The traveling just keeps on coming! A few weeks ago I was in New York for the Asia Week New York festivities (you can read about my trip here). And most recently I was in Hong Kong to visit Christie's new flagship space at The Henderson where they held an auction preview of Chinese ceramics from the seminal Au Bak Ling Collection.
Situated in the heart of Central district, The Henderson was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Its plot of land was reputedly the most expensive in the world at the time after being purchased for USD 3 billion (approximately CAD 4.2 billion) by Henderson Land in 2017. It cost another USD 14.5 billion (approximately CAD 20.5 billion) to build the 36-storey futuristic structure.
Image 1. A View of The Henderson in Hong Kong's Central district surrounded by the more familiar Cheung Kong Center, Lippo Centre and the Bank of China Tower.
Image 2. A view of the lobby of The Henderson and a giant Jeff Koons (1955- ) sculpture from his Balloon series titled 'Balloon Swan (Red)' (2004-2011) greeted visitors.
The Henderson became the new base of Christie's Asia where they occupy four floors. There are two modular permanent gallery showrooms that can also transform into an auction space. The other floors are for private sales, offices, meetings, and shipping/receiving.
To inaugurate their new home at The Henderson, Christie's held a series of auctions that included the Au Bak Ling Collection and modern and contemporary art. They also hosted a big opening reception on 21 September which unfortunately I could not fly to on time.
Image 3. Here is the cover of the Christie's Hong Kong catalogue for the Au Bak Ling Collection. The auction took place on the afternoon of 26 September and the sale featured 21 ceramic wares from the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1279-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) Dynasty.
Au Bak Ling (Ou Bailing) 區百齡 (1928-2019) was one of the greatest collectors of Chinese ceramics in Hong Kong. He grew up in poverty and was forced to leave school at the young age of ten to help his father run a second-hand bookstall. During Japan's occupation of Hong Kong in the Second World War, Au Bak Ling at the age of thirteen had the sudden burden of becoming the patriarch of the family.
It was from this time that Au Bak Ling formed his company Ling Kee 齡記. Initially he only dealt in second-hand books, but with his self-taught mastery of English, he started ordering books from the United Kingdom to sell at the retail level. Eventually he entered the business of Chinese school books and became Hong Kong's largest supplier of this medium. Over the years the Ling Kee Company diversified into manufacturing, hotels, IT and property development.
Au Bak Ling started collecting Chinese ceramics in the mid 1970's and the quality of his pieces were legendary. He was extremely private in showing his objects, but certain objects did make it to a 1998 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London titled '100 Masterpieces of Imperial Chinese Ceramics from the Au Bak Ling Collection'. The show was accompanied by a colour catalogue, but it is extremely rare and one of the few I don't have in my library.
The Au Bak Ling auction was a great way to inaugurate the new Christie's Hong Kong location and it was definitely worth the visit for me. Part of the proceeds of sale went towards the Au Bak Ling Charity Trust that helps disadvantaged families with food, scholarships and education.
Here are a couple of the highlight Chinese porcelain pieces from the Au Bak Ling Collection I viewed during my time at Christie's Hong Kong.
Image 4a. The highlight of the Au Bak Ling Collection was this very rare blue and white pear-shaped bottle vase from the Yongle period (1403-1425). In addition to the beautiful profile, the vase has some of the most wonderful blue enamels used to paint the fine floral designs throughout. Because of their delicate nature, very few examples of these types of early Ming Dynasty vases survive.
In the photo, I am carefully examining the Yongle vase. You can see the large windows at The Henderson that allow natural sunlight to come through. Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong's Kowloon side is in the distant.
Image 4b. Here is a more detailed view of the Yongle vase with its beautiful design of multiple types of florals amongst scrolling vine. This vase had an auction estimate of HKD 18/25 million and ended up realizing HKD 27.6 million (approximately CAD 5 million).
Image 4c. The base of the Yongle vase with its glazed hidden foot rim. Encircling the base is a band of ruyi 如意 fungus which symbolize longevity.
Image 5a. Another highlight from Christie's Au Bak Ling auction was this doucai and gilt-decorated 'anbaxian' vase with Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795). Doucai 鬥彩 refers to the enamelling style which is essentially a blue and white outline that has been filled in with famille verte tones, while anbaxian 暗八仙 refers to the 'eight Daoist immortals' motifs.
The Daoist immortals are not actually present on this vase but each of their individual trademark accessory is shown such as Lan Caihe's 藍采和 basket of flowers (bottom left) and Han Xiangzi's 韓湘子 flute (bottom right).
The quality of the vase's enameling is extremely precise and colourful. I also really liked the details in the two sets of flanking archaistic handles. Estimated at HKD 3/5 million, this Qianlong doucai vase sold for HKD 10.297 million (approximately CAD 1.9 million).
