A Rare Pair of $133,250 Wang Dafan Porcelain Panels Selling at Heffel

What a quick turnaround! The spring edition of Heffel's Asian art online auction barely closed and now I am in Hong Kong for the Chinese art auctions! I'm in Hong Kong to view the major sales at Christie's and Sotheby's before heading out to San Francisco in a week's time.

With just 81 lots, the April online sale of Asian art at Heffel realized slightly over CAD $500,000. It was spread over two sessions with artwork mostly from China and Japan. There was spirited bidding all across Canada, the USA, the UK, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

I'm now in my fourth year collaborating with Heffel, Canada's national auction house, and this was one of the more concise sales I put together. Despite the smaller number of objects, the auction still featured a myriad of different collecting categories including Chinese porcelain, jade carvings and paintings, in addition to Japanese decorative arts and woodblock prints.

Image 1a. One of the major highlights of the April online auction at Heffel was lot 120, a rare pair of Chinese famille rose painted porcelain panels by Wang Dafan (1888-1961) 王大凡 dated to 1928. These panels headlined session 2 of the sale.

Wang Dafan was one of the founders of the Zhushan Bayou 珠山八友 (Eight friends of the Zhu Mountain), a group of Republican Period (1911-1949) porcelain painters who thrived during the second quarter of the 20th Century.

This set of porcelain panels by Wang Dafan were some of the best I have ever encountered. I was brought to their attention last October from the home of a very important Montreal collector of Canadian paintings. They panels were part of their family since the early 1980's. In the above photo I am carefully examining the panels after they arrived at the Heffel Montreal in December of 2024.

Image 1b. A close-up of the two porcelain panels by Wang Dafan. The porcelain painters of the Zhushan were renowned for the detail and expressiveness in their works. In addition to painting landscapes, florals and fauna, the artists also depicted stories from Chinese mythology and folk tales.

In these works, the left panel features the tale of ’Xi Shan Kua Hu‘ 西山跨虎, with the Daoist immortal Wu Cailuan and her husband moving ethereally through a mountainous landscape on the backs of tigers, journeying into the realm of immortality. The second panel depicts a tranquil scene of ’Zhu Li Jian Cha‘ 竹里煎茶, brewing tea amidst the bamboo, with a finely dressed scholar standing gracefully beneath the lush bamboo, while a female attendant kneels on the ground, preparing the tea.

Both of these Wang Dafan porcelain panels are simply stunning with their quality of painting, dynamism and details. They were estimated conservatively at $30/50,000 and after competitive bidding around the world, ended up selling for $133,250 including buyer's premium.

Image 1c. A view of Wang Dafan's porcelain panels during the Asian art preview at the Heffel Toronto gallery on 13 Hazelton Avenue.

Image 2a. Other highlights from the Heffel online sale this past April was the incredible single-owner jade collection (session 1) from the family of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (1915-2009).

Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton (pictured above) owned one of Canada’s most important art collections. Her Canadian art collection included works by Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Edwin Holgate, A. Y. Jackson, Albert Robinson, Anne Savage, E. J. Hughes and J. E. H Macdonald. Many of these works were purchased directly from artists, or from their dealers as newly available works. My workplace Heffel had sold the majority of her Canadian art collection between 2010 to 2012.

Theodosia also amassed an immense collection of Chinese jade carvings and snuff bottles. Her interest developed when her grandmother, Rachel Dawes Bond, brought the family on a tour of China during the 1920's where she started collecting tabletop (scholar) Chinese works of art. Many of these pieces were later bequeathed to Theodosia, and she continued the tradition by acquiring more scholar jade carvings from Montreal’s prestigious Gurie Gallery.

Initially based in Harbin in northeastern China during the first half of the 20th Century, the Gurevich family moved to Canada during the 1950s and opened the Gurie Gallery on Montreal's Sherbrooke street. The Gurie Gallery was one of the first to focus on Chinese ceramics, decorative arts and paintings, and was extremely popular to collectors in Montreal, Toronto and New York.

Image 2b. Here is an old photo of Alex Gurevich in front of the Montreal store during the 1950's.

Image 3a. One of the most exquisite jade pieces from the collection of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton is this Chinese white jade plaque from the 18th/19th Century. The colour is a fine white tone and it is carved with Zhang Qian 張騫, a historical figure from the Han Dynasty (BC 206 - AD 220) who led imperial expeditions outside of Chinese. He is shown here sitting in his trademark driftwood-constructed raft.

In addition to the strong final sale price for this jade carving at $10,000 (estimate $4/6,000), I wanted to showcase Theodosia's passion for her Chinese jade collection. She was also known as a top amateur photographer in Montreal and she took meticulous notes for many of her jade items in notebooks.

Image 3b. In one of Theodosia's notebooks, she took photos of all her jade plaques including the above example. Some of the other jade plaques featured on this page will be featured in Part 2 of her family's sale in October of 2025 at Heffel.

Image 3c. In the same album, Theodosia also made rubbing impressions of her jade plaques. The reverse of the one recently sold is shown here.

Image 4a. One of my favourite pieces from the Chinese jade collection of Theodosia Dawes Bond Thornton was this white jade apsara dated to the 18th/19th Century. This fine carving is extremely attractive and depicts a flying fairy that is often seen in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The aparsa was estimated at $3/4,000 and sold for $11,250.

Image 4b. A photo of me examining this white jade apsara. Her robe contains loose ribbons, and she wears a large ceremonial headdress and has both hands in prayer. The back contains heavenly clouds that have natural russet inclusions from the jade.

Image 5a. Also in the jade session was one of the biggest surprises of the sale. Lot 014 comprised of six Chinese jade carved miniature seals from the 19th/20th Century. Estimated at $2/3,000, they ended up selling for $43,250.

Many international collectors believed that a few of the pieces may have had an earlier Ming Dynasty dating, and were extremely attracted to the jade turtle seal on the lower right of the above image.

Image 5b. The base of the six Chinese jade seals with their carved chop marks.

Image 6. And finally we have lot 141, a Japanese woodblock print by my favourite artist Kawase Hasui (1883-1957). Hasui was one of the leaders of the leaders of the shin hanga (new wave) Japanese woodblock print movement. When compared to the more traditional ukiyo-e (floating world) examples of the 18th and 19th Century, shin hanga works are influenced by Western art with respect to their colours, perspective and composition.

Notably, Hasui was a master of the elements, in particular the effects of nightfall, snow and rain in his works. In the above scene titled 'Spring Night at Inokashira' (1931), he depicts the pond located in Western Tokyo's famous park. The tranquil scene is gorgeous with the full moon, evergreen trees, cherry blossoms, and reflections - all depicted with different hues of white, blue and green. I do have to make a point to visit Inokashira Park in the near future since it also houses the famous Ghibli Museum. You call also read about my private collection of Kawase Hasui shin hanga woodblock prints in by clicking here.

This woodblock print came from a Calgary collection, and against an estimate of $2/3,000, sold for $3,438.

Thank you for reading this post about my latest Heffel Asian art online sale. I'll be working on the next October sale starting in June when I finally return to Toronto. If you would like to participate, please let me know! In the meanwhile, I'll be working on my next post which will include my current Hong Kong trip and my upcoming visit to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.