This month the Somerset auctioneer offered another collection of Chinese lots which generated two six-figure highlights.
A pair of Chinese two-handled baluster vases in famille rose, catalogued as “Daoguang style and probably of the period”, were hammered down at £144,000, against a £1000-1500 estimate, to a Hong Kong buyer on the telephone.
The 11in (27.5cm) high vases carried iron-red six-character marks and pierced hardwood and ivory-mounted stands.
Earlier in the auction a set of six Chinese hardwood and embroidered screens of mountain and lake scenes (with a signature) were estimated at £400-600. The brass swing-handled screens, with Holland & Son paper labels, measured 4ft 8in x 20in (1.42m x 51cm) each and were hammered down at £100,000 to a buyer on the telephone from mainland China.
These lots were not quite as remarkable as the Qing vase which sold for £252,000 in January, but stood out in the sale of nearly 1300 lots on April 6 which made a hammer total of £1.04m for the Somerset firm.
A detail from a gold thread and coloured silk 2ft x 5ft 1in (63cm x 1.55m) panel. It was hammered down at £40,000, against a £200-400 estimate at Cheffins in Cambridge April 6 sale.
Another example of the demand for Chinese objects was a late 19th/early 20th century yellow silk overmantel panel with a hardwood frame which sold at Cheffins in Cambridge on April 6. The gold thread and coloured silk 2ft x 5ft 1in (63cm x 1.55m) panel was hammered down at £40,000 against a £200-400 estimate.
