The Asian art caravan moves on from New York to London. Christie’s has just announced details for its London Asian Art Week to run May 11-14. Not the same level of choice as the Hong Kong auction later that month, but there are a few stand-out pieces, including a pair of extremely rare blue and white Qianlong period vases (1736-95) (estimate: £400,000-600,000) which are offered at auction for the first time in almost two decades. Displaying the complex form and decoration favoured by the Qianlong Emperor, the mouths of these vases turn-down in a series of pendant ruyi; a stylistic innovation credited to the Qianlong period. This is a development of the lobed turned down mouths of the 12th and 13th centuries which inspired Ming and Qing dynasty porcelains. A similar blue and white example is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Another top lot is an imperial gilt-bronze and lacquered statue of Amitayus, the ‘Buddha of Infinite Life’ (estimate: £400,000-600,000), which is not only a reflection of the religious beliefs of the Kangxi emperor but a reminder of the political importance of Tibetan Buddhism (Lamaism) in the early Qing dynasty. The Qing emperors portrayed themselves as bodhisattvarulers, reincarnations of Manjusri (Bodhisattva of Wisdom).
