Lot 3651. A gold-splashed bronze rectangular incense burner, 16th-17th century; 18.7 cm, 7 3/8  in. Estimate 300,000 — 400,000 HKD (38,199 - 50,932 USD). Lot sold 375,000 HKD (47,749 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's

well cast with a tapering body rising from four straight legs to a gently flared rim, flanked by a pair of handles, each modelled with an everted arrowhead tip to the straight upper edge, the gently convex base centred with a recessed rectangular cartouche enclosing an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark, the exterior decorated liberally overall save for the mark with gold splashes.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 12th June 1990, lot 38.

Note: This superbly cast gold-splashed incense burner is of archaistic fangding form, but the classic shape has been skilfully modified with exaggerated geometric handles and a gently curved underside. Another pair of incense burners of the same distinct form, from the collection of Lord Clark of Saltwood was sold in our London rooms, 27th June 1984, lot 6.

For other gold-splashed incense burners of similar high quality, compare the bronze tripod incense from the J. de Lopes bequest and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in Rose Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London, 1990, pl. 15 right, dated as 16th/17th century. See also a gold-splashed tripod incense burner from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann, sold in these rooms, 8th October 2014, lot 3407.