HONG KONG AUCTIONS INTERNATIONAL OFFERS RARE SU HANCHEN SCROLL AND $6,000,000 VASE AT ASIA WEEK New York's Hong Kong Auctions International opens the 2010 Asia Week events with a 2-session auction of fine Chinese paintings, Chinese porcelains, Jades and Works of Art. Auction is Sunday, March 21.
News-Antique.com - Mar 12,2010 - NEW YORK CITY. New York City’s Asia Week auctions kick off on Sunday, March 21, with a two-session sale at Hong Kong Auctions International. The morning session will see a collection of 63 Fine Chinese Paintings go under the hammer. Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, including a $6 million Qing Dynasty vase, will be offered in the afternoon.
The sale will be conducted at Hong Kong Auctions’ Madison Avenue gallery and, for the first time, simulcast on Artfact Live.
Hong Kong Auctions International is known for the consistently fine collections of traditional Chinese scroll paintings it brings to market. The March 21 auction is no exception.
The marquee item of the morning session is Lot 32, a Southern Song Dynasty painted scroll by Su Hanchen. Entitled “Children Playing with Water Reflection,” it captures the self-engrossed innocence of three children pondering their reflections in a bowl of still water. Nearby, another child observes the action from beside a large painted screen. All in all, this unusual slice-of-life says much about status and lifestyle.
Nearly forty-nine inches long, the Su Hanchen ink-and-color on paper bears both the artist’s sign and seal. It also carries two Palace collectors’ seals. The descending provenance can be read in seven additional collectors seals. Works by Su Hanchen are in the permanent collections of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Cleveland Art Museum. The estimate on the painting is by request.
Tang Yin, a Ming Dynasty scholar, poet, painter and calligrapher, is represented by Lot 46, “The Four Literati from Song Dynasty.” Three of the scholars are depicted out of doors, in suitable landscapes that encourage inspiration. The fourth is depicted in contemplation indoors, seated in an armchair set before a screen.
An artist who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the Four Masters of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Yin was known for including elements of the past in his works. “The Four Literati from Song Dynasty” is entitled and inscribed with four artist seals and twelve collector seals. Its catalog high estimate is $150,000.
Lot 49, “The Imperial Hawk,” is an interesting painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, the Italian Jesuit who became a Qing Dynasty court painter. The hanging scroll portrays the hawk perched atop a screen of carved wood with a painted panel. In the upper right portion, there is a poem. Complete with artist's seals and eight palace collectors’ seals, the ink-and-color on paper will see interest at $120,000.
Among the Fine Chinese Ceramics, Lot 232, an exquisite Famille-Rose Reticulated Hexagonal Vase has few equals. The Qing Dynasty vase is a transitional masterwork, decorated both inside and out. The interior has an overall blue and white floral design that is viewed through open work panels decorated with peaches, peonies, lilies, pomegranates, finger citrus, berries and lingzhi (mushrooms of immortality). The chestnut hued body carries an overall lotus design done in the European manner.
Clearly a transitional piece of great artistic and technical merit, the
