Chinese Works of Art

New York gallery show coincides with and adds to the Asian art week of events...

The Asian art sale at Chiswick confirmed that many of the better pieces of Chinese art are now well beyond the budget of the average western collector.

A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.

Promoted as including the contents from a Derbyshire country home, the three-day pre-Christmas sale at Hansons (17.5% buyer’s premium) was more notable for two unusual collections and pieces which came in after a valuation day.

Asian art sales are always unpredictable, more often than not in a positive sense.

Jade remains ever-popular in the Chinese art field, although the market has become selective.

Two Qing soapstone seals sold to a Chinese bidder for Dkr1.1m (£130,640), around 100 times their estimate, at Bruun Rasmussen (24 % buyer’s premium) in Copenhagen on November 29.

December is traditionally a month when Paris focuses attention on sales of Asian art, with auctions in the rooms across the city and at the Drouot centre.

This carved wooden figure of Guanyin dating to the Song dynasty (900-1279 AD) will be the headline entry of the Asian art sale to be held by Leclère at Drouot on December 16.

The Jean-Claude Lepileur (1926-2016) collection of Chinese archaic bronzes offered as a stand-alone collection at Gorringe’s in Lewes on November 28 totalled £582,000.

Despite the imperfections of the market for Chinese works of art, for many regional auctioneers this still vibrant area has done much to offset the soft prices for brown furniture which used to underpin the home market.

This collection of late Qing dynasty Chinese hair ornaments fashioned as bats, flowers and foliage and set with kingfisher feathers, coral, jade and pearls is part of a group of 30 lots from the collection of Evelyn Williams Medows Norie (1862-1915) which is on offer at Bruun Rasmussen on November 29.