A small gilt-splashed bronze bottle vase 17th Century

the squat body resting on a wide spreading foot, with two finely-cast leonine mask handles applied to the shoulder and up the thin tall cylindrical neck rising to a trumpet-shaped mouth, the surface of the bronze with a russet patina with irregular gold splashes, the base with a recessed rectangle containing an apocryphal two-character Xuande mark

From the Collection of Lord Clark.  Sotheby's London, 27th June 1984, lot 4.