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| Ming style moonflask from the Qialong period |
At $146 million, Christie's fall series of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art is the most successful ever held at Christie's worldwide. This day-long series of sales features two white gloves sales and nearly three-quarters of the works sold over their high estimate with 27 works selling for over US$1million.
The day started with the Greenwald Collection, a private collection featuring Ming and Qing imperial porcelains that was 100 percent sold and totaled $15.3 million. Leading the collection was a rare pair of cloud-decorated doucai water pots from the Yongzheng period that sold for $1.67 million and a Ming style moonflask from the Qialong period that sold for $2.4 million - more than six times its estimated and an indication of the incredible demand for the day's other moonflask vases to come.
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| Qialong moonflash |
The collection of Walter and Phyllis Shorenstein, which comprised of a comprehensive collection of Chinese glass, totaled $31 million. The top lot - and one of the most sought-after lots of the season - was a magnificent pink-enameled blue and white Qianlong moonflask which soared above its pre-sale estimate to sell for $15.9 million, attracting bids from established collectors from all over the world.
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| Pair of imperial cloisonné enamel double cranes censers from the Yongzheng period |
Among the day’s most exceptional works of art were those from the famed Fonthill collection, one of the most important 19th century English collections of Chinese art. Consigned directly from descendants of Alfred Morrison and offered for the first time in 150 years, the collection is known for superb famille rose porcelains, and indeed the two examples in this sale achieved record prices. The pair of imperial cloisonné enamel double cranes censers from the Yongzheng period were among the most highly-anticipated lots offered this season and sold to Joseph Lau for $16.7 million, setting a new auction record for cloisonné enamel. The afternoon's various-owner auction featured a wide range of superb works of art, including an underglaze-blue facetted moonflask from the Yongzheng period which sold for $10.2 million. Superbly painted with geese and quails, the only other vase of this pattern, and possible its pair, is found in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.