Asian Art

Two under-catalogued Sino-Tibetan bronzes illuminated the regional saleroom scene with multi-estimate sums in the final days of November.

Danish auctioneer Bruun Rasmussen has withdrawn a Chinese flask from sale for the second time following disagreements over its age.

For the first time in a decade, Sotheby’s Asian Art in London offering included a designated sale of Japanese art on November 6.

An unusual dish from the workshop of Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927) sold for £18,000 at Woolley & Wallis on November 14. But this was not the only example of top-tier Meiji cloisonné for sale last month.

Despite the disparity in numbers, the market for Chinese and Japanese works of art are increasingly aligned.

A welcome addition to the November 21 Asian Works of Art sale at Matthew Barton (24% buyer’s premium) of 25 Blythe Road in west London were 79 netsuke from the collection belonging to Edmund de Waal, author of the bestselling memoir 'The Hare with Amber Eyes'. London Japanese art dealer Max Rutherston helped organise the sale and took this section of the auction.

The influx of Asian art buyers that accompanies the Asian Art in London initiative also encourages activity across the Irish Sea. Both Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin, for the first time, and Sheppards (20% buyer’s premium) in Durrow held designated sales on November 3 and November 11 respectively.

Included in the sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on October 11 was a brick from the Great Wall of China. It probably dated from the Ming period when Great Wall sections were widely built with fired clay bricks, adhered with lime mortar and sticky rice.

Among the most coveted of all the standard Chinese export porcelain designs is the so-called ‘Rockefeller’ pattern or Palace ware.

December is one of two key periods in the French calendar when the auction houses concentrate their sales of Asian art. Pictured here is a selection of highlights and unusual pieces coming up for sale this month in the Paris rooms.

Woolley & Wallis celebrated its 10th £1m-plus lot last week, selling a portrait by Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fei Yun (b.1954) for £1.7m (plus premium). The sitter – the artist’s wife pictured in the early days of their marriage – was in Salisbury to watch the sale.

The organisers of Asian Art in London are to abandon the event’s ‘best objects’ award after doubt was cast on the authenticity of one of this year’s winners. The Danish auctioneer which won the award however is standing by the Yuan attribution for the flask after conducting a scientific test.

The sales of Asian art at Lempertz in Cologne traditionally devote a large selection to Japanese works of art and the auction on December 7-8 is no exception.

Among the lots in the sale of porcelain and works of art at Metz in Heidelberg on December 15 about 80 Asian pieces come from an old German collection that was on loan to the state museums in Berlin for many decades from 1963 onwards.

Dogny Auction in Switzerland will be offering around 75 lots of ceramics and other Asian works art from the collection of Rolf Heiniger in its winter sale on December 4-5 in Lausanne.

Take nine five-clawed dragons, add 19 bats and place them among swirling clouds and breaking waves and you have the décor of a very rare 18th century iron-red and underglaze blue moon flask that is one of the star lots at Nagel in the sale in Salzburg on December 6-7.