A fine guan-type vase of fanghu form, Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795) © Christie's Image 2003

The two broad sides subtly molded with a peach or 'apricot-leaf' panels and the two narrow sides set with rectangular lug handles, covered overall with a crackled glaze of pale grey-blue tone, the foot covered with a dark brown dressing - 16 5/16in. (41.4cm.) high. Lot 348. Estimate $40,000 - $60,000. Price Realized $101,575 

Notes: For the Song prototype of this vase with similar 'apricot leaf' panels and an inscription by the Emperor Qianlong on the base see Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum - Southern Sung Kuan Ware, I (Part I), Hong Kong, 1962, pls. 6, 6a-6b.

This is an unusually large version of Qianlong-marked vases of this type. A smaller (24.4cm. high) example from the collection of H. Garner in the British Museum is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1981, no. 235. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams has announced that an exceptional group of Indian miniature paintings will be at the heart of its Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian art sale taking place during New York’s Asia Week on Monday, 14 March 2016 at 4pm. With a total sale estimate of $4-6 million, the sale consists of a selective offering, focused on rarity, quality, and provenance. 

On the rising market for Indian miniatures, Edward Wilkinson, US Director of Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art, commented “Domestic auction results of 2015 in India testified to a sudden surge in demand for miniatures, indicating that now is the time to buy, before the rising tide continues to increase the price one must pay for quality.” 

Leading the sale, is a beautiful painting from the famed Kangra Rasikapriya, once in the collection of Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1897-1975). Chughtai, who many consider to be the first significant modern Muslim artist from South Asia was heavily inspired by miniature paintings. The Kangra Rasikapriya was produced under the supervision of master court artist Purkhu (active ca. 1780–1820), and the skilled landscape and large figures may indicate his hand in this painting. It illustrates a poem exploring the emotions and behaviors of lovers in all forms and stages. This painting depicts Chapter 3, Verses 45-47, wherein Radha’s response to Krishna’s unfaithfulness has matured from outburst to self-affirmed dissatisfaction. Now she is the dhira, the canniest lover, who has learnt to better express her disappointment with a cold shoulder, or well-timed sarcasm. Folio 48 from the Kangra Rasikapriya, from the school of Purkhu, Kangra, circa 1810 is estimated at $40,000-60,000.

Folio 48 from the Kangra Rasikapriya:  'Oh Friend! Unfortunately, Krishna is not the Lotus-Lover, as you describe him' School of Purkhu, Kangra, circa 1810. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; verso numbered '48' and inscription designating Chapter 3, verses 45-47 of the Rasikapriya; verso also with collection stamps and signatures of Abdur Rahman Chughtai. Image: 9 7/8 x 6 3/8 in. (25.1 x 16.2 cm), irregular. Folio: 12 7/8 x 9 1/8 in. (32.7 x 23.2 cm). Estimate: US$40,000-60,000 (€36,000 - 55,000). Photo: Bonhams.

Also formerly from the collection of Abdur Rahman Chughtai, and complementing the Kangra Rasikapriya painting is another of Radha and Krishna from the contemporaneous Guler court. Divine Loveplay Under Moonlight, circa 1810, is estimated at $30,000-40,000. An almost identical version is held in the Collection of the Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi, and reproduced in M.S. Randhawa’s important publication, Kangra Paintings on Love, New Delhi, 1962, Colorplate XIX, p. 185. The painting illustrates a poem in Gurmukhi, which is inscribed on the top of the Bharat Kala version. In it, Radha is described as teasing her lover by painting her chest like a bodice instead of actually wearing one. When Krishna suavely motions to untie its strings behind her back, he fumbles awkwardly. She turns her head aside, hardly able to contain her mischief. 

Meanwhile from Rajasthan, there is a vibrant painting from an early school, long misattributed to the small Mughal principality of Malwa, that has recently received an explosion of scholarly and market interest. Scholarship by expert Konrad Seitz has convincingly reattributed the ‘Malwa school’ to the Bundela courts at Orchha, Datia, and Panna in his recent landmark book Orchha, Datia, Panna: “Malwa”- Miniaturen von den rajputischen Hofen Bundelkhands, 1580-1850, Cologne, 2015. From a well-known illustrated Ramayana, the painting for sale depicts Hanuman knocking Ravan’s brother, the great demon Kumbhakarna, to the ground. Typical of Orchha’s spirited charm, the narrative here is intensified by a brilliant red background juxtaposed with complementary colors. An illustration from a Ramayana series: Kumbhakarna Downed by Hanuman’s Blow, Orchha, circa 1550-1660, is estimated $8,000-12,000. 

Folio 71 from a Ramayana series: Kumbhakarna Downed by Hanuman's Blow, Orchha, circa 1650-1660. Opaque watercolor on paper; verso numbered and inscribed in devanagari. Image: 6 1/2 x 10 1/2 in. (16.5 x 26.7 cm); Folio: 7 7/8 x 11 1/4 in. (20 x 28.6 cm).Estimate: US$ 8,000 - 12,000 (€7,300 - 11,000). Photo: Bonhams.

The sale also features a painting from a celebrated Bhagavata Purana series from Bikaner, circa 1700-10, famed for its truly miniature proportions. It shows, Krishna and Balram dispatching an emissary to seek out the welfare of the Pandava brothers, seen clustered together at centre far right. Ambitiously scaled yet meticulously detailed, colour and pose create a remarkable sense of intimacy within each palatial scene. Two paintings from the same series are held in the Centre for Cultural Studies & Research at Varanasi, within the prized Suresh Noetia collection. 

A pair of pear-cut Muzo Emeralds unearthed in the Colombian mine of the same name in the steamy Andean jungle, 100km north of Bogotá.

