NEWTON, Mass. – A monumental Chinese porcelain palace vase made around 1870 with lovely pate-sur-pate pagoda decoration, and three miniature Persian paintings executed in the early 17th century during the Safavid period, are expected top achievers in an important Asian works of art auction scheduled for Sunday, April 23, by Tremont Auctions, online and in the firm’s gallery. Absentee and Internet bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
The auction will begin at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. In all, around 600 premier lots, all of them Asian and mostly Chinese, will be sold.
The Chinese temple vase, monumental at 48 inches in height, comes with a superb provenance, having descended through the family of the American banker and philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup (1830-1908), who also served as president of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The vase was kept at Jesup’s summer home in Lenox, Mass., called Belvoir Terrace.
The vase (above) is pear-shape with a trumpet mouth. The pate-sur-pate decorations are of pagodas, figures, animals and flowers, in a white slip of slate-blue ground. It is estimated to sell for $10,000-$15,000.
The three miniature Persian paintings, to be sold as individual lots, were done in the early 1600s using ink, colors and gilt on heavy paper. All three are framed and glazed and have an average size of 12 inches by 7 1/4 inches. One depicts a combat scene from a Shahnama, one a scene of Sultan Sanjar and his Vizier, and one a scene of The Fire Ordeal of Siyavush, from a Shahnama. The paintings come from the collection of an octogenarian collector in Boston’s Back Bay area.
Other items up for bid will include a group of more than 100 carved jade objects, gilt Buddha bronzes, works of art, textiles, works on paper, porcelain and more.
The many fine piece of carved jade in the auction will include a white stone finial with russet shading from the Yuan period (1279-1368) of a hawk attacking a swan; an 18th century surface carved gray stone disk with black markings of two Kuei dragons flanking a mythical animal; and an 18th century white with a greenish hue stone ring, oval form and carved as a feathered dragon.
Other carved jade pieces will feature a late 19th century covered jar, stone of a grey-white color with russet veins and having a surface carved in high relief with dragons and clouds; and a pale celadon jade pendant in the form of a scabbard ornament, made in the 18th century with a large area of russet and having a surface carved with a Tao Tieh mask and archaic Chinese scrolling.
Chinese porcelain plaques will also some up for bid, to include an 18th century plaque shaped in the form of a double gourd vase (below )having gilt wan brocade ground with blue bats and reverses with the characters Tai Chi (“Great Good Luck”); and an early 20th century white glaze plaque housed in a nice rosewood frame and having a surface decorated with birds and flowers.
Artworks will feature an 18th century Chinese bamboo root carving of the figure Liu Hai, with his magic frog, 9 inches tall; and an album of paintings signed by the Chinese artist Wu Hu Fan (1894-1968), depicting 13 landscapes (one on each page), and with a lavender brocade cover.
Rounding out just some of the day’s expected top lots are a Chinese snuff bottle carrying the Ch’ien Lung mark and period (1735-1796), with a decoration of stylized mallow flowers on a pale yellow ground, just 2 ¾ inches in height; and a signed Chinese bamboo brush pot from the 18th century, having a surface carved in high relief showing scholars in a mountain landscape.
For details contact Tremont Auctions at 617-795-1678 or email info@tremontauctions.com.
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