MING DYNASTY, 16TH - 17TH CENTURY

Details

A VERY RARE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE DOUBLE-GOURD CENSER AND COVER
MING DYNASTY, 16TH - 17TH CENTURY
The censer is cast as a double gourd with an over-hanging handle decorated with two confronting dragons; the handle is attached to the lower bulb through two brocade balls held in the mouths of two crouching lions; the upper bulb is cast with a band of lotus petals around the mouth; the cover is decorated with a pierced lotus scroll culminating in a floral finial. The base of the censer is cast with an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark.
6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired in Paris, 2015

Lot Essay

Compare a smaller, ungilt example, illustrated in The Second Bronze Age, Sydney L. Moss, London, 1991, no. 53. Compare also the Qianlong-period cloisonnéenamel censer of similar form in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums of Liverpool, which was probably inspired by the current bronze prototype, illustrated in ‘Chinese Art in the Lady Lever Art Gallery’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1979-1980, no. 12 (fig. 1).

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