Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art

中國瓷器及工藝品

Christie’s remains the auction house of choice for the many of the most important private and institutional collections that have come up for sale in recent years. The most recent of these include Magnificent Clocks for the Imperial Court from the Nezu Museum, Important Chinese Rhinoceros Horn Carvings from the Songzhutang Collection , the Robert Chang Collection of Imperial Porcelain, the Alan and Simone Hartman Collection of jades, the Manno Museum Collection, the Falk Collection, the
C. Ruxton and B. Love Collection and the Juan Jose Amezaga Collection of exceptional cloisonné enamels, all of which were record breaking sales in their respective categories.

Christie's many world auction records in the category include the highest price for any Asian work of art at auction, US$27.7 million for an exceptionally rare and important blue and white jar, Guan Yuan Dynasty (mid 14th century); in Autumn 2006 a highly important famille rose "swallows" bowl, Qianlong period, from the Robert Chang Collection realized HK$151,320,000 (US$19.6 million) in Hong Kong, the highest price ever achieved for a work of art at auction in Asia, as well as a world auction record for Qing porcelain. The world record for a Ming ceramic was set in 2006 with the sale of an early Ming copper-red vase, yuhuchunping, for HK$78,520,000 (US$10.1 million) to casino mogul Mr. Steven Wynn.

The Spring 2008 season saw unprecendentedly strong results internatioanally. New York began by setting a record for the highest total for a series of Chinese works of art sales held at Christie's New York with a total of US$26,299,588. London achieved the second highest sale total for Christie’s Chinese Department in London with just over £9,000,000. This was followed in Hong Kong by the highest ever total for a Chinese Art auction series at Christie’s totalling over US$94 million. Among the outstanding successes of the season was the second part of the sale of snuff bottles from the Meriem Collection in New York which set a record for a Chinese snuff bottle; and the sale of Maganificent Clocks from the Nezu Museum which took centre stage in Hong Kong, fascinating clients during the exhibition preview with their spectacular presence and intricate moving parts. The rarity and provenance of the clocks helped the sale to achieve nearly ten times its pre-sale estimate and become by far the most valuable horological auction ever held in the world. Collaboration from our international team of specialists, regional offices, marketing and press departments helped set world records for Chinese and English clocks at auction.

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