A CHINESE PARCEL-GILT BRONZE 'LUDUAN' INCENSE BURNER AND COVER

17TH CENTURY

Formed as a luduan standing upon a sinuous snake, with stylised scrolls picked out in gilt to the beast's body, the hinged cover formed as its head, it stares with bulging eyes and its mouth agape, with a single large horn to the top of its head, 27cm, 2.8kg.

Cf. P Moss & G Hawthorn, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, nos.18 and 19 for comparable parcel-gilt bronze incense burners.