A rare bronze 'foreigners' rectangular censer, 17th / 18th century

California Private Collection.

Readily identifiable by their clothes and distinctive facial features, foreigners, such as the ones depicted in the present lot, were often seen represented in the art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, indicative of the cultural curiosity and fascination for the West at this time. See a closely related censer, sold at Christie's London, 10th June 1991, lot 150; and another sold in these rooms, 20th September 2023, lot 800.