A RARE CLOISONNE ENAMEL TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER MING DYNASTY, XUANDE PERIOD |

the compressed globular body raised on three tapered legs issuing from mythical beast masks, applied with a pair of upright handles, the body richly enamelled with a continuous register of meandering lotus against a turquoise-blue ground, with a classic scroll against a red ground at the rim, the handles decorated in champlevé enamels with geometric scrolls in red, blue and green, the rims and details gilt

A relatively small number of similar incense burners is known, compare two of the same form and decoration, one from the Avery Brundage Collection, now in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, included in the exhibition Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bard Graduate Center, New York, 2011, cat. no. 23; and another, with its cover, illustrated in Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, The Asia Society Galleries, New York, 1989, cat. no. 15. See also a closely related censer without applied animal-masks surmounting the legs, sold in our New York rooms, 21st March 2018, lot 587.

Further related censers of this type include two examples with raised bosses below the rim, sold at Christie's New York, 26th March 2003, lot 60, and Christie's London, 15th December 1983, lot 353.  A further example, formerly in the Palmer Museum of Art, was sold in our New York rooms, 23rd March 2004, lot 525.