Asian Art

Bonhams and Sotheby’s have joined Christie’s in postponing their March New York Asian art auctions due to the spread of coronavirus.

This rare Umayyad gold dinar dated 105AH (723AD) equalled the auction record for an Islamic coin (or any coin sold in Europe) when it was hammered down at £3.1m at Morton & Eden (20% buyer’s premium).

A remarkable piece of Qing porcelain sold for $270,000 at Pook & Pook in Downington, Pennsylvania.

Among the gems spotted in 2092 mixed lots at Stroud Auctions’ (18% buyer’s premium) year-opener on January 8, the best-seller was the final lot.

With an Irish silver ‘seal salver’ gleaming at the first Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (23% buyer’s premium) sale of the year (ATG No 2427), Italy, China and Russia provided other highlights.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, mentor and partner Wouter van Halm. He passed away peacefully just before Christmas, having been diagnosed with cancer just over a year previously.

Shirley Mueller is a US neuroscientist, author and Asian art collector focused on Chinese export porcelain. Her book 'Inside the Head of a Collector: Neuropsychological Forces at Play' has recently been published.

A Yongzheng (1723-35) mark and period falangcai enamel bowl sold for €3.25m (£2.8m) to lead the recent round of Asian art sales in Paris.

This 12in (30cm) cong form vase with elephant-head handles is decorated in qianjiangcai enamels by Cheng Men (1833-1908) – one of the best known of the late Qing period porcelain painters.

German auction houses traditionally hold their autumn sales of Asian art towards the end of the season and this year collectors and dealers were spoilt for choice.

Every year Paris plays host to a December Asian art auction series with a raft of sales at the Drouot auction centre and at the independent rooms across the French capital.

The Chinese carved wooden statue pictured below is one of the offerings at the January Cotswolds Decorative Antiques & Art Fair, where the selection of Asian art is set to be wide and varied.

Alongside two key early maps of colonial North America (see News, ATG No 2422) the sale at Ramsay Cornish (20% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on December 7 was distinguished by five-figure bids for two rare items.

Depiction of Emperor Shah Jahan is thought to have been prepared for his official chronicle.

The relatively short reign of the Ming emperor Xuande (1425-35) was considered a high point in the production of bronze works of art.

The sale at flood-hit Bamfords (21% buyer’s premium) on October 30 included chattels from the estate of Lady Elizabeth Georgiana Alice Cavendish (1926-2018), daughter of the 10th Duke of Devonshire of nearby Chatsworth House.