Asian Art Excels at Bellmans

Bellmans' Asian Art Auction sees a pair of Chinese blue and white bowls sell for over £25,000

The pair of beautiful Chinese Blue and White Bowls sold at Bellmans on Thursday, 24th February during the Asian Art part of the February auction week, highlighting the sale that saw much interest and active international bidding following on from the Professor Bernard Nevill Collection. The bowls had six character Kangxi marks, but it was suspected the bowls could have been later and possibly Republican. Each painted with flowers and tendrils on wood stands and estimated at £250 - £350 before the hammer went down at £20,000 (£25,280 incl. Buyer's Premium and VAT).

Several Japanese Noh masks, which came from a collection, sold well. The top lot was a Noh mask of Kotobide, from the Edo period, with a printed paper label to reverse, 'Exhibited at the Fine Arts Society's Japanese Exhibition', inscribed `Anderson, 25', 20.5cm high. The label on the reverse of the mask is likely to refer to the loan exhibition of Japanese art held at the Fine Art Society, 148, New Bond Street, London in 1888. The inscribed 'Anderson' across the label is probably that of William Anderson (1842-1900), an English surgeon and important collector of Japanese Art. It had been estimated at £1,000 - £1,500 and sold for £1,700 (£2,149) to a private US buyer.

Another one of Asakura-Jo (Old Man) with hair to head, moustache and beard and signed Sanko saku in gilt carried an estimate of £250 - £350 and went to a UK dealer for £1,300 (£1,643), while a mask of Choreibeshimi with a seal mark Deme Tohaku, One Deme IV (died 1714) sold for low estimate at £1,000 (£1,264) to a private collector in the UK.

Japanese works did generally well with a pair of Japanese Satsuma vases selling for £2,200 (£2,780) against an estimate of £150 - £250. Each vase is 37 cm high and in the Meiji period Ovoid form, each painted with a frieze of figures, below a border of dragons amongst cloud scrolls and set with shishi modelled handles.

A Chinese Famille-Verte Ormolu-Mounted Vase, which had been adapted as a lamp, sold for £3,800 (£4,803) against an estimate of £1,000 - £1,500. The porcelain Kangxi with mounts from the 19th century. The broad baluster form is painted with a pheasant perched on rocks amongst flowering shrubs, the reverse painted with two birds in flight, the mounts cast with laurel leaves, grapes
and acanthus leaves.