This Fall season has been one of the busiest ever! I have been traveling a lot for work since mid-September with stops in New York, Hong Kong and Vancouver. After a short three-week return to Toronto where I oversaw my latest Asian art online sale in collaboration with Heffel, Canada's national auction house, I headed over to Asian Art in London at the end of October.

Asian Art in London is very similar to its American counterpart, Asia Week New York - they both celebrate art from China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas and South Asia. In addition to the local Asian art lovers, hundreds of international visitors will stop by London to partake in the plethora of auction house previews, lectures, exhibition openings and dealer parties.

I have been visiting London at least twice a year since the pandemic ended (it does help that I have family there) and really love attending all the London auction previews, listening to numerous lectures and visiting the incredible museums with extensive Asian art collections.

In this current blog I will go through some of the highlights during my most recent ten-day trip to Asian Art in London.

Image 1a. This edition of Asian Art in London saw many of the highlights at Sotheby's. In addition to the Jiajing fish jars (which I will showcase shortly), one of the most mesmerizing pieces was this rare blue and white barbed rim dish from the Yongle Period (1403-1425) of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The quality of the cobalt blue on this little Yongle dish is simply magnificent. The painting of the floral blooms, lingzhi fungus and central stylized lotus is also outstanding. There are fine areas of 'heaping and piling' one would expect from these early Ming dishes.

This Yongle blue and white dish was published in one of the most famous books on Chinese porcelain, John Pope's 'Chinese Porcelain from the Ardebil Shrine' (Washington, 1956, pl., 29.271). This book is an essential resource for any Chinese porcelain connoisseur and typically one of the first resources you would acquire when building an Asian art library. To have the opportunity to examine a dish published from John Pope's volume was an exciting experience.

In addition to the Yongle dish's excellent publication history is its provenance. The reverse of the dish features the mark of Shah Abbas (1588-1629) one of the greatest rulers of Iran's Safavid Dynasty (1501-1736). He was an avid collector of Chinese porcelain and many pieces from his collection will bear his mark.

This dish was estimated at a conservative £80/120,000 and after much bidding because of its exceptional pedigree, sold for £480,000 (approximately CAD 880,000).

Image 1b. The reverse of the Yongle dish and the Shah Abbas mark within a square. There are many published examples of porcelain bearing this mark in museum collections around the world.

Image 2a. The highlight of the Sotheby's Chinese art auction (and Asian Art in London!) was a pair of Chinese Imperial wucai 'fish' jars and covers from the Jiajing period (1522-1566). These jars belonged to an important German family and have been tracked by Sotheby's for nearly 100 years.

In addition to the jars' large sizes, the quality of the wucai painting is spectacular. Wucai 五彩 translates to 'five colours' and is a type of enamelling that was popular during the Ming Dynasty. However, this type of decoration is seldom seen on such large porcelain wares like the present jars.

In addition to both of these jars having their original covers (of which has a restored finial), the quality of the paintings on the jars is also very special. The carps are especially well-painted and look lively as they swim in various poses amongst the underwater plants. The Jiajing Emperor was a devote Daoist, and the symbolism of these jars showcase the Daoist belief that fish are happy because they live within a carefree existence. It is a state of mind that humanity should follow.

Few examples of these types of large Imperial Jiajing fish jars have come up for auction. The last one appeared in the Christie's 27 November 2017 sale of 'Important Ming Imperial Works of Art from the Le Cong Tang Collection'. This single fish jar once belonged to the renowned collection of Shanghai/Hong Kong businessman Hu Hui Chun (J. M. Hu) (1911-1995) and when it was sold in 29 Oct 2000 for HKD 44,044,750 (approximately CAD 8 million), it was the world record price for a Chinese porcelain. In the 2017 auction, the fish jar yielded a crazy price of HKD 213,850,000 (approximately CAD 38 million) including buyer's premium.

The Sotheby's London Jiajing fish jars did not have the aura of the previous example that sold in 2017 with respect to its former owners. And because one of the covers was restored and there is a dip in the overall market, the price was definitely affected.

However, the bidding battle for this lot did surpass 15 minutes, and from an extremely lowball estimate of £600,000/1,000,000, they sold for many times more at a stunning £9.63 million (approximately CAD 17.7 million) including buyer's premium.

Image 2b. Here is a photo of me examining one of these important Jiajing wucai fish jars. I missed out on handling the 2017 example from the Le Cong Tang Collection, so this was a particularly important moment in my career.

Image 2c. The covers of the fish jars are also well-decorated with more swimming fish. The top section has a finial that I think is a Daoist 'flaming pearl of wisdom' supported by lotus petals.

