On March 20, I.M. Chait’s third annual Asia Week auction brought out buyers who were able to sweep entire categories at prices within or slightly higher than catalog estimates. But one important item exceeded estimate.
In the final accounting, the day’s success turned on the catalog cover lot, a superb Eighteenth Century imperial jade mountain. By family descent since the Nineteenth Century, as formerly in the Summer Palace collection, it had previously been sold at Christie’s London in 1995. The jade mountain, with sages in discussion and a poem inscribed above, commanded $195,200.
Taking the day’s second top price was a dramatic coral and underglaze blue, Fifteenth Century Ming Xuande porcelain bowl. Being among the more photogenic of the top lots, it had been featured in much of the presale media coverage. A collector took the bowl for $97,600.
Several properties with exceptional qualities, such as a pair of massive and intricately carved Zitan cabinets that commanded $48,800, came in below estimate. A massive celadon carved jade dragon jar realized $39,650.
Buyers expressed their enthusiasm for popular categories early in the sale, when a superbly carved and very heavy Chinese ivory model of the Imperial Nine Dragon wall inspired a bidding war. Carrying a catalog high estimate of $6,000, bids on the ivory wall were buffeted back and forth in the room before being closing at $45,750.
Thus began a run on the next 15 lots of carved ivories, which sold in the $1,500 to $6,100 range. The exception was a tall figure of Guanyin wearing a crown with a miniature Buddha, holding her bottle of tears in one hand while a large dragon wrapped itself around her torso. The 30-inch-tall figure went to a buyer in the room for $13,420.
A collection of small jade carvings attributed to Chang Wen Ti easily found its market. A phone bidder took a pair of covered jadeite urns for $30,500. A vase with a carved Guanyin, delicate lily blossom handles and rings, made a respectable showing at $18,300. It was followed by the sale of an antique jadeite lotus vessel that benefited from a bidder’s jump to $15,000 after the auctioneer asked for $13,000, ending at $18,300 after buyer’s premium.
This steady trend held throughout the collection of 36 Sino Tibetan gilt bronze figures and deities. Kubera, “the god of wealth,” took the highest price, making $12,200 from a telephone bidder. A seated Bodhisattva in beaded jewelry then fetched $11,590.
Later in the sale, an early Cambodian bronze deity, Hevajra in a dancing pose, sold for $18,300, proving the popularity of the genre.
Japanese items, having been touted by Forbes.com earlier in the week as having “hidden strengths,” fared relatively well. An antique bronze falconer made close to its low estimate at $14,640, while an antique bronze figure of Kannon fetched $10,980.
The next regularly scheduled I.M. Chait International Fine Arts sale will be held May 3 at the I.M. Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills. For information, 310-285-0182, extension 103, or www.chait.com .
