Lot 3139. A fine rare famille rose ‘Eight Buddhist emblems’ tripod censer, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1736-1795); 9 7/8 in. (25.2 cm.) wide across the handles. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - HKD 1,800,000. Price realised HKD 2,250,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019. 

The censer is potted with a compressed globular body decorated in underglaze-blue and enamelled with the Eight Buddhist Emblems, Bajixiang, alternating with lotus blooms on scrolling leafy tendrils extending onto the cabriole legs beneath a band of ruyi-heads. The shoulders are set with tall upright curved handles, a scrolling lotus foliage collar around the recessed neck, below a galleried rim with a multi-coloured key-fret border reserving the reign mark written in a horizontal line. The base is decorated with a flowerhead within a puce floral border.

Note: A related Qianlong mark-and-period white-ground famille rose censer with similar shape and decoration but with a slightly different mouth rim is included in National Palace Museum, Taipei, Special Exhibition of Incense Burners and Perfumes throughout the Dynasties, Taipei, 1994, p. 266, no. 120. Compare also with the slightly larger Qianlong mark and period white-ground famille rose censer with a similar decoration from the Collection of Dr. Gordon and Dr. Rosemary Fryer sold at Christie’s London, 14 May 2013, lot 226.

Two similar censers but reserved on a pink ground were sold at Christie’s: one in London on 15 May 2018, lot 262, from the collection of the Gardener family, Hertfordshire and another in Hong Kong on 26 November 2014, lot 3314. A unique comparable censer with rouge-enamel for the dragon decoration and glazed in turquoise-ground was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong on 28 November 2018, lot 2925.