Lot 726. A small and rare Qingbai censer, Northern Song dynasty (960-1279); 3. 1/4 in. (8.3 cm.) high. Estimate USD 6,000 - USD 8,000. Price realised USD 20,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The vessel is potted with a wide circular flange surmounting a columnar body, raised on a three-tiered ribbed foot, and is covered inside and out with a pale blue-tinged glaze pooling to a slightly darker tone in the recesses. The base is left unglazed, revealing the white body, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Uragami Sokyu-do Co., Ltd., Tokyo.

Note: During the Song dynasty, burning incense became a scholarly pursuit, and was practiced in small interior settings. Exquisite incense burners, such as the present example, are most suitable for use in a scholar’s studio. In the Northern Song paintingTingqin tu in the Palace Museum, Beijing, the main figure sits next to a xiangji on which a small censer, reminiscent of the present example, is seen burning incense. According to some scholars, this figure is probably Emperor Huizong himself. 

Two qingbai censers of almost identical form and size, one from the Carl Kempe Collection and the other from the collection of Sir Alan and Lady Barlow, are illustrated by J. Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, London, 1979, pl. 29a & b. Compare, also, a large qingbai censer of similar form in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum, illustrated in the Oriental Ceramics: the World’s Great Collections, vol. 1: Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, 1982, no. 65.

Christie's. The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Collection, Part II - 15 September 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza