This past Asia Week New York went by so quickly! Asia Week New York is like clockwork and takes place every mid-September and mid-March for as long as I can remember.
For this trip, I was in New York for six days to view all the Asian art objects offered at the major International houses Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's. There were also a couple of interesting items at the regional auction houses Doyle and Hindman-Freemans.
In total, over 2,000 Asian art objects were on display from China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayan region and India. And the prices were still great too! There has been some slowdown in the overall art market, but Asian art items that tend to exceed expectations have to fit into the criteria of being fresh to the market, have a low starting estimate, and feature excellent provenance.
Image 1a. One of my first stops was at Bonhams on Madison Ave where they featured a wonderful selection of Chinese huanghuali 黃花梨 (yellow pear wood) furniture from the collection of David and Nayda Utterberg. This American West-Coast family were on the board of prestigious museums like the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Seattle Art Museum, and have been collecting world-class Chinese furniture from renowned dealers like Eskenazi and Grace Wu Bruce since the 1990's.
One of the highlights from this collection was lot 1, a Chinese huanghuali round-corner tapered cabinet, yuanjiaogui from the 17th Century. The cabinet's form is elegant yet minimalist, and it contains large sections of the prized huanghuali wood. This piece of furniture had a conservative auction estimate of USD 150/250,000 and was purchased from Eskenazi London in 1990.
Huanghuali furniture has been a popular collecting category in the East and West since the beginning of the 20th Century. This rare wood originally came from the Chinese tropical island of Hainan, but became extinct during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
And since huanghuali is from the rosewood species, there are now numerous restrictions on the export/import of this material. Nonetheless if the right piece comes along, international collectors will still take the chance and try to acquire through auction. In the case of this Bonhams example, the huanghuali cabinet sold for USD 279,000 (approximately CAD 377,000) including buyer's premium.
Image 1b. Detail of the Bonhams cabinet's right panel and the extremely fine graining of this material. Earlier 17th and 18th Century examples of huanghuali furniture are prized for their honey colour tone and extremely fine graining.
Image 2a. Also at Bonhams was a very sweet Chinese yue celadon-glazed double gourd vase from the 10th Century. Yue 越 wares are popular ceramics since the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and their tones vary from an olive grey to light celadon. The form of this particular example is different from typical yue wares with its unusual double gourd shape, and it features a very fine and even celadon tone.
What made this vessel even more special was its provenance. The vase was sold through Lally & Co., one of the most famous (and recently retired) New York dealers since the mid 1980's.
This double gourd vase also once featured in the auction of Edward T. Chow, (仇焱之, Chou Yanzhi) (1910-1980), the legendary Shanghai and Swiss dealer. The important sale of his estate took place over three sessions between at Sotheby's Hong Kong and London and featured some of the top pieces of Chinese porcelain and ceramics the market has ever seen. This celadon vase was lot 210 in the London, 1980 December 16, session of the auction.
The Edward T. Chow provenance typically will drive up the price of any object. In the case of this double gourd vase, despite an auction estimate of USD 8,000/12,000, it ended up realizing USD 165,600 (approximately CAD 225,000).
Image 2b. The base of this very attractive double groud vase showcasing the ever-important Lally & Co. New York and Edward T. Chow labels.
Image 3. In the Japanese auction preview at Bonhams, I was able to study one of the most famous and sought-after Japanese woodblock prints.
Katsushika Hokusai's (1760-1849) Great Wave Off Kanagawa is one of the most iconic images around the world. It was produced circa 1831 for his seminal series 'The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.' This series has been extensively published and studied.
Not many of these Great Wave prints are still in circulation, but I have had the pleasure of working first-hand on two examples over the past five years. The most recent one I dealt with was in 2023 at Heffel, Canada's national auction house (where I do most of my consultation work), where I oversaw the sale of a Great Wave from Toronto's Laidlaw family for CAD 691,250! So it's always a wonderful experience for me to study more examples of the Great Wave!
For the Bonhams Great Wave, the impression, colours and condition was still very good! Against an auction estimate of USD 700,000/900,000, this important woodblock print sold for USD 889,000 (approximately CAD 1.2 million) including buyer's premium.
Image 4. The amazing thing about Asia Week New York is that all the auction houses are fairly close to one another. Christie's at Rockefeller Plaza (about a 20 minute walk south from Bonhams) also had a version of Hokusai's Great Wave in their Japanese Art auction, so it was fairly easy for me to compare these two examples.
The Christie's version had brighter colours and some its margins were still intact. They are both of similar states, meaning the sequence of when they were printed are approximately the same. The Bonhams example had more of its margins reduced, but the sky is more clear. Examining both of these Great Waves within an hour of each other was a real pleasure.
The Christie's Great Wave had an auction estimate of USD 500,000/700,000 and ended up realizing a similar price to the Bonhams example at USD 856,800 (approximately CAD 1.156 million).
Image 5a. There were lots of amazing Chinese porcelain pieces at Christie's as well. One of them was this large blue and white reserve-decorated 'peony' dish, with Xuande six-character mark (1426-1435).
This was an object I remember fondly as it appeared seven years ago at a Sotheby's New York sale (15 March 2017, lot 6), and I even mentioned it in one of my first blogs! These types of dishes are unique because of its large size, reverse ground and pleasant design.
Back in 2017, this dish sold for USD 2.172 million but seven years later, it sold for less at USD 1.562 million (approximately CAD 2.109 million) against an estimate of USD 1/1.5 million.
Image 5b. The reverse of the large Xuande blue and white dish.
