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19 septembre 2013

Sotheby's Sales of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art in New York total $40 million

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Lot 45. A Pair of Magnificent Sancai-Glazed Pottery Horses, Tang Dynasty. Est. $2,500,000 - 2,500,000. Sold for: $4,197,000 (£2,637,632) to a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

NEW YORK, NY.- Today at Sotheby’s in New York, the two day auction of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art concluded bringing a total of $22,711,064, surpassing the high estimate and with 78% of lots sold. Along with yesterday’s sale of Magnificent Ritual Bronzes – Property from the Collection of Julius Eberhardt, which brought $16,786,000, Sotheby’s has sold $39,497,064 of Chinese Works of Art over the past two days.

Dr. Tao Wang, Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Sotheby’s New York said: ‘‘We were thrilled to see heated competition from multiple collectors for the pair of Tang Dynasty Horses; the final price of $4.2 million demonstrates that the market once again recognized the importance of the best Tang Sancai. Elsewhere in the sale, we saw strong prices for ceramics, bronzes, and jades with collectors from around the world competing at the highest level to drive the total for this New York sale to nearly $23 million. In addition to the private collectors, I was delighted that the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the Wood And Gesso Figure Of Maudgalyayana to add to their wonderful collection of Chinese Art.”

The sale was led by A Pair of Magnificent Sancai-Glazed Pottery Horses that sold for $4,197,000, well over the $2.5 million estimate and more than double the $1.6 million that it fetched when last at auction in 2003. Additional highlights included A Fine And Rare Coral-Ground Famille Rose Floral Bowl, Yongzheng Mark And Period, which made $905,000 (est.$400/600,000) and An Imperial Spinach-Green 2 Jade 'Wufu Wudai Tang' Plaque, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, which sold for $941,000 (est. $800,000/1.2 million). A Rare Polychrome, Wood And Gesso Figure Of Maudgalyayana, Song / Yuan Dynasty from the esteemed Philadelphia collection of Lady Deana Pitcairn Duncan was purchased by The Philadelphia Museum of Art for $905,000. 

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Lot 45. A Pair of Magnificent Sancai-Glazed Pottery Horses, Tang Dynasty. Est. $2,500,000 - 2,500,001. Sold for $4,197,000 (£2,637,632) to a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

each of imposing size, superbly modeled, standing foursquare on a rectangular base, with head high and turned to the left, the nostrils flared and mouth open to reveal well defined teeth, one a strikingly beautiful black horse with a flowing white mane falling in serrated waves from the arched neck, the forelock parted in front of the pricked ears and combed to the sides above the large eyes and bridge of the nose splashed in cream, the bridle decorated with crisp floret medallions, the saddle covered with a long leaf-green saddlecloth naturalistically textured to simulate fur, furled back at the forward edge to show the cream-colored lining, secured by breast and crupper straps molded with floret studs, all brilliantly contrasted against the rich brownish-black glaze, shading to amber brown along the slender legs, ending in streaks above the cream colored ankles and amber splashed hoofs, the companion horse of an extremely rare ‘strawberry roan’ color, with patches of creamy-white showing through the overall reddish-beige glaze save for the hoofs in cream, the docked tail and hogged mane glazed in rich chestnut parted in front of the ears and with a single lock of mane falling down the shoulder, the large eyes set beneath furrowed brows, the left eye unusually incised with a pupil and iris, the saddle covered with a bright lime-green and cream saddlecloth tied and falling in pleats over two saddle blankets splashed in green and chestnut, all secured by breast and crupper straps molded with florets, knotted behind the saddle with one end trailing down the side of the saddle blanket; of particular note is the pronounced sweep of the back arching dramatically to the high haunches and large lifted rump, continuing to the flourish of the curled tail before tapering at the muscled things and hocks, the beautifully proportioned modeling the identical form confirming both as a fine pair while imparting a distinctive grace and imperious carriage, stands (4); Black horse: Height 27 in., 69.6 cm; Width 30 in., 76.2 cm; Roan horse: Height 26 3/4  in., 67.9 cm; Width 30 in., 76.2 cm

