A rare cloisonné enamel 'dragon and shou' four-legged censer and later cover, Mark and period of Wanli

Sotheby's London, 11th December 1962, lot 107.

Collection of Percy D. Krolik.

Sotheby's London, 24th February 1970, lot 26.

The McLaren Collection.

Sotheby's London, 16th June 1999, lot 720.

Edgar Bluett, 'Chinese Cloisonné in the Krolik Collection', Oriental Art, vol. XI, no. 4, 1965, pp 220-223, fig. 2 and cover.

Adorned with regal dragons and auspicious symbols of longevity, the present censer is exceptionally rare in its size and imperial origins, bearing the coveted mark of the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620).

Surviving examples of the present design – derived from archaic bronze fangding – are attested in two sizes, the present being of the far rarer larger type. For smaller examples of this design compare a closely related censer with an effaced mark – presumably of the Wanli reign – covered with a Jingtai mark, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. xin 7035), illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Enamels, vol. I, Beijing, 2010, pl. 99; another with a wood cover and jade finial, sold twice in these rooms, 17th January 1976, lot 356 and again 18th September 2007, lot 136; a pair sold in our London rooms, 15th February 1972, lot 5; and another from the collection of Woolton House, Newbury, sold in our London rooms, 6th and 7th December 1993, lot 375 and more recently at Bonhams Hong Kong, 29th November 2023, lot 861. 

The only other example of this large size, preserved with its original cover, was sold from the collection of Sir Basil Gould (1883–1957) at Bonhams London, 5th November 2007, lot 98; while another, refitted with gilt-bronze mounts in the Qianlong period, was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st June 2015, lot 815. For other rare pieces of Wanli mark and period of similar design, compare a tripod censer with related animal-head legs, shou roundels and wan characters with its mark similarly covered with Jingtai mark in Compendium of Collections, op. cit., pl. 100; a foliate dish of very similar Wanli mark with closely related confronting dragons, shou roundel and floating wan characters from the Qing Collection at the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. gu fa 000618) in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pl. 11; another dish of similar design in the Tongliao City Museum, in Zhongguo jinyin boli falang qi quanji [Complete collection of Chinese gold and silver, glass and cloisonné wares], vol. 5, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pl. 106; and a small box and cover in the collection of Pierre Uldry, included in the exhibition Chinesisches Cloisonné. Die Sammlung Pierre Uldry, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1985, cat. no. 112.