DALLAS — Heritage Auctions conducted its Fine Silver & Objects of Vertu auction on May 16, resulting in $1,505,513 from just over 400 lots. The dragon’s share was contributed by the sale of a massive Japanese silver figural incense burner from the Meiji period, wrought in the form of a dragon protecting a celestial sphere, that was bid to $250,000. The lot consisted of two pieces marked by different silversmiths; the dragon by the Kimura Toun family and the censer by Kagawa Katsuhiro (1853-1917). Little is known about Toun, or Toun Chu as his three-character signature reads, but was active and recognized in the mid-Nineteenth Century. Katsuhiro was appointed to the Imperial court as an artist in 1906, one of only two with the distinction of “gold carver.” Not only exquisitely detailed, but the incense burner was also 32 inches high and weighed 641.6744 troy ounces. Price quoted with buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house, more on this and other shining lots to follow.