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 27th March 2003, lot 36

Note: It is rare to find two large Tang horses of sancai-glazed pottery modeled in this way as a complementary pair, with differently colored coats, groomed manes and saddle blankets, but otherwise identically sculpted, of the same powerful build, angle of the head and modeling of the face, and with the musculature identically rendered with distinctive relief modeling and deeply carved grooves.  Very few examples of glazed pairs of horses have been published. An important and quite similar pair in the Kyoto National Museum, one with a dappled coat and the other black-glazed similarly to ours, (fig. 5)  is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, nos. 197 and 198 and again in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Shogakukan Series, Vol. 11, col. pl. 192. A superb unglazed pair of horses was sold at Sotheby’s London, 13th December 1988, lots 49 and 50, and one of them again at Sotheby’s New York, 19th March 1997, lot 203. These horses were similarly conceived as a complementary pair, distinguished in color, the grooming of the manes, and the form of the exotic and western-influenced trappings. Horses have long been a symbol of status and wealth, the representation of a large important pair of distinct and desirable coloration such as the present example, reflect the high rank and importance of the owner and his family. Indeed, Tang dynasty statues as early as 667 assert the ownership of horses as an aristocratic privilege, in an edict forbidding artisans and tradesmen this right.

Black pottery horses are very scarce and are more often seen with a hogged mane, such as the famous horse from the British Rail Pension Fund, which sold for a world record price at Sotheby’s London, 12th December 1989, lot 56, (GBP 3.74 million). That horse had a similar green simulated fur saddle blanket, but the black coat of the animal was interspersed with lighter spots and partly hidden under large trappings. Another example of a black and sancai-glazed caparisoned horse of slightly smaller size was sold in these rooms 21st September 2005, lot 251. There is also a fine example of an also large and with a similarly treated mane but with elaborate trappings in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston illustrated in Wu Tung, Earth Transformed, Boston 2001, pp. 40-41. Another very fine example of a fully caparisoned horse, from the collection of James W. and Marilyn Alsdorf, the body a rich brown color and with a bi-color mane was sold in our London rooms 11th June, 1991, lot 112. The black glaze of the present figure is particularly opaque and slightly iridescent and has been created by applying a second iron-rich coating over the standard amber glaze, which is visible at the ankles. Strawberry roan animals are the rarest type of Tang pottery horses. This unusual glaze tone, used for a chestnut-colored coat interspersed with white hair, was created by covering a white slip with an iron-rich reddish slip, then rubbing part of the latter away before applying a transparent glaze, so that white patches come up through the red. A horse of similar coloration was sold at Sotheby’s London, 9th June 1987, lot 84, from the collection of Mona, Countess von Bismarck. A dappled strawberry-roan glazed horse with similar trappings and a hogged mane, currently in the Toguri museum, is illustrated by Fujio Nakazawa, 'Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Museum of Art', Orientations, April 1988, p. 43, fig. 1.The different colors of horses appear to have been of particular importance to the Tang emperors, whose favorite horses are described by their coloration. The present two glaze colors were obviously specially developed for a correct representation of particular types of horses- if not even individual steeds- for which the usual sancai range of amber, cream and green would have been too limited. In addition no other glazed figures forming part of the core group of funerary wares display these particular colors indicating the special status reserved for horses. Emperor Taizong (r. 600-673?) had portraits of his six favorite battle chargers carved in stone, the Zhaoling Liujun.  Each horse is described by its noble deeds in battle and by its color; bay, deep brown, bright chestnut, bay with a white mouth, pale grey, and black with white hooves.)  The Emperor Xuanzong displayed equal passion for his mounts commissioning paintings from the famed artist Han Gan  (c. 706-783) In the Lidai minghua ji (‘Record of famous painters of all periods’; 847), Zhang Yanyuan noted that Emperor Xuanzong  ‘loved large horses and ordered Han to paint the most noble of his more than 400,000 steeds’, six of these, all bred from the famed Ferghana stock  in Central Asia are described by  their respective colors, red, purple, scarlet, yellow, ‘clove’ , and ‘peach-flower’ colored, respectively. The most famous of which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ‘Night-shining White’ (Zhaoyebai) and attributed to the artist. Indeed, it is easy to speculate that Han Gan’s distinctive style which captures the animals in spirited movement, emphasizing their powerful, rounded and muscular forms while retaining an easy naturalism, influenced the artisans who sculpted the present pair.

