Chinese Works of Art

At the budget-price end of the Chinese boom – which tends to get overlooked – profits are there for the keen eyed, such as the vendor of this twin-handled censer shown here.

Estimated at £400-600, a Chinese porcelain vase was bid to £1.3m at an auction in Hampshire last week.

Sotheby’s opened its September Asia Week auctions in New York on September 10 with the $8.3m sale of Chinese art consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Japanese carved ivories of a tiger and an elephant soared far above estimate at Chorley’s (22% buyer’s premium).

Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.

Bowl and chicken cup impress in Suffolk and Berkshire salerooms.

A UK dealer is considering moving Chinese objects to the US earlier than planned in the hope of staying ahead of import tariff changes.

The interior of this 15in (38cm) mid-19th century Chinese gilt and black lacquer workbox includes two layers of 15 small interlocking boxes. The central cruciform-shaped box has a pin cushion incorporated in the lid.

The sale of a £200,000 Chinese vase in Suffolk completed a trio of house records across the regions that belied the usually quiet auction season.

Aldridges of Bath smashed its house record last week with the sale of a Yongzheng mark and period bowl for £220,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium). It had come for sale following a routine house call.

A pair of 20ct gold wedding boxes dating from the late Qing period is on offer (one shown here). Both are embossed with the 12 symbols of the Chinese zodiac with the lids decorated with the sign of the Dragon and the Rabbit identifying each marriage partner.

Far and away the highest result for an Asian work of art in recent sales in Germany, Austria and Switzerland was the spectacular price of SFr4.2m (£3.3m) achieved by Koller in Zurich for a Chinese bronze censer (see front page, ATG No 2397).

Catalogued as a ‘tin glazed hand painted Chinese vase – 17in (42cm) tall’ and estimated at £50-80, a late 17th century Kangxi period famille verte porcelain vase of waisted trumpet form sold on June 22 for a healthier £12,000 – 150 times the top estimate.

A Chinese parcel gilt bronze censer, that was being used to hold tennis balls when first seen by valuers last year, has sold at auction in Switzerland for close to £3.3m.

Police have recovered a haul of stolen Asian artworks and returned them to the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath.