The idea behind an all-export sale at this period was critically related to timing in the saleroom calendar. June being the high point for Asian sales in London, spring represents what Bonhams’ Colin Sheaf categorised as “a fallow period when it is too early for the Asians to come to Europe”. He accordingly decided to offer material that would appeal to the European and North American market and staged the sale 10 days before the opening of the Asian sales and the Asian fair in New York in case the trade wanted to stock up before moving Stateside.
Just a shade over half the lots, 53 per cent, found buyers. The lower range ceramics, cloisonné enamels and some of the other works of art were the stickiest areas but virtually all the major ceramic entries changed hands, so the selling rate by value was a more encouraging 75 per cent, producing a hammer total of just under £636,000. Much of the buying interest came from America, although there was interest from Europe as well (including a number of the main trade players in this field bidding by phone from their stands at the Maastricht fair which was in full swing at the time).
In the event, though, it was private purchasers that secured virtually all the major pieces. Leading the day was a pair of 161/2in (38cm) high Qianlong figural candleholders decorated in famille rose palette, fashioned as elegantly-garbed maidens holding lingzhi roots which serve as the candle sconces. These had some restoration to the fingers and overpainting to one neck and sold at the lower end of their £40,000-60,000 estimate. Top price in the Japanese porcelain section was £35,000 paid immediately after the sale for an Edo period, late 17th century, five-piece garniture of three covered vases and two gu-shaped beakers painted in Imari palette. One interesting entry in the painting section was a series of ten watercolours of c.1800 depicting scenes of porcelain production such as potting, painting and transport, set against an idealised backdrop of Jingdezhen which sold for £32,000.
Provenanced to a French private collection, each watercolour measured 131/2 x 171/2in (34 x 44.5cm).
As one might expect of a China Trade sale, actual depictions of trade cropped up in various media. One of the sale’s highest porcelain prices was paid for a version of a Qianlong punchbowl painted with a continuous scene of the European Hongs or trade warehouses on the Canton waterfront. These punchbowls are desirable additions to any export porcelain collection, with their lively depictions of the riverfront and courtyards crowded with European and Chinese traders and the Hongs of each country identified by their respective flags.
Bonhams’ example, which measured 121/2in (32cm) in diameter, had been repaired so was probably never going to be a record-breaker, but it came in on low estimate at £17,000. The Japanese take on life in the Hongs was provided by the late Edo period watercolour on silk pictured below depicting the interior of the Dutch Hong on Deshima Island. The convivial scene in the VOC office shows European and Japanese merchants dining at a circular Georgian-style table with Japanese ladies in attendance. Through the open screen door can be seen a distant view of Nagasaki Bay with a four-masted Dutch ship at anchor.
The 18in x 2ft 31/2in (45.5 x 69.5cm) watercolour and ink painting, which has the inscription of Kawahara Keiga (c.1786-1860) sold for £12,000 against predictions of £15,000-18,000.
China trade – it’s all in the timing
Back on March 18, Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) held a sale devoted entirely to Export Arts of the China Trade in their Bond Street rooms. Running to 277 lots, it comprised material from both China and Japan, the bulk of it ceramics but also featuring metalwares, ivories, furniture, paintings and other works of art.
