MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE BLUE AND WHITE CENSER
MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY
The bombé body decorated on each side with a recumbent qilin surrounded by clouds, and flanked by a pair of elephant-head handles, all between a band of key fret on the mouth rim and a band of petal lappets on the spreading foot
11 in. (28 cm.) across handles

Lot Essay

The shape of this censer and the unusual elephant-head handles can be seen in a censer decorated in the wucai palette with confronted dragons and painted with a Jiajing-dated inscription, illustrated by S.G. Valenstein, The Herzman Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992, p. 91, no. 89. According to the inscription the censer was a gift to a temple.

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