A bronze incense burner, late Ming-early Qing dynasty. Est. HKD 30,000 — 50,000. Lot sold 375,000 HKD (74,192 USD). Photo: Sotheby's

finely cast with a compressed globular body rising to a waisted neck, all supported on a low foot, the sides set with two lion-head handles cast in high relief, the base with an apocryphal kaishu inscription in a recessed panel 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 variegated warm caramel-brown colour - 19.7 cm., 7 3/4  in.

Notes: The inscription is one of a series of apocryphal ones stating that Wu Bangzuo, the Minister of the Ministry of Works in the 5th year of the Xuande reign, supervised production which tend to appear on late Ming and Qing incense burners.  Whether or not such an inscription appeared on any Xuande period bronzes is unclear, as there do not appear to be any credible extant examples, but it became a standard late Ming or Qing designation. 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, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2014, lot 243, and an incense burner from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann, sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3316.

Sotheby's. Later Chinese Bronzes From The Collection of Mr And Mrs Gerard Hawthorn. Hong Kong, 03 Dec 2015