Chinese Works of Art

Provenance adds cachet to a varied selection offered in regional sale after London first dibs

A highlight of the Asian arts sale to be held by Beaussant Lefèvre at Drouot in Paris on April 15 will be this Qing dynasty spinach-green nephrite jade imperial seal that belonged to the Qianlong Emperor (1736-95).

Skinner is holding two sales of Asian works of art in Marlborough, Massachusetts, this month: online from March 14-24 and live on March 23.

Chinese export bowls such as this one, decorated in the mandarin palette with famille rose foxhunting scenes, were popular both with the British and American markets in the last quarter of the 18th century.

This blue and white ewer with a Qianlong mark offered at Cheffins (24.5% buyer’s premium) in Cambridge as part of an Interiors sale is of a type modelled on a Zhou bronze ritual wine vessel or 'he'.

Qing period embroidered satin throne-back cushion covers can be seen still in situ in a number of the buildings in the Forbidden City including the Hall of Supreme Principle and the Palace of Eternal Spring. Others are held by institutions and collectors throughout the world.

Two Soloman Island clubs were catalyst to amassing of more than 10,000 artefacts

Leading the sale held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) in Rosewell, Edinburgh, was a 7in (18cm) high Qing iron red bottle decorated with chilong dragons amid stylised clouds. It had apparently been rejected by ‘a more prestigious auctioneer’.

This silver-gilt chinoiserie garniture would not have looked out of place at the Brighton Pavilion.

The potent mix of China, horseracing and the 1851 Great Exhibition yielded a strong price for this splendid ‘export’ silver trophy at auction.

The scene on this 19in (43cm) Yongzheng famille rose dish depicts the Daoist immortal Magu on her way to celebrate the famous peach banquet of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, who rules over the garden of the peaches of longevity.

This Qing bronze fragment measuring a substantial 19in (47cm) across was once part of a magnificent sculpture of a crane that adorned an imperial palace.

Many Chinese export porcelain forms were inspired by European silver or ceramic forms.

The highest single price posted in the regions during the autumn series of Asian art sales was the £380,000 bid at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester for a monumental Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze devotional figure of Tara broadly dated to the Qing period.

Perhaps the most identifiable production of the Daoguang period (1820-50) of the Qing empire is the medallion bowl.

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.

Leading a recent Woolley & Wallis' (25/12% buyer’s premium) sale in Salisbury were two scroll paintings by well-known 20th century Chinese artists that came by descent from Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950).

Qianlong moon flasks of this type are based on Ming dynasty prototypes that in turn were inspired by early Persian drinking vessels traded along the Silk Road.

The market for Chinese furniture has come on leaps and bounds in 20 years.

This Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white brush pot was offered at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet.