similar examples illustrated in Oriental Ceramics - The World's Great Collections, vol.1, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, pl.97; and in Collection of Masterpieces of Chinese Cultural Relics - Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1993, pl.372; another in the Idemitsu Collection, exhibited in Ice and Green Clouds - Traditions of Chinese Celadon, Catalogue, pl.79.