Chinese Works of Art

The highlight of last week’s Asian art series in New York was this remarkable 14in (35cm) high Warring States period (475-221BC) bronze sacrificial wine vessel or 'fang hu'.

This 9in (23cm) Qing blue and white porcelain bowl decorated in underglaze blue with squirrels in fruiting bears a Qianlong (1736-95) six-character seal mark and is probably of the period.

The highlight of an Asian art auction held at Drouot by Auction Art on September 25 is this 21½in (55cm) high Qianlong lantern-shaped vase famille rose vase and stand.

Estimated at Zar20,000-30,000, this 11in (28cm) ‘crane and deer’ famille rose pear-shaped vase sold for Zar2m (£91,800) at Stephan Welz (14% plus VAT buyer’s premium) in Cape Town.

On September 30 Veritas in Lisbon is selling Asian works of art from a single-owner private Portuguese collection formed over the past 35 years in an auction titled An Erudite Collection: objects and works of art from Shang to Qing Dynasty.

This month’s Asian art series in New York could be the last sales to avoid the new trade tariffs that have been imposed by the Trump administration.

The Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 AD), founded by the nomadic Tuoba clan, was the most long-lived and most powerful of the northern dynasties prior to the reunification of China under the Sui. Most importantly for Chinese art history, the ruling royal family were converts to Buddhism.

Two very different Chinese vases took the limelight at a recent sale Fieldings (24% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Stourbridge.

South London auction house decided to press pause but was rewarded with a bumper result

Delay due to lockdown turns out to be a blessing in disguise in terms of consignments

A pair of Chinese export black lacquer chinoiserie decorated cabinets on stands came for sale at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium) in Wisborough Green, West Sussex on August 11 with a blue-chip provenance.

This 7in (18cm) Satsuma 'koro' is modelled in the form of a 'yoroi bitsu' (Samurai armour storage box) with the 'kabuto' (traditional Japanese helmet) forming the lid.

Solid selling punctuated by a number of estimate-eclipsing bids made the July 17-18 sale a very welcome return to business for Tennants (20% buyer’s premium).

In Tibetan Buddhism the elephant-headed deity Vignataka is treated with considerable ambivalence.

Included in the Asian art section of the Kendzia two-day sale in Hamburg on September 4-5 is this set of nine Kangxi blue and white plates painted with a design of a lotus pond with flowers and insects.

Some aspects of the traditional antiques market continue to perform with zest – and ‘folk art’ is among them.

A pair of imperially inscribed Qianlong (1735-96) mark and period famille rose wall vases set a house record for Asian art at Roseberys.

It was during the so-called Transitional period, the era of protracted civil war that marked the transition from Ming to Qing, that the centuries-old system of court-sponsored porcelain manufacture at Jingdezhen collapsed.