Page 20 - Bonhams May 12 16 London

8 Yunjian refers to Songjiang, now in the outskirts of Shanghai. Hu
A PARCEL-GILT BRONZE INCENSE BURNER, GUI Wenming was one of the best-known and most accomplished
Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi mark, 17th century master metalworkers of the late Ming period. Gilt-metal pieces from
Of archaistic gui form, the compressed globular body decorated on his workshops were especially sought after by scholars and literati to
each side with taotie masks below a waisted neck decorated with embellish their desks. See R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London,
stylised phoenix, all supported on a splayed foot with a leafy floral 1990, p.52. A similar gilt-bronze incense burner is illustrated in Chinese
scroll, the sides flanked by a pair of mythical beast handles, all cast Incense Burners: Collection of Steven Hung & Lindy Chern, Taipei,
and gilt on a diaper ground, the mark incised on a gilt rectangular 2000, p.168, no.143.
plaque at the base.
17cm (6 3/4in) wide A related parcel-gilt bronze incense burner, Hu Wenming mark, 17th
century, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 240.
£15,000 - 20,000
HK$160,000 - 220,000 CNY140,000 - 180,000

十七世紀 局部鎏金銅仿古饕餮紋簋式爐
「雲間胡文明製」篆書鑄款

The inscription on the bottom reads ‘Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi’ (雲
間胡文明製), which may be translated as ‘Made by Hu Wenming of
Yunjian’.

18 | BONHAMS