A Chinese Blanc de Chine incense burner, Late Ming dynasty, circa 1640; 4 ¾ inches, 12 cm diameter. Courtesy Marchant Asian Art London.

of archaic bronze lian form on three ruyi-head bracket feet, impressed with a central band of archaic animals on a liwen ground between horizontal ribs, covered in a white glaze.

Provenance : From an English private collection, purchased from Marchant circa 1975.

Note: A similar example was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Blanc de Chine, 2006, no. 75a, p. 113; another was included by Marchant in their exhibition of Blanc de Chine, 2014, no. 88, p. 116; three others are illustrated by Colin Sheaf and Richard Kilburn in The Hatcher Porcelain Cargos, The Complete Record, 1988, pl. 113, p. 73, which were salvaged from a vessel sunk in the South China Sea between 1643-1644, dated as such because two covered blue and white oviform jar salvaged were inscribed with a cyclical date. A further example is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Selected Ceramics from The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. J. M. Hu, Shanghai Museum, 1989, no. 31, p. 64.