Asian Art

For 22 years Asian Art in London has promoted the wide range of specialist auctions, dealer exhibitions, symposia and lectures held in the capital and further afield across 10 autumnal days. Together they spotlight the UK as a repository and a centre of expertise for the finest Asian art.

Dismissed a generation ago as decorative export wares, Qing and later silver is today the focus of lively academic and commercial attention.

A selection of UK and international auction highs and milestones from the past year.

A wealth of objects shelter under the great ‘Asian art’ umbrella – together representing five millennia of artistic endeavour across one quarter of the globe. Here we preview a series of Asian art objects available for sale at galleries and auctions over the next month, and each from a different moment in time or geography. From the cult of Monju to the beginning of a new Japanese imperial era – all tell a compelling tale.

The most important example of Qing glassware to appear at auction sold for HK$180m (£18m) – the highlight of Sotheby’s recent series in Hong Kong.

A Qianlong period export plaque decorated after a scene by Louis-Marin Bonnet (1736-93) was among the Fine Art Asia highlight sales.

Made in Gujarat or Sindh in the 18th century, a sandalwood table cabinet profusely inlaid with ivory flowers and tendrils throughout was a fine example of Mughal craftsmanship and led the way at a recent sale at Chiswick Auctions (25% buyer’s premium).

Views of processions, pageants and parades tend to attract special interest at auction, such as this view of an Indian procession bid to £6800 in Gloucestershire.

A generation ago pieces such as this splendid 20in (50cm) famille rose ‘dragon’ charger from the Guangxu period (1874-1908) were valued chiefly as decorative objects. However, appreciation of the best quality porcelain produced in the last years of the Qing continues to grow.

At the budget-price end of the Chinese boom – which tends to get overlooked – profits are there for the keen eyed, such as the vendor of this twin-handled censer shown here.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Three Islamic and Indian art dealers have teamed up to launch an exhibition coinciding with the London auction event Islamic Week.

Estimated at £400-600, a Chinese porcelain vase was bid to £1.3m at an auction in Hampshire last week.

Sotheby’s opened its September Asia Week auctions in New York on September 10 with the $8.3m sale of Chinese art consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Japanese carved ivories of a tiger and an elephant soared far above estimate at Chorley’s (22% buyer’s premium).

Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.