Chinese Bird Lamp Perched on Snake

19th century AD or earlier. A bronze lamp modelled in the round as a bird standing on a creature with a snake's body and a dragon's head, the bird's wings spread, the tail held aloft, a shallow dish gripped in its sharp beak, seven columns of script engraved to the internal base of the bowl, the bird's dense plumage picked out with engraved lines and scales in 'relief', repeated on the serpent below. 3.2 kg, 39.5cm (15 1/2"). Property of a London doctor; previously in the collection of her husband by inheritance; formerly acquired during travels in the Far East during the 1920s.
Condition Report: Fine condition.