Chinese Works of Art

A tobacco pipe which opened the series and an opium one which ended it – interspersed by a cigar stub – met keen demand at Bellmans (22% buyer’s premium).

A pair of Chinese Qianlong Period coffee cups commissioned by portraitist Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) are included in Tennants’ Summer Fine Sale on July 16-17.

Copenhagen auction house Bruun Rasmussen achieved a house record with the sale of an early Ming porcelain dish.

Asian art specialist Gerald Davison has released his fourth and final book and it is a heavyweight work – literally.

As part of its spring sale series in Hong Kong, Bonhams’ Fine Chinese Art auction will open with a section titled Beauty and Beyond Women in Chinese art.

A double-gourd dragon vase was one of two excellent Chinese pieces to emerge from a deceased Hampshire estate into Selborne auction house Hannam’s (23% buyer’s premium) rooms on May 4.

Porcelain on offer in Swiss saleroom catches the eye of international bidders.

Guantype archaistic vase, seal mark and period of Yongzheng comes up at Paris auction.

Lyon & Turnbull’s May 14 sale in London includes this flambe glazed pear-shaped bottle vase that carries a Qianlong mark and may be of the period.

This late Ming (17th century) jade water pot in the form of a chimera will be offered by Dreweatts on May 19.

This large, 3ft (92cm), high imperial gilt bronze figure of Varjrabhairava features in the Asian art sale at Nagel in Stuttgart on June 23-25.

Bonhams conducts a general sale of Asian art in Knightsbridge on May 10.

A highlight of the Asian Art sale at Tajan will be this still-life of a pot of primroses, apples and porcelain by Chinese artist Pan Yu Liang (1895-1977).

The sale at Roseberys London on May 18 includes this gold and silver-inlaid bronze tapir-form zun dated to the Yuan or early Ming period.

Among the highlights of the Asian Art auction at Koller on June 2 is this ink and colour scroll painting 'Sunrise at Mount Tai' by Li Keran (1907-89).

Chiswick Auctions conducts two sales on June 1-2: the usual Asian Art sale, plus a themed sale called Chinese Art: 100 Stories.

Sotheby’s sale of Chinese art on May 12 includes this Qianlong mark and period celadon ground famille rose decorated bottle vase.

Two English Orientalists made the biggest impression at a recent sale at Gorringe’s (23% buyer’s premium) in Lewes.

In today’s world of modern communication, it is inevitable that several Chinese collectors would discover a 16th century Ming Dynasty ritual vessel in the catalogue of a saleroom in a small town on the edge of the Black Forest in the south-west corner of Germany.

With hindsight, the boast made by the Flying Steam Company – 'To China in Twenty-Four Hours Certain' – was a tad ambitious.