Chinese Works of Art

Delayed by snow for a week, the Spring Sale at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) on March 27 opened with a local collection of Republic-era (1912-49) porcelain.

An ideal marriage of skills, rather than a clash of cultures, put a pair of c.1790-1800 Chinese export vases into the limelight at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne.

One of the smallest but most eye-catching lots at the Oriental sale at Bonhams Edinburgh (25% buyer’s premium) was two 4¼in (11cm) high Manchu officials’ bronze seals.

Avon and Somerset police are appealing for information after a raid on the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath.

A rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, sold for £410,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at the Canterbury Auction Galleries.

An exceptionally rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, has been discovered in a house in a Kent seaside town.

More than $120m of Asian art was sold at auction during last week’s New York Asia Week.

New York gallery show coincides with and adds to the Asian art week of events...

The Asian art sale at Chiswick confirmed that many of the better pieces of Chinese art are now well beyond the budget of the average western collector.

A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.

Promoted as including the contents from a Derbyshire country home, the three-day pre-Christmas sale at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) was more notable for two unusual collections and pieces which came in after a valuation day.