Asian Art

Old Masters and post-Impressionist paintings, vintage luggage and the almost inevitable Asian artefacts all appeared among the best-sellers in the recent round of auctions held across Germany and Switzerland.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Two finely executed Indian talismanic shirts made multi-estimate sums at Roseberys in south London.

A 10in (25cm) tall Kangxi period (1654-1722) rouleau vase painted with fishermen and cranes took a six-times estimate £2800 at the 1200-lot Spring Sale at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) on March 22-26.

Delayed by snow for a week, the Spring Sale at Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) on March 27 opened with a local collection of Republic-era (1912-49) porcelain.

The feast from the east that that has put bread (and some Michelin-starred meals) on the table of dealers and auctioneers for more than a decade continues to do so at sales from Scotland to Surrey.

Multi-estimate sums proved the norm among the star lots during London’s Islamic Week auction series.

Chinese porcelain resumed its traditional dominance among the Oriental offerings at Tennants (20% buyer’s premium) in Leyburn.

An ideal marriage of skills, rather than a clash of cultures, put a pair of c.1790-1800 Chinese export vases into the limelight at Hannam’s (20% buyer’s premium) sale at Selborne.

One of the smallest but most eye-catching lots at the Oriental sale at Bonhams Edinburgh (25% buyer’s premium) was two 4¼in (11cm) high Manchu officials’ bronze seals.

Several decades ago, when China was shut to the Western world, encounters with foreigners were understandably rare.

Avon and Somerset police are appealing for information after a raid on the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath.

An 18in (45cm) figure of Shiva Vinadhara c.12th century – £220,000.

A rare Western Zhou bronze, taken when the Summer Palace was sacked by British troops in 1860, sold for £410,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at the Canterbury Auction Galleries.

Sotheby’s is to return to holding auctions in India to take advantage of the growing wealth in the Asian nation. It plans a sale in December at The Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai.