Yesterday's "Fine Chinese Paintings" auction at Sotheby's proved once again that traditional painting holds the strongest sway over the imagination of Chinese art connoisseurs — and over the Chinese market. While sales results in other sectors, such as contemporary and modern Chinese art, have been uneven this season, the results for Chinese painting at this auction were so impressive that works reaching merely their highest estimate seemed to be failures. Lot after lot, the hammer fell on prices that were multiples of the high estimate.

The star painting of the day — Fu Baoshis "Court Ladies" (1945) — was hammered down for HK$29 million ($3.7 million), three times its high estimate of HK$7 million. Ninety one percent of the lots today were sold above the high estimate, and only three out of 270 works on offer were unable to find buyers. All of this added up to the best result ever achieved by Sotheby’s for a various owners sale of fine Chinese paintings, with a total haul (including buyer’s premium) of HK$407 million ($52 million)

The sale also installed five particular artists at the top of the market for traditional painting: Fu Baoshi, Qi Baishi, Wu Guanzhong, Xu Beihong, and Zhang Daqian. Of these five, four were represented in the auction's top ten lots.

Although Fu Baoshi's painting fetched the highest price, the undisputed star of the day was Zhang Daqian, who accounted for four of the top ten lots. An artist of prodigious and protean talent, he set the record this spring for the highest price ever paid for a Chinese work of modern or contemporary art when his beautiful, expressionistic 1968 study of the Austrian Alps was knocked down at China Guardian Auctions for 101 million yuan ($15 million). Today, Zhang was represented at auction by a range of works, from such masterpieces as "Sceneries of Jiangnan" (1948) — which was hammered for HK$25 million ($3.2 million) — to a simple nude study, "Nude No. 15" (1990), that drew a winning bid of HK$450,000 ($58,000) against a high estimate of $200,000. As an artist, Zhang appeals to a range of tastes: at various points in his career, he has represented traditional Chinese painting at its most refined, impressionistic, and expressionistic. Even his calligraphy is admirable.

Though separate from the marquee names, a range of lesser-known artists also attracted strong support. These included Huang Yongyu, Lin Fengmian and Huang Binhong.

In theory, the sale was meant to offer something for every price range but, as it turned out, even the most modest lots soared to high prices. Furthermore, many works sparked pitched battles between bidders, both in the room and on the phone. Cagey would-be buyers employed various strategies to spook their opponents, including "blitz bidding," wherein one would attempt to spike a work's price by abruptly and drastically raising the stakes. More than once, the price jumped by more than HK$1 million.

Chinese mainland buyers were utterly dominant. The saleroom hummed with Mandarin, and the old-style Hong Kong collectors seemed lost in a sea of new players who were flush with cash and prepared to pay huge sums to acquire works by marquee names. In such a context, the idea that a connoisseur might snare a bargain seemed fantastical.

Perhaps the most arresting image from the day was provided during the bidding for the top lot. One of the Chinese collectors involved was accompanied by his young family and, at different times during a long day’s bidding, he had surrendered his paddle to his children to bid for him. When Fu Baoshi’s "Court Ladies" hit the block, he had his son — who was no more than 9 years old — raise the paddle first at HK$13 million and then continue the bidding on his behalf.

He sat calmly as the offers rose in HK$2 million jumps before slowing on their final climb to the young boy’s winning bid of HK29 million. During all this no one seemed surprised. And why should they be? The man was simply inculcating his son into a tradition of devotion to Chinese painting far older than any of the artworks in the room.