Asian Art in London

THE winners of the Asian Art in London Outstanding Work of Art Awards, sponsored by the Antiques Trade Gazette, were announced last week.

ASIAN Art in London will open with what promises to be a spectacular launch party at the Victoria & Albert Museum on Friday, November 5.

MY mention of Richard Gardner’s upcoming exhibition of Chinese antiques in Petworth, reminds me that the country’s biggest Asian celebration is not too far away. I am already starting to get information about this year’s annual Asian Art in London festival which will run from November 4 to 12.

THE seventh annual Asian Art in London week will take place this year from November 4 to 12, with a launch party at the Victoria and Albert Museum on November 5.

THE considerable coverage given to Asia Week in London, on these pages and in the national press, rather neglected one gallery which was bringing the art of the Orient to London long before the Asia week promotion was thought of.

Pictured right is the highlight of what turned out to be London’s Asia Week’s most successful auction.

ORGANISERS Brian and Anna Haughton have cancelled this summer’s London Asian Art Fair citing trade uncertainties over The Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act as the reason.

TIBETAN works of art are the speciality of Rossi & Rossi and they have come up with a stunning show to make their mark on Asian Art in London.

THE winners of this year’s AXA Art Awards for Asian art were announced last week as Bonhams Bond Street and Mayfair dealer Sidney Moss. Bonhams clinched the prize for the best two-dimensional work with an early Chinese blue and white rectangular panel, from the Ming dynasty’s coveted Chenghua period (1465-87), from the du Boulay collection.

Asian Art in London and AXA Art Insurance have announced the shortlist of the two categories of the AXA Art Award for Asian Art in London. The judges were Dr Oliver Impey, Senior Assistant Keeper of the Department of Eastern Art at the Ashmolean Museum; John Ayres, Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the V&A until 1982, freelance journalist Susan Moore and Country Life Salerooms Correspondent Huon Mallalieu.

To the uninitiated or those with a flamboyant taste in antiques, it might seem unbelievable that of the 4000 or so lots offered during London’s Asian art series this rather plain blueish-grey glazed brushwasher, above, could be the most coveted.

November’s Asian Art in London series will again include an Award for Asian Art presented by AXA Art Insurance, the sponsors of the event for the third time. Dealers and auction houses participating in Asian Art in London are invited to enter two separate categories of the award – best two-dimensional object and best three-dimensional object – designed to reward excellence in the selling of Asian Art.

LONDON-based Brian and Anna Haughton are moving their International Ceramics Fair & Seminar from the West End to the Commonwealth Centre in Kensington where it will be staged in conjunction with a new event, The London Asian Art Fair.

The upside of Asian art in London is that the volume of sales pulls in all the Asian and international buyers. The downside of this concentration is that scheduling without overlap is difficult and buyers inevitably pick their way through all those goods selectively. Christie’s South Kensington, who fielded a marathon 600-plus lot Chinese auction on November 14, felt both effects.

Asian art in London, the annual nine-day celebration of the capital’s artistic, academic and commercial expertise in the Asian art field, was in full swing last week with auctions, dealers’ shows, lectures and exhibitions. The highlight of this year’s Asian auction series was this Chinese 15th century Chenghua mark and period ‘Palace’ bowl, part of the collection formed by the 2nd Baron Cunliffe offered at Bonhams on November 11 where it sold for £820,000 (plus 17.5/10 per centpremium).

LONDON: AXA Art Insurance, sponsors of Asian Art in London, have announced the winners of the two AXA Art Awards, one for two-dimensional and the other for three-dimensional works.

FEW would argue that Mayfair dealers Eskenazi are at the top of the international tree when it comes to dealing in Oriental art, and the November exhibitions at their Mayfair gallery are seen by a good many as the flagship selling show of the Asian Art in London celebrations.

FIFTY two internationally recognised specialists are gearing up for the fifth Asian Art in London from November 7-15. With Giuseppe Eskenazi as chairman, 46 highly experienced specialist dealers from overseas will join London’s respected art institutions to present the remarkable quality, variety and richness of Asian works of art. The festival has helped confirm London as a leading player in the field.

AT a convivial press lunch at Sotheby’s last week, scribes and dealers mingled to officially welcome the fifth Asian Art in London celebrations, scheduled for November 7 to 15.

COINCIDING with London’s Asia week, the 507-lot sale held by Gilding’s (12.5% buyer’s premium) at Market Harborough on November 13 featured this blue and white six-character mark and period Qianlong (1736-95) meiping, right, on its front cover.