Page 314 - Important Chinese Art Hong Kong April 2, 2019 Sotheby's

3706

A PARCEL-GILT BRONZE ‘MYTHICAL BEAST’ 明十七世紀
INCENSE BURNER 胡文明製局部鎏金銅瑞獸紋簋式爐
BY HU WENMING, MING DYNASTY, 17TH
CENTURY 《雲間胡文明製》款
of archaistic gui form, the compressed globular body
supported on a splayed lipped foot and flanked by a pair of
separately cast handles, the exterior decorated against a
ring-punched ground with two main bands, the lower band
enclosing six mythical beasts prancing amidst foliate scrolls
below a band of scollwork encircling the rim, the base with a
central rectangular cartouche engraved with a six-character
inscription reading Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi (‘Made by Hu
Wenming of Yunjian’), wood cover and stand
15.6 cm, 6⅛ in.
HK$ 200,000-300,000
US$ 25,500-38,300

Hu Wenming from Songjiang, Jiangsu province, was one
of the most accomplished master metalworkers of the late
Ming period, who specialised in the production of gilt metal
vessels for the scholar’s desk. For another bronze incense
burner of gui form by Hu Wenming, engraved with similar
seal mark on the base, see the example from the Water, Pine
and Stone Retreat collection, sold in these rooms, 8th April
2014, lot 240.

Mark