Christie's. Leisurely Delights of a Transient Life, Hong Kong, 30 May 2018 - SALE 16759
A rare Qingbai archaistic tripod censer, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty (1127-1368)
Lot 2983. A rare Qingbai archaistic tripod censer, Southern Song-Yuan dynasty (1127-1368); 6 11/16 in. (17 cm). Estimate HKD 400,000 - HKD 600,000. Price realised HKD 500,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018.
The censer is raised on three ribbed legs surmounted by masks, applied to the body with raised archaistic scrolls reserved on a ground, covered inside and out with a pale aquamarine glaze except for a circular area in the centre of the base, box.
Provenance: The T.T. Tsui Collection.
Note: Compare to a related qingbai censer of slightly different form, but with very similar raised archaistic bands on the body and masks surmounting the ribbed feet, sold at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2004, lot 226; and another qingbai censer raised on similar tall legs surmounted by animal masks, but carved with a floral design, excavated in 1991 from a Southern Song kiln site in Jingyu Village, Suining, Sichuan province, and illustrated in China's Jingdezhen Porcelain through the Ages, Beijing, 1998, p. 103.