Lot 6

[INCENSE CULTURE] FINELY CAST CHINESE SILVER-INLAD AND GILT-BRONZE 'SEA BEAST' INCENSE-TOOL VASE

HU WENMING MARK, MING DYNASTY

Fine Asian Works of Art

Auction: 06 November 2026 from 10:00 GMT

Estimate: £10,000 - £15,000

Description

明《雲間胡文明作》錯銀款局部鎏金銅錯銀海獸波濤紋香瓶

heavily cast with elegant neck gently curving to flared lip, the bulbous body supported on a circular foot ring, the exterior of the main body chased in relief with a continuous design of gilt mythical sea creatures leaping above crushing waves rendered in silver inlay, the neck with two bands of stylised interlocking foliage, all below a silver inlaid key-fret collar, the flat circular base with silver-inlaid six-character mark, Yunjian Hu Wenming zuo (‘Made by Hu Wenming of Yunjian’) in archaic seal script

Dimensions

14.8cm high, 937g

Provenance

Formerly in a private Taiwanese collection, acquired around 1990s

台灣私人藏家舊藏，於1990年代入藏

Footnote

This is an unusual form for a Hu Wenming incense-tool vase, being of yuhuchun form rather than the more common cylindrical variety. It also has the thick, silver-wire inlay around the neck often associated with his finer wares in bronze. Two other parcel-gilt bronze vases inscribed with Hu Wenming marks illustrated by G. Tsang and H. Moss, in the exhibition catalogue, Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Oriental Ceramics Society, Hong Kong, 1986, no. 230, a comparable yuhuchun-form tool vase with silver key-fret inlay on the neck, and no. 237, of archaistic gu shape, with pendent blades similar to those on the upper body of the present vase.

此器為胡文明香具瓶之罕見器型，作玉壺春式，而非更常見之筒式。其頸部鑲嵌銀絲，此特徵符合他製作的精品特徵。參考G. Tsang與H. Moss於展覽圖錄Arts from the Scholar's Studio（香港東方陶瓷學會，一九八六年）中著錄兩件帶胡文明款識之局部鎏金銅瓶：第230號為相近之玉壺春式香具瓶，頸部有銀質回紋鑲嵌；第237號則為仿古觚式，帶有與本瓶上半部相似之垂葉紋。