A Chinese parcel-gilt and silver inlaid bronze tripod censer...

Hammer

£11,000

A Chinese parcel-gilt and silver inlaid bronze tripod censer, Yunjian Hu Wenming mark, 16th/17th century, the cylindrical body cast and chased in relief with lotus, peonies, chrysanthemums, narcissus and lingzhi fungus highlighted in gilt, on a diaper ground, between a pair of silver inlaid keywork bands, on three cast and shaped feet, with fold over rim, incised six character mark ‘Yunjian Hu Wenming zhi’ to the base, 10.7cm wide, 8.9cm high,

cf. two parcel-gilt tripod censers similarly decorated with flower sprays reserved on a diaper ground: one of similar size with the same maker's mark, but in raised rather than engraved characters, illustrated in Documentary Chinese Works of Art: In Scholars' Taste, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1983, pp. 224-5, no. 157; and the second of broader diameter (4 5/8 in.), with the same engraved maker's mark illustrated in The Literati Mode, Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, 1986, p. 290, no. 144, where the censer is dated Wanli period, circa 1600. Another example also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession Number: 2006.310. small dents and three rim splits

More Information

Provenance - UK private collection, 1920s or earlier, thence by family descent.
This collection of late Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain and bronze vessels has been owned by a single Cotswold family for a number of generations dating back to the 1920s or earlier.
The collection was formerly on display at the family home in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, UK before the house was sold in the 1980s. Some interior photos taken c.1982 show a number of the pieces on display in the family house and an inventory undertaken in 1948 by the local Campden auctioneer and valuer Alfred Bower lists many of the items. Extracts of the 1948 inventory are included where they correspond to the relevant lots in the sale.

The vessel is is slightly misshapen with three splits to the edge of the rim viewed from above, a few occasional dents around the base and a small loss to the silver inlay, one of the feet is slightly bent inward, otherwise in good condition.