Chiswick Auctions recorded the top price, setting a new house record with the £225,000 sale of a 30m handscroll by Xu Naigu (1785-1835) on November 13.
The work, illustrated across eight pages of the catalogue, had been commended by the Asian Art in London 2017 judging committee. It features 97 calligraphic inscriptions spanning 127 years of the waning Qing dynasty.
The owner received it as a wedding gift from her father in 1974 in Hong Kong.
Salisbury-based Woolley & Wallis’ November 14-15 Asian Art sale was eagerly contested across both days, totalling £2.5m. Leading the auction at £130,000 was a Yongzheng (1722-35) mark and period ru-type archaistic vase with a pale blue celadon glaze that came from a Scottish private collection formed in the early 20th century.
Also on November 14, Dreweatts in Donnington Priory took £34,000 for a late Ming bronze of Guanyin that came by descent from the German-born collector Richard Gumperz (1882-1942).
There were patchy sales for Duke’s and Lyon & Turnbull, but those at Mallams and Sworders proved more buoyant.
Mallams’ sale in Cheltenham on October 25-26 was topped at £39,000 by a Cantonese enamel panel c.1800 decorated with a vibrant hunting scene. Sworders’ top lot at £41,000 was Jiaqing (1796-1820) gilt-decorated powder blue bottle vase, a lot that had ‘sold’ in May but went unpaid.
