Features

Many Chinese export porcelain forms were inspired by European silver or ceramic forms.

The highest single price posted in the regions during the autumn series of Asian art sales was the £380,000 bid at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester for a monumental Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze devotional figure of Tara broadly dated to the Qing period.

Indian talismanic shirts or Qur’an jama were believed to carry protective powers.

Japanese antique ivories have been gradually disappearing from the catalogues of prominent dealers and major auction houses but good examples are still being sold in the regions.

Perhaps the most identifiable production of the Daoguang period (1820-50) of the Qing empire is the medallion bowl.

The outstanding jade offered in the regions in the October-December period was this pale celadon teapot and cover that came for sale at Duke’s in Dorchester on December 8 from a Dutch private collection where it had been since the 1980s.

Bezoars (from the Persian pād-zahr meaning ‘poison antidote’) are the calcified concretion found in the stomachs of some animals. Prized for their supposed medicinal properties, until the Enlightenment science at the beginning of the 18th century they could sell for more than their weight in gold.

Leading a recent Woolley & Wallis' (25/12% buyer’s premium) sale in Salisbury were two scroll paintings by well-known 20th century Chinese artists that came by descent from Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell (1883-1950).

Qianlong moon flasks of this type are based on Ming dynasty prototypes that in turn were inspired by early Persian drinking vessels traded along the Silk Road.

Early Japanese porcelain models of animals are very rare, and this elephant form koro, c.1700, offered for sale as part of the Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) Japanese works of art sale appears to be unrecorded.

This Japanese cloisonné casket bears the mark for the Ando Company of Nagoya.

Multi-estimate bidding is no longer just the preserve of Chinese works of art. During the recent Asian art sales, Vietnamese market objects excelled.

The market for Chinese furniture has come on leaps and bounds in 20 years.

This Kangxi (1662-1722) period blue and white brush pot was offered at Sworders (25% buyer’s premium) in Stansted Mountfitchet.

Hopes of an easier year seemed rather optimistic as 2021 opened but despite the pandemic disruption many art and antiques firms were able to do surprisingly good business…however, Omicron could put another spanner in the works as 2022 looms

ATG takes a look back at the key moments for the art and antiques world over 2021.

The Rolex Deep Sea Special, with its remarkable bubble case capable of withstanding huge pressure, was created in the early 1950s to test just how deep a diving watch could go.

Enicar watches do not have the instant brand recognition of a Rolex or Omega but they do share many of the same parts.

If ever there were a price to demonstrate just how important condition has become in the top end of the collecting market then it is the record-breaking SFr2.55m (£2.065m) for a reference CK2915 Speedmaster at Phillips (26/21% buyer's premium) in Geneva on November 5.

The impact of the First World War on the wristwatch as an accessory deemed suitable for men is well known.