Chinese Works of Art

A 19th century scrimshaw carved on board a whaling ship with an all African-American crew sold for $7250 (£5700) at Bruneau & Co (20% buyer’s premium).

A famille rose porcelain moon flask, possibly made at the imperial kilns for the Qing emperor Jiaqing, took more than 75-times estimate at auction.

Modestly guided at just £200-300, this tiny Qianlong period ruby-glazed teabowl and 4in (10.5cm) diameter saucer generated plenty of interest when it came up for sale at Elstob (25% buyer’s premium).

North Yorkshire saleroom starts 2024 with 2600 lots offered over two weeks in four auctions

The bright blue iridescent feathers of the kingfisher have been used to decorate objects and jewellery and items of personal adornment for over 2000 years in China, where the birds are also known as jade or jadeite birds.

On January 30, as part of Old Masters Week, Sotheby’s New York conducts a sale titled The Pleasure of Objects: The Ian & Carolina Irving Collection.

In Chinese symbolism, three goats shown together are representative of the New Year, bringing a change of fortune (sanyang kaitai).

Yabu Meizan (1853-1934) is considered the ‘prince’ of the so-called Satsuma medium.

Catalogued simply as an ‘ornate Chinese plaque’ and estimated at $600-800, a Qing lacquer and porcelain panel hammered for a remarkable $440,000 (£359,000) at Regency Auction House in Rockaway, New Jersey.

Classical Chinese furniture deaccessioned from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts produced some sensational results at a dedicated Asian Art sale held by Brunk Auctions (23% buyer’s premium) in Asheville, North Carolina on October 19.

The most eagerly awaited of the five Asian art catalogues offered by Woolley & Wallis was an array of 34 Chinese jades from the Lawrence family collection.

A Chinese ‘dragon’ box fashioned in the prized Asian wood zitan sold for £110,000 at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) on November 3.

The Dutch diplomat, musician, writer and sinologist Robert Hans van Gulik (1910-67), also known as Gao Luopei, was a great admirer of traditional Chinese literati culture.

A spectacular Chinese bronze surfaced at DuMouchelles’ auction in Detroit.

A textbook Chinese sleeper emerged at a recent sale held by Helmuth Stone (25% buyer’s premium): this 11in (29cm) cinnabar red lacquer circular box and cover.

Estimated at $30,000-50,000, an ink and colour on paper hanging scroll by Shi Lu (1919-82) took a mighty $430,000 (£354,500) at the latest Bonhams (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) auction of Fine Chinese Paintings in New York.

Chinese item was owned by dealer who ran famed store on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago

This pair of Qianlong (1735-96) cloisonné standing lion dogs with riders came for sale at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) with a provenance to George Ann Brown Carter, wife of media scion Amon Giles Carter Jr (1919-82) of Fort Worth, Texas.