Antiques Trade Gazette 13
“Particularly well-painted pieces made as recently as the last century are now very much on the Chinese collection list
Chinese sale that rounded off the week featured many lots bearing what were doubtless attractively pitched four-figure guides pursued to five- or even six-figure levels. They included several ceramic pieces, among them a 15in (40cm) high, Ming dynasty Longquan celadon glazed shrine to Guanyin, with circular apertures to light the figure from behind. It was guided at £3000-5000 but was taken to £120,000. There was also keen demand for a
couple of entries that had been acquired by the vendor’s family in China in the 1950s, one them topping the sale’s ceramics list. This was a 7½in (19cm) diameter, dragon and phoenix bowl decorated in doucai enamels. It bore a Yongzheng mark to the base, but the auctioneers had been more cautious, cataloguing it as 18th/19th century with a £4000-6000 guide. However, bidders appeared more confident about the date, taking it to £150,000. The sale also featured a blue and
white pear-shaped ewer, inspired by Ming export pieces in style and shape. It bore a Daoguang mark but was dated to the 20th century with a £2000- 3000 guide. However, the final price of £60,000 suggested there were those who reckoned it was of the period, an indication of how demand is moving from 18th into early 19th century porcelain. The Bonhams Knightsbridge auction
was also topped by a surprise ceramic price when a lot containing three small bowls – a 4in (10cm) undated pair decorated in enamels with prunus branches and slightly smaller single cup bearing a Longquing mark painted with a iron red dragon to the exterior – were bid to £90,000 against a £1500-2000 guide.
Other materials Jades and ceramics may have been
mainstays of these events but there was plenty of other material on offer. Metalwares, lacquer, ivories, textiles, furniture and paintings all featured in these sales, many of them again offered as small single-owner consignments within the main sales. Some categories fared better than
others. Cinnabar lacquerwares, for example, something which may not be so much to Chinese taste, did not appear to be flavour of the month. Christie’s had a run of 10 lots, of none of which sold, while Sotheby’s couldn’t get away a large Qianlong stem bowl guided at £80,000-120,000 and Bonhams
failed to sell a four-tiered and a circular box guided at £50,000-70,000 and £70,000-90,000. Demand for rhinoceros horn cups was muted, not surprisingly perhaps, given all new legislation that restricts its purchase, although Bonhams managed to get away around half a dozen of the run of 16 from various vendors offered in their sale. Other areas were more keenly
contested. Sotheby’s, for example, offered 21 lots of carved ivories from the collection of Sir Victor Sassoon, all of which found buyers, several for multiples of their estimates But all the Sassoon ivory prices were outpaced by an 18th century ivory rui sceptre that formed part of a 15-lot collection formed by Sir William Seeds (1882-1973) which was at the core of CSK’s Chinese sale on March 18.
Seeds was a diplomat and collector
of Chinese and Russian art whose many postings included a spell at the British Legation in Peking from 1908-09 just before the death of the Emperor Guanxu. His taste and the provenance proved effective. With multiple bids on all the Seeds entries, all sold with everything outstripping the attractively
pitched guides to a greater or lesser extent. The 20in (51cm) long sceptre, which
was finely carved along its length with a high relief landscape, had been guided at £10,000-15,000 but ended up making £150,000. It shared this multi-estimate price with a 6ft (1.84m) wide carved
Above: an 18th century carved ivory sceptre sold for £150,000 at Christie’s South Kensington.
Left: a Qianlong cloisonné enamel incense burner sold for £660,000 at Bonhams.
zitan table from the collection, dated to the 19th century but probably featuring an earlier core. Very much to Chinese taste, this price was again way over the £8000-12,000 guide. Another old diplomatic collection
provided Sotheby’s with two of their top ten results for furniture. They were offering an 18-lot collection of ceramics, hardstones and wood carvings from the collection of the Genoese aristocrat Guiseppe Salvago Raggi (1846-1946) who was posted to Beijing from 1897- 1901. All bar two lots changed hands, but much the highest prices were for a 3ft x 22in x 2ft 1in (90 x 58 x 64cm) hardwood clothes chest of 19th century date, deeply carved with dragons chasing flaming pearls, and a pair of 2ft 7in (80cm) high hardwood stands of c.1800. Each estimated at £8000- 12,000, these were pursued to £210,000 and £200,000 respectively. Among the metalwares two Imperial
pieces that sold strongly were a pair of very large, 2ft 6in (76cm) high, two- handled bronze vases at Christie’s, finely cast with dragons pursuing pearls, bearing Qianlong six-character masks and of the period that would probably have come from garniture for an altar or temple in the Forbidden City. Acquired
continued on page 14
Above: this carved hardwood clothes chest realised £210,000 at Sotheby’s.
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