Provenance
A Japanese private collection.
Marchant, London, with their label to the base.
The Mr. and Mrs. Baert-Devos Collection, Belgium. Acquired from the above in 2014, according to the owner's inventory notes.
Exhibited and illustrated:
Marchant, London, included in their June 2014 exhibition of 'Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing', and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, pp. 44-45, no. 22. Also illustrated in their 2025 publication 'One Hundred Years', Vol. II, p. 302, fig. 1612.
Description
A ko-sometsuke porcelain incense burner, the cover modelled as a Buddhist lion seated on a rectangular plinth, with one paw resting on a pierced brocade ball attached to a ribbon held in its mouth, and a bell suspended from a cord around its neck. The hollow body was designed to contain burning incense, the smoke issuing through the open jaws as well as the pierced eyes, nostrils and bell, creating the impression of a living creature exhaling vapour. The cover fits neatly over the walled incense compartment. The surface is enriched with dense stippling, a decorative treatment also found on a small number of closely related examples.
Reference:
For another near-identical example, see Katharine Butler and Teresa Canepa, 'Leaping the Dragon Gate: The Sir Michael Butler Collection of Seventeenth-century Chinese Porcelain', p. 112, no. III.1.70, included in the 2008 exhibition 'Chinese Porcelains from the Butler Collections' at the Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg, and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, p. 40, no. 13. Other near-identical examples are in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, gift of Roy C. Leventritt, the Tokyo National Museum collection and another with Sotheby's London, 3 November 2021, lot 226. Another, lacking the plinth, is in the Albuquerque Foundation, Sintra Portugal, illustrated in 'The RA Collection of Chinese Ceramics. A Collector's Vision', Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos, Jorge Welsh Books, pp. 102-103, no. 44, inv. no. 746.
An example without speckling on the body, is illustrated by Masahiko Kawahara, 'Ko-sometsuke, Monochrome Section', p. 33, no. 121.
For a comparable pair, without plinths, in the collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, illustrated in 'Two Americans in Paris: A Quest for Asian Art', 2016, no. 300, later with Sotheby's London in the eponymous sale, 4 November 2021, lot 348.
Lot 12
Wanli/Tianqi, ca. 1620
Dim: 15,6 x 9 x 22,9 cm
incl. plinth
Estimation
€ 25.000,00 – € 50.000,00
Provenance
A Japanese private collection.
Marchant, London, with their label to the base.
The Mr. and Mrs. Baert-Devos Collection, Belgium. Acquired from the above in 2014, according to the owner's inventory notes.
Exhibited and illustrated:
Marchant, London, included in their June 2014 exhibition of 'Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing', and illustrated in the accompanying catalogue, pp. 44-45, no. 22. Also illustrated in their 2025 publication 'One Hundred Years', Vol. II, p. 302, fig. 1612.