Page 104 - Bonhams May 12 16 London

80 †
A FAMILLE ROSE ‘BAJIXIANG’ TRIPOD INCENSE BURNER
Jiaqing seal mark in a horizontal line and of the period
The body enamelled with the Eight Buddhist Emblems surrounded
by lotus blossoms issuing from foliate scrolls beneath a band of ruyi
heads below the neck with further lotus scrolls, the pierced upright
curved handles on each side with further lotus flanked by red bats,
the three stoutly rounded cabriole legs each with a lotus bloom in
foliate scrolls, wood cover and stand.
27cm (10 2/3in) high (3).

£18,000 - 24,000 CNY170,000 - 220,000
HK$200,000 - 260,000

清嘉慶 粉彩纏枝蓮托八吉祥紋三足鼎式爐
礬紅「大清嘉慶年製」篆書款

This incense burner is likely to have been part of a five-piece altar
garniture set, known as the Five Offerings, wugong (五供), which were
widely used in Buddhist rituals to entertain and seek protection from
the deities. In shape and decoration, the vessels included in these
sets, which also comprised a pair of candlesticks and wine containers,
recall those employed to perform ancestral sacrifices during the Shang
and Zhou periods. Restoring the ancient Chinese ways through the
reinterpretation of archaic forms was viewed by the Qing rulers as one
way to reinstate the importance of performing filial acts, the core value
of Confucian thought that legitimised the emperors’ right to rule.

Compare with an incense burner illustrated by G.Avitabile, From The
Dragon’s Treasure. Chinese Porcelain from the 19th and 20th centuries
in the Weishaupt Collection, London, 1987, no.5, p.22. Compare with
another similar incense burner in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in
The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai,
2003, pp.374-375.

A related pink-ground incense burner was sold at Christie’s London,
11 November 2015, lot 682 and another at Sotheby’s New York,
19th March 2013, lot 220.

102 | BONHAMS