Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
Lot 1779
A large Chinese dated bronze censer: of compressed bombe form with mythical beast-head handles and spreading base with everted rim, one side inscribed 'Made by Zhuangyuanfang Wansheng for the Chaosheng Gumiao Temple, Daoguang 8th year [1828]', 39cm wide, 19cm high [lacquered/polished patina, old repair near base].* Provenance Herbert Sutton [1880-1946] and thence by family descent.Herbert Sutton was born at Thame, Oxfordshire and educated in France, Germany and Grantham, England. At eighteen years of age he joined his father who was in business in Hong Kong. After two years he joined a firm of silk traders at Canton and became it's head during twenty five years of service. For three successive years he was chairman of the Municipal Council of the British Concession at Canton and had to shoulder considerable responsibility during the 1914-18 war. One of his tasks as chairman was to close a German bank when China entered the war on the side of the allies. He retired to Great Yarmouth in Norfolk in the late 1920s and served as a member of the Town Council for sixteen years.
