A RARE SMALL PARCEL-GILT BRONZE 'BUTTERFLY' CENSER

The decoration of butterflies on this censer is very unusual. Similar decoration of butterflies can be seen on a bronze zun, dated to the Ming dynasty, late sixteenth to early seventeenth century, in the Clague Collection, no. 273, illustrated by R. D. Mowry, China’s Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, Phoenix Art Museum, 1993, no. 30. For an example of a parcel-gilt and silver-inlaid bronze incense tool vase also decorated with butterflies, dated to the Late Ming- Transitional period, early-mid 17th century, see, P. Moss, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, London, 1991, no. 98.