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Junior Member
Not sold at Sotheby's nor Christie's but a little known auction house which the owner may be able to retire on the commission.
An elaborately decorated Qianlong- dynasty porcelain vase sold tonight for a record 51.6 million pounds ($83 million) as Chinese buyers competed for Imperial- associated trophies at the “Asian Art in London” event.
The 16-inch-high piece had been discovered during a routine house clearance in the suburb of Pinner, said Bainbridges, a west London auction house. It had estimated the vase to fetch between 800,000 pounds and 1.2 million pounds. The hammer price was 43 million pounds before 20 percent fees, making it the highest for any Chinese artwork sold at auction.
“Everyone was excited about this vase,” David Baker, one of the 37 dealers exhibiting at Asian Art in London, said in an interview. “It’s an exceptional Imperial piece in perfect condition with the most amazing reticulated decoration. It’s exactly what Chinese buyers want at the moment.”
Asian bidders are prepared to pay ever-higher prices for rare objects associated with Chinese emperors. The vase beat the record for any Chinese work of art sold at auction, 436.8 million yuan ($65.95 million) paid for a 15-meter-long Song Dynasty scroll at Beijing Poly International Auction Co. Ltd. in June 2010.
Last month, an 18th-century Imperial vase was bought by the Chinese collector Alice Cheng for a record HK$252.7 million ($32.6 million) at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong. Asian art raised 245.5 million pounds of auction sales at Christie’s International in the first half, a 121 percent increase on the same period last year.
‘Astonishing’ Artwork
“I’m thrilled that a provincial auction room can show what it can do,” Peter Bainbridge, director of the auction house, said in an interview after today’s sale. “I’m also delighted to have handled such an astonishing work of art. I didn’t quite realize how exciting it was.”
There were about 100 people in the saleroom -- which was cluttered with Victorian mahogany furniture -- including collector Robert Chang, the brother of the similarly named Alice Cheng, and Hong Kong dealer William Chak.
A bidding battle between six people in the room and three telephone bidders was won by a man who sat on a gilded sofa at the front of the room. The buyer, who refused comment after the sale, was a Beijing-based agent, according to Bainbridge.
An elaborately decorated Qianlong- dynasty porcelain vase sold tonight for a record 51.6 million pounds ($83 million) as Chinese buyers competed for Imperial- associated trophies at the “Asian Art in London” event.
The 16-inch-high piece had been discovered during a routine house clearance in the suburb of Pinner, said Bainbridges, a west London auction house. It had estimated the vase to fetch between 800,000 pounds and 1.2 million pounds. The hammer price was 43 million pounds before 20 percent fees, making it the highest for any Chinese artwork sold at auction.
“Everyone was excited about this vase,” David Baker, one of the 37 dealers exhibiting at Asian Art in London, said in an interview. “It’s an exceptional Imperial piece in perfect condition with the most amazing reticulated decoration. It’s exactly what Chinese buyers want at the moment.”
Asian bidders are prepared to pay ever-higher prices for rare objects associated with Chinese emperors. The vase beat the record for any Chinese work of art sold at auction, 436.8 million yuan ($65.95 million) paid for a 15-meter-long Song Dynasty scroll at Beijing Poly International Auction Co. Ltd. in June 2010.
Last month, an 18th-century Imperial vase was bought by the Chinese collector Alice Cheng for a record HK$252.7 million ($32.6 million) at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong. Asian art raised 245.5 million pounds of auction sales at Christie’s International in the first half, a 121 percent increase on the same period last year.
‘Astonishing’ Artwork
“I’m thrilled that a provincial auction room can show what it can do,” Peter Bainbridge, director of the auction house, said in an interview after today’s sale. “I’m also delighted to have handled such an astonishing work of art. I didn’t quite realize how exciting it was.”
There were about 100 people in the saleroom -- which was cluttered with Victorian mahogany furniture -- including collector Robert Chang, the brother of the similarly named Alice Cheng, and Hong Kong dealer William Chak.
A bidding battle between six people in the room and three telephone bidders was won by a man who sat on a gilded sofa at the front of the room. The buyer, who refused comment after the sale, was a Beijing-based agent, according to Bainbridge.
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