14 23rd June 2012 london selection chinese sales continued from page 13
in Belgium in the 1980s, these just tipped over the £300,000-500,000 estimate to sell for £550,000 to an Asian private buyer. Bonhams' sale featured an
elaborate cloisonné and gilt-bronze incense burner on a tiered stand 22in (58cm) high overall and bearing a cast Qianlong mark. Of the period, it outstripped its £80,000-120,000 guide to take £660,000. CSK’s May 18 sale was also notable for a large selection of
costumes and textiles, including a number of formal court robes. Virtually all of these found buyers,
but much the most expensive were, not surprisingly, two Imperial dragon robes. A Qing robe of c.1800 bearing
all 12 Imperial authority symbols, but altered probably in the West in the 20th century, realised a treble- estimate £50,000, but a later, much less-altered example from the turn of the 20th century outpaced this when it trebled higher expectations to take £115,000.
Right: an Imperial dragon robe which realised £115,000 at Christie’s South Kensington.
Third Wrangham instalment yields another Zeshin high
Japanese sales Four selections of Japanese art in
London’s Spring series at Bonhams and Christie's South Kensington offered getting on for 1400 lots last month, almost half of it from two single-owner collections. It was a big enough spread to attract potential buyers to town. Because the Japanese are not such a
dominant buying force as the Chinese for their artistic heritage these days, these events attract a more international audience. Americans and Europeans, for example, have long collected netsuke and inro and other small examples of work by the Meiji era’s craftsmen. The two single-owner sales, which
both had the edge in terms of totals and take-up, were not duplicatory. Edward Wrangham’s interest was centred on inro, especially lacquer pieces by Meiji masters, and on netsuke and sword fittings, as Bonhams’ May 15 offering displayed. The anonymous ‘Masterful
Exhuberance’ collection at Christie’s South Kensington, formed over a space of 30 years, encompassed a broader mix that took in inro, netsuke and ceramics but was largely based around a selection of Meiji metalwares in both bronze and enamel. Crowning the Wrangham auction
was an inro by arguably the most highly regarded lacquer artist – Shibata Zeshin. The single-case medicine box, measuring 3 x 1¾in (7 x 5cm) and scratch signed on the base, depicted a classic restrained Zeshin design featuring a large dark orange persimmon and a sprig of blackberries against a dark brown lacquer ground and had a provenance to the celebrated Behrens collection. Bonhams’ £20,000-30,000 estimate was rapidly left behind and when it
reached £150,000, one phone bidder upping the bidding by an increment of £100,000 so determined were they to secure the prize. At this £250,000 level it set a new auction high for the artist, beating the £220,000 paid for another single-case inro when Bonhams sold Harriet Sezchenyi’s collection last November, a price which in turn had almost doubled the £135,000 paid for an inro in the first Wrangham auction in November 2010. It was one of a series of choicest
pieces in the sale contested to multiples of what were large sensibly set guides. These also included a 4in (10cm) four- case silver ground inro by Koma Kansai, featuring a design after Sakai Hoitsu of crows (an auspicious symbol) on a pine tree and a peony on a rice stook. It realised £70,000. Another was an 18th century black lacquer three-case inro formed as a Chinese ink cake lacquered to the reverse with a flaming drum and an inscription relating to a 16th century work on ink cake designs. This last, by Ogawa Haritsu, had formerly resided
Above: a plique à jour cloisonné enamel dish that fetched £120,000 at Bonhams.
Above right: an inro shaped to resemble a Chinese inkcake, sold for £42,000 in the Wrangham auction at Bonhams.
continued on page 00
Right: the single case Shibata Zeshin inro that topped Bonhams' May 16 Wrangham collection sale at £250,000.
in the Louis Gonse collection and was purchased by Wrangham from London dealers Eskenazi. It made a quadruple esitmate £42,000. As with the previous two Wrangham
outings, given the size of the collection there was also plenty of opportunity for those whose purses would not stretch to the most popular lots to secure some of the many pieces estimated at three-figure levels. Many of his sword fittings, for example, were obtainable within guide at under £1000. Bonhams also had high £60,000-
continued on page 16
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88