The second specialist Asian Art sale was held at Chiswick Auctions on 5 May 2015. The quarterly sale brought in sales over £250,000 – more than double the total of the February Asian Art sale and another record for the auction house. There were strong results across all categories with many pieces selling well above their estimates. The results prove Chiswick Auction’s increasingly important position in the London market for Chinese and Asian works of Art.
The categories of cloisonné enamel and classical Chinese paintings, historically strong categories at Chiswick Auctions, continued to perform well, with the top lot once again being a piece of Ming Dynasty cloisonné. Lot 71, a late Ming Dynasty cloisonné and gilt bronze duck censer sold for £24,000 and a mid-Ming cloisonné enamel begging bowl made £13,440. The painting of 81 goats, lot 115, made a respectable £8,400, more than double the presale estimate. Calligraphy by a follower of Zhu Xi (1130 – 1200) made £6,000, lot 203, and a pair of calligraphic scrolls by Yang Yisun (1812 – 1881), lot 216, sold for £960. This was one of eight lots of 19th and 20th Century Chinese paintings from a private collection which together made £23,000.
Chinese later bronzes also performed strongly; lot 105, the gold splashed bronze censer passing the top estimate to reach £12,480.
Surprise successes in the sale included new categories of art reference/ephemera and textiles. Furniture also performed well, another area of the sale’s expanding remit. A section of the archive of Roger Bluett, comprising log books, catalogues and old invoices, and split across lots 97 and 98 together made £17,400. Later in the sale a collection of 45 old postcards depicting images of China, lot 323, sold for £840. Two kesi and one embroidered scholars robes, lots 189, 324 and 188, together notched up £10,200.
As usual, there were strong results in Chinese porcelain, jade and scholar’s objects. Whilst Chinese art accounted for the majority of the value of the sale, close to a quarter of sales by value came from works from Japan, India and South East Asia. Notable among these were, lot 238, a Burmese parabaik, which sold for £4,800. Lot 258, a miniature Moghul painting of children from the Indian Royal family, sold for £5,040. A Japanese gilt bronze pheasant by Masatsune, lot 277, made £1,560.
Note: all results are listed inclusive of buyer’s premium.
The next Asian Art sale will be taking place on Tuesday 1 September and we are currently welcoming consignments. Please contact Lazarus Halstead, [email protected] 0208 992 4442
For more information or to request hi-res images, please contact: Nicola Rae-Wickham, [email protected] +44(0)208 992 4442.
Website: www.chiswickauctions.co.uk
