Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold its sales of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art on Oct 7-8 with an estimated total value of over $100 million. The sale includes five private collections and a various owner sale, which together feature masterpieces covering different fields of collecting, including;--A massive Imperial white jade 'Xintian Zhuren' Seal carved out of a block of pure white nephrite with the characters Xintian zhuren, “The Ruler who believes in Heaven”. The commissioning of this seal in 1786, which reasserted the righteousness of the Qianlong Emperor, was closely connected with the Qing pacification of the Dzungars and the suppression of a Muslim uprising early in the Qianlong period (1759). By means of this xintian zhuren seal, we can sense the effort and achievement of the Qianlong emperor, more than two hundred years ago, in maintaining China’s unity and consolidating China’s hold on the northwest borderlands.
--An extremely rare Beijing enamel gold teapot and cover enamelled in the Imperial workshops. It’s an eccentric works of art produced during the Yongzheng period. The cover cleverly conceals a candlestick that, when turned over, transforms the entire vessel into a candleholder. Only one other example, possibly the pair to the present teapot, can be found in the collection of The Walters Art Museum.