A GILT-SPECKLED BRONZE TRIPOD CENSER LATE MING / EARLY QING DYNASTY

modelled after the archaic bronze vessel liding, supported on three cabriole feet, the bombé sides rising to a waisted neck and a broad lipped mouth, decorated overall with gilt speckles, the base cast with an apocryphal four-character Xuande seal mark within a rectangular cartouche, wood stand

For a discussion of substantially cast bronze vessels with apocryphal Xuande reign marks see lot 173 in this catalogue. The censer is finely coated with ‘golden rain’, random scattering of golden-yellow flakes. While a number of similarly marked and later dated examples with this type of decoration are known, the distinctiveness and the bright golden tone of the speckles found on the present censer is especially rare.

A number of tripod bronze censers of this form are illustrated in Chen Qinghong, Da Ming Xuande lu zong lun, Taipei, 2000, pls. 106-114, of varying proportions. Compare also a censer of similar form and size to the present example sold in our London rooms, 12th March 1982, lot 141; and a larger censer, sold at Christie’s London, 14th/16th December 1988, lot 330.