A CHINESE TRIPOD BRONZE INCENSE BURNER.Yuan to Ming Dynasty.The globular body decorated with frothing waves and rising to an onion neck formed as a flowering lotus with two rows of overlapping petals, the body supported on three feet emerging from dragon heads, and resting on a stepped circular stretcher.13.5cm H.550g.元至明 銅三足蓮花式爐The form of the present censer is highly unusual. A prototype can be found in qingbai ware of the Song Dynasty. For example, see Rose Kerr, Song Dynasty Ceramics, 2004, p 102, fig 103, for a 13th Century Qingbai incense burner formed as a bow with moulded lotus petals supported on a pedestal encircled by a dragon and raised pierced gallery around the foot. A related bronze vessel may be found in the Yuan Dynasty painting Whiling Away the Summer by Liu Guandao in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Gallery. The form also extended into the early Ming with a tripod lotus mouth censer from the early Yongle period included in Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, 1989, cat no 2, p 86.