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Dear Forum Members,
I went along yesterday to have a look at the forthcoming Asian Art auctions to be held this week on 24 and 25 June in Adam's Sale Rooms in Dublin. The first day of sale is a live auction, the second a timed online auction.
They have some good things - for instance, I liked a number of cloisonné items that had good provenance - but there are several disasters that the unwary bidder would be advised to avoid. With characteristic charitableness, Peter, in his video review last Friday of the auction market, mentioned the Adam's sales, but I fear he understated things somewhat when he briefly said 'They've got some pieces that seem a little suspect', before passing on to review ones that weren't. Never was a truer word spoken, for they certainly have items that are rather more than 'a little suspect'. I made a list of some of the ones I noticed, but for the sake of brevity, I will mention only one item here and you can draw your own conclusions. Let me first tell you that the Adam's in-house Asian art 'expert' (she has a French doctorate that is not in the field of Asian Art) is a young Chinese national who lives most of the year in Paris. She flies in to Dublin to arrange the Adam's Asian sales. Since Asian consignments from the Irish market are not thick on the ground, she has to turn elsewhere for consignments to fill her sales with, and I have noticed that she sources many of these from items that failed to sell in Druout in Paris.
That's by way of a little background. Now, let's consider my single example, lot 421, which she has confidently described as being 'late Ming - early Qing dynasty'. It's a blue and white brush pot, and here is a link to it:
First, anyone with even the most rudimentary acquaintance with Qing ceramics should know that stylistically, what we see here could hardly qualify as being 'late Ming', so that part of the description at least is redundant. But even if we were to make allowances for that, and nevertheless trust to the 'early Qing' part of it, there are worrying signs that indicate that the lot is a modern copy. One alarm bell should instantly sound when we notice that the lot comes with a label attached to its base, declaring it to be 'lot 3751' from the Nanking Cargo. The Adam's in-house 'expert' seems oblivious to the fact that the porcelains that went down with the Geldermalsen in 1752 were largely, if not exclusively, eighteenth century. Anyway, out of curiosity, I reached for my catalogue of the famous Christies sale of 1986 to check out what lot 3751 had actually been. Oh dear, far from being a brush pot, lot 3751 was a set of 12 soup plates! Still, the label looked pretty convincing, so all credit to the forger. Then there was another warning sign flashing in the way the brush pot had been made that should put a prospective bidder off. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photograph that I can show you, but take my word for it that the wall of its interior has running around it a number of evenly spaced striations, the like of which I have never seen on any authentic brush pot of the Kangxi period (which this brush pot, if it could legitimately lay claim to be coming from a historic period at all, would have to belong to).
So my regrettable conclusion is, the Adam's in-house 'expert' is at sea when it comes to her catalogue descriptions, or at the very least, at sea on those that have to do with Qing period ceramics. I take no pleasure whatsoever in saying this, but here's a word to the wise, and some may thank me for it if they intend to bid on lots in either of the two Adam's Asian Art auctions this week: do not repose unquestioning faith in what the catalogue tells you about them, unless, that is, it can reassure you that the lot you are interested in has an impeccable provenance. For the sake of balance, let me repeat that, yes, some lots do, and they deserve serious consideration, but mixed among these are others, like lot 421, that don't.
By all means draw your own conclusions from this case in point, but as I see it, there are things in these sales that you shouldn't touch with a barge pole.
Best wishes to you all,
Alan
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Peter Combs
Topics and categories on The BidAmount Asian Art Forum | Chinese Art
Kangxi vases, Kangxi dishes and chargers, Kangxi ritual pieces, Kangxi scholar's objects, Qianlong famille rose, Qianlong enamels, Qianlong period paintings, Qianlong Emporer's court, Fine porcelain of the Yongzheng period. Chinese imperial art, Ming porcelain including Jiajing, Wanli, Xuande, Chenghua as well as Ming jades and bronzes.
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The BidAmount Asian Art Forum | Chinese Art
A free Asian art discussion board and Asian art message board for dealers and collectors of art and antiques from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the rest of Asia. Linked to all of the BidAmount Asian art reference areas, with videos from plcombs Asian Art and Bidamount on YouTube. Sign up also for the weekly BidAmount newsletter and catalogs of active eBay listing of Chinese porcelain, bronze, jades, robes, and paintings.
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