A LONGQUAN CELADON TRIPOD CENSER, SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY China, 1127-1279. Covered overall with a soft blue-green glaze suffused with black and golden-brown-stained crackle and superbly pooling in thick drops at the bottom of the legs to expose the fine grayish ware. Note the old scent to the interior of the censer.

Provenance: From an old southern French private estate.
Condition: Excellent condition with some wear, particularly to the rim, and firing flaws, such as dark spots and pitting. The rim with calcifications consistent with soil or sea finds. While the unglazed areas of the feet appear dark brown, a closer inspection under a magnifying glass reveals this to be due to soiling, with the fine grayish ware clearly visible underneath.

Weight: 885.5 g
Dimensions: Height 12.7 cm, Width 16 cm (at the widest points)

The compressed body raised on three slightly splayed conical supports and surmounted by a cylindrical neck rising to a broad everted rim, with three narrow tapering flanges beginning at a ridge on the shoulder and trailing down each leg.

Incense burners of this li tripod form were produced at the Longquan kilns during both the Southern Song and the Yuan periods. See P. Hughes-Stanton and Rose Kerr, Kiln Sites of Ancient China, London, 1980, pp. 20 and 125, no. 97. They have been excavated from widely scattered sites in China from Jining in Inner Mongolia in the north (see Wenwu, 1979:8, pl. VI, no. 3), to the Song port at Dongmenkou, Ningbo in the southeast (see Zhejiang sheng wenwu kaogusuo xuekan, Beijing, 1981, pl. XI, no. 5), and Sichuan in the west, where a similar vessel was unearthed at Jinyu village, Nanqiang, Suining in 1991 (see Longquan Celadon - The Sichuan Museum Collection, Macau, 1998, pp. 210-11, no. 83). They were also greatly appreciated in Japan, where they are known as hakama-goshi, a reference to the similarity of their pouched leg to the appearance of someone wearing the type of loose trousers known as hakama.

It is possible that the crackle in the glaze of the present censer was a deliberate attempt to imitate Guan wares. A number of Song vessels from the Longquan kilns were made in this distinct style, some of them with a dark colored body, others pale as seen on the present censer. While it is difficult to be sure whether a reference to Guan ware was intended in the making of this piece, it may be significant that a Guan ware vessel of the same form is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Kuan Ware of the Sung Dynasty, op. cit., pp. 48-9, pls. 19a, 19b, 19c. A Guan ware censer of this shape was also found at the Jiaotanxia kiln site in Hangzhou. See Nan Song Guanyao, Beijing, 1996, pl. XX, no. 2.

Literature comparison: There are examples of this Longquan censer form in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. See The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum 33 Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 135, 136, 139, 140-41, nos. 121, 122, 125, 126. A slightly larger Longquan tripod censer of similar construction in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum - Lung-ch'üan Ware of the Sung Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1962, p. 58, pl. 16. Three examples are also housed in the Percival David Foundation (accession numbers PDF 228, 276 and 279). One of these, formerly in the collection of the Imperial Family, is included in Illustrated Catalogue of Celadon Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, rev. ed., London, 1997, p. 34, no. 228.

Auction result comparison: Compare a closely related Longquan celadon tripod censer, also dated to the Southern Song dynasty, at Christie’s New York in Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 30 March 2005, lot 321, sold for USD 102,000. 南宋龍泉青瓷三足爐
中國，1127-1279年。爐呈鬲形，下承三乳足，上飾凸棱。玲瓏端秀，釉色粉青。色澤悅目，黑褐色的開片紋，足底形成積釉，並露出灰色内胎。 注意香爐內部的舊時氣味。

來源：法國南部私人老收藏。
品相：品相極好，邊沿一些磨損，燒製缺陷例如黑點和麻點。 鈣化現象與在土中或海中發掘相似。 雖然足部未上釉的區域呈深褐色，但在放大鏡下仔細觀察，發現這是污跡造成的，其下清晰可見精美的灰色陶胎。

重量：885.5 克
尺寸：高 12.7 厘米, 寬 16 厘米 (最寬処)

拍賣結果比較：一件相近龍泉青瓷三足爐，同樣為南宋，見紐約佳士得 Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art 2005年3月30日 lot 321, 售價USD 102,000。