A RARE DATED MASSIVE THREE-COLOR-GLAZED POTTERY TRIPOD CENSER

DATED TO THE THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR OF THE REIGN OF WANLI, CORRESPONDING TO 1607

细节

A RARE DATED MASSIVE THREE-COLOR-GLAZED POTTERY TRIPOD CENSER
Dated to the Thirty-fourth Year of the Reign of Wanli, Corresponding to 1607
The body encased within high-relief-molded decoration of a pair of ferocious four-clawed dragons, their back legs splayed on either side of the curved upright handles and their long tails extending the length of each handle, the two entwined within multi-blossomed lotus scroll while confronted on a flaming pearl held within the talons of a garuda-like creature straddling the largest of the lotus blossoms positioned over each of the monster-mask-surmounted legs, the reverse applied with a large commemorative plaque carved with an inscription naming the Faxing Temple near the village of Hongshan, the three monks in charge and six of their disciples, three donors, the maker from Zhangjiazhuang village and the date, all in rich liuli glazes of deep turquoise, ochre and purple color
27in. (69.2cm.) high, domed wood cover carved with bats amidst clouds and surmounted by a grayish-green jade finial carved as rockwork, with a figure on one side

拍品专文

The inscription may indicate that the censer was made to commemorate the move of the temple.

Massive tripod pottery censers of this highly ornate, liuli-glazed type appear to have been made during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, such as the censer with dragon and mountain cover excavated from the remains of the Mongol capital in Beijing and illustrated by Suzanne Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989 ed., p. 149, no. 144; or another Yuan liuli censer dated 1308, illustrated in Wenwu 1956:7, p. 29. A Chenghua example decorated allover with dragons, lotus blossoms and figures on the neck bearing a painted date corresponding to the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, 1469, is illustrated in Chinese Art in the Royal Ontario Museum, 1972, pp. 28 and 29, no. 12. One in the Metropolitan Museum of Art glazed in green and mustard and of slightly smaller size (23in. high) is illustrated by Warren E. Cox., The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. I, New York, 1949, p. 524, fig. 761; and another in the same museum, but of even smaller size (17.1/8in.), dated in accordance with July, 1512, is illustrated by Valenstein, op. cit, New York, 1975 ed. , no. 96