Image 2d. The base of one the fish jars with the six-character mark 大明嘉靖年製 daming jiajing nianzhi which translates to 'made during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty'.

Image 3. Another piece I really liked at Sotheby's London was this massive huanghuali compound cabinet from the 17th Century. This was perhaps the largest Chinese cabinet I have ever seen! The panels of rare huanghuali 黃花梨 are especially impressive since they are carved in relief with large archaistic dragons. And in the social media videos, it took a team of eight art handlers to stage this furniture which weighs reputedly 1,000 lbs. The cabinet was estimated at £1/1.5 million but unfortunately it was not able to find a buyer.

Image 4a. Just up the street from Sotheby's was Bonhams, where they also had a wonderful preview of Chinese art. There cover lot was this massive gilt-decorated and iron-red dragon rouleau vase from the Kangxi period (1662-1722).

The painting on this vase was absolutely superb and looks more like a scroll painting rather than porcelain. This lot's essay compared the design of the two fierce dragons as being inspired by the Song Dynasty (960-1279) master Chen Rong (c. 1200-1266). Both of these mythical beasts are incredibly detailed and dynamic while soaring over raging waters and immutable rocks.

There was a large crack to the side of this rouleau vase, but because of its rarity and size, it still sold for £406,800 (approximately CAD 750,000) against an estimate of £100/200,000.

Image 4b. Just for scale, I included a photo of myself examining this large Kangxi dragon rouleau vase.

Image 5a. Another piece of Qing Dynasty porcelain I really enjoyed handling at Bonhams was this rare blue, white and polychrome enamelled Tibetan-style ritual vase with Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795).

The shape is simply exquisite as it emulated metal Buddhist vessels. The type of painting and the quality of the contrasting colour palette is also sumptuous. The vase's neck imitates a Tibetan banner while the body is decorated with the eight Buddhist symbols between large lotus blooms. This ritual vase had an estimate of £60/80,000 and sold for £317,900 (approximately CAD 580,000).

Image 5b. The base of the Qianlong ritual vase and the 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 6. Amongst the jade pieces I viewed at Bonhams, I particularly enjoyed playing with this yellow jade elephant from the 17th Century. It depicts a young boy with a piece of lingzhi fungus on an elephant's back.

The quality of the yellow jade stone and carvings is quite fine. A boy on an elephant in Chinese translates to jixiang 騎象, which sounds the same as jixiang 騎祥, meaning positive omens and blessings. So this carving would have bestowed auspicious symbolism to its owner.

The yellow jade carving unfortunately did not sell at an estimate of £15/25,000, but was supposedly acquired in an aftersale post-auction.

Image 7. Christie's London don't offer any specific sales of Asian works of art anymore, but their King Street location still showcases upcoming Asian highlights from around the world.

This time I was able to view some of there Art D' Asie objects scheduled for auction on December 11. In particular I was drawn to this Tibetan gilt bronze figure of Vaishravana riding a horse.

This sculpture was made during the 15th century and is a rare depiction of the Buddhist god of wealth as an equestrian figure. In his right hand he holds a ceramonial blade, while the left holds his trademark mongoose that spits out gold coins. The figure is also finely inlaid with turquoise beads throughout.

This figure of Vaishravana was offered with an auction estimate of EUR 50,/70,000. (Note: this figure ended up realising EUR 163,800, which is approximately CAD 250,000)

Image 8. And finally a trip to Asian Art in London won't be complete without visiting Eskenazi, one of the most important dealers in Chinese antiques in the world. They were featuring their latest exhibition 'Blue and White Porcelain from the Yuan and Early Ming Dynasties'.

Of the seven pieces on display the highlight was this important blue, white and copper red guan from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368). These jars are especially rare with only a few recorded examples around the world. It uses a difficult combination of blue and white and copper red enamels, and a raised slip decoration to produce the florals within the cartouches. When I visited the gallery, this piece already had a red sticker meaning that it was sold!

Image 9. Two other highlights from the Eskenazi exhibition was (L) a blue and white 'grapes' dish and (R) a blue and white 'three friends' dish. Both of these were made during the Yongle Period (1403-1425). The 'grapes' dish was probably a trade piece for the Middle Eastern market while the 'three friends' dish was for domestic use.

Thank you again for checking out my latest blog. By the time you read this I will be in Hong Kong (again) for the Chinese art auctions at Bonhams, Christie's and Sotheby's. Afterwards I will be visiting Tokyo for about a week before coming back to Toronto to finish a few Asian art appraisals prior the holidays. In the meantime, please remember to follow me on my Instagram @anthonywuart.