Lot 21. A reticulated 'Yue' censer, Western Jin dynasty, 3rd-4th century. Height 7 5/8  in., 19.4 cm. Estimate 30,000 — 50,000 USD. Unsold. Photo: Sotheby's.

the globular form censer supported on three tripod feet, surmounted by a bird-form finial with outstretched wings on a short column, the sides carved with saw-toothed crescents and triangles in openwork design, all resting on a tripod circular support tray with wide everted rim, covered overall in a pale grayish-green glaze. 

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, November 1987. 

Note: See two closely related censers with the same crescent-shaped reticulated designs and set on a tripod support: the first excavated in 2000 in Zhejiang and now in the Shangyu Museum, illustrated in Zhongguo chutu ciqi quanji / Complete Collection of Ceramic Art Unearthed in China, Beijing, 2008, vol. 9, pl. 77; the other in the Shatzman collection illustrated in Ellen Avril, Heavenly Earth: Early Chinese Ceramics from the Shatzman Collection, New York, 2004, cat. no. 46.  Another censer with similar design but missing its support tray and with a perforated opening on one side, was excavated in 1971 in Sheng county and published in Green Wares from Zhejiang, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 15. 

Sotheby's. Monochrome, New York, 15 sept. 2015