A FINE GUI-SHAPED PARTLY RED-SPLASHED HEAVY-CAST BRONZE CENSER WITH TWO LOOP HANDLES AND WOOD COVER

Description:

China, cast Xuande six-character mark, encircled by a pair of dragons chasing the flaming pearl, Ming dynasty
B. 20,5 cm, H. 8,8 cm
Weight: 2.284 kg
Fischer Collection Munich, received by descent from the estate of the Karl Wilhelm Hübsch Collection, Mannheim (b. 23.2.1886), collected in Asia before 1920
Compare a very similar shaped censer with a Neitian jiao she mark encircled by two dragons, preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum Beijing, published ‚Splendors from the Yongle and Xuande Reigns Of China’s Ming Dynasty‘, Classics of the Forbidden City, Palace Museum Beijing, 2012, no. 142 - Minor traces of use, the fifth claw of the dragons and a part of one dragons tail possibly removed