Maine Antique Digest May 2015

101 / 245

Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 29-B
- auction -
☞
Christie’s scheduled its China trade auction on January 26,
the Monday of Americana Week in New York City, after
collectors and dealers had a chance to shop the Winter
Antiques Show and the New York Ceramics & Glass Fair and
preview the sale on view all week. The sale also coincided with
the beginning of old masters week, when collectors and dealers
are in town for the old masters auctions and for drawings week at
galleries on Madison Avenue.
“There is crossover,” said Becky MacGuire, head of Christie’s
Chinese export art auctions. “Collectors of old master paintings
and collectors of Americana collect Chinese export porcelain and
China trade paintings.”
This important sale coincided with the Winter Antiques Show,
where Cohen & Cohen exhibited Chinese export porcelain and
London dealers Martyn Gregory and Thomas Coulborn & Sons
offered China trade paintings, and with the New York Ceramics
& Glass Fair, where Santos - London, John Suval, Polly Latham,
and Lynda Willauer offered Chinese export porcelain.
Of the 198 lots of Chinese
export art offered by Chris-
tie’s, 157 (79%) sold for a
total of $2,885,625. “The sale
was solid in every category,”
said a pleased MacGuire
after the sale. “The private collection of European-subject Chi-
nese export porcelain put together by a Milwaukee physician and
his wife working with major dealers—Elinor Gordon, Rochelle
Thomas, and Philip Suval—brought to market examples not seen
for a long time.” A rare circa 1750 “Don Quixote” plate sold for
$30,000 (est. $12,000/18,000); a rare circa 1745 “Scotsmen” plate
with two kilted figures sold for $47,500 (est. $20,000/30,000);
and a rare famille rose Pronk “Dame au Parasol” plate with a pink
border went at $22,500 (est. $6000/9000).
The menagerie of birds, animals, and figures put together over
a period of 25 years by James Sowell sold well if the condition
was good and the colors and forms were appealing. A 16½" high
famille rose pheasant sold for $62,500 (est. $20,000/30,000);
a pair of large famille rose Court Lady candleholders sold for
$100,000 (est. $40,000/60,000); and the most coveted, a circa
1785 famille rose rooster tureen and cover, brought $233,000 (est.
$100,000/150,000).
“There is a knowledgeable and confident market for Chinese
export porcelain,” said MacGuire, and it is a global market. Mac-
Guire said 62% of the buyers at this sale were outside the U.S.,
and bidders from 14 countries were successful bidding online, on
the phones, in the salesroom, and with written bids on a snowy
morning in New York City. She reported that 20% of the success-
ful bidders were mainland Chinese, but the number may be higher
because many of them have overseas addresses.
The market for China trade objects made for the American mar-
ket is in the U.S., and the prize lot in this category was a 1785-
1803 punch bowl, a special order commemorating Commodore
John Barry of Philadelphia and his command of the Alliance at the
time of her victory in the final naval battle of the American War
of Independence. It is decorated front and back with depictions of
the Alliance, and has a third depiction inside with the inscription
“John Barry Esqr / Alliance / Commander.” It sold for $43,750
(est. $25,000/40,000) but would have brought a lot more without
hairline cracks.
The best of the China trade paintings sold above estimates. An
oil on canvas view of the bund at Shanghai, 24" x 43", sold for
$60,000 (est. $25,000/40,000). A pair of 18th- or 19th-century
ink and watercolor on paper pictures of Western musicians and
Imperial figures receiving tribute in front of a famous building
designed by Castiglione and Benoist for the Emperor Qianlong,
17¼" x 30" each, sold online for $50,000 (est. $7000/10,000).
There is no lack of interest in this international segment of the
marketplace. For more information, contact Christie’s at (212)
636-2000; website ).
Christie’s, New York City
Chinese Export Art
by Lita Solis-Cohen
Photos courtesy Christie’s
“The sale was
solid in every
category.”
A massive famille rose “Peacock” fish bowl, mid-
18th century, 23" diameter, finely enameled on each
side of the exterior with a peacock and peahen stand-
ing on rockwork, branches of tree peony with large
blooms, magnolia, prunus, and pomegranate grow-
ing behind, a pheasant perched on a pomegranate
branch to the right and a pair of cranes on the
grassy terrace to the left, divided at each side by a
lion-mask loose-ring handle reserved in the biscuit,
the interior sides enameled with goldfish among
water-weeds divided by small grisaille crustaceans,
$45,000 (est. $40,000/60,000).
“Such important large basins were eye-catching and
status-enhancing objects in the European interior. If they
have a pedigree, it is usually connected with former palaces
or country houses of the aristocracy, for they were very expen-
sive and only the wealthy could afford them,” according to a
catalog note that quoted C. Jörg writing in Chinese Ceramics
in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (1997).
Famille verte duck wine pot and cover,
late 18th century, the body iron-red with
green and gilt wings, the cover with a lotus
finial, the handle a green stem, the beak
gold, 8" long, $21,250 (est. $8000/12,000)
to a bidder on the phone.
A large 18th-century
famille rose pheasant,
16½" high, with iron-
red body and crest,
a pink nape detailed
in black, polychrome
wings and tail, and yellow
legs on a pierced rockwork
base enameled in brown
and green, all on a French
ormolu base, $62,500 (est.
$20,000/30,000) to a Euro-
pean private collector bid-
ding on the phone.
Famille rose rooster tureen and cover, circa 1785, the seated
cockerel brightly enameled and realistically molded, with a pink
crest, red body, and polychrome feathering, 15¼" high x 14" long,
$233,000 (est. $100,000/150,000) to a member of the U.K. trade in
the room.
Large tureens were popular in the Iberian market, where a
range of armorial examples are known in the form of geese, ducks,
and roosters as well as quail, pigs, shells, and crab, according to the
catalog. “It is believed that these are taken from European faience
of a slightly earlier date.
“The rooster (gongji) is an ancient yang symbol associated with
the sun chasing away darkness. Its name consists of gong, which
in this context means ‘male animal’ but was also the highest feu-
dal rank, and ji, ‘chicken,’ which is a pun for ji, ‘auspicious.’ In
Chinese art, the bird is often associated with depictions of rank
or official success. A similar example and another example with
a stand and the arms of Bermudez are part of the Copeland Col-
lection, Peabody Essex Museum (see W.R. Sargent, The Copeland
Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Peabody Essex
Museum, 1991, p. 209).”
Pair of large famille rose Court Lady candleholders, circa 1770,
16½" high, each modeled in mirror image of the other and
holding a gu-form candle-nozzle, the robes decorated in famille
rose enamels, with an outer garment of iron-red and an under-
skirt of yellow, standing on a molded lotus leaf, $100,000 (est.
$40,000/60,000) to an American collector bidding on the phone.
“Pairs of court ladies in the form of candlesticks are well docu-
mented but rare, especially of this size,” according to the catalog.
This pair has expressive and well-molded faces and richly deco-
rated robes. “The bases in the form of curled lily pads or lotus
leaves are also unusual. A pair almost identical in coloring and
modeling is illustrated in Important Chinese Export Porcelain, The
Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 1995, p. 78, no. 60.”
Famille rose
carp tureen
and cover, circa
1785, modeled in
curving motion,
the scales painted in
iron-red and gold, the
fins and face with black
spots and sprays of flow-
ers emerging from the gills,
8" long, $21,250 (est. $7000/10,000).
It has some restoration.
Pair of recumbent spaniels, 18th century, each painted iron-red
and white, the eyes and claws in black enamel, each 10½" long,
$23,750 (est. $12,000/18,000) to a phone bidder.