Page 351 - 2019 September 13th Christie's New York Important Chinese Works of Art

The Three Star Gods are thought to have been frst depicted in
human form in the Ming dynasty, and became widely recognized
as personifcations of good fortune. They are associated with
folk cults and ancestral shrines, rather than more established
religions, and so enjoy a universal appeal.

A censer in the Shanghai Museum, of similar form but decorated
with the Eighteen Luohans and with an inscription dating to 1695,
is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue & Red, Hong
Kong, 1987, p. 118, no. 114. Two further censers are illustrated by
Sir Michael Butler and Wang Qingzheng, Seventeenth Century
Jingdezhen Porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler
Collections, Hong Kong/London, 2006: one from the Shanghai
Museum decorated in blue and white with Shoulao and the Eight
Immortals on p. 274-75, no. 99; and another smaller censer from
the Butler Family Collection, decorated in underglaze blue and
enamels and dated to 1696, on pp. 298-99, no. 111.
Compare, also a Kangxi blue and white jardinière of similar size
to the present censer, also decorated with the three characters
fu, lu and shou, but each character with a superimposed leaf-
form scene of scholars or birds and fowers, illustrated by Chen
Runmin (ed.), Qing Shunzhi Kangxi Chao Qinghua Ci, Beijing,
1117 (another view)
2005, pp. 382-83, no. 245.

1117

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