Beschreibung:

A Partially Gilt-Bronze 'Phoenix' Incense Burner Late Ming Dynasty the deep cup-shaped body finely cast with gently tapering sides supported on a high, slightly splayed foot, sloping inwards at the rim and surmounted by a domed overlapping cover set with a cylindrical knop, the knop cast in the form of a lotus pod, with seven loose gilt-bronze seeds emerging from it, above a cylindrical handle cast with a band of upright lotus petals, the domed cover intricately reticulated with a design of five cranes flying amidst stylised clouds, the exterior of the main body cast with twelve stylised lotus petals enclosing petal-tips, all enclosed within a simulated rope, flanked at the shoulder by a pair of phoenix handles, both gilt, each issuing a loose ring from the beak-like mouth with formalized hair above and surrounding the ears, the lip and footrim both beaded, the outer footrim made up of pendent formalised lotus lappets, cast in relief with an apocryphal six-character Xuande mark in a vertical column down the central lotus petal on one side, the patina of a warm reddish-brown colour 15.2 cm., 6 in.