16 11th February 2012


auction reports The West wins the day


■ Chinese ceramics eclipse estimates – but the surprise is who was buying


Terence Ryle reports


IT was a smaller sale than usual to launch the year in Exeter and by usual standards at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood, a fairly leisurely affair, with 570 lots offered over the traditional two days. But, as well as notching up a very satisfactory total of £470,000 (boosted to over £500,000 with after-sales) it had its pacey moments. Among these were the Chinese items, one of which went


160 times the printed estimate. Nothing unexpected these days about Chinese lots eclipsing estimates, of course but the surprise was the buyers – London dealers outbidding Chinese competition. The Chinese pieces were offered on the second day, the


first being given over to silver and jewellery and a 36-lot maritime section notable for a collection of five lots relating to British Antarctic expeditions. One was an autograph album with drawings and the signatures of eight members of the Terra Nova expedition of 1910-1913, among them New Zealander Dr Adrian Wilson, one of the casualties of Scott’s South Pole expedition in 1912. There was interest from New Zealand and Norway but the album sold to a UK collector at £3500, more than doubling its estimate. Day 2 opened with European and


Oriental glass and ceramics. BH&L specialist Nic Saintey believes


some smaller London specialists have been driven out of the Chinese market at auction by the extraordinary money coming from Hong Kong and the mainland. Obviously this is not the case among the capital’s major players. The same leading London dealer took


the top two pieces. A 12in (30.5cm) tall bottle vase, illustrated on this page, had the four-character mark associated with items made for Beijing’s Hall for the Cultivation of Virtue. Dated to the 19th century, it was estimated at £500-700 but after a battle with a Chinese rival the London dealer took at it £80,000. The same dealer won another Anglo-


Chinese battle over a 17½in (44.5cm) diameter blue and white dragon dish with both sides painted with five-claw dragons chasing the flaming pearl. Bearing the six-character Guangxu mark and of the period, it was estimated at £3000-5000 but, sold at £19,000. The previous lot, a 13in (33cm) tall,


square-section jar with pagoda cover to the shoulder, was painted in blue with figures in interiors. Kangxi, and bearing the Artemesia leaf mark, it went above


Above left: Chinese bottle vase – £80,000 at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood where the dragon dish, above right, took £19,000.


St Edmund’s rich blessing


A MAJOR surprise at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s January sale was this leaded stained glass panel, left. Measuring 17 x 10in (43 x 25cm) and depicting a crowned king enclosed by lions and two ecclesiastical figures, it was entered by a local vendor who thought the glass probably Victorian and, particularly as the fragments had been more recently put together, was happy with an estimate of £100-200. On the day it sold online at £10,000. The underbidder in the room said later that the glass fragments were medieval and probably depicted St Edmund – a happy coincidence for the auctioneers based in St Edmund’s Court, Exeter.


its high £4000 estimate to make £7800. A chance for the apparently reluctant Chinese? Possibly, but the jar sold to a Portuguese buyer. The 92 collectors’ items and works of


art which followed the ceramics, resulted in a similar tale. Most of the 30 Chinese offerings got away at the expected three- figure bids and three did rather better. Again, it was a leading London dealer – a different one – who went to around ten times the estimates to buy two of these. One was a 4½in (11cm) long Ming/Qing


dynasty bronze and inlaid vessel cast as a tortoise which sold at £5100. The other, a 5in (13cm) wide carved grey stone figure of a mythical beast on a rectangular base, possibly Six Dynasties or Tang, sold at


£3600. Mr Saintey felt that Chinese bidders


are nervous about the number of fakes of bronzes and stone carvings now on the market, but as the Exeter lots were unsolds from the 1980 Christie’s sale of the Montagu Meyer Collection, now being offered again by the family, there should have been no such qualms here. The top Chinese lot here was from a


different source and, in fact, something of a disappointment to the vendor who may have been better off accepting the auctioneer’s recommendation of asking a little less to bring in more bidders. However, an £8000-12,000 estimate was put on the imposing hardwood screen and stand featuring a black lacquer panel


with hardstone inlays of a vase, peaches, a duck and a bat. The 3ft 4in tall, 2ft 2in wide (1.03m x 67cm) had some restoration and minor damage but looked impressive in the catalogue and again on the back cover. However, it sold below hopes at £7600 and, finally, a Chinese piece at Exeter was on its way back to China. Neither the glass and ceramics nor the


works of art sections were wholly reliant on China for success. There were some impressive prices for pieces from Japan, Austria, France and England. An 18th century, 10in (25cm) diameter


Arita porcelain plate, enamelled with a cockerel and hen encircled by panels of carp and lotuses and peonies, carried printed hopes of £200-400, Mr Saintey having pulled it from a general sale and so able to tempt bidding with a low estimate. “There was not a sniff of interest


before the sale and I had to start the bidding on the reserve,” he said later. Would-be buyers had plainly been keeping their ambitions secret for bidding soon picked up and the plate finally sold to the London trade at £3100. From Austria was a pair of mid/late


19th century Vienna porcelain pedestal ewers. The 22in (57cm) ewers with enamelled panels of classical figures in landscapes and the underglaze blue bindenschild (beehive or shield) marks. A small chip to the base of one ewer kept the estimate down to £500-700 but these highly decorative pieces are often sought by buyers from both the Middle East and England’s South East, Brighton in particular. Bidders from both areas competed for the ewers which went to the South East trade at £5200.


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