局部鎏金銅饕餮紋香爐　　《胡文明製》款

The form of the current censer is one of the rarest among Hu Wenming-marked ritual vessels. Only two other examples of this form appear to be published. The first was included in the Oriental Ceramics Society of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong exhibition, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 1986 and illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 134, no. 103. The other, from the Mary and George Bloch Colelction, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 23 october 2005, lot 12. Neither of these examples have the ring handles seen on the present example and they both bear a lengthy inscription dating them to 1613.