HONG KONG—As befits the Chinese calendar’s year of the Ox, Christie’s and Sotheby’s are bullish about collectors’ appetite for art and antiquities this spring. Sotheby’s is hosting 10 auctions, from April 4 through 8, including, on the 4th, its first in Hong Kong devoted to wine. Hitting the block in its Eight Treasures from a European Collection sale on the 8th are several pieces that the house expects to fetch between $HK15 million and $HK20 million ($1.9-2.6 million) — among them a Qianlong period (1736-95) celadon reticulated vase and a pair of Wanli period (1573-1619) gold lacquer bookcases — as well as a Tang Dynasty (618-907) tortoiseshell box from a private Japanese collection that is estimated at around $HK40 million ($5.3 million).

Christie’s rounds out the season with 12 sales, from May 23 through 27, of treasures ranging from wine to antiques to classic and contemporary Chinese and Southeast Asian paintings. Among the expected top lots are Ni Pollok (est. $HK2- 2.4 million; $256-308,000), a portrait by the Belgian painter Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merprès (1880-1958) of his Balinese wife, on offer on May 24; Untitled No. 10 by the contemporary Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi ($HK6-8 million; $774,000-1 million), in the Asian Contemporary Art sale; and in the Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale on May 27, a late 18th-century Qianlong period ormolu clock (estimate upon request). The piece is a match to the most expensive clock sold at auction, which last year made just over $5 million at Sotheby’s. "Made in Asia" originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2009 Table of Contents.