A Longquan celadon pierced vessel stand

元或明早期   龍泉窯透雕瓶托

The stand is well potted in the form of a bombé-sided censer supported on six leaf-shaped feet joined at their tips to a base plate pierced with a hole to the centre. The sides are pierced with large linked-oval shaped apertures, below a band of smaller pierced circular and linked-oval shaped apertures. The thick glaze is of glossy olive-green colour, covering the inside and the out, leaving only the underside of the base unglazed, showing the grey ware burnt orange in the firing. The stand has been fitted in Japan with a removable pierced gilt-metal cover, presumably, as confirmed by the inscription on the wooden box, to convert it for use as a censer. 

This type of object, which became popular during the fourteenth century, was used as a stand for a type of slender-based, high-mouthed vase called in Chinese a 'ji character' vase, after the shape of the character ji , meaning 'good fortune'. For two examples of stands related to the present one supporting such vases, see Zhu Boqian, Celadons from Longquan Kiln, Yishujia Chubanshe (Taipei, 1998), pp. 192,193, nos. 165 and 166; and for a larger example in the Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, A Complete Catalogue, I, Yuan and Ming Dynasty Celadon Wares, Sotheby's Publications, London 1986, no. 542.

Dimensions: Diameter: 10.4cm, 4 ⅛ inches

Date: Yuan or early Ming dynasty, late 14th/early 15th century

Stock No. 968

Price: On Request