Image 5c. Detail olf the peony sprays on the side and the reign mark 大明宣德年製 daming xuande nianzhi, which translates to made during the Xunde perod of theMing Dynasty.
Image 6a. One of my favourite jade pieces at Christie's New York was this exceptional Chinese greyish white jade conch shell from the Qianlong period (1736-1795). The jade itself was quite large and extremely fine and detailed. From the photos you can see the design of the eight Buddhist emblems on the conch's surface over a band of crashing waves along the bottom. I also liked the natural russet inclusion which gives the carving a distinct character.
This jade conch was purchased from the famous antique store Gump's San Francisco before 1983. A lot of people really liked this object since its estimate of USD 20/30,000 was bid up to a final price of USD 107,100 (approximately CAD 153,000).
Image 6b. A photo of the jade conch's interior. It is so well-hollowed and the form of the carving is extremely realistic. The carving also had a lot of weight as well, so it did feal very important when handling it.
Image 7. In the Indian and Himalayan art category at Christie's was this massive and stunning Tibetan 14th Century gilt bronze figure of the Medicine Buddha. With a height of 53.3 cm, this figure is so well-cast and features great details in the face, mudra (hand gestures) and clothing.
This figure of Buddha was initially purchased at Christie's New York, 25 March 2004, lot 85, and displayed on long term loan at the Berkley Art Museum for over twenty years. Against an estimate of USD 300/500,000, this impressive sculpture sold for USD 604,000 (approximately CAD 855,000).
Image 8a. (photo courtesy of Sotheby's) And here is the main highlight of this blog. This impressive Chinese bronze vessel is known as the Zhou Zha Hu 周㗬壺. It is an archaic bronze ritual wine vessel and cover from the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty (10th-9th Century BC).
The Zhou Zha Hu once belonged to the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795) and kept in the vaults of the Forbidden City in Beijing. This vessel is large and impressively cast. It is also once of the most well-known bronze vessels in the Imperial collection. The interior of the rim and cover contains a long inscription stating this vessel belonged to Zhou Zha who had this object made for his father Gong Ri Ji. The purpuose was to use this vessel for rituals in their ancestral hall, so that is can be treasured for ten-thousand years by his sons and grandsons.
The Zhou Zha Hu was extensively published and studied since the early 18th Century. Ater this vessel left the Forbidden City, it went into the collection of Zhou Qingyun (1864-1933) where more scholars were able to examine and research it. With an estimate of USD estimate 3/5 million, it sold for USD 5.4 million (approximately CAD 7.3 million) reputedly to an important Hong Kong collector.
Image 8b. The hu on display during the preview at Sotheby's New York. The lighting was difficult so that's that's why I had to borrow the Sotheby's website photo of this vessel. This piece is massive at 58.5 cm high. And you can also see the inscriptions on the innner rim of the (upside-down) cover.
Image 9a. Also at Sotheby's was this impressive and large Chinese famille rose figure of Puxian seated on an elephant from the Qianlong Period (1736-1795).
Puxian, also known as Samantabhadra, is a bodhisattva, an enlightened Buddhist being who chose to remain on the earthly realm to ease humanity's suffering. Puxian embodies the Buddhist practices of meditation and repentance.
This sculpture is rare in its large size of 69.5 cm, and no other similar type of a porcelain Puxian has ever come up for auction. The figure was most likely made for the Qianlong Emperor himself and would have adorned a shrine room within the Forbidden City.
The details of Puxian are stunning. He sits on a large six-tusk elephant in the position of royal ease. The pose is very natural and calming. The details are exquisite - this includes the crown, lotus, drapery and jewels. The caparisoned elephant is also attractive with its vast amounts of shading, dripping jewelry and details on the dragon saddle. The elephant's feet are also raised on miniature bases that resemble enamel-work.
The estimate for this impressive figure of Puxian at Sotheby's was USD 500/700,000 and after a lengthy amount of bidding, it sold for USD 1.236 million (approxiamey CAD 1.7 million) to a Canadian collector.
Image 9b. Detail of this glorious and well-crafted famille rose figure of Puxian. You can see the realisim in the pose, jewels and drapery, as well as all the wonderful details in the gilt painting.
Image 10. Doyle Auctions on the Upper East Side also had a fine selection of Chinese antiques. The two top lots are shown in this photos. To the left is a set of twelve Chinese jade white jade zodiac animals that sold for USD 114,800 (approximately CAD 155,000) and the main object is this spectacular Chinese Kangxi Period (1662-1722) famille verte rouleau vase from the Estate of Alan Oliver that sold for USD 120,100 (approximately CAD 163,500) against an estimate of USD 15/20,000.
Image 11. And finally at Hindman-Freemans was this exceptionally rare Chinese zhisha Yixing ‘Peach and Pomegranate’ Coupe with inscribed name of renowned Kangxi Period (1662-1722) potter Chen Minyuan 陳鳴遠. The fruits, nuts and vegetables look so realistic! This coupe was estimated at USD 30/50,000 and sold for a very impressive USD 315,500 (approximately CAD 430,000).
Thank you all for reading my latest blog. I will be on the road quite a lot in the coming weeks. First off is a flight to Hong Kong to view the opening of Christie's Asia's new flagship space at the Henderson. They will be featuring the sale from the Au Bak Ling Foundation. Au Bak Ling put together one of the greatest Chinese porcelain collections from the 1960's up until the early 2010's.
After Hong Kong I will flying to Vancouver to finish cataloguing my next collaborative Asian art online auction with Heffel. I will keep everyone posted! And please remember to follow me on my Instagram account @anthonywuart.
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