The circle of friends has brushed the screen again, and in the past few days, peers in the industry have been discussing the "achievements" of the just-concluded Asia Week in New York with great interest. A few days ago, a "spring cold" in Beijing allowed us to see the rare March spring snow in ten years, which was really "snow pressing flowers and flowers on the ground", but the "spring cold" that people talk about refers to a wave of epidemics that have suddenly aggravated in China and the adverse impact on various industries.
In this situation, most of the auction activities originally scheduled for mid-to-late March in China have been postponed or changed to online bidding, but the attention of peers in the industry has been more focused on New York, where as the Asian Art Auction Week was held in the current period, the auction companies represented by Sotheby's and Christie's in New York have appeared on the stage, and the auction has also achieved good results.
Below I will comb and comment on the market sales of the antique part of this season's auction from the perspective of an expert.
Being good at "telling stories" and "selling inheritance" is the key to the success of the auction
In the past ten years, the Auction Season in March in New York will usually leave an unforgettable celebrity special, Christie's 2015 An Siyuan special session and the 2017 Fujita Art Museum special session are classic cases, carefully arranged preview atmosphere, telling the collection story, all give the lot more human charm and emotional temperature, the auction results are reasonable.
At the end of the Shang Dynasty, Anyang was fang yi
Height 20 cm
source:
Armand Trampitsch (1890-1975) Collection (biography)
Ma tre Maurice Rheims, Drouo Auction Center, Paris, 6/7 June 1956, no. 105
Dr. Wu Quan (1910-1997) Collection
WuLianbo Museum, 1968-present, number E.4.12
Price realised: $882,000
This year's "Dr. Wu Quan Special Session" at Sotheby's in New York is another classic case. As Dr. Wu's collection is only partially debuted at auction in New York, the rest will be held in Hong Kong and London in 2022, spanning three locations.
So the New York head cannon must be fired, there is no room for loss, Sotheby's this time is also carefully planned, in addition to the selection of lots to strive for diversification, the New York area auction tradition is good at high bronze and Chinese buyers like the Ming and Qing porcelain, Qing Palace royal play skillfully matched, taking into account the tastes of buyers in different regions, but also two days before the auction "release a big move", the entire all the subjects changed to no reserve price to start the auction, which undoubtedly put a fire in the itchy heart of the buyers, and indeed played a very good effect, Beijing time On March 22, 9 pm, Beijing time, Sotheby's opening scene at Asia Week New York, "Art Highlights: Dr. Wu Quan's Treasures", was held up as scheduled, and a total of 147 fine works were auctioned, and after more than six hours of bidding, all of them were sold, and the white gloves were harvested, and most of the lots exceeded the estimated price several times, far exceeding expectations, with a total turnover of $10,577,700.
Ming Yongle A large lotus plate with blue and white flowers
Diameter 40 cm
Private collections
Christie's London, 5 June 1972, number 85
Collection of Dr. Wu Quan (1910-1997).
WuLianbo Museum, 1972 to the present, number M.7.9
publication:
Ke Rose et al., Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Hong Kong, 2011, plate 11
Price realized: $453,600
Although the whole high price transaction was expected, the price of some of the lots was still unexpected by me, such as this Ming Yongle qinghua lotus plate, with a diameter of 40.3 cm, the estimate: 100,000~150,000 US dollars, the transaction price: 453,600 US dollars, this plate, although very beautiful, and is a typical Yongle qinghua variety, but after all, there are more similar species, and it does not have extreme scarcity, and more importantly, its appearance is not excellent. The pictures and appearance reports transmitted back from the scene are more obvious defects in the display body, and this transaction price has almost reached the transaction price of the complete artifacts in the first two years of this variety, which can be said to be very good.
Western Weekend Shi □ Father Gui Gai
Inscription: Shi □ Father as a honorific treasure for its eternal treasure
Diameter 22.6 cm
Price realised: $264,600
Another example is a Western Zhou History □ Father Gui Gai, inscription: Shi □ Father as a Zun Gui Its Ten Thousand Years Eternal Treasure, Estimated: 4,000 ~ 6,000 US Dollars, although it is a very open Western Zhou bronze, and it is suspected that there is a Northern Song Dynasty Xuanhe bibliography, but in my opinion, it is only a cover, not a complete instrument, and the cover itself is simple in craftsmanship, the number of inscribed words is limited, and the content is also the most common cliché on Shang Zhou bronzes.
But still fierce competition to 264,600 US dollars to deal, I believe that the buyer is to the inheritance and bibliography, will be auctioned at such an ideal price, of course, from another point of view, the so-called collection, is not a cultural feeling?
The celebrity collection show reflects the feelings and pleasures passed down from generation to generation between buyers, which are hidden in the utensils and cannot be measured by price.
