BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN CENSER WITH DRAGONS
QING DYNASTY, SHUNZHI PERIOD (1644-1661)
20.5 cm diameter, 17.5 cm high
The sturdily potted censer is supported on a high, splayed foot rim, rising to deep, rounded sides surmounted by a gently flared mouth rim. The exterior is boldly painted in lively underglaze blue, with a decoration of two four-clawed dragons chasing a flaming pearl, with flames above and below them and clouds behind them and with leaf motifs along the upper edge of the foot rim. The mouth rim is dressed in light brown, the flat base is left unglazed.
The censer is of outstanding quality in terms of the porcelain as well as the decoration. Commonly, censers
of this type have a low, straight foot rim - a high, splayed foot rim like the present one is rare. Even more unusual is that the interior of the censer recesses into the hollow foot.
A censer, or lamp, of the same period with stylistically comparable dragons, is illustrated in Runmin Chen, Shunzhi and Kangxi Blue and White. Qing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Beijing, 2005,
p. 50-51, cat. 24.
Provenance:
Formerly in the collection of Sir Michael Butler (1927-2013)
Published:
Sir Michael Butler, ‘Neglected Splendours: Porcelain from the First Thirty Years of the Qing Dynasty’, Bulletin of the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, no. 10, 1992-94, pp. 38-45.