Page 22 - Bonhams Chinese Paintings and Works of Art Sept 15, 2015

8005 8005
TWO SMALL GILT-SPLASHED BRONZE INCENSE BURNERS
8006 Xuande marks, 17th/18th century
The larger, an archaistic fang ding of rounded rectangular form, with
20 | BONHAMS spiral patterns on the raised bosses around the walls, flower and
leaf scrolls fronting four stubby cabriole legs and a transverse ribbed
pattern accenting the U-shaped handles curving upward from each
short side, the base bearing the six-character mark in raised relief
regular script within a rectangular recess, the mottled brown patina
displaying large patches of gilt; the second of oval format with a
key-fret band encircling the body, ruyi lappets rising at the top of
each U-shaped handle and fronting the stubby cabriole legs, the
base bearing the six-character mark in raised relief regular script and
splashes of bright gilt enlivening the medium brown patina.
5 1/4 and 2 3/4in (13.3 and 7cm) length across handles
3 3/4 and 1 3/4in (9.5 and 4.5cm) height of each incense burner
$4,000 - 6,000

十七或十八世紀 宣德款 灑金銅香爐兩件

Both censers share a low-lying profile and stubby cabriole legs.
The archaistic form, stout legs, and the shape of the leaf scrolls
surrounding each flower fronting the cabriole legs on the first
incense burner recall similar motifs on a rectangular censer with
Eight Buddhist Emblems published by Robert Mowry in China’s
Renaissance in Bronze: The Robert H. Clague Collection of Later
Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900, 1993, cat. no. 20, pp. 106-110, dated
to the late 16th-early 17th century (8.3cm width). See also a second
incense burner with similar spiral patterns on the bosses and vegetal
decoration on the stubby cabriole legs, but of circular form and larger
size (17.5cm width), also bearing a recessed Xuande mark, published
in Chinese Incense Burners: Collection of Steven Hung & Lindy Chern,
2000, cat. no. 82.