A monumental Imperial exceptionally rare cast gilt-bronze ritual butter lamp

A monumental Imperial exceptionally rare cast gilt-bronze ritual butter lamp
Early Ming Dynasty, circa first half 15th century, cast Jingtai six-character mark
The massive gilt-bronze Buddhist ritual vessel superbly and thickly cast in two main sections, covered in rich gilt around the exterior and inner section of the rim, the bowl with flared sides rising to the wide flattened rim, accentuated by the raised central stepped rib around the bowl, the convex underside with a further lipped rib crowning and slotting into the narrow cylindrical stem similarly cast with a raised central rib, all above the generously proportioned bell-shaped lower section with double everted cascading sides emphasised by lipped rims, the bowl cast with the six-character reign mark. 102.6cm (40 3/8in) high, 102.1cm (40 1/8in) diam. of bowl, 88.8cm (35in) diam. of foot, approx. 335kg