Incense burner with figures in a landscape scene. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, about AD 1400–1500. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF B668 © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 59 mm. Diameter: 88 mm. Round porcelain incense burner in form of ancient lian with three cloud-shaped feet. Underglaze blue with men in a landscape in a band around lower part and upper band with four characters in reserved ogival panels on dense diaper ground.

Above the band of decoration showing figures in a landscape are four characters which read唐太宗 製 (Tang Taizong zhi ‘Made on the orders of Tang Taizong’ ) The Tang dynasty emperor Taizong ruled China from AD 626 to 649. He was considered to be one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history as he ruled China during one of her ‘Golden Ages’ of economic prosperity and stability.

Bibliographic reference: Medley, Margaret, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1976

Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004