The splendid physical appearance of the present pair, which gives the impression of tamed strength and power, is emphasized by the simplicity of the unadorned harnessing. The same effect can be seen on the famous black-glazed horse with cropped mane and tied saddle cloth, excavated in 1969 from tomb no.120 at Chegedang, Guanlin, near Luoyang in Henan province, which has been frequently illustrated, for example, in Luoyang Tang sancai, Beijing, 1980, pl. 69; and in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Diaosu Bian, vol.4, Beijing, 1988, pl. 197, with a detail on p.202. Many large Tang horses are depicted with elaborate trappings, indicating use of the horse in ceremonial parades, while the plain harness appears to have been customary for more functional outings, and is of a type rarely seen on large sancai horses.  The simple harness appears also on the above-mentioned battle horses of Emperor Taizong and in Tang paintings and murals depicting horses mounted for battle or sport.  The inclusion of these simple trappings on the present sculptures implies that perhaps they reference military achievement by their illustrious owner. The stone carvings of the former emperor, now in the University Museum of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, Xi’an, are illustrated ibid, pls. 101-106; and several paintings of horses attributed to the Tang are published in The Great Treasure of Chinese Fine Arts: Painting, vol. 2, Beijing, 1988, pls. 10,11,19,21,27 and 30.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the result of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford authentication Ltd., nos. 766p63 and 766p62.

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A Fine and Rare Coral-Ground Famille Rose Floral Bowl, Yongzheng Mark and Period. Diameter 5 1/8 in., 13 cm. Est. $400/600,000. Sold for: $905,000 to an Asia Trade. Photo: Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: A fine and rare coral-ground Famille Rose floral bowl, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735)

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Lot 122. An Imperial Spinach-Green Jade 'Wufu Wudai Tang' Plaque, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period. Est. $800,000 - 1,200,000. Sold for: $941,000 (£591,378)  to a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

of rectangular outline, the two upper corners notched on the sides, the lower sides cut with a short groove for insertion, the main face incised in clerical script with two-hundred and thirty-two characters infilled with gilt-lacquer detailing the Qianlong emperor's naming of the Wufu Wudai Tang, titled Yuzhi Wufu Wudai Tang ji, and signed chen Zheng Rui jingshu  (respectfully inscribed by minister Zheng Rui). Height 12 3/4  in., 32.3 cm; width 15 1/2  in., 39.2 cm. 

Provenance: Acquired in China between 1886-1895, and thence by descent until 1998 (by repute).
Note: The inscription on the plaque may be translated as:

Imperial inscription to commemorate the Hall of the Five Blessings in Five GenerationsWufu Tang (Hall of the Five Blessings) is the lintel tablet that my grandfather (the Kangxi emperor) personally wrote and gave to my father (the Yongzheng emperor). My father painstakingly copied it and had it hung in halls in the Yonghe Gong and Yuanming Yuan (the Old Summer Palace) for all of posterity to see. In the bingshenyear (corresponding to 1776) I renovated the Jingfu Gong in the Ningshou Gong section (of the Forbidden City) to enjoy after my retirement.  Jingfu (Great Blessing) was the name selected by my grandfather for the palace where the Empress Dowager Xiaohuizhang was to be served. Although I once wrote an Ode to the Five Blessings to be inscribed on a screen, and was inspired by the Wufu (the five blessings of longevity, wealth, health, love of virtue, and a natural lifespan), I did not use that as a name to rename the hall, showing restraint and waiting for a special event to take place worthy of that name.

Now I have been blessed by Heaven with a great-great-grandson, with five generations under one roof. Such good fortune is rarely seen in any era. In the past, some of those who have attained such good fortune have appropriately named buildings to memorialize such events. Hence, it is most fitting that I use the nameWufu to rename the Jingfu Gong.  Constructing something else would just belabor matters; with just the achievements of my grandfather and father, there is unlimited bounty for posterity. If I have secured blessings, it is because I love virtue, especially the virtue of benefitting one’s people with one’s goodness and it does not bear repeating here.  Those of my posterity who read this account and the Ode to the Five Blessings should respectfully realize that my grandfather and father were blessed by Heaven because they revered Heaven, loved the people, diligently governed, surrounded themselves with people of merit, and were mindful of traditional codes. I have modeled my heart after the heart of my grandfather and father, and worked assiduously from dawn to dusk, not daring to be lax. As a result, Heaven is blessing me with five generations under one roof. If we wish to maintain this blessing forever, we must continue to make efforts and exercise caution down through the generations.

