HELPED by the boom in Chinese works of art, UK regional salerooms continue to rewrite the record books. Following the £43m vase at Bainbridges of Ruislip, Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis posted two more seven-figure sums for jades.
At their sale on November 17, they took £3.2m for an exceptional
Qianlong carving of a recumbent deer and its young on a
contemporary hardwood stand and £2m for a massive five-dragon
brushwasher.
Both lots were from Crichel House in Dorset, the source of a
pair of Imperial grey-green jade elephants (£1m) and a white jade
bell or ghanta (£2m) sold by the auctioneers in May.
The seven-figure barrier - a once unimaginable milestone for
salerooms outside London - has now been passed nine times in just
over five years. Six of those £1m-plus prices have been posted for
Chinese works of art sold by the Salisbury rooms, who in 2009 sold
a Qianlong spinach-green jade buffalo on its original gilt-bronze
stand at £3.4m, bettering the firm's previous provincial record of
£2.6m (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium) bid for a 14th century
Yuan dynasty porcelain double gourd vase in July 2005.
There is also the pair of Fra Angelico panels at Duke's of
Dorchester (£1.7m in April 2007) and a Rembrandt self portrait at
Gloucestershire's Moore, Allen & Innocent (£2.2m in October
2007).
But all previous landmarks have been obliterated by the £43m
sale at Bainbridges on November 11 of the yang cai reticulated vase
- surely a never-to-be-repeated sum?
Links:
Click
here for ATG's report of the £43m vase at Bainbridges.
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