Blue-and-white porcelain censer ‘Birds and branches’, Qing dynasty

A porcelain censer, enamelled with blue and white underglaze decoration. It has a circular base and a slender foot on which stands a rounded, flat body, slightly wider at the rim, adorned with two curved handles modelled in the form of an elephant with a curled trunk.

It has Ming-style decorations in cobalt blue, such as double lines around the perimeter of the rim and base, and two small landscapes depicting an elongated flowering tree branch on which a pair of birds are resting. 

Height: 13 cm; Mouth diameter: 22 cm; Base diameter: 18.3 cm