censer BM-1971-0622.1

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1625
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:equestrian warrior official
Dimensions:Diameter: 19.20 centimetres (Widest point) Diameter: 18.70 centimetres (mouth of vessle) Height: 12 centimetres Weight: 2.15 kilograms

Description:
Porcelain ‘gui’ censer with underglaze blue decoration. A high-quality product of the Tianqi era, this thickly potted ‘gui’ censer has rounded sides which curve inwards, then flare somewhat at the rim. The wide foot is splayed. Figural scenes are painted around the belly in blue beneath a matte glaze. An official is shown beneath a parasol held by a servant and attended by another holding a fan. In the next scene two warriors are painted on horseback galloping with pikes through a moonscape, pursuing another rider who carries a child in an apron and is charging towards a moongate in a crenelated city wall. The base is marked with an eight-character inscription in a triple rectangle within a triple ring. It reads: ‘Tianqi wunian Wu ming Dongxiang’ [Fifth year of Tianqi, Wu named Dongxiang].
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:Wu Dongxiang’s biographical details are unknown to us. However, it is likely that he was the owner or the donor of this beautiful vessel. Porcelain of the ‘transitional’ period is characterized by elaborate figural scenes derived from woodblock-print illustrated popular fiction and historical texts. This censer shows Zhao Zilong (Zhao Yun) Rescues Master Liu (Ah Dou) Single-handedly, a scene from chapter 41 of the historical epic novel “San Guo Zhi Yan Yi” [Romance of the Three Kingdoms] (see BM Franks.1474). Attributed to the late Yuan and early Ming novelist Luo Guanzhong (c. 1330-1400), this classic novel sets out the events leading to the collapse of the Han dynasty in AD 220 and the political division which ensued. This scene shows General Zhao Zilong, a courageous general of the Shu State, saving Ah Dou, the baby son of Liu Bei, during the war against the wicked General Cao Cao in which the child’s mother died. He rescues the child and places him between his chest and his armoured breast plate and rides on. A poem in the novel praises Zhao Zilong’s heroic act:>.Another censer of this form formerly in the Ernest Chin Collection, with a design of immortals visiting Shoulao and a long dedicatory inscription, is dated Tianqi ‘yichou’ (1625). A further example of this form painted with military figures in a landscape with a date corresponding to 1626 was in a private collection in Hong Kong.