Sandwiched between New York and Hong Kong’s major Asian sales, the wide-ranging but mixed quality dispersal of Chinese, Indian and South East Asian bronzes, sculpture and works of art attracted the major players from Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as London, and received a colossal 25,000 hits on the website. “The collection pulled the whole sale along,” said CSK specialist Ingrid Collingridge.
Although little was known about how and when the collection was formed and the majority of entries sold for less than £1000, there were quality works throughout. Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong buyers contested the most expensive entry, an imperial inscribed bronze incense burner, pictured right, made to celebrate the birth of the Qianlong emperor’s first great-great grandson in 1784.
Marked with a Qianlong six-character mark (1736-95) and signed by the emperor’s powerful salt commissioner, Zheng Rui, its 32-line inscription commemorated the Hall of the Five Blessings in Five Generations. Although the inscription was badly worn in places, it sold to an anonymous telephone buyer for £34,000.
The collection also had a sleeper – a small jade plaque, pictured right, carved with three bearded musicians, 23/4in (7cm) long, made for the Persian market and catalogued as 19th century which was offered together with two Indian lapis lazuli figural groups and an ivory carving.
Early jades are notoriously difficult to date with confidence due to the large numbers of fakes around, but pre-sale discussion in the trade was split as to whether this was a 13th century Song dynasty jade or a 10th century Tang dynasty example. It sold in the room to a dealer bidding on behalf of a client who felt confident of its 13th century heritage and paid £15,000 for ownership.
All bar two lots from the collection sold, contributing £235,100 to the overall £437,795 total. The sale was a healthy 83 per cent sold by lot.
Good timing and Web exposure add to quality of lots
The seasonal nature of the international Asian art market means buyers risk being swamped by the sheer volume of Asian art auctioned in a concentrated period. So it was the sale timing as much as the market freshness of a 103-lot private English collection of Asian works of art from a deceased estate that contributed to the success of Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) 465-lot outing on October 4.
