French and Chinese Antiquity Sales
Posted on Dec 30 - Filed Under Antiquities | Comments
An ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid commode by Charles Cressent was sold at Christie’s auction in Paris on Dec 16 for €994,600 ($1,363,334). The commode is dated circa 1730.
“Charles Cressent, a leading ébéniste and sculptor of the late Régence and early Rococo periods, became a master sculptor in 1719. He worked as both ébéniste and sculptor to the Regent, Philippe II, duc d’Orléans. His furniture was often decorated with plain veneers, usually of satinwood and amaranth, or veneers in patterns of parquetry.” - source
On Dec 18, also in Paris, at Sotheby’s Asian Art auction, the Tai Shang Huang Di carved jade imperial seal was sold for €612,750 ($857,850).
From the catalog’s note:
“The present Tai Shang Huang Di seal belongs to a three seal set and was used to make impressions at the right or left corner of a painting or piece of calligraphy (yajiao zhang). One of the other two accompanying small seals was a white jade Guizheng reng Xunzheng (Relinquished the Throne but Still Instructing the Course of Government) seal, and the other a white small Desui chuxin (Able to Follow My Original Intention) seal.
Emile Guimet acquired a set of these three seals in their original zitan box in 1903 from the Parisian dealer Langweil for 300 francs (Inventory ref. EG1428, EG 429 and EG1430). The Desui chuxin sold in our rooms in Hong Kong on 8 October this year (Lot 2004) (fig.1). We are presenting today the TaiShang Huang Di. The third stamp Guizheng Reng Xunzheng whose impression is reproduced jointly with the other two in the Qianlong Baosou (Thicket of Seals of the Qianlong Era) (fig.2) is now lost.
There are a total of twenty seals bearing the inscription Tai Shang Huang Di recorded in the official impressions of Emperor Qianlong Qianlong Baoshou kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Among them the example from the collection of Major General Gercey (1872-1939) which sold in our Hong Kong rooms on 9 October 2007 (Fig. 3). Its very characteristic circular impression could also be found on numerous scrolls and calligraphies housed in the collection Palace Museum in Beijing and museums worldwide.
The impression of the present Tai Shang Huang Di is also found on on painting and scrolls that currently housed in the Palace Museum, as for instance on the scroll ” Battle Scenes of Quelling the Rebellion in two Jinchuan Regions” by Xu Yang, Catalogue of the paintings in Palace Museum, vol.14, no.69, plate 69.15. p.266. “
Another painting of the Mask Series by Zeng Fanzhi was sold today at Sotheby’s “Contemporary Art Asia” auction in New York. The hammer price was $1,082,500, $82,000 over the pre-auction estimate.
From the auction note:
“Much of the fascination of Zeng Fanzhi’s works lies in the tensions that permeate them on many levels. Most immediately apparent is the contrast between the exuberance of the palette and/or paint-play, and the frequently angst-ridden subject matter. Within the subject, tension often derives from the obvious obscuring of the identity of the figures Zeng represents, and their seeming inability to reveal their true selves; and when more than one figure occupies the frame, their inability to connect with one another can be palpable. On yet another level lies the clash of the present with the past, played out in both subject and style.” - by Britta Erickson. More on Sotheby’s website
The two other Fanzhi paintings sold today are a colored pencil drawing part of the same Mask Series and an oil painting titled “Portrait No. 4”
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