Asian Art

Qing period embroidered satin throne-back cushion covers can be seen still in situ in a number of the buildings in the Forbidden City including the Hall of Supreme Principle and the Palace of Eternal Spring. Others are held by institutions and collectors throughout the world.

A collection of Chinese snuff bottles offered in two sessions stands out among an intriguing selection of Asia Week New York auctions and dealer shows.

Chinese export bowls such as this one, decorated in the mandarin palette with famille rose foxhunting scenes, were popular both with the British and American markets in the last quarter of the 18th century.

Some 26 galleries will be participating in the dealers’ section of Asia Week New York either in person at a variety of city galleries or online.

Leading the sale held by Thomson Roddick (18% buyer’s premium) in Rosewell, Edinburgh, was a 7in (18cm) high Qing iron red bottle decorated with chilong dragons amid stylised clouds. It had apparently been rejected by ‘a more prestigious auctioneer’.

This silver-gilt chinoiserie garniture would not have looked out of place at the Brighton Pavilion.

Two signed watercolours by the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011) will be on sale at Bruneau & Co of Cranston, Rhode Island, on February 21.

One of the highlights of the April 2007 London Islamic sale series had been this 2ft 4in (74cm) high white marble bust of Maharajah Duleep Singh by neoclassical sculptor John Gibson.

The potent mix of China, horseracing and the 1851 Great Exhibition yielded a strong price for this splendid ‘export’ silver trophy at auction.

A set of six 17th century portraits depicting Ottoman sultans sparked an extraordinary bidding contest at a Sotheby’s online sale.

Rare Japanese Meiji gold coin emerges at auction in West Sussex

Multi-estimate bidding is no longer just the preserve of Chinese works of art. During the recent Asian art sales, Vietnamese market objects excelled.

Indian talismanic shirts or Qur’an jama were believed to carry protective powers.

Perhaps the most identifiable production of the Daoguang period (1820-50) of the Qing empire is the medallion bowl.

Bezoars (from the Persian pād-zahr meaning ‘poison antidote’) are the calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals. Prized for their supposed medicinal properties, until the Enlightenment science at the beginning of the 18th century they could sell for more than their weight in gold.

The market for Chinese furniture has come on leaps and bounds in 20 years.

Leading a recent Woolley & Wallis' (25/12% buyer’s premium) sale in Salisbury were two scroll paintings by well-known 20th century Chinese artists that came by descent from Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950).

This Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white brush pot was offered at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet.