A Rare and Fine Model of a Rock Formation Incense Burner

In the shape of a craggy mountain with three apertures, painted in underglaze blue as a mountain with plants issuing from the rockwork, the base pierced in the form of a cash. Period: Ming Wanli (1573‑1619). Height: 17 cm

The object would have been placed on a scholar’s desk, the apertures used for the burning of incense, perhaps creating the illusion of mountains in swirling mist.
See the British Museum for a similar model in blue and white dated to the Ming Dynasty Wanli period (1573‑1620), Percival David Foundation.B.655 ex-collection Charles Russel.

See also, Medley, Margaret, Volume 7: Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art,
7 of 12, Tokyo, Kodansha Ltd, 1975 for a discussion, also Hobson, Robert Lockhart; Rackham, Bernard; King, William, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, Halton & Truscott Smith, Ltd., 1931.

See China Without Dragons, OCS, 2016 pl. 303 for an overglaze example dated to Shunzhi (1644‑1661).

Condition: For condition report, please contact the department here.

Provenance: Carl Ragnar Lidman (1890‑1975) acquired this lot whilst in China in the 1920’s, thence by descent.