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Today I attended my first Christie’s preview! Yes, as surprising as it may seem, since I’ve only ever sold through them, I never made time to attend the preview.
So, let me start by saying I should have attended years ago - what I experience by handling all sorts of amazing antiques during a two hour period would have taken years to experience at smaller auction venues.
The Fall Asian week session is generally a smaller venue than Spring, but nevertheless there are some fantastic pieces that you can handle that otherwise you would only see through glass at a museum.
I think more importantly, because it is the smaller venue, there are many more 19th c pieces that are within buying reach (not cheap but under $10,000), and these are pieces that could be found outside of major collections at an estate sale or antique show.
I came today, Sunday, at 10:30AM because I thought I could avoid traffic… and I was right! Definitely will come on a Sunday at future events.
I suggest business casual dress. I was a bit too casual, but they didn’t throw me out.
I would plan your trip for 4 hours if you want to handle a lot of pieces (30-40).
To be honest, I was a bit nervous at first to be handling some of the big dollar pieces ($100,000 plus). So, the first hour I just eyeballed the entire exhibition until my nerves calmed a bit. Then I felt more comfortable.
So, my first trip through the exhibits, I asked myself as I viewed each item - Would I have recognized this piece as being ‘Christie’s’ quality if I saw it at my local antique shop?
Fortunately, most pieces I can say I would have known were good enough for Christie’s.
The cover piece, the Tang silver bowl with rhino in the center - I would have missed that.
It looked very old, but the rather simplistic rendering of the rhino, and the tarnished/scratched surface of the silver would have led to believe the bowl was a middle eastern tourist piece.
The jade pieces, with the exception of the archaic jades, despite having quite a lot of variation in colors, inclusions/fractures, and degree of carving, all were beautifully carved.
So, at the risk of over simplifying, if you’re considering buying jade and the carving is not extremely fine, no matter how nice the color appears, or signs of hand tooling, my suggestion is to walk away.
Now for porcelains….
I’m skipping over anything pre-Ming in this thread - I’ve got a lot to learn before I can make any credible assessments.
Most of the Ming and Qing pieces in this sale, condition wise, could easily pass as new in appearance.
The exception was with cloisonne which perhaps due to its fragile nature showed lots of age related wear.
I realize how popular it is in our forum to ask, ‘do you see signs of age & wear?’ However, I think this is a bad standard for us to use for authentication.
To be clear, I am not talking about signs of modern construction or materials. I am talking about surface scratches, crazing, repairs, dirt.
Most of the pieces had no obvious signs of what we in the forum consider ‘normal wear’.
Why? Perhaps some pieces had been in longstanding collections, but I think it had more to do with the quality of the materials used in the piece’s construction.
Better porcelain, better enamel/glaze, and better firing results in a piece that resists aging - some pieces looked entirely without age.
NOTE - For those who look at crazing of enamels on Qing wares as a sign of authentic age… think again. I focused specifically on the turquoise enamel used in Qianlong, Jiaqing, and Republic pieces - no crackle to speak of in the pieces I checked.
A more plausible explanation of crazing is poor quality enamel and/or improper firing.
Period marks - Honestly, I didn’t need to look at them - the quality of the rendering alone was sufficient to determine authenticity.
I’ve said it before, and after today’s viewing, I am 10000% certain that if the aesthetics of the rendering (color/detail) are not exactly how other known period examples look, then it’s a later copy or a fake.
Now, this sale wasn’t offering export wares, but even the period pieces without marks conformed to extremely high aesthetics standards.
Next to aesthetics of the design, feeling the foot rim was the second most important component of judging quality and authenticity.
This it tricky to explain, so while each period has a slightly different feel, all had very smooth foot rings so that if your feeling a foot rim that has irregular form and/or is gritty, then probably not a genuine piece.
Furniture:
Again, I’ve said it before…. The form and quality of rendering is the very best determinant of the type of wood used in the piece.
There were two or three pieces that had it not been for the form of furniture and it’s carving, I would have mistaken the wood type.
NOBODY used zitan or huanghuali in poorly made furniture- trust me!
Did you examine any of the monochromes? I noticed they had some wishy-washy 18th-19th dating on some of the items. I would be interested to know if you handled the Kangxi black vase with gilded decorations (Lot 867) or the multi-vase eel skin glazed piece (Lot 950)? They kinda jumped out at me.
@william Yes, I handled both. In fact the eel skin Qianlong multi vase was the first piece I handled.
The gilt mirror black beaker vase had pure white porcelain interior with pigs hair inclusions - Kangxi dating looked correct to me.
The eel skin piece was a tough call, so I took photos. The quality of the glaze and old restorations seem to support being genuine Qianlong, but the mark is a bit loose.
Thanks for sharing that, Tim. I like that vase, not sure I would have recognised that base as Qianlong. I have only seen blue and white ones as well. I love the simplicity of this, given it has a complicated shape, that is quite an achievement. It is much nicer than the very elaborate Dutch ones.