Image 5b. The base of the Qianlong vase and its six-character reign mark 大清乾隆年製 daqing qianlong nianzhi which translates to 'made during the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty'.
Image 6a. During the Au Bak Ling preview, I also really enjoyed handling this doucai 'mythical beast' jar from the Yongzheng Period (1723-1735). Even though it is missing its cover, the quality of the mythical beasts soaring over waves is extremely dynamic and well-painted.
This Qing Dynasty jar pays homage to similar examples from the Chenghua reign (1465-1487) of the Ming Dynasty, a period known especially for their doucai enamelled porcelain (there is an exciting 'of the period' Chengua example further down this blog!). It even has a tian 天 mark to the base which translates to 'heaven' or 'sky', a symbol that was often used on Chenghua porcelain.
This Yongzheng doucai jar proved very popular to collectors and dealers, and against an auction estimate of HKD 1/2 million, sold for five times more at HKD 5.04 million (approximately CAD 928,000).
Image 6b. The base of the doucai jar and its single-character 天 mark.
Image 7a. I did spend a lot of time looking at each piece from the Au Bak Ling Collection at Christie's, but I don't have enough space in this blog to showcase every single object.
However another favourite ceramic ware of mine and estimated at HKD 2/3 million was this rare copper-red decorated and enamelled water pot with Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). These pots are very desirable in the current market and the quality of the painting on this example is stunning. Typically, the copper-red flowers are blurry because of an imperfect firing, but the examples here are very clear and precise.
This water pot sold for HKD 4.41 million (approximately CAD 810,000).
Image 7b. The base of the Kangxi water pot and its six-character reign mark 大清康熙年製 daqing kangxi nianzhi which translates to 'made during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty'.
Image 8a. The final piece I wanted to showcase from the Au Bak Ling Collection was this famille verte 'dragon and phoenix' dish, also with a Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722).
Image 8b. I've always liked this type of design on Kangxi porcelain because there's just so much going on. There are four phoenixes flanked by a myriad of multi-coloured dragons, all surrounded by peony blooms.
Over the past couple of years I have seen about three examples of this type of dish at auctions and museums, and compared to some of the other pieces that are up for sale, it is 'less expensive' than the highlight porcelain pieces I tend to focus on in my blogs.
However, this particular Kangxi dish was still estimated at HKD 1.2/1.8 million and ended up selling for 1.512 million (approximately CAD 278,000). I will keep dreaming!
Image 8c. The base of the Kangxi dish and its six-character reign mark 大清康熙年製 daqing kangxi nianzhi which translates to 'made during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty'.
Image 9a. Right across from the preview of the Au Bak Ling Collection at Christie's Hong Kong was a Special Exhibition of other Chinese porcelain pieces from the collection.
None of these were for sale, but each piece was actually more impressive than the ones scheduled for auction.
Image 9b. The most impressive piece from this Au Bak Ling Special Exhibition was the extremely famous doucai 'birds and fruiting branches' stem cup with Chenghua mark and period (1465-1487).
This stem cup is one of the rarest and most important examples of Chinese porcelain that existed. It was both extensively published and exhibited over the past 80 years. The stem cup was the cover lot to the Sotheby's Hong Kong famous sale of the Edward T. Chow Collection on 25 November 1980, lot 28.
I've only seen photos of this Chenghua stem cup in the past, and to see it in person is simply breathtaking!
Image 10. There were also a lot of Asian modern and contemporary artwork on display at the opening of Christie's new space at The Henderson. Here is a painting by my favourite Chinese modern artist Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji) 趙無極 (1920-2013) titled '30.09.65' (1965). This painting is to be sold in Shanghai in November with an estimate of CNY 45/65 million (approximately CAD 9.1/13.1 million).
Image 11. And here is a really cute painting by Chinese contemporary painter Liu Ye 劉野 (1964- ) titled 'Painter and Model' (2010). I don't know enough about my contemporary art to say if these rabbits are related to a popular cartoon bunny from the Netherlands.
This work was offered at the Christie's 20th/21st Century Evening sale on 26 September 2024 at an estimate of HKD 11/18 million and sold for HKD 13.08 million (CAD 2.4 million).
Thank you again for reading my latest Asian art blog post. I am currently in Vancouver frantically completing the catalogue for my latest Asian art online with Heffel, Canada's national auction house. I will be in Toronto for most of October to help out with this online sale's preview. If you are around, please stop by the Heffel gallery at 13 Hazelton Avenue to say hi!
For the remainder of the autumn season I will be finishing up a couple of Asian art appraisal reports. This will be followed by a trip to Asian Art in London and a late November visit to Hong Kong for the major Fall auction previews at Bonhams, Christie's (again!), and Sotheby's. It will be very busy and you can always follow me through my Instagram account @anthonywuart.
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