SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

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.