Small Finely Cast Bronze Incense Burner, Late Ming Style But Probably 19th Century

Ref: MU882

Small finely cast bronze incense burner, late Ming style, the compressed globular body rising from a spreading shallow foot to an everted rim, the sides with two opposing lion-head handles cast in high relief, the base with an apocryphal kaishu inscription in a recessed panel translated as reading Daming Xuande wunian jiandu gongbu guanchen Wu Bangzuo zao (‘Made for the Board of Works under the Supervision of Wu Bangzuo in the Fifth Year of Xuande’). The patina of a soft variegated brown.

Dimensions:

Diameter: 15.5cm. (6 ¼ in.) Weight: approx. 720g.

Notes:

This was a popular mark during the Ming dynasty. For a related example, see Paul Moss and Gerard Hawthorn, The Second Bronze Age. Later Chinese Metalwork. Sydney Moss Ltd., London, 1991, cat. no. 46. See also a bronze incense burner stand with this inscription from the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection.