A PARCEL-GILT BRONZE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD CENSER

WANLI PERIOD, CIRCA 1600

Details

A PARCEL-GILT BRONZE CYLINDRICAL TRIPOD CENSER
WANLI PERIOD, CIRCA 1600
The slightly tapered sides decorated with four seasonal flowers, prunus, lotus, camellia and hibiscus, all gilded and reserved on a star diaper ground between silver-inlaid bands of key fret, raised on three butterfly supports that are gilded, as are the mouth rim and the rectangular cartouche engraved with the maker's mark, Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi
3 5/8 in. (9.2 cm.) diam.

Lot Essay

Compare two similar parcel-gilt tripod censers similarly decorated with flower sprays reserved on a diaper ground: one of similar size with the same maker's mark, but in raised rather than engraved characters, illustrated in Documentary Chinese Works of Art: In Scholars' Taste, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1983, pp. 224-5, no. 157; and the second of broader diameter (4 5/8 in.), with the same engraved maker's mark illustrated in The Literati Mode, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1986, p. 290, no. 144, where the censer is dated Wanli period, circa 1600. See, also, the similar censer sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 8 October 2006, lot 1153.

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