From The Collections of Henry A. "Hank" Lantelme (1917 Centurion) Hank was born in France on March 31, 1917. In his early years his parents moved to St Augustine Fla. Following Hank's birth, the family moved from France to St. Augustine then in 1920 they moved to New York where him and his siblings worked together supporting their family during the great depression. Hank enlisting in in the United States Navy in 1937, where he served for over 30 years. He was on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser in the Pacific operating near Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, His ship remained at sea hunting for the enemy. Hank rose to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer, also serving on the Battleships U.S.S. Missouri and U.S.S. Pennsylvania and participated in a great deal of action during World War II. The final years of his career Hank was assigned to a U.S. Naval Base in France. Following a short stay in Roanoke, Virginia, home of his wife Nell, the couple moved back to Saint Augustine where Hank worked for William Daniels as a dealer in antiques. During his tenure he developed considerable knowledge about the fine art from China. He searched for and collected various examples of the finest art available from estate sales, auctions as well as from other fine art collectors. The Collections of Henry A. "Hank" Lantelme presented and offered up to auctions from Lot-1 through Lot-34.
A matching pair of carved spinach jade censers with ornate cloisonne stands. Each unit is composed of four (4) pieces. Only one censer and stand will be described. The cover is a series of gradually increasing compressed balls. Its finial is an opening lotus. The next descending level (the ball level) is comprised of small lotus flowers and leaves. The following level (#3) is a skirt of lotus petal lappets. The fourth is a band of tendrils end of cover). The body depicts a large band of flowers,, leaves and tendrils. Part of the cover and most of the lower part and comprised of flowers, leaves, tendrils and a conch shell. The vessel (flower holder) stands on a flared base of lotus and vine. Each censer rests on a carved plate of barbed very pale green fine jade. (3rd piece). Directly under the plate is a gilt bronze circular base incised in the center with a lotus and twining tendrils. The base underside is incised with two peaches, a Buddha?s hand citron, a pomegranate and two prunus flowers. Below the circular base is a gilt bronze stylized bud . Emerging from the bud are four arms comprised of a cloisonne leaf tendril and stem terminating into a mature lotus blossom. Below, in descending order is a scalloped medallion, then a band of stylized lotus. The next level is a large undulating scalloped umbrella of cloisonne-covered ruyi with a rim of gilt bronze key-fret. The underside of the umbrella is a duplicate of the cloisonne top in gilt bronze. Below, a small gilt bronze double gourd vase terminated into a curved leg pavilion canopy with a lotus and vine design and acanthus leaf. The top of each leaf springs from the gourd?s base and forms a square canopy terminating into a ruyi. Its edges are scalloped with a ruyi anchoring the center of each panel terminating into a balled foot. The bottom is a tray of stylized lotus and vine with a center medallion of cloisonne featuring a lotus blossom and tendrils tray. This tray has a scalloped shape with barbs and a ruyi foot. Six character Reign mark incised in gilt bronze, Qianlong Reign Mark, Qing Dynasty