Asian Art

A leading US culture lawyer has testified at Washington, DC trade hearings about how a Chinese art import tariff would have a negative effect on small and medium-sized US dealers.

Topping two days of steady selling and 750 wide-ranging lots at Leominster saleroom Brightwells’ (17.5% buyer’s premium) summer auction was a Republic period cong-form vase in the style of the renowned Qianjiang School artist Wang Yeting.

The US-China trade row provides an unwelcome distraction to the September edition of New York’s 'Asian Art Week' (AAW).

The pair to the famous ‘Bain bridge vase’ – knocked down at £43m in 2010 but later sold for half that sum – has come to market. Sotheby’s will sell the near identical vase, that has a century-long provenance, in Hong Kong in the autumn

William Martindale holds an exhibition with textile specialist Jacqueline Simcox at Stoppenbach and Delestre during Asian Art in London (November 1-10).

Dealers and auctioneers in the US and UK are mobilising in the hope of removing works of art from the thousands of items caught up in the escalating US-China trade war.

It’s a rare sale these days at which an English furniture standard challenges quality Chinese pieces for price, but the top end of the trade certainly rated a 6ft 3in (1.9m) William and Mary walnut and featherbanded bureau cabinet offered by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).

The US-China trade war, previously the stuff of new technology, heavy industry and agribusiness, has now opened a new front: cultural heritage. The threat of a 25% tariff on imported Chinese art and antiques will soon be discussed in Washington, DC.

Cirencester saleroom Moore Allen & Innocent (20% buyer’s premium) enjoyed a taste of India’s fast-growing art market when three pictures by the Indian folk artist Jamini Roy (1887-1972) were scooped up for a total of £24,500.

Asian Art in London, the event that promotes London as the centre of the global Asian art trade, has increased the number of its auction house participants for the 21st edition (November 1-10).

Brian Morgan was a leading Oriental art dealer, a president of the British Antiques Dealers’ Association and set up the Friends of the BADA Trust, a charitable organisation.

“The best piece in the sale,” enthused auctioneer Richard Harrison in reference to a Meiji Kazaridana cabinet sold for £11,000 at Mitchells (20% buyer’s premium) at Cockermouth on June 13-15.

Stuttgart auction house Nagel (33% buyer’s premium) held its summer sale of Asian art in Salzburg having acquired an impressive array of quality pieces from European and other collections.