Asia WeekBy Margaret Tao
Published: November 1, 2009
Doyle
Asian Works of Art
234 lots offered $2,519,945 sold total 3 percent unsold by value 20 percent unsold by lot
Christie's
Asian Works of Art
115 lots offered $3,285,875 sold total 1 percent unsold by value 3 percent unsold by lot Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art 351 lots offered $20,659,175 sold total 5 percent unsold by value 17 percent unsold by lot South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art 100 lots offered $6,285,900 sold total 19 percent unsold by value 37 percent unsold by lot Indian and Southeast Asian Art 184 lots offered $3,446,838 sold total 22 percent unsold by value 39 percent unsold by lot Japanese and Korean Art 156 lots offered $2,905,000 sold total 36 percent unsold by value 43 percent unsold by lot
Bonhams
Fine Japanese Works of Art
170 lots offered $727,801 sold total 33.1 percent unsold by value 48.2 percent unsold by lot The Bluette H. Kirchhoff Collection of Netsuke and Sagemono 277 lots offered $1,749,480 sold total 4.3 percent unsold by value 9 percent unsold by lot The Geldart Collection of Chinese Furniture, Scholar’s Objects and Carpets 108 lots offered $678,320 sold total 17.1 percent unsold by value 34.2 percent unsold by lot
Sotheby’s
Fine Chinese Furniture, Works of Art and Carpets from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections 86 lots offered $4,615,054 sold total .5 percent unsold by value 4.6 percent unsold by lot Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art 195 lots offered $10,917,425 sold total 9.1 percent unsold by value 25.1 percent unsold by lot South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art Including Miniature Paintings 89 lots offered $3,747,800 lots offered 9.1 percent unsold by value 29.2 percent unsold by lot The week began with a bang at the Asian Works of Art sale at Doyle New York on September 14. The session, the house’s highest-grossing in the category in six years, was marked by aggressive bidding by Chinese from both Hong Kong and the mainland for ceramics from the collection of Hugh J. and Lucie Mackey Grant, assembled in the late 19th century. Among these pieces was the top earner, a Jiaqing (1796-1820) mark and period white-glazed molded porcelain vase, which the Hong Kong dealer Bryan Chow acquired for $710,500 (est. $30-50,000). Another Hong Kong dealer, William Chak, targeted the Grant pieces as well, bagging a Qianlong (1736-95, incorrectly catalogued as 19th century) mark and period blue-and-white-glazed porcelain vase for $662,500 (est. $2,000-3,000). Also in the sale were pieces being deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, including the cover lot, an 1898 Japanese model of a pagoda, won by New York dealer Sebastian Izzard for $62,500 (est.$25-35,000). Later that day, 111 lots from the Arthur M. Sackler collection performed brilliantly at Christie’s, reprising the March success of the house’s first sale of the well-known art patron’s Chinese holdings. Fierce competition among Chinese bidders in the room and on the telephones resulted in prices that doubled and tripled the items’ estimates. The most heated contests were for archaic bronzes and jades. A Western Zhou (1100-771 b.c.) bronze gui, or ritual food vessel (est. $20-30,000), snagged top honors, going to an Asian private collector on the telephone for $362,500. At the house’s Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale on September 15, furious bidding on the phones and on the Christie’s Live Web site greeted any pieces with a whiff of imperial association or that hailed from old private collections, especially jades, rhinoceros-horn carvings and Ming Dynasty or later mark and period porcelain. Perfectly fitting the bill was a carved zitan-wood stand and cover for an ink stone from the renowned J. M. Hu Collection that was inscribed "for the personal use of Qianlong" and dated to the Wu Xu year (1778) of the emperor’s reign (est. $20-30,000). An Asian private collector bidding on the telephone claimed that prize for $1,426,500 but lost out to another Asian private collector on a 14th- to 15th-century Yuan or early Ming Dynasty numbered Junyao-glaze narcissus bowl made for the imperial palace, which fetched $1,258,500 (est. $300-500,000). The buying frenzy continued on September 16 at the Sotheby’s auction of items from the Sackler collection (which, unusually, was split between the two major houses, with each winning consignments from different family members). Despite the fact that the top Chinese-furniture dealers sat on their hands, regarding many pieces to be in less than perfect condition, items made from prized zitan and huanghuali woods were snapped up. A pair of large 17th-century huanghuali compound cabinets and two-drawer stands (est. $120-180,000) was the high earner, going for $1,022,500 to a Chinese private collector. Bidders were more selective that afternoon but nevertheless pushed some pieces to extraordinary heights. An Asian private collector on the telephone battled a Hong Kong dealer for a large Qianlong period celadon vase and cover from the R. Norris Shreve collection (est. $250-300,000), eventually winning it for $926,500. At the same house in June 1994, the vase had brought $44,850. A Jiaqing mark and period famille rose lantern-shaped vase (est. $250-350,000) bearing a Gordon Getty provenance and featuring a popular subject, "ladies of the Han palace," enticed Hong Kong dealer Chow to lay out $902,500. A Kangxi period 12-panel black-lacquer coromandel screen (est. $80-120,000) was similarly boosted by an inscribed cyclical date of Renxu (1682) and a favored topic, "mansion of Prefect Fenyang," achieving the auction record for such screens of $602,500.
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