Respectfully inscribed by minister Zheng Rui.

This plaque commemorates the auspicious and unprecedented birth of the Qianlong emperor’s first great great-grandson in 1784, the fifth generation to live under his roof. The Hall mentioned in the first line of the inscription yu zhi Wufu Wudai Tang ji(Imperial inscription to commemorate the Hall of the Five Blessings in Five Generations) is a room in Jingfu Gong (Palace of Great Blessings), for which this plaque is likely to have been made. The inscription on the plaque chronicles how the emperor wrote the calligraphy Wufu Wudai Tang on a bian'e (horizontal inscribed name tablets) in the fifty-second year of his reign (1787) and had it hung in the Palace. The plaque also records Qianlong’s achievements and virtues and the call to reflect on his happiness and long life as well as his love for his people, his diligence in governance and administration and vigilance in improving himself.

The inscription ends with the signature of Zheng Rui (d. 1815), an important Manchu official from the Plain White Banner clan. He held a number of prominent official positions including Yuanming Yuan Yuanchen (Administrative Assistant at the Yuanming Yuan, 1769-73), Suzhou Zhizao (Director of the Textile Bureau in Suzhou, 1789-91) and by the end of his life he attained the position of Neiwufu Dachen (Grand Minister of the Imperial Household Department in the Forbidden City).

Two cylindrical gilt-bronze censers cast with an identical inscription that were also probably made for the Wufu Wudai Tang have been sold at auction, one at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st December 2009, lot 1943; and the other at Christie’s South Kensington, 2nd October 2003, lot 103. Another Imperial spinach jade plaque from the Qianlong period inscribed with the Record of the Ink Clouds Room was sold in our Paris sale room, 13th June 2012, lot 99 (fig. 1), and the Imperial Wufu Wudai Tang Guxi Tianzi Bao seal from the Wufu Wudai Tang was sold in these rooms, 19th-20th March 2013, lot 402 (figs. 3 & 4).

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Lot 54. A Rare Polychrome Wood and Gesso Figure of Maudgalyayana, Song-Yuan Dynasty. Est. $180,000 - 220,000. Sold for $905,000 (£568,753) to Philadelphia Museum of Art . Photo: Sotheby's.

wearing kasaya comprised of outer and inner robes with voluminous folds that drape elegantly around the outstretched hands and over the knees and down around the shoes, the monk's head well-carved with eyes downcast, wearing a serene and contemplative expression, the figure resting squarely on an elaborate rockwork throne, all with traces of polychrome and intricate gesso design; Height 55 1/2  in., 140 cm.

On Loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Provenance: Yamanaka and Co., Kyoto, 1923.
Collection of Reverend Theodore Pitcairn (1893-1973), Philadelphia and thence by descent.
Exhibition: On Loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Following the white glove sale of the Eberhardt Collection, Archaic bronzes were once again in demand with A Bronze Wine Vessel (Gong), Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th Century BC, from The Collection of Alex & Elisabeth Lewyt soaring to $1,925,000 (est. $300/500,000) and A Bronze Ritual Tripod Vessel (Ding), Middle Western Zhou Dynasty, 10th-9th Century BC selling for $605,000 (est. $80/120,000) indicating the continuing strength of the market.

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Lot 17. A Bronze Wine Vessel (Gong) Late Shang Dynasty, 12th-11th Century BC. Est. $300,000 - 500,000. Sold for $1,925,000 (£1,209,779) to a Private US . Photo: Sotheby's.

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Lot 22. A Bronze Ritual Tripod Vessel (Ding), Middle Western Zhou Dynasty, 10th-9th Century BC. Est. $80,000 - 120,000. Sold for $605,000 (£380,216) to a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

Anoter highlights results includes: 

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Lot 353. A Famille-Rose 'Longevity' Vase, Qianlong Seal Mark and Period (1736-1795). Height 19 1/2  in., 49.5 cm. Est. $180,000 - 250,000. Sold for $695,000 (£436,777)  to  a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

of baluster shape with canted shoulders and waisted neck flanked by stylized kuilong handles, the neck, shoulder and foot decorated with foliate scrolls against a magenta sgraffito ground, the body enameled with a continuous scene of sages and their attendants beneath a pine tree, watching cranes fill a mansion rising from turbulent waters with tallies, six-character seal mark in iron-red. 

