An Unusual Wucai Three-Piece Tripod Incense Burner

WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details

An Unusual Wucai Three-Piece Tripod Incense Burner
Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1573-1619)
The shallow circular censer raised on three shaped supports and decorated with lotus scroll below a blue border of classic scroll, with a separate dish-shaped liner with everted rim painted with panels of fruiting and flowering branches reserved on a blue diaper ground, also with a Wanli six-character mark in the glazed countersunk center of the otherwise unglazed underside which has burnt orange in the firing, the cover with a slightly domed top pierced with diaper pattern, and painted around the sides with composite foliate scroll
8 5/8in. (21.9cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 145.

Lot Essay

Compare the very similar three-piece incense burner of this rare form, with four free-standing animals applied to the rim of the liner and with a pair of strap handles rising from the tripod censer, in the Tokyo National Museum illustrated by D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, New York, 1978, p. 212, pl. 228.

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