Lot 63. A rare inscribed blue and white censer, Wanli mark, dated bingxu year, corresponding to 1586. Width across handles 8 1/8  in., 20.6 cm. Estimate $5,000–7,000. Lot sold 37,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the trilobed bracketed body raised on three splayed feet, rising to a cylindrical neck and a galleried rim, the shoulders set with two curved strap handles, each lobe of the body painted with a scholar seated below plantain trees, all below borders of stylized lappets, chrysanthemum vignettes reserved on a wanzi diaper ground, and classic scroll, the shoulder with a twelve-character inscription reading Da Ming Wanli bingxu nian Endetang jingzhu (Respectfully commissioned by the Endetang in the bingxu year of Wanli), the rim with a rectangular cartouche enclosing a six-character inscription reading Guanyin dashi zuoqian (for offering before Guanyin)

Note: Compare a closely-related censer formerly in the E.T. Chow Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 422, with a different inscription at the shoulder, indicating that it was commissioned for offerings to Wenchang (Wenchang Dijun zuoqian), and inscribed with an apocryphal Yongle cyclical date at the rim. A smaller similarly painted example, with a six-character Wanli reign mark at the rim, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th November 1977, lot 42. Compare also an unmarked censer of similar form, painted with mythical beasts, in the Percival David Foundation, now in the British Museum, illustrated in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, 1976, no. A625.