An unusual and interesting straw glazed porcelaneous incense burner. The three footed bombe censer with barbed, loop handles on opposite sides along the waist flaring to a broad rim. The interior reveals the pot was built from coiling and smoothed without before glazed and fired. Good condition for its type and likely age. Minor old chips to the extremities of the loop handles and one small chip to the outside of the rim. Surely not a high fired ceramic and both fine and broad crazing to the glaze also contributing to a resonance absorption when tapped. A stable crack issuing from one craze line on the rim. This remains one of our more mysterious items even now and since acquiring it in the early 1990's. We believe it is Annamese (comparable to ivory glazed utilitarian and decorative objects correlating broadly to the Ming time line - see examples in Vietnamese Ceramics, Stevenson and Guy) but could also be provincial southern Chinese. Length between handle tips 8 inches (20.32cm). Height 4 inches (10.16cm)

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