Incense burner

Inscription: A literal translations reads as follows:
"Kien Xuong Prefecture, Hiet Tuc District, Hung Cao Village; Le Van Dac,
Le Van ____ , and the lady of the Chu family have made pledges announced
in the year At Hoi, raising high virtue, all the families is at peace".

An annotated translation reads as follows:
Kien Xuong Prefecture in modern Thai Binh Province along the lower Red
River near the sea), Hiet Tuc District, Hung Cao Village; Le Van Dac (a
man's name), Le Van ____(also a man's name but so far I've not been able
to decipher the last character), and the lady of the Chu family have made
pledges (presumably to pay for the vessel and to present it to a temple);
announced in the year At Hoi (a year in the sixty-year cycle of
counting; considering that the toponym Kien Xuong was not prior to the
fifteenth century, could be 1455 or 1515 or 1575 or 1635 or 1695 or 1755);
raising high virtue, all the families (i.e. the whole population) is at peace.

- Prof. Keith Taylor, Cornell University, July 2009.

[ Nankai , Tokyo, until 2009, sold to MMA]