Chinese Works of Art

A collection of early 20th century Chinese silver attracted wide interest at Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) September 6 sale at Selsdon, south London.

A selection of good online illustrations plus a brief noncommittal description can be the regional auctioneer’s safest route when offering Chinese works of art. It proved successful when a porcelain bowl was consigned to the September 7 sale Greenslade Taylor & Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) held at Taunton.

Tapering cabinets or yuanjiaogui were valued by the Ming and Qing for their practical use, as the primary place of storage for clothes and linen, and also paintings and books.

Lazarus Halstead, head of Asian art at Chiswick Auctions, describes this 33ft (10m) long handscroll as “both a work of art and an historical document”.

A monumental pair of limestone hands clutching a reliquary date to the Northern Qi period (550-557AD).

With the spread of religion and the development of the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), Chinese works of art began to develop widely in terms of geography and form.

The Qianlong period (1736-95) porcelain plate made for export c.1740-60 is painted in famille rose enamels and en grisaille with a half-length portrait of St Simon.

The personal seals used by the Qianlong Emperor, a known connoisseur and patron of the arts, are among the most highly prized Chinese artefacts in today’s market.

A Song dynasty brush washer, one of the few examples of Ru guanyao court ware still in private hands, will be offered by Sotheby’s Hong Kong with an estimate in excess of HK$100m on October 3.

Large-scale paintings of intimate domestic scenes are unusual in Chinese art. The Chinese export reverse-painted glass painting of a young mother nursing her infant son offered at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, earlier this month is thought to be one of only a handful of full-size versions painted of this once popular image.

Made in various materials across the centuries, brush pots used by Chinese scholars are steady favourites at UK auctions and the blue and white porcelain example shown here was no exception when offered at Thomas Watson’s (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale at Darlington on June 20.

Offered as a job lot, these 2¾in (7cm) tall Chinese cloisonné stemmed cups and tea bowl pictured here were entered into the August 15 sale at Stamford auction house Batemans (20% buyer’s premium) by a private vendor content with the £50-70 estimate.

The final session of James D Julia’s three-day sale of more than 1600 lots to be held in Fairfield, Maine, from August 16-18 is devoted to Asian art.