@william As I recall, and there may have been more, but there were two pieces that stated ‘possibly of the period’ this conjoined vase and a yellow chrysanthemum bowl with Yongzheng mark (very much like my clair de lune bowl I posted a few months ago that had no mark).
As Julia points out, the conjoined vase was very much like the blue & white tulip vases in form. I haven’t tried to find a comparable piece yet.
The glaze was rather spectacular in how the pooling caused the gold like flecking to highlight the mouth, ring necks, and shoulders. That certainly made me feel comfortable with the Qianlong dating, but I, too, would like to see another like it.
As for the mark, yes, it is a rather scratched in incised mark, quite a bit different than the beautiful seal marks on larger tea dust and eel skin vases.
I was not focused on marks, but this was one of the two pieces I did photograph the mark.
You certainly were quick to point out the one troublesome piece in the sale - good for you!
Interesting that you give advices in buying jade, yet you don't collect it yourself.
Hi Greeno and William,
Attached images/descriptions of two such vases, both HK private collection ...
My apologies for image quality, the black background is highly reflective and the colour/tone of both is slightly darker ...
Although descried as ‘probably of the period’ .......
Like William, I have never seen a authentic Imperial tea-dust glazed vessel with this type of QL mark. They are always impressed usually against the same tea-dust glaze or, sometimes, against a lighter/darker brown ground, but never scratch on like this piece? ...
The glaze/tone on this piece has fired very unevenly, which would immediately excluded it from selection for the Imperial Court. Also, the ‘raised ribs’ on the necks seem larger then on these two examples, appear slightly more ‘pronounced’?! ....
So not Imperial QL, and either a misfired 18th or, possibly, a later 19th example, the QL mark having been added at some point ...
Stuart
@avatar Interesting, how?
This post is not intended as a guide to buying, but rather my first impressions of the learning experience one gains from attending a Christie’s viewing.
I’m not an expert in any area of Chinese antiques, but that does not exclude me (or you) from having an opinion, sharing experiences, and giving advice, and nor should it. Right?
Or, are only experts who are never wrong allowed to post?
Anyway, if you think I’m wrong - show me. Check my past posts… I have no issue acknowledging my mistakes.
I also made a point to say that my impression of the jade being offered at the sale might lead to an over simplification of the evaluative process one should use for buying jade - perhaps you overlooked that comment, too.
Again, based upon what I saw of the jade being offered at Christie’s, that the diversity of color, inclusions, fractures, and degree of carving was very diverse. Yet, the quality of execution/artistry of the carving was consistent.
I conclude from this experience that a well carved piece of jade, even if the stone itself is not perfect, is desirable. The absence of any poorly carved stone of apparent high quality jade suggests pieces of this nature should raise concerns and be avoided.
Do I need to be gemologist to make a statement like this?
Feel free to debate the matter, but do it in a different thread… that’s not the point of this post.
@ming1449 Thank you, Stuart!
Really interesting to find that the part I liked about the piece, the pooling of the flecking around the mouth and shoulder, is considered a defect. I guess I like the variation in tones/color more than the homogeneous look.
Just to be certain, you mention tea dust while this vase is described as eel skin - is the expectation of homogeneous glaze the same?
@greeno107 Tim, I am happy for you having the opportunity to attend the preview. I enjoyed vicariously and appreciate your taking the time to share your impressions. Intrepid viewer, I'm not sure that I would be brave enough to handle. Sharon
Hi Tim -
The tea-dust is a crystallised glaze which reached maturity in the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. Known as ‘Changguan you’ (Factory glaze) in Qing texts, it is composed of yellow and olive specks resembling tea-dust ...
Due to firing conditions, a diverse range of tones resulted, and dealers gave these ‘fancy names’ such as the “eel-skin’, “crab-carapace green”, “snake/skin”, “monk’s robe brown’, etc ...
The ‘variations/unevenness’ in tone that you find attractive are certainly appealing, but as mentioned such would certainly have excluded it for Imperial selection. There are numerous Qing texts that recorded both YZ and QL displeasure regarding wares thought acceptable for Court presentation, and the Christie’s example would certainly fall into this category ...
As to preposed dating ie: 18th or 19th century, one would need to handle/examine closely and have an in-depth knowledge of form/glaze/finish and, most importantly ‘feel’ to determine ...
Stuart
I also think teadust the vase at Christies looks strange but Qianlong teadust vases with incised marks are well-known. Infact both the examples of similar vases posted by Stuart have incised marks. (At least according to the text.)
@avatar -
Hi Cory -
You are correct, both Yongzheng and Qianlong incised marks are well known as shown in the two examples posted ...
The mark on the Christies example, as William and myself commented on, is not incised ...
Look carefully at the images Tim posted. Note the glaze differences on the bases of the five surrounding vases and the middle of the mark vase, the glaze to centre of which appears to have been applied with an addition layer and the mark then scratched upon/into the surface ...
Stuart
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