A CLOISONNE ENAMEL TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER AND COVER MING DYNASTY, WANLI PERIOD

the straight-sided circular body brightly enamelled with a band of large lotus heads borne on a leafy scroll, rising to a broad everted foliate rim decorated with six shou characters flanked by pairs of dragons, set to either side with a large pair of gilt chilong handles, the beasts grasping the rim with their claws and looking into the vessel, all supported on three elephant-head feet, the sides of the high cover pierced with an archaistic gilt dragon band within floral scroll bands, the domed top section pierced and gilt with a band enclosing three large ferocious dragons writhing amidst cloud scrolls, all surmounted by a pierced gilt dragon finial, wood stand

A cloisonne censer of closely related form and decoration, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Enamel Ware in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1971, pl. 3; and another censer but lacking its cover, is published in Sandra Borstlap, Japanese and Chinese Cloisonne Enamel Works of Art from the Catharina Collection, Leeuwarden, 1992, pl. 10, in the Museum het Princessehof, Leeuwarden.

Compare also a censer attributed to the late Ming period, from the Qing Court collection, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 77; and a censer from the Kitson collection, sold three times in these rooms, 30th May 1961, lot 418, again, 11th July 1972, lot 21, and again, 24th February 1976, lot 89.