Antiques Trade Gazette


9


their source…


LONDON JAPANESE SALES RESULTS AT A GLANCE Hammer total


No of lots


The Edward Wrangham Collection Part III Bonhams


Japanese Art and Design Christie’s South Ken


Japanese Art Bonhams


Masterful Exuberance S/O sale Christie’s South Ken


15/05/12 16/05/12 17/05/12 18/05/12 409


349 362 257


(trade and private) material, haven’t seen such high selling rates and recent results in Hong Kong and New York, like London, have seen take-up percentages in the 50s to 70s. Sales of Chinese paintings, whether


modern or traditional, appear to be weathering things better, for this is very much Chinese-taste material. So, too, is Chinese hardwood furniture to judge by some recent results. It can be added to other well-known in-demand categories, such as jade of the best colour and


£1.37m


£1.1m £1.27m £1.76m


Sold in lots


83% 66%


71% 82%


Sold in money


94%


78% 74% 91%


Imperial works of art. London is not traditionally the auction


arena for selling Chinese painting and there were no single-owner collections on offer as separate auctions except among the Japanese sales. The mixed-owner assemblages, therefore, demonstrated the selectiveness shown elsewhere, as buyers focused on the single-owner private collections with material that appealed to their tastes. The strongest take-up for London’s Chinese sales this spring was at the


two secondary sales in Christie’s South Kensington. Their March 18 auction, the last in the series, offered a commercial mix, with the bonus of very attractively pitched estimates and a particular draw in some of the small private collections peppered through the day, and it attracted large numbers of Asian trade who secured nine of the ten top priced lots. Although it forms an integral part of


the Asian series, the Japanese market is very different. Indeed those with long memories back to the 1980s and ‘90s may recall when a booming economy meant that it was Japanese rather than Chinese bidders buying up everything from Impressionist paintings and Gallé glass to Edo prints and Kakiemon vases. The Japanese economy has been flat for many years, however, and the demand for its artworks has mirrored it, so expectations in this field have long been muted and price levels in fields like Kakiemon porcelain or netsuke have yet to reattain their late 20th century zenith. However, recently there have been


signs of more confidence in the Japanese sorts best jade from the rest


Far left: the Imperial double-gourd seal which topped the spring Asian series in London when it sold for £3m at Bonhams.


Centre left: a white Jade Imperial dragon vase that fetched £420,000 at Christie’s.


Left: a white and russet Qianlong brushpot sold for £1.35m at Sotheby’s.


inclusions, carved with three immortals holding their various attributes. It formed part of a collection acquired between 1890 and 1917 by Ernest James Wythes (1868-1949) to decorate the Chinese drawing room of Copped Hall, Epping and was offered by direct descent. It was pursued to a multiple of its £250,000- 300,000 estimate, selling finally to an Asian dealer for no less than £1.35m. The secondary mixed-owner Asian


sales at Christie’s South Kensington and Bonhams also featured quantities of jade entries. CSK’s sale saw much lower bought-in rates for their offering partly, one suspects, because the estimates were much lower and here, as with most


Above and left: two Song ceramics that made much more than expected. The lobed ge-type bowl fetched £700,000 at Christie’s and the lavender splash jun type dish went for £420,000 at Sotheby’s.


other categories included in this auction, there were a number of lots that eclipsed their modest guides. Many of them were pieces from a private East Asian collection formed in the 1980s and ‘90s in Hong Kong which focused on small plaques and figures in desirable white and pale celadon tones.


Ceramics The London series’ highest ceramics


price was to be found at Christie’s King Street and underscored the continued demand for Imperial ceramics, especially pieces as imposing in size as these.


The 2ft 2½in (68cm) high, Jiajing


mark-and-period yellow ground vases, which had come from a private English collection, and carried a substantial £800,000-£1.2m estimate, were finely painted with an array of auspicious symbols to the upper half and to the lower with a continuous processional scene of foreigners on horseback bearing tributes. Bidding opened at £600,000 and


two bidders in the room were joined by two others on the phone, the hammer falling to the second of the phone bidders at £1.1m.


continued on page 12


Above: a blanc de chine figure of Guanyin that realised £440,000 at Bonhams.


market again, most markedly visible when a strong single-owner collection is offered. Bonhams have produced a number of these single-owner successes. The Wrangham collection of inro, which has been dispersed in a series of sales starting in November 2010, consistently produced high selling rates in the 80s and some record individual prices. This was followed up by the Harriet Schezenyi collection of netsuke and inro last November, which was 88% sold to net £3.73m. That enthusiasm continued into the latest London sales series with part three of the Wrangham Collection. This spring Christie’s also pulled a


single-owner offering out of the Japanese hat – the anonymously consigned Meiji collection dubbed Masterful Exuberance at South Kensington. This too saw high selling rates. By contrast, demand for the mixed-


owner assemblages of Japanese art at both houses, like the mixed-owner Chinese sales, was more selective. Buyer's premiums for all sales were 25/20/12%.


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