A ‘BLANC DE CHINE’ INCENSE BURNER AND STAND

337.

A ‘BLANC DE CHINE’ INCENSE BURNER AND STAND
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th century
the incense burner 10 cm high, the stand 5 x 17 cm
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3669.

Both the incense burner and the stand with octagonal section, raising on eight cabriole legs the container with the external surface with a moulded decoration of stylized lotus flowers inside panels, the domed cover with a pierced decoration of prunus with nine lotus buds, the exterior of the stand with a similar moulded decoration of lotuses, the interior with an incised floral spray, raising on eight ruyi’s heads feet.

In the ninenteenth century this kind of incense burner was associated to Marco Polo without the support of any scientific reason.

A comparable piece is illustrated in P.J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, London 1969, pl.16; another one was included in the Exhibition of Te Hua Porcelain, Exhibition of Te Hua Porcelain, exhibition catalogue, Hong Kong 1975, nn. 51-52; another similar item is illustrated in D. Howard – J. Ayers, China for the West. Chinese Porcelain and other Decorative Arts for Export illustrated from the Mottahedeh Collection, 2 voll., London – New York 1978, pl. 53; see also the related example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (inv. 79.2.497a, b and 79.2.503) and the one in the Victoria & Albert Museum (R. Kerr – L.E. Mengoni, Chinese Export Ceramics, London 2011, p. 130, n. 186); a similar stand is in the Museum für Kunsthandwerk in Frankfurt am Main (G. Avitabile – S.G. von der Schulenburg, Chinesisches Porzellan, Frankfurt am Main 1992, n. 410); see also Ayers 2016, I, nn. 79-81, for a very similar pair of incense burners in the British Royal Collection; another related piece is in the Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet, Grandidier collection (D. Lion-Goldschmidt, Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections. Vol. VIII. Musée Guimet, Tokyo 1976, n. 75); two similar items belonged to the collection of Augustus the Strong, now in the Dresden Porzellansammlung (inv. PO 8273 a-c and PO 8274 a-c).