Liao white glaze engraved peony pattern with lid to hold the pot
Height: 22.5 cm.
source
Temporarily acquired Lou Hu Huichun (1911-1995) Collection
publication
Helen D. Ling and Qiu Yanzhi, "The Shadow Spectrum of Porcelain Names in the Temporary Building Collection", Vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1950, No. 8
Realized price: $441,000
The "inheritance and story" of Christie's in New York this time focuses on this batch of high-antique porcelain in the old collection of the temporary building. This batch of porcelain, since the 1980s, has been preserved in the residence of Mr. Hu Huichun's descendants in New York, about ten years ago, I have also seen part of it in New York, Mr. Hu is a prominent top collector in the Chinese collection circle in the last century, especially the collection of Ming and Qing porcelain for the world's attention, he in the Ming list of glazed porcelain, the high quality of the collection, the essence of the selection principle, it can be said that it has influenced generations of collectors including me, as for the high ancient porcelain part, in fact, it is not the focus of his collection, But it's good enough to look at it today.
Over the years, the academic community's cognition of high ancient porcelain, especially Song Dynasty porcelain, has been far from being comparable to the Republic of China period, many kilns and eras have been re-distinguished and defined, such as a Liao Dynasty white glaze pot in this lot, which is now auctioned according to the Liao white porcelain, but I believe that when Mr. Hu's family purchased the collection in the last century, it may be purchased according to the Northern Song Dynasty.
Recall that I saw this pot more than a decade ago when I met Mr. Hu's descendants in New York, and it seems that the discussion at that time was the same, and the progress of scholarship made our understanding of Song porcelain clearer, but it did not affect the artistic value of these porcelains, and finally this pot was sold for a high price of 441,000 US dollars. Other collections also sold quite well, such as the focus lot Jindai Jun kiln sky blue glazed purple spot long-neck bottle sold for a high price of $882,000.
Before the auction, the two Southern Song Dynasty Longquan blue glazed plates that were unanimously optimistic and thought that they had the opportunity to be "taken down" by ordinary connoisseurs were finally "auctioned crazy", with prices exceeding half a million US dollars and 700,000 US dollars respectively, which is basically the price of "collectors", and say goodbye to "connoisseurs".
Qingqianlong Imperial glass tire painting enamel depicting gold blossom light flowers and birds figure snuff bottle four-character seal book engraving
Height 5 cm.
Li Daohong Collection, Shanghai (Biography)
Zhang Zhongyin (b. 1889) Collection, Shanghai
Zhang Tungyu Collection
Robert Hall, London, 1995
Rachel Ho Collection, New York
Robert Hall, The Art of an Imperial Addiction, London, 1995, pp. 34–41, No. 5
exhibit
伦敦, Robert Hall, 「The Art of an Imperial Addiction」, 1995年6月21日
Price sold at $693,000
This time Christie's launch of the "Taoyuan in the Kettle: He Rachel's Collection of Important Chinese Snuff Bottles" special session is a rare in recent years, a niche celebrity old collection of fine products.
The center of the snuff bottle collection has always been in the West, and the famous collectors familiar with the industry such as Mary and Zhuang Zhibo, Ruve and Carl Barron are all foreigners, and some high-quality snuff bottles have also appeared overseas. The quality and inheritance of this auction are good, leading the work Qianlong Imperial Glass Tire Painting Enamel Depicting Gold Kaiguang Flower and Bird Figure Snuff Bottle is one of the most superior examples of the qianlong period glass tire painting enamel snuff bottle making, the flower and bird pattern details are vividly depicted, and finally sold for 693,000 US dollars, becoming the highest price in the field.
Two fine heavy equipment, stable transaction
Ming Xuande Blue and White Cloud Dragon Pattern "Daming Xuande Year System" section
Dimensions: diameter 26.5 cm
Price realised: $1,000,000
The fine heavy equipment in the auction week, of course, will not all be included in the series of celebrity collections, as an individual appearance, all the scarce varieties and excellent quality collections have also been auctioned at a stable and reasonable price this time, but compared to the high premium in the celebrity collection series, it always feels a little worse, such as the Ming Xuande blue and white cloud dragon pattern bowl at Sotheby's Auction in New York, as a lot of matinee re-promotion, estimated at 600,000-800,000 US dollars. Finally, it was sold for 1.26 million US dollars, which should be a good result, but if you compare the above-mentioned Ming Yongle Qinghua large market with a large quality problem in the 450,000 US dollar transaction price, the same as the early Ming blue and white porcelain, the two in terms of grade, scarcity, and appearance can be said to be completely out of one grade, Xuande Dragon Pattern Bowl at least won more than two or three grades, according to the antique art each grade price will be turned over, this is even cheaper. However, the price performance of several bronzes promoted by Sotheby's this time is still very good, such as the Western Zhou Yu Ji sub-group pot sold for 2.107 million US dollars, which is a good price.
Western Zhou Dynasty Late Ninth or Eighth Century BC Sub-group pots of the Yu Ji clan
Dimensions: Height 42.5 cm
Price realised: $2,107,000
And Christie's bronze auction is more expensive, of which the two pieces I pay the most attention to, one is the Warring States Bronze Feast Hunting Land and Water Attack Pattern Square Pot, which is a collection of square tools, reliefs, inlays, characters and many other highlights of the Warring States craft peak, and finally sold for 2.76 million US dollars, about 17.5 million yuan, is one of the few bronzes that can enter the Tens of Millions of Levels of Warring States Period.
