20. R1413

£28,500


Description

Chinese Blanc de Chine incense burner in the form of an archaic bronze gui with two mythical animal-head handles, each side applied beneath the rim with a central animal mask, taotie, dividing a band of alternating cloud roundels and flowerheads, the tall foot incised with a double-band of leiwen, key-fret above the splayed flattened footrim, covered overall in a rich and even cream glaze extending to the interior and base.

7 3⁄4 inches, 19.6 cm handle to handle; 5 3⁄4 inches, 14.6 cm diameter; 4 inches, 10.1 cm high.

Dehua, Fujian Province.

Ming dynasty, circa 1640.

Provenance & Additional Information

  • From the collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997).
    The son of a Republican politician, Dr Wou Kiuan was appointed Secretary-General for the Overseas Chinese Committee at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1937, after which he embarked on an illustrious career in diplomacy. Upon his retirement in 1952 and subsequent return to London, Dr Wou Kiuan went on to form his collection in the mid-1950s to late 1960s.
  • Formerly in the Wou Lien-Pai Museum, collection no. M.3.19.
  • A similar example is illustrated by Wang Yamin and Huang Weiwen in Dehua Wares Collected by the Palace Museum I, no. 118, pp. 278/9; another is illustrated by Rose Kerr and John Ayers in Blanc de Chine, Porcelain from Dehua, A Catalogue of the Hickley Collection, Singapore, no. 71; two others were included by Marchant in their exhibition of Blanc de Chine, 1994, nos. 93 & 94, pp. 62/3; a further example in the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, is illustrated by P. J. Donnelly in Blanc de Chine, pl. 14B.
  • This form can be compared to a bronze gui signed by Hu Wenming from Yunchien and dated to the ninth month of the tenth year of Wanli, corresponding to 1583, which has similar style handles and a similar relief band beneath the rim and is illustrated by Sheila Riddell in Dated Chinese Antiquities, 600-1650, no. 128, p. 140.
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