Bonhams announce its upcoming Asian Decorative Arts auction that will be taking place at its San Francisco saleroom on Tuesday, March 4. Following the highly successful, two-day Asian art auction held there in December of 2013, this San Francisco sale promises to include exciting material for seasoned collectors, dealers and new collectors alike.
The auction will include more than 350 lots of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian objects across a wide spectrum of materials and styles. The start of the sale features some 30 lots of Japanese works, highlighted by a Nagasaki school six-panel screen depicting birds and flowers painted on paper, dating from the 18th/19th century (est. $5,000-7,000). The Japanese session also includes a number of sought after woodblock prints by the well-known printmaker Hiroshi Yoshida.
The items in the sale have been drawn from a number of private collectors, estates and institutions, which include items that have not been available to the public for decades, among them that of Emmanuel Gran. Spectacular results were seen when works from Mr. Gran’s collection reached the block in the Bonhams Fine Asian Art auction in December of 2013, and spirited bidding will surely be seen for the remainder of his collection that is being offered at Bonhams throughout 2014.
Mr. Gran was an architect and major collector of Chinese art, who brought his collection to the United States in 1941 after living and collecting in China for more than 20 years. Residing in California in the 1940s, he then moved to New York where he worked as an architect for the Hilton hotels. He sold many pieces from his extensive collection to major collectors and dealers prior to his death in 1969. The 100-plus superb small jades and scholar’s objects from the 17th-19th centuries to be offered here at Bonhams have been retained by the family until now.
The sale also includes ancient objects dating from the Han dynasty through the Tang dynasty, consigned by the private collection of the J. Russell Wherritt Administration Trust, as well as unaccessioned property from the Honolulu Museum of Art. The session is punctuated by a massive Sichuan painted gray pottery figure of a prancing horse, Han dynasty, from the Estates of Marilyn and Milton Myers of Hollywood, Fla., (est. $10,000-15,000).
One of the many highlights from the sale will be a pair of fine white jade table screens, dating from the Qing dynasty, which depict a grand mountain scene with pine trees (est. $20,000-30,000). The screens are property from a private American collector and were purchased in 2001 from Manheim Galleries of New Orleans. The fine color of the jade is sure to attract jade collectors from across the globe.
In addition to a variety of jades and hardstone carvings, numerous lots of Chinese paintings and calligraphic works will be on offer, as well as many examples of textiles and other works of Chinese art, including furniture, highlighted by a pair of huanghuali and mixed hardwood display cabinets from the 18th/19th century (est. $30,000-50,000). The pair was formerly in a private Italian collection and was earlier sold by Eskenazi Galleries of Milan, Italy.
The illustrated auction catalog for the sale will be available online for review and purchase in the weeks preceding the sale at www.bonhams.com/auctions/21614/.
