Chinese Works of Art

More evidence that Chinese lots can leave auctioneers sitting pretty came in sales north and south.

Glasgow saleroom Mulberry Bank will offer a late 18th century Qing famille rose bottle vase with an estimate of £1.5m-2m in its October 20-21 auction.

Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire sold a Yongzheng (1723-35) mark and period dish for £230,000 (plus premium) on September 29.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong autumn series posted benchmark sums in two Chinese works of art categories. Records were broken for both ceramics and carved jade.

A collection of early 20th century Chinese silver attracted wide interest at Catherine Southon’s (18% buyer’s premium) September 6 sale at Selsdon, south London.

A selection of good online illustrations plus a brief noncommittal description can be the regional auctioneer’s safest route when offering Chinese works of art. It proved successful when a porcelain bowl was consigned to the September 7 sale Greenslade Taylor & Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) held at Taunton.

Tapering cabinets or yuanjiaogui were valued by the Ming and Qing for their practical use, as the primary place of storage for clothes and linen, and also paintings and books.

Lazarus Halstead, head of Asian art at Chiswick Auctions, describes this 33ft (10m) long handscroll as “both a work of art and an historical document”.

A monumental pair of limestone hands clutching a reliquary date to the Northern Qi period (550-557AD).

With the spread of religion and the development of the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), Chinese works of art began to develop widely in terms of geography and form.

The Qianlong period (1736-95) porcelain plate made for export c.1740-60 is painted in famille rose enamels and en grisaille with a half-length portrait of St Simon.

The personal seals used by the Qianlong Emperor, a known connoisseur and patron of the arts, are among the most highly prized Chinese artefacts in today’s market.

Large-scale paintings of intimate domestic scenes are unusual in Chinese art. The Chinese export reverse-painted glass painting of a young mother nursing her infant son offered at Northeast Auctions in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, earlier this month is thought to be one of only a handful of full-size versions painted of this once popular image.