Asian Art

This broad umbrella category comprises everything from Qianlong vases to Islamic calligraphy. Asian art has been collected in the West over many generations and inspired many famous European productions. An example is the Japanese porcelain from the Kakiemon kilns, the styles of which that became adopted by European factories such as Meissen. 

Today, demand from Asian buyers has lifted the market of works in this sector across the world.

Collection of Meiji is an attraction in Lincolnshire

02 April 2001

UK: ORIENTAL antiques rarely make the strongest contribution to provincial sales – although they have provided a few hugely gratifying if rather embarrassing sleepers before today – but the first day of this Lincolnshire sale featured a private collection of Meiji works of art that attracted strong bidding from the specialist trade.

A piece of porcelain fit for princes

19 February 2001

UK: JAPANESE porcelain does not come much rarer or more expensive than that produced by the private factory of the princes of Nabeshima, which is why auctioneer Nigel Kirk’s pulse quickened when he first glanced at this 8in (20cm) diameter dish, illustrated here, entered for the January sale of Mellors and Kirk.

Jade chicken cup flies to £19,000

12 February 2001

UK: When a private UK vendor consigned a Chinese celadon jade cup to Christie’s South Kensington (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) at £400-600, he could not have hoped in his wildest dreams to sell it for almost 50 times the low estimate.

Tek Sing – proof that the Internet can work

04 December 2000

IN a week that has seen the NASDAQ plummet and general gloom settle over the dotcom world, the massive Tek Sing cargo sale has shown that the Internet can play an extremely useful role in the international auction scene.

Chinese blue and white ewer

17 October 2000

UK: The unexpected crowd puller at Lyon & Turnbull’s 509-lot sale on October 8 was this Wanli period (1573-1619) Chinese blue and white ewer estimated at £400-500

Splendid pair of 18th century Chinese polychrome famille rose hawks found at local family home

19 June 2000

UK: Hawk-eyed Neil Froggatt spotted the true worth of an antique treasure during a routine household evaluation.

Fatigue proves deadly to Ming relic

12 June 2000

US: ONE OF the rarest chairs in the world has met with an unexpected fate at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. A 17th century Chinese folding armchair, which had accomodated the highest dignitaries of the Imperial court, was unable to bear the weight of a weary museum visitor who had disregarded the ‘do not touch’ sign and sat down to rest his feet.

‘Have they not Arts?’ ‘They have pottery’

22 May 2000

UK: JAMES Boswell’s question and Dr Samuel Johnson’s answer on the subject of China, c.1778.

Qianlong vases sell in the midst of controversy

07 May 2000

HONG KONG: Christie’s and Sotheby’s enjoyed a successful start to their Spring series of sales in Hong Kong last week, despite some local difficulties.

£50,000 for a graphic display of the art of lacquer

09 August 1999

UK: JAPANESE lacquer is a complex form of decoration requiring the painstaking application of layer upon layer and incorporating different materials to build up the finished pictorial surface.

Rare Ming bowl sets world auction record

03 May 1999

HONG KONG: A WORLD auction price was set for Chinese porcelain when this extremely rare doucai chicken cup, from the Ming Dynasty, with the six-character mark and period of Chenghua, 1465-78, from the collection of Mrs Leopold Dreyfus, sold to Eskenazi Ltd of London for HK$25.4m (£2m) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on April 27.

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