Features

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in May 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in June 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in July 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in August 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in September 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in October 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in November 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in December 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in January 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in February 2018.

ATG's Review of the Year – the top stories and key sales in March 2018.

For the first time in a decade, Sotheby’s Asian Art in London offering included a designated sale of Japanese art on November 6.

An unusual dish from the workshop of Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927) sold for £18,000 at Woolley & Wallis on November 14. But this was not the only example of top-tier Meiji cloisonné for sale last month.

Despite the disparity in numbers, the market for Chinese and Japanese works of art are increasingly aligned.

A welcome addition to the November 21 Asian Works of Art sale at Matthew Barton (24% buyer’s premium) of 25 Blythe Road in west London were 79 netsuke from the collection belonging to Edmund de Waal, author of the bestselling memoir 'The Hare with Amber Eyes'. London Japanese art dealer Max Rutherston helped organise the sale and took this section of the auction.

The influx of Asian art buyers that accompanies the Asian Art in London initiative also encourages activity across the Irish Sea. Both Adam’s (20% buyer’s premium) in Dublin, for the first time, and Sheppards (20% buyer’s premium) in Durrow held designated sales on November 3 and November 11 respectively.

Included in the sale at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne on October 11 was a brick from the Great Wall of China. It probably dated from the Ming period when Great Wall sections were widely built with fired clay bricks, adhered with lime mortar and sticky rice.

Among the most coveted of all the standard Chinese export porcelain designs is the so-called ‘Rockefeller’ pattern or Palace ware.

December is one of two key periods in the French calendar when the auction houses concentrate their sales of Asian art. Pictured here is a selection of highlights and unusual pieces coming up for sale this month in the Paris rooms.

It is the quirky designs of husband-and-wife team François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne that populate the top echelons of so much French design in the salerooms these days.