Kangxi blue and white on offer at Bonhams including a large slender baluster vase and cover (estimate $20,000-25,000) and a large ovoid jar and domed cover ($10,000-15,000).
Spring in the Big Apple marks the return of Asia Week New York (AWNY), the annual week-long celebration of Asian art in the city’s metropolitan area.
For sale from March 14-22 is a broad mix of artworks across multiple disciplines, from ancient to contemporary and including Chinese, Indian, south-east Asian, Himalayan, Japanese and Korean works of art.
The event, now in its 15th year, encompasses 28 specialist dealers plus half a dozen auction houses that this year host close to 30 sales. Just a few highlights are pictured here.
Bonhams holds 10 sales during AWNY beginning with a selection of Qing ceramics and archaistic jades deaccessioned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 18. Comprising 174 lots, all of which are offered without a reserve, the sale includes pieces given to the museum by 24 Gilded Age patrons including financier John D Rockefeller Jr. (1874-1960), art dealer Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), and coal magnate Samuel T Peters (1854-1921).
The array of mainly Kangxi blue and white pictured above includes a large slender baluster vase and cover (estimate $20,000-25,000) and a large ovoid jar and domed cover ($10,000-15,000), both acquired from the estate of US locomotive magnate Jacob S Rogers (c.1824-1901).
The Met annually deaccessions works of art following a comprehensive review with the funds enabling the museum to prioritise new acquisitions.
A pair of 19th century kang mats, estimated $12,000-18,000 at Heritage Auctions.
This pair of 19th century kang mats represent the apogee of Qing imperial embroidery. Each measuring 7ft 4in (2.23m) x 4ft 6in (1.38m), they are centred by passionflower medallions surrounded by foliage and auspicious emblems. To the reverse are imperial-yellow panels decorated with shou medallions and bats.
The pair has a guide of $12,000-18,000 as part of the Asian art sale at Heritage Auctions on March 20.
Dedicated sales of Asian art will also be held by Doyle New York (March 19) and Hindman in Chicago (March 26-28).
A selection from Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. A set of all 46 prints (the original 36 plus the 10 additions) is estimated at $3m-5m at Christie's.
Christie’s New York marks AWNY with eight sales, four live and four online. Live sales begin on March 19 with Japanese and Korean Art featuring the highest-value lot of the season, Katsushika Hokusai’s (1760-1849) colour print masterpiece, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji produced from c.1830-32.
The most famous ukiyo-e series to focus on Mount Fuji, it features all 46 prints (the original 36 plus the 10 additions), making this the first complete set on the market in 20 years. It comes from a West Coast collection and is estimated at $3m-5m.
The Panjarnata Mahakala, an early Ming reign-marked bronze, estimated $4m-6m at Sotheby's.
Leading a week-long, five-sale series at Sotheby’s is a two-lot catalogue titled Wrathful Deities: Masterworks from the Bodhimanda Foundation. Together these two monumental early 15th-century Tibeto-Chinese gilt-bronze figures are expected to achieve more than $7m.
The Panjarnata Mahakala, pictured above, is by far the largest early Ming reign-marked bronze in private hands. Made in the Xuande period and measuring 2ft 6in (74cm) high, it is outranked only by two Yongle bodhisattvas, one at Qinghai Provincial Museum, the other at the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. It has an estimate of $4m-$6m.
The Kapaladhara Hevajra, previously exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2012, is also of exceptional size, measuring 2ft 1in (66cm) high. It has an estimate of $3m-5m.
The proceeds from the sale will benefit the Bodhimanda Foundation to raise funds to secure a permanent museum display for its Buddhist art collection. The bronzes were gifted to the foundation in 2011 and displayed together at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam from 2011-20.
Nim Qalam drawing from Mughal India, c.1595-1605, offered by Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch.
In the exhibition Gods, Gardens and Princes: Indian works on paper, Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch of London offer 35 paintings at prices ranging from $15,000- 220,000 including this Nim Qalam drawing from Mughal India, c.1595-1605.
It depicts Iskandar, or Alexander the Great, repelling the tribes of Gog and Magog by building a wall. In the picture, which has been attributed to Hiranand, the army takes the form of diminutive animal- or bird-headed creatures. Nim Qalam or ‘half pen’ is a technique specific to India and Iran of lightly coloured ink drawing.
Brendan Lynch, chairman of AWNY, hailed the event’s 15th anniversary saying: “I can’t think of a more appropriate time to celebrate this milestone than in the Year of the Dragon, the symbol of good luck, strength, and success.”
The exhibition takes place at 67 East 80th Street, Suite 2.
Kota-style picture, c.1660, completed with opaque pigments and gold on paper, offered for $95,000 by Francesca Galloway.
Francesca Galloway stages Indian Painting: Intimacy and Formality at Les Enluminures’ gallery on East 73rd street.
Highlights include Vilaval Ragini from the Berlin Ragamala series attributed to the Hada Master. In Ragamala or ‘garland of musical modes’ paintings each raga or mode is personified by a colour, mood and verse. The Vilaval Ragini is a morning melody associated with the spring and intended to evoke a joyful mood.
Offered for $95,000 is this Kota-style picture, c.1660, completed with opaque pigments and gold on paper.
Chinese Famille Verte porcelain ‘Piggyback Boys’, offered for $38,000 by Ralph M Chait Galleries.
This Chinese Famille Verte porcelain ‘Piggyback Boys’ from the Kangxi Period (1662-1722) is one of the highlights at Ralph M Chait Galleries’ show Spring Exhibition of Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art on East 52nd Street, where it is offered for $38,000.