Provenance: Formerly in a Private European Collection.

Note: The motif of a crane flying towards a mansion rising from the sea with a tally in its mouth conveys the wish for longevity. This motif comes from a story told by Northern Song scholar Su Dongpo (1037 -1101), in which three sages compare their ages. One of them says that whenever the sea dries up and turns into fields of mulberry, he marks the occasion with a tally, and to date, he has enough tallies to fill ten mansions. Since the sea drying up is such a rare occurrence, the fact that he has ten mansions full of tallies indicates the extraordinary length of his years. The elements in the story are combined into a motif for longevity called haiwu tianchou,the sea and mansion filled with tallies.

The themes of immortals and sages were popular during the Qianlong period and many examples of vases painted with Daoist immortals from the Qing court collection remain in the Palace Museum, Beijing. 

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Lot 75. A 'Ding' Bowl, Northern Song Dynasty. Est. $250,000 - 350,000. Sold for $545,000 (£342,509) to an Asia Trade. Photo: Sotheby's.

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Lot 128. A Finely Carved Jade 'Chang Yi Zisun' Archaistic Bi Disc, Qianlong Mark and Period. Est. $60,000 - 80,000. Sold for $533,000 (£334,967) to a Private Asian. Photo: Sotheby's. 

the disc and terminal finely pierced in openwork with four archaic script characters chang yi zisun ('To Benefit Future Generations Forever') reading vertically, the circular disc enclosing a pair of confronting phoenix standing atop a small archaistic beast and grasping another in their beaks, the first two characters on the upper crest flanked by undulating archaistic dragons entwined with a phoenix, both detailed with incised hatching, the narrow sides incised with the four-character Qianlong nianzhi mark on one side, and the eight characters xin zi yibai bashi wu hao (Number 185 of xin series) on the other, the semi-translucent gray-green stone deepening to a light brown towards the center. Height 5 in., 12.6 cm. 

Provenance: Acquired in San Francisco, 1980s (by repute).

Note: This piece represents the Qianlong emperor’s taste for archaism and belongs to a group of jade pendants carved in the shape of a bi disc created during the early years of his reign. According to James C.S. Lin in ‘The Collection of Qing Dynasty Jades in the Fitzwilliam Museum’, Arts of Asia, May/June, 2010, p. 115, the craftsmen numbered these pendants according to the characters in the text Qian zi wen(Thousand Characters Essay) instead of using figures. While the number of similar jade pendants produced is unknown, the Zaobanchu (Imperial Palace Workshop) continued to make them well after the fifteenth year of Qianlong’s reign (1750). 

This pendant is unusual for the incorporation of the two characters changyi into the elaborate scrolling phoenix terminal. A closely related example, numbered zhen zi yibai liushi san hao (Number 163 of zhen character), was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2013, lot 3040. For the Eastern Han prototype see one, but containing the characters chang le and decorated with raised studs on the disc, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 217, together with another plaque with a smaller finial containing the characters yishou, pl. 216. 

Further bi discs of this type, but with all four characters Chang yi zisun carved into the disc, include one published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 127; one sold in these rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 3, and included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 21; another in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, illustrated in James C.S. Lin, The Immortal Stone. Chinese Jades from the Neolithic Period to the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 2009, pl. 77a and b; and a fourth example, from the L. de Luca collection, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2011, lot 2805. 

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Lot 142. A White Jade Page Turner, Qing Dynasty, 18th Century. Est. $5,000 - 7,000. Sold for $449,000 (£282,177) to an Asian. Photo: Sotheby's.

the handle carved in low relief with numerous small writhing chilong clambering towards the top, seamlessly transitioning into the blade with a rounded tip, carved in relief on one side with four characters in seal script reading yong shu wan juan, and signed Leshou on the other, the stone of an even white tone. Length 11 in, 28 cm. 

Provenance: Acquired in China prior to 1900, and thence by descent.

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