Recently formed saleroom Clarkes Auctions, based in Semley on the Wiltshire and Dorset border, will offer a selection of Asian lots in its sale on May 13.
This late 19th or early 20th century Chinese embroidered silk robe, decorated with gold dragons and flowers on a red ground, is one of six Chinese garments consigned from a single local source. Estimate £300-500.
More than 800 lots of European and Asian works of art are going under the hammer on May 24 in Matthew Barton’s biggest auction to date at 25 Blythe Road in West Kensington.
The sale features 100 lots from the collection of the late Indian art dealer, Henry Brownrigg. For almost four decades, he ran a stand at Portobello Antiques Market, described by the auction house as “an essential weekly event for aficionados of Indian art”. Pictured here is a mid-19th century gouache on paper portrait of a courtesan from Tanjore in south India, estimated in the sale at £200-300.
The auction firm has also secured some 50 lots of netsuke from the Julius and Arlette Katchen collection. Catalogued by the Japanese art dealer Max Rutherston, the group will follow Bonhams’ second sale of netsuke from the Katchen collection on May 10.
A mid-19th century carved sandalwood box was used to transport the first treaty between China and Britain to England. It was sent after negotiations were held on HMS Cornwallis, anchored at Nanking, in 1842. Known as The Treaty of Nanking, it ended the First Opium War between the UK and the Qing Dynasty.
The 15 x 11in (39cm x 27cm) box is estimated at £500-700 in Ewbank’s May 18 sale in Surrey. It has been consigned by the descendants of Robert Thom, a British consul and competent translator who worked in Ningpo, in east China’s Zhejiang province.
It is believed the box was given to Thom, then passed on to his brother following his death. Over 30 letters and correspondence to Thom’s brother, the Reverend Dr David Thom of Liverpool, from the mid-19th century, are included with the lot.
A collection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics removed from the castle of a ‘Noble European family’ headlines Duke’s May 18 sale in Dorchester.
Among the highlights is this richly decorated pair of Japanese Imari porcelain baluster vases c.1800. Measuring 19in (50cm) high, the pair are decorated with birds, blossoming shrubs and rocks, and feature later 19th century French ormolu mounts as lamps, with dragon handles and openwork scrolling bases.
Estimate £300-600.
Dreweatts and Bloomsbury's Asian sale on May 16 in Donnington Priory, Newbury, features a small Chinese circular ‘swallow and insect’ cinnabar lacquer box and cover.
Made during the Qing Dynasty in the 18th or 19th century, it has passed down through the family of Colonel Kenneth Dingwall (1869-1946), a highly decorated officer, Chinese art collector and founding member of the Oriental Ceramic Society, which was formed in 1921.
Estimate £400-600.
