Incense-burner with molded animal-mask legs

Heavily potted with a widely edged rim and a straight body on a flat base, this incense burner was fashioned with eye-catching features, its three ferocious mask-shaped legs. Its energetic style is emphasized by the colorful glaze. Since the tenth century, incense burners had developed into a variety of shapes resting on either rounded pedestals or legs in cylindrical, animal-hoof, animal-mask, or demon-figure shapes. This original type of potting weakened into a rather more delicate version after the Northern Song. Some northern kilns maintained colored glazes based on the earlier tradition of Tang sancai during the Song dynasty. Incense burners for common people and temples were among these wares, always produced with colored glazes.