A SMALL BRONZE CENSER WITH CHILONG HANDLES
A SMALL BRONZE CENSER WITH CHILONG HANDLES
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A SMALL BRONZE CENSER WITH CHILONG HANDLES

MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY

Details
A SMALL BRONZE CENSER WITH CHILONG HANDLES
MING DYNASTY, 16TH-17TH CENTURY
The oval censer is raised on four low ruyi-shaped feet and has two handles formed as chilong climbing up the gently flaring sides with their heads turned away from the rim. The slightly recessed base is cast with an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark.
5 ½ in. (14 cm.) wide across the handles
Provenance
Private collection, France.

Lot Essay

Censers of this form are also referred to as ‘narcissus bowls’, and they may have been used to fulfill a number of functions on the desk of the scholar. A similar vessel is illustrated in scroll 6 of the imperial Guwan Tu ('Pictures of Ancient Playthings') dated to 1728 in the collection of Sir Percival David currently on loan to the British Museum (ref. PDF X01), which suggests that the scholarly object also found favor at court.

A similar low-sided vessel with chilong handles, dated to the 16th-17th century, is illustrated by P. Moss, The Second Bronze Age, Hong Kong, 1991, no. 43.

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