Warring States Bronze Feast Hunting Land and Water Attack Battle Pattern Square Pot
Height 43cm
Estimate: $400,000 to $600,000
Price: $2.76 million
Another of my favorite lots is the Gilded Guanyin Statue of Dali Guoguo, which has attracted much attention before the auction, not only in large volume, exquisite craftsmanship, and few surviving, but also in the inheritance of Lu Qinzhai, which was sought after by collectors, and finally successfully changed hands for 2.58 million US dollars after fierce bidding. Most of the fine works in this field were invested by Asian collectors, such as the Western Han Bronze Gilded Dragon First Car Ornament that Eskenaki handed over, which was bought by a good friend of mine.
Late 11th to early 12th century Dali gilded bronze statue of Guanyin
Height: 57.1 cm
Estimate: $2,000,000 to $3,000,000
Price: $2.58 million
Ming and Qing porcelain part, this time the highlight is less, but a Qing Yongzheng imitation Song porcelain paper mallet bottle, sold for 1.134 million US dollars, more than 7 million yuan, which is the highest price of the same size collection in my impression, which also shows that the fine products are highly sought after in this auction.
Qing Yongzheng imitation official kiln paper mallet bottle
"Great Qing Yongzheng Year System" section
Height 16.6 cm
Price realised: $1.134 million
Three "scarce supplies"? Medium-quality lots sold well
As a person like me who has observed participating in the auction market for decades, in fact, my point of view is that "things can never be bought", in the past twenty years, you said that the auction company in which year in the collection is not all day long shouting about the scarcity of the source of goods collection difficulties, to the end is not to overcome the difficulties and launch a large number of fine products out of a high-quality special field, to the Qing Dynasty official kiln porcelain as an example, in addition to a very small number of scarce high-grade varieties, most of the official kiln varieties If you want to collect, as long as there is enough budget, one or two years can not wait, Wait three or five years for up to seven or eight years and it will always appear. However, people like me are after all a minority, most buyers in the circle either with enthusiasm within a year or two suddenly aspire to a certain variety, or follow the trend of hype, a certain period of time a large number of investment in duplicate varieties, there is a kind of person is although the mind is clear-headed, the price judgment is also very accurate, but must be through continuous trading to make a profit and maintain the flow of funds experts. Because there are these three kinds of people, resources are always "scarce".
Qing Kangxi colorful Magu dedication dish
Take this New York Asia Week as an example, due to the impact of the epidemic, in fact, since entering 2022, in the past three months, in the world, here is the highest quality and the richest variety of antiques a batch of auctions, for those who want to find those whose prices are within hundreds of thousands, and belong to the "raw goods", or have overseas heritage bibliography, there is no other choice than this. Therefore, it also leads to many porcelains of average quality and medium grade that can be auctioned at an ideal price. In addition to the above-mentioned Ming Yongle blue and white plates, such as the following pieces: Qing Kangxi five-colored Magu dedication plate, Qing Jia Qing Yangcai bowl, Qing Yongzheng turquoise green glaze bowl, are all such a situation, each has a very obvious appearance flaw, but the price of the transaction can be said to be very "in place".
Qingjiaqing Yangcai Bowl
Qingyongzheng turquoise green glaze bowl
A hundred flowers bloom, New York's "little spring"
This Asian Art Week, in addition to the traditional protagonists New York Sotheby's and Christie's, several other companies in the antiques sector is also not lacking in fine products, due to the high degree of attention, but also achieved good results, such as the new York Bonhams auction of this focus lot, bronze gilded green Tara statue, is the nepalese Mara dynasty early thirteenth century works, in recent years, Himalayan art in the Chinese collection circle has a high degree of attention, fine products often set high prices, although they used to be only on the edge of the Traditional Chinese craft collection category, But beautiful things will surely cross time, space and borders, shake the hearts of collectors, and this statue will end up with a hammer of $1.9 million, which is well deserved.
Nepal Early Mara Dynasty
Thirteenth century bronze gilded Tara statue
Height: 23 cm
David Tremayne Ltd, London, 1985
Collection of Michael Henss, Zurich
Price realised: $2,310,312
And DOYLE although only a small auction company in New York, but because the quality of porcelain in the past March auction season is good, but also very concerned by Chinese buyers, this time a Yongzheng pink blue glaze mite pattern plate fell at 310,000 US dollars, plus the commission is also almost three million yuan, to know that in the domestic top auction, this is also considered to be in place price, the first two years Poly auction a piece of the same variety and the same size of the same size plate with sky blue color painted on the pattern, the transaction price is only more than three million. It can also be seen that the performance of porcelain in this New York auction week, whether it is a big auction or a small auction, is very good.
Perhaps many people fantasize that the "big market" of art auctions is far from coming, but spring in New York has indeed arrived.