With a busy autumn season ahead, our November Asian Art sale - spanning over two days - will be the biggest of the year for our Saleroom!

The Asian Art department and I have been hard at work consigning over the summer months and are thrilled to show you a preview of some of the most exciting lots coming up for sale. 

A selection of Fine Chinese Paintings will be featured on 18 November, continuing our commitment to this field, and will include works by 20th Century giants Qi Baishi, Pu Ru as well as an album of Imperial flags by the Imperial Court artist Qingkuang.    

Highlights among the lots for Asian Art include a massive blue and white Jiajing Imperial fishbowl with dragons coiled around the exterior, impressive Kangxi and Transitional vases including a rare soldier vase, and a range of Imperial and scholarly ceramics and works of art. 

See below for more information on these exciting lots and as our final and biggest Asian Art sale of 2021, there is still time to sell with us so please get in touch with me for a free and confidential valuation.   

 
- Lazarus Halstead, Head of Asian Art  

The combination of this motif and the form of a narrow tall basin on the present example is extremely rare and more commonly seen amongst Wanli examples. The scale and vividness of the painting make it an extremely fine example of late Ming Imperial ceramics.

A CHINESE HUANGHUALI
BRUSH POT, BITONG

A symbol of his refinement and taste, the brush pot is an essential element of the Chinese literati scholar’s desk.  The pared back aesthetic of the present lot perfectly draws out the beauty of the natural grains and humanoid faces.

The figuration and abstraction of natural form creates a sympathy between human experience and the natural world - which speaks across culture and time. Many have commented on how the ghostly faces recall Edvard Munch’s The Scream, giving such brush pots a wide-ranging appeal for contemporary collectors.

These bowls exemplify the high Imperial taste of the 18th century with their subtle colouring and intricately laid out floral patterns. The enamels of the Yongzheng period are particularly well regarded and in the doucai palette are combined with a blue underglaze, creating a subtle interplay of different tones and depths. 

They embody the delicate refinement of the Imperial aesthetic on an intimate scale, which fits precisely into the category of ‘Chinese taste’, a driving force in current collecting trends.

 QINGKUANG

Complete albums produced by the Qing Imperial court are exceptionally rare. This work takes the viewer to the centre of late Imperial power, showing the differentiation of ranks who were sent abroad to represent Imperial state power. This was set against a backdrop of international upheaval with the Boxer Protocol putting China into unfavourable contracts with Western powers - so this album would have been one of the last manifestations of Imperial court art before the great Qing Dynasty fell in 1912.