An Arabic-inscribed bronze tripod censer, Mark and period of Zhengde | 明正德 銅阿拉伯文三足鬲式爐 《正德年製》款

Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997). 

Wou Lien-Pai Museum, coll. no. M.4.4.

吳權博士 (1910-1997) 收藏

吳蓮伯博物院，編號M.4.4

The bronze censer is cast with three recessed panels framing Arabic inscriptions which together read:

Afdhal al-dhikr

La 'ilaha 'illallah

Muhammad rasulu-llah

The best remembrance (is)

There is no God but God

and Muhammad is his messenger.

Bronze censers decorated with Arabic inscriptions came to influence the making of a distinctive group of heavily potted blue and white porcelains, all bearing Zhengde imperial marks on the bases and the body decorated with Arabic or Persian inscriptions. Jessica Harrison-Hall in Ming Porcelain in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 188, notes that it is possible that these wares 'were used by literate Muslim eunuchs at court or by the emperor, who was fascinated by foreign scripts.' For examples of blue and white wares with Arabic or Persian inscription in the British Museum see ibid., pls 8:3-8:11, including an incense burner (8:11) with six roundels each bearing an Arabic phrase. A porcelain censer of similar cylindrical form as the present piece, the exterior inscribed in underglaze-blue with a lengthy Persian inscription consisting of the verses of Sa'di, was sold in our London rooms, 6th July 1976, lot 151.

Compare a similar Zhengde reign-marked Arabic-inscribed tripod bronze censer sold in these rooms, 21st March 2018, lot 627, and another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 143, from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection.