Lot description
A MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID BLACK LACQUER INCENSE STAND KANGXI INCISED AND GILT EIGHT-CHARACTER MARK BEARING A GUICHOU CYCLICAL DATE CORRESPONDING TO 1673, AND OF THE PERIOD Of square section, the top panel is raised on a low waist above a curvilinear apron with ruyi-form corners, all supported on four inward-curving rounded legs terminating in scroll-feet, resting on a low pedestal base; the top surface superbly decorated in differently coloured shell, gold, silver and lead to depict a landscape scene in which the Empress Jingu is fishing on the rocky shore of a lake beside the Grand Minister Takeshiuchi no Sukune, accompanied by a retinue of attendants carrying fans, banners and a canopied palanquin all within a landscape dotted with flowers and grass among scattered rockwork, pine and wutong trees, all set within a border of six shaped cartouches detailed with further landscape scenes on a cell-pattern ground, the sides of the top, waist, legs and base minutely decorated with further geometric pattern, lotus and chrysanthemum borders, the waist with cartouches containing seascroll flowers and fruit with butterflies including prunus, lillies, peonies and ripe pomegranate on a cell-pattern ground, the top of the base with butterflies in flight among flowering branches, the reign mark incised in a line on a red lacquer ground to the underside of the top panel 15 3/4 x 16 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. (40 X 41 X 41 cm.), Japanese wood box
