China, 960-1279. Finely potted, the exterior decorated with three bands of horizontally molded ribs, reminiscent of archaic Han dynasty bronze vessels, supported on three cabriole legs, covered overall with an exquisite ‘orange-peel’ glaze suffused with strongly contrasting black and russet crackles.

Provenance: Old German private collection, Stuttgart. Swiss private collection, acquired from the above. Four old collector’s labels to base, ‘No. 1’, ‘A[…] 168’, ‘[…] 44’, the fourth obscured by the third label placed on top.
Condition: Old wear and manufacturing flaws, six evenly spaced spur marks to the base, one foot has been reattached, small chip to a foot. Incense residue accumulated over centuries has baked into the crackling, mostly to the interior, resulting in roughened and eroded areas of the glaze, especially to the lower interior edge.

Weight: 624.6 g
Dimensions: Height 9 cm, Diameter 13.3 cm

The shape of the present lot was inspired by archaic bronze containers, lian, which were among the ritual implements aimed to present food and drink offerings to the ancestors during the Han dynasty. This archaistic shape was also produced in the Duyao glaze during the Northern Song period as exemplified in a related Ruyao tripod incense burner from the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p.2, no.1.

The distinctive shape appears to have survived in spite of the Northern Song dynasty’s demise. Examples were made at the Guan kiln, re-established by the exiled Court in the suburb of the Southern Song capital Hangzhou. For a related Guan tripod incense burner, Southern Song dynasty, in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, see Dynastic Renaissance: Art and Culture of the Southern Song, Antiquities, Taipei, 2010, p. 98, no. II-5.

Literature comparison: Compare with a Ding censer of closely related form at Bonhams in Fine Chinese Art on 10 November 2016, lot 6, and a related Ge censer (note the characteristic spur marks, nearly identical to the present lot) at Sotheby’s London in Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 12 July 2006, lot 48. Compare also with a bronze cylindrical censer of closely related form, though of slightly larger size, at Christie’s New York in Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on 22 March 2013, lot 1279, and a related Longquan censer at Sotheby’s New York in Harmony of Form, Serenity of Color: A Private Collection of ‘Song’ Ceramics on 23 March 2011, lot 534.

宋代仿官窯短紋三足爐
中國，960-1279年。該爐直口、三蹄形足、身有三組凸起旋紋，讓人聯想到古代漢代青銅器皿，通體施清亮的“橙皮”釉釉，強烈對比的黑色和赤褐色開細碎紋片裝飾精美。

來源：德國斯圖加特私人老收藏；瑞士私人收藏, 從上述收藏購得。爐底四個藏家標簽‘No. 1’, ‘A[…] 168’, ‘[…] 44’, 第四個被第三個放置在頂部的標籤遮蓋。
品相：舊時磨損和製造缺陷，在底座上均勻分佈了六個齒痕，一足已經重新連接，一隻足上有磕損。 幾個世紀以來積累的熏香殘留物已烤入釉面，主要散佈在內部，導致釉料粗糙和腐蝕，特別是內部下部邊緣。

重量：624.6 克
尺寸：高9 厘米, 直徑13.3 厘米