Covered bowl with figures in landscape

Vienna · 1725-02-07T00:00:00Z

The tripod was used in early dynastic China (2nd–1st millennium b.c.) for offerings of food. During the twelfth century, the form was adapted for burning incense. The eighteenth-century Japanese export version was freely adapted at Delft, Meissen, and Vienna, where its "original" purpose was ignored: by eliminating the piercing in the cover and changing the proportions, the incense burner became a bowl for soup or stew, reverting to the tripod’s earliest function in China.