A PARCEL-GILT OPENWORK ‘LOTUS SCROLL’ SPHERICAL INCENSE BURNER AND COVER.Qing Dynasty, 18th to 19th Century.Delicately cast with a spherical body comprising of two hemispheres, each reticulated with a pattern of scrolling foliage bearing gilded lotus flowers, the interior fitted with three ring gimbals and a central bowl (2).11.5cm diameter.336g.清十八至十九世紀 銅局部鎏金蓮花紋薰球 Reticulated spherical incense burners emerged in China in the Tang period, see for example Su Fuxi, Silver and Gold Wares, 2012, p 86 cat no 97 for a silver example excavated in Sanzhao Village, Qujiang County, Yanta District, Xi’an in 1965. The form later spread through the Islamic world and to Japan.The treatment of the lotus scroll in the present piece compares closely to the designs on a incense set of boxes and burner published in Paul Moss and Gerard Hawthorn, The Second Bronze Age: Later Chinese Metalwork, 1991, cat no 42, which is described as ‘Tonkin’ and for the Japanese market.