With a compressed body, straight neck and two loop handles, its strong bold form and rich, even glaze ensured it was taken well beyond its £5000-8000 pre-sale guideline, selling to the Hong Kong trade at £72,000.
Also of note was a Wanli six-character mark and period wucai baluster jar. Decoratively painted in blue, green, iron red and yellow with a procession of boys playing with a toy pagoda on wheels, it fetched £40,000 from a London dealer.
Market-fresh flask tempts buyers
As fresh, quality private consignments become ever scarcer, the competition for such works must make it difficult for auctioneers nationwide to put sales together. Although Bonhams’ (15/10 buyer’s premium) 400-lot Fine Asian Art sale on November 12 had fewer top quality works to tempt buyers than at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the modestly estimated and fresh-to-the-market tea dust-glazed moonflask, Qianlong seal mark and period, saw buyers jostling for ownership.
