17TH CENTURY

Details

A PARCEL-GILT BRONZE BOMBE CENSER
17TH CENTURY
The gui-shaped censer has a pair of dragon-headed handles, and is cast with a band of mythical sea creatures frolicking amidst wind-tossed waves below a band of the Eight Daoist Symbols (anbaxian) on the waisted neck, while the spreading foot is encircled by a band of lingzhi scroll. The decoration is highlighted in gilding and reserved on a copper-colored, stippled ground. A gilt four-character intaglio mark, Hu Wenming zhi, is in the center of the base.
6 in. (15.2 cm.) across handles, wood cover

Provenance

Christie's New York, 1 December 1994, lot 342.

Brought to you by

Michael Bass

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Lot Essay

Hu Wenming was a celebrated metalworker who was active during the late 16th to early 17th century. A group of vessels bearing the Hu Wenming mark are illustrated by G. Tsang and H. Moss in Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Hong Kong, 1986, nos. 73, 103, 230, 231, 237 and 246. See, also, the similar censer in the Robert H. Clague Collection illustrated by R.D. Mowry in China's Renaissance in Bronze, Phoenix Art Museum, 1994, p. 67, no. 12, which has a six-character mark, Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi, in intaglio script.

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