Thank you once again to everyone who participated in my latest Asian art online sale at Heffel, Canada's national auction house! I'm approaching my fourth anniversary as the Heffel Asian art consultant and I'm still having a lot of fun putting these sales together!

This Fall sale consisted of 162 objects from the Asian regions including China, Japan, the Himalayas, India, and Sri Lanka, and took place from October 3rd until October 31st.

The majority of these Asian art items were sourced from all across Canada, and the final sale total realised just over $660,000! The previews were held at the Vancouver and Toronto Heffel galleries, and there were many old and new visitors who stopped by.

Session 1 of the auction was titled 'Extraordinary Eye: Asian Art from a Distinguished Vancouver Collection'. This session consisted of numerous treasures from China and Japan that were kept by a Vancouver collector for over forty years. Up for sale were Chinese domestic and export porcelain, ceramic wares, jade carvings, snuff bottles, silk textiles and bronze vessels.

There were many Canadian and international artworks from this collection as well, including Group of Seven paintings and a stunning oil by Japanese-French artist Léonard Foujita that will be offered at Heffel's November 20 Fine Art sale. (Note: this painting sold for an astonishing $361,000!).

Image 1a. The highlight of session 1 was a large and rare Chinese famille verte fish bowl. This bowl was dated to the Jiaqing (1796-1820) to Daoguang (1821-1850) period and contains a continuous scene of swimming fish.

In my notes, I wrote 'Fish bowls of this large size and design are extremely rare. The present bowl features an endearing scene of multi-coloured fish turning and twisting past various aquatic plants, thus showcasing the skills of the Qing Dynasty designer. Ink paintings of swimming fish appeared during the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) and promoted the Daoist sentiment of freedom - these underwater animals were free from restraints and can pursue a carefree existence.'

This was definitely an impressive piece with respect to the porcelain fish bowl's

size and quality of painting. There were bidders from all over the world trying to acquire this fish bowl. Against a very conservative estimate of $8,000/12,000 it ended up realising $133,250.

Image 1b. An image of the large porcelain fish bowl sitting on its custom display stand on the second floor of Heffel's Yorkville gallery in Toronto.

Image 2a. Another highlight from the 'Extraordinary Eye' session was a Chinese blue and white 'mythical beast' hexafoil basin. The basin's base features a six-character Wanli mark which gives it a dating of 1572-1620 of the Ming Dynasty.

The basin was estimated at $10,000/15,000 and contains a rare scene of various animals paying homage to a qilin 麒麟, a mythical beast with the head and scales of a dragon, mane of a lion, and antlers and hooves of a deer. These beasts usually appear from the heavens during the succession of a ruler.

In my research, most of these types of Wanli lobed basins only have five petals on the edge, making this example quite rare. After much bidding, this Ming Dynasty basin realised over four times its estimate at $46,250.

Image 2b. The blue and white basin's base and its six-character mark 大明萬曆年製 which translates to 'made during the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty'.

Image 3a. Session 2 of Heffel's October Asian art online sale featured Chinese 20th Century modern paintings and various porcelain pieces from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the 20th Century.

The highlight painting was 'Stream and Mountain Landscape' by Huang Binhong 黃賓虹 (1865-1955). This artist is one of the most renowned Chinese landscape painters of the 20th Century, and was famous for bridging the orthodox Song to Qing Dynasty landscape with contemporary artistic expression.

This work was acquired directly from Huang Binhong by Mr. Wong Sung Ki (1903-1969), in 1939. Mr. Wong was a renowned Hong Kong businessman and painting collector, and after he passed away, his collection was bequeathed to his heirs. This work was estimated at $80,000/120,000 and realised $97,250.

Image 3b. An image of me admiring the Huang Binhong 'Stream and Mountain Landscape' painting. In the foreground is the Ming Dynasty blue and white 'mythical beast' basin.

Image 4. One of the surprises of this past Heffel online Asian art sale was lot 146, a Chinese famille rose porcelain panel depicting two deer by Bi Yuanming 毕渊明 (1907-1991). This panel was produced in the historical porcelain-producing city of Jingdezhen 景德鎮 and cyclically dated to 1968. It was consigned through the esteemed collection of the Honourable Jack Austin.

The painting quality for this panel is exquisite and despite the artist not being as famous as other Jingdezhen porcelain panel painters of the 20th Century like Wang Qi 王琦 (1884-1937) and Wang Dafan 王大凡 (1888-1961), his works are still considered extremely rare.

This panel was estimated at a very conservative estimate of $1,500/2,000 and ended up realising $67,250.

Image 5. One of my favourite pieces from this Asian art online sale was a Chinese bamboo brushpot in Session 3. Session 3 featured items such as Chinese jade carvings and decorative arts, Buddhist sculptures, Japanese woodblock prints and South Asian paintings.

This Chinese bamboo brushpot is from the Kangxi Period (1662-1722) and depicts a well-carved continuous scene of young boys playing with firecrackers. I found this brushpot in Victoria, B. C. over the summer. It came from the family of Albert Earnest Newberry, the owner of Newberry Antiques, a popular antique store on Fort Street in Victoria from the 1940s to the late 1960s.

There were so many people who liked this brushpot because of its endearing scene and fine relief carving. The low estimate also drew a lot of attention and it ended up selling for $17,500 against an estimate of $2,000/3,000.

Image 6. And my final highlight from the October Asian art sale at Heffel is this George Keyt (1901-1993) drawing titled 'Lady with Mirror'. George Keyt is known as the grandfather of Sri Lanakan modern painting and the founder of the important Colombo '43 Group of artists.

His works are heavily influenced by European Cubism fused with South Asian aesthetics and religion. Notably, this work was aquired directly from the artist by famed Canadian poet and writer Michael Ondaatje during the mid 1970's. Because of the stunning provenance, there were bidders on this lot from all over the world, resulting in a price realised of $52,250 against an estimate of $2,000/3,000.

Thank you for reading this blog! It's November already and I'm now in London for the Asian Art in London previews. I'll be traveling back to Canada for the Heffel Fine Art auctions on November 20th and to work on a couple of Asian art appraisal projects, and then head off (again) to Hong Kong for the important Chinese art auctions at Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's. I'll definitely be posting about these trips in the coming months.

The next Heffel Asian are online sale will take place in April of 2025, and I have some exciting leads lined up. And please remember to follow me through my Instagram page @anthonywuart where you can get more frequent updates with my Asian art adventures around the world.