17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE SMALL PARCEL-GILT BRONZE 'BUTTERFLY' CENSER
17TH CENTURY
Flanked by two spotted animal-head handles, the censer is cast on the body with large butterflies in various attitudes of flight, surrounded by smaller gilt butterflies, all reserved on a diaper ground. The mouth is encircled by a band of gilt branches, one side with prunus and the other with camellia, and the splayed foot is decorated with floral sprays.
6 1⁄4 in. (15.5 cm.) across handles

Provenance

Private American collection, acquired prior to 1960.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Rufus Chen (陳嘉安) Head of Sale, AVP, Specialist

asianartny@christies.com +1 212 636 2180

Lot Essay

The decoration of butterflies on this censer is very unusual. Similar decoration of butterflies can be seen on a bronze zun, dated to the Ming dynasty, late sixteenth to early seventeenth century, in the Clague Collection, no. 273, illustrated by R. D. Mowry, China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, Phoenix Art Museum, 1993, no. 30. For an example of a parcel-gilt and silver-inlaid bronze incense tool vase also decorated with butterflies, dated to the Late Ming- Transitional period, early-mid 17th century, see, P. Moss, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, London, 1991, no. 98.

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