A RARE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE BOMBE CENSER

YUNJIAN HU WENMING ZHI SIX-CHARACTER MARK, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A RARE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE BOMBE CENSER
YUNJIAN HU WENMING ZHI SIX-CHARACTER MARK, LATE 16TH-EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Heavily cast, the sides decorated with a band of mythical sea creatures frolicing amidst wind-tossed waves, above a band of insects and flowers encircling the slightly flared foot and below a band of ribbon-tied sea shells on the waisted neck, both reserved on a finely stippled ground, the pair of C-scroll handles cast as a dragon body issuing from the mouth of a dragon mask, all of the decoration gilded in contrast to the dark ground, the six-character mark inscribed in a gilt rectangle on the base
8¾ in. (22.2 cm.) across

Lot Essay

The mark Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi may be translated, 'Made by Hu Wenming of Yunjian'.

This heavily cast censer is similar in shape and type of decoration to others bearing the mark of Hu Wenming. See the related censer from the Robert H. Clague Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, illustrated by R. Mowry, China's Renaissance in Bronze, 1994, p. 67, no. 12, where a similar mark is illustrated.

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