Asian Art

Following equivalent sales in November 2024 and May 2025, Dore & Rees (25% buyer’s premium) in Frome was again offering Japanese objects at the end of last year from the wider collection of Asian works of art formed over more than half a century by Eva and Aubrey Sweet.

The primary draw to a sale at Roland Auctions (30% buyer’s premium) was a series of lots benefiting Columbia University.

Demand for Japanese works was first hit by the so-called ‘Lost Decade’ that followed the collapse of the Japanese economy in 1991. However, changes in fashion, taste and legislation have also impacted prices.

Vase is thought to be from a group that share a provenance to the 1908 Japan-British Exhibition

A recent sale at Whittons (21% buyer’s premium) in Honiton, Devon, included this Meiji or Taisho (1912-26) vase by the Ando Company.

Norfolk auction house TW Gaze has secured permission to sell an Edo period ivory netsuke in the spring.

A recent sale at Marion Antique Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Marion, Massachusetts included a large Meiji vase by Kanamori Soshichi (1821-92).

Working in Japanese urushi lacquer requires patience. Harvested from the sap of the Rhus verniciflua tree, it is built up slowly, layer by layer, each stage requiring careful drying and polishing under controlled conditions.

A set of 12 Chinese export pictures depicting the manufacture and distribution of porcelain was among the highlights of a recent sale held by Nadeau’s in Windsor, Connecticut.

Expect records to tumble in the market for Indian art and antiques in 2026.

This imposing pair of 3ft 8in (1.09m) high hexagonal form vases combine both early 19th century Chinese and later 19th century French craftsmanship.

An ‘exceptional and newly discovered’ Mamluk manuscript copy of an Arabic text on hippiatry (equine medicine) was the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s latest Islamic and Indian art sale in London.

When he was not crafting lacquer works, the 18th century Japanese artist Ogawa Haritsu spent his time, painting, creating pottery and composing haiku poems.

Extensive collection also came with impressive records of purchase such as original dealer invoices

This 18th century hardwood tea caddy, boldly carved in imitation of gnarled rootwood and mounted in white metal, is an Anglo-Chinese production, made for export in Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) c.1780.

Dehua blanc de chine figures of Guanyin – the goddess of compassion, protector of mariners and bringer of sons – often carry the impressed double gourd seal of the great 16th or 17th century ceramicist He Chaozong.

The latest sale at Alastair Gibson Auctions in Kent was led by a stellar example of Meiji or Taisho era cloisonné: a pair of imperial presentation vases by Nagoya master Hattori Tadasaburo.

The Ivoire group of auction firms has salerooms across the French regions that regularly hold auctions covering a range of specialist categories as well as more general sales.

Offered for sale as ‘a Chinese porcelain teapot’ with a $100-1000 estimate, a famille rose Buddhist ewer with a Qianlong mark hammered for $200,000 at Hill Auction Gallery (30/28/25% buyer’s premium) in Sunrise, Florida, on October 29. No date or period was given.