Asian Art

A long-running legal dispute over a Fatimid rock crystal ewer that had been due to sell at Sotheby’s has been settled in court.

The 195-lot collection of mask netsuke amassed by Swiss entrepreneur Peter Müller met with mixed success when offered by Matthew Barton (24% buyer’s premium).

"He had taken a taxi from Heathrow to Easingwold. After fierce bidding on the phones and internet he bought it, put it in his suitcase and the taxi was still waiting outside the saleroom with the meter ticking to go back to Heathrow.”

Chinese art specialist Priestley & Ferraro has moved to a new location in St James’s. The new address is 3 Bury Street, not far from 17 King Street where it had been located since 1996.

Results for Kakiemon and Meiji metalwork underline stronger market for Asia’s ‘second tier’

Among several runaway lots at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) Asian Art sale in Dorchester was a 19th century Indian watercolour depicting the Mughal Emperor Akbar II on an elephant.

Well-provenanced Chinese monochromes dominated bidding at recent Asian art sales across the UK regions.

Chinese ceramics tend to dominate Asian sales in the UK, but occasionally other mediums get to share the limelight.

Estimated at £400-600, a Satsuma censer by Kinkozan provided more evidence that there is considerable life in the market for top-quality Meiji works of art when offered by Surrey auctioneer Catherine Southon (18% buyer’s premium).

Suffolk auction house Bishop & Miller is holding its first-ever specialist Oriental Art and Antiques Sale on May 24.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Old Masters and post-Impressionist paintings, vintage luggage and the almost inevitable Asian artefacts all appeared among the best-sellers in the recent round of auctions held across Germany and Switzerland.