A rare puddingstone-imitation stepped 'double-gourd' incense burner, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 粉彩仿抱子石六足爐 《大清乾隆年製》款

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1st November 1974, lot 307.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19th November 1986, lot 278.

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30th October 2000, lot 230.

香港蘇富比1974年11月1日，編號307

香港蘇富比1986年11月19日，編號278

香港蘇富比2000年10月30日，編號230

The Grandeur of Chinese Art Treasures: Min Chiu Society Golden Jubilee Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 187.

《博古存珍：敏求精舍金禧紀念展》，香港藝術館，香港，2010年，編號187

It is extremely rare to find a puddingstone-imitation incense burner and the present piece is particularly unusual in its stepped, six-legged form and in having the reign mark inscribed in grisaille. The attractive multi-coloured puddingstone was the ideal medium for the potters to show off their capability of copying other materials in porcelain, and such simulations were particularly popular in the Qianlong reign; compare, for example, a tripod incense burner and a box and cover with an additional figure scene in a panel on top, both in the Beijing Palace Museum and illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pls 105 and 106.

仿抱子石香爐，本已甚稀，如此品般作束腰、飾弦紋、承六足，署以墨彩六字篆款，更是珍罕至極。抱子石色彩變化多端，以其為範，容讓藝匠巧施彩料，妙筆神繪，展現象生之技，是以在乾隆一朝尤盛。相類之仿抱子石瓷器，可參考北京故宮博物院藏三足爐及蓋盒，後者上添繪人物圖案，均載於《故宮珍藏康雍乾瓷器圖錄》，香港，1989年，圖版105、106。