Finishes
Eight finishes leave this workshop. They are not decoration on top of the casting: each one is a different amount of bench work, a different cost and a different customer.
Cast, fettled and polished with no colouring. The alloy shows its own yellow. Buyers who sell into bright interiors take this; it also ages naturally over years if the piece is handled.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Will darken with handling unless lacquered.
Chemically darkened, then cut back on the high points so the relief reads. This is the finish most export orders ship in: it hides fingerprints, photographs well and suits both altar and décor buyers.
Care & suitability: Indoor and sheltered outdoor. Re-waxing restores depth.
Gold leaf laid only on chosen relief — dragon bodies, lotus heads, the rim pattern — against a patinated ground. A middle price point between plain patina and full gilding.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Gilded areas are wiped, never scrubbed.
Leaf over the whole visible surface, burnished down. Heavy, bright and the usual choice for temple work and gift-grade pieces.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Handle with cotton gloves during display setup.
Silver plating on the body with gilded relief. Cooler in tone than full gilding, and the contrast keeps fine pattern legible at a distance.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Silver areas will tarnish slowly if unlacquered.
Different metals inlaid into the cast body so the pattern is metal, not paint. Slow bench work, quoted by the area of inlay rather than by the piece.
Care & suitability: Indoor. The inlay is solid metal; it will not flake.
Glass enamel fired onto the bronze at around 800°C in wire cells. Our own line: Đệ Nhất Đỉnh says plainly that it is the workshop that brought pháp lam back onto cast censers, and we do not claim more than that.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Enamel is glass — protect from knocks in transit.
Cast in the copper-rich alloy rather than the yellow one, then polished. Warmer colour, heavier price, and the alloy most often asked for by buyers reselling as “antique reproduction”.
Care & suitability: Indoor. Lacquer on request for humid markets.
Matching across an order
Patina is a chemical reaction on a cast surface, not a paint code. Two workshops working from the same description will hand you two different browns, and the difference only shows when the pieces stand next to each other on a shelf in your store. Everything in your order is patinated by the same hands in the same week, and we photograph the set together before packing so the colour is agreed before it sails.
If you are topping up an order placed a year ago, send a photograph of the piece you already have in daylight, or post us the smallest item from the set. We match to the sample and tell you honestly how close we expect to get — an exact match on an aged piece is rarely possible, and a supplier who promises one is guessing.
Tell us sizes, finishes and quantities. We answer with unit prices EXW Nam Dinh and FOB Hai Phong, weights, carton sizes and a lead time you can put in front of your own customer.