A special collection of Muzo Emerald jewellery has been designed to showcase these precious stones by designers including Shaun Leane.

A watercolour drawing of an Antoine Sandoz necklace set with Muzo Emeralds. Some of these unique pieces will be unveiled at Baselworld.

A pear-cut Muzo Emerald. The Colombian emerald, with its vibrant, velvety richness, has an exceptional aura.

Masterpieces: a pair of emerald-cut Muzo Emeralds.

(Source: TheJewelleryEditor)

Francois Guerin (working 1751-1791), Portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), oil on canvas, measuring 30 x 24 inches, (76cms x 61cms) will be on offer from Bagshawe Fine Art at £65,000.

LONDON.- A previously unpublished portrait of the great French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is set to be unveiled at Art-Design-Antiques Chelsea Fair from 17 - 20 March. 

Bagshawe Fine Art, the London dealers, have for sale a hitherto
unknown picture that depicts Rousseau, seated at his desk, still in his prime at about 50 years of age. This portrait originates from the family of the Rousseau descendants and its appearance at the Chelsea fair marks the first time it has been on the market correctly presented. This portrait passed to cousins of Rousseau’s towards the end of the 18th century and descended in that branch of the family through the 19th century. In the early 20th century the last remaining member of that Rousseau line married into an Italian family and it is their descendants who sold it. 

Seeing it appear at auction in an unloved state and unattributed, Nicholas Bagshawe and his wife the art historian Kendall Bagshawe had a hunch that it had once been a fine thing and rather than some generic portrait of the philosopher was probably a commissioned work from a high quality French professional artist. Research eventually led them to believe that it is the work of the French painter Francois Guerin (working 1751-1791), and after lengthy and careful conservation work, this hunch was confirmed with the emergence of Guerin’s signature on the canvas. 

Said Nicholas Bagshawe: ‘This picture is really a highly appealing portrait of the great man. To date the best known and most widely distributed image of Rousseau to has been the head and shoulders of him by the pastellist Quentin de la Tour. However, even Diderot, Rousseau’s contemporary, regarded that pastel as a somewhat bland and romanticized image. 

‘This is a much more intimate and human portrayal of the writer and marks a significant addition to the known iconography of the philosopher. We’re not yet sure how this picture came to be painted, but both Rousseau and Guerin moved at one time in the circle of Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour and it may be there that the connection was made. We’re delighted to be bringing it to the Chelsea Fair, where it will be the very first time it has been on the market correctly attributed and presented.’ 

Rousseau was actually Swiss by birth (Geneva), although his reputation as a writer makes him a son of France. His influence however can be found in almost every trace of modern philosophy today. He was one of the first modern writers to make a serious attack on the institution of private property, and therefore is considered a forebear of modern socialism and communism. Rousseau also questioned the assumption that the will of the majority is always correct. He argued that the goal of government should be to secure freedom, equality, and justice for all within the state, regardless of the will of the majority. He regularly found himself at odds with his fellow philosophers and fell out of favour with the Ancien Regime in France to the point where he had to seek exile abroad on more than one occasion. History though has accorded him a permanent place as one of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment. 

Guerin’s painting of Rousseau is an oil on canvas measuring 30 x 24 inches (76cms x 61cms) and will be on offer from Bagshawe Fine Art at £65,000. 

Francois Guerin is one of the great Old World Master painters of Europe. His paintings are displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris including a portrait of Madame de Pompadour and one of Madame de Pompadour and her daughter, Alexandrine.

Lot 345. A pair of fine small aubergine-glazed incised saucer dishes, Yongzheng six-character marks in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735). Photo Christie's Image 2003

Thinly potted with rounded sides, the exterior finely incised with the ribbon-tied bajixiang, covered overall with a rich aubergine glaze - 4½in. (11.5cm.) diam. (2). Estimate $20,000 - $30,000. Price Realized $26,290

Property from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. James E. Breece III

Notes: Compare the similar pair of dishes illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Chinese Ceramics, vol. 3, Geneva, 1972, nos. A476-477, where the author refers to the 'Yung Cheng List' of porcelains supplied to the Court which included both plain and incised purple-brown-glazed wares. See, also, another pair illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, p. 229, no. 892. A single dish in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, is illustrated in the Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Monochromes, Taipei, 1981, p. 99, no. 45.

A pair of similar dishes from the Goldschmidt Collection was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 69, and another pair from the Jingguantang Collection was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3 November 1996, lot 562. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

A fine large blackish-blue-glazed globular bottle vase, Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795). Photo Christie's Image 2003

The very well-potted body of spherical shape with a tall, broad cylindrical neck, the exterior covered with an unusual blackish-blue glaze thinning slightly at the rim and stopping neatly above the foot - 20 1/8in. (51cm.) high. Lot 352. Estimate $50,000 - $70,000. Price Realized $47,800 

Provenance: Christie's, New York, September 1997, lot 377.

Notes: Similar vases have been sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1 October 1991, lot 803; 29 September 1992, lot 552; and 31 October 1994, lot 642. Another was sold in these rooms, 3 December 1992, lot 310.

Compare, also, the large blue bottle vase in the Hong Kong Museum of Art included in the exhibition, The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong, 1984-85, no. 85. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Lot 14. A silver and copper inlaid copper alloy figure of Buddha, Kashmiri, circa 8th century. Estimate US$ 200,000 - 300,000 (€180,000 - 270,000). Photo: Bonhams.

His right hand in varada mudra with ring on the little figure, his left upraised holding the hem of his pleated robe, his crowned head with copper inlaid lips and brilliant silver inlaid eyes. 7 1/4 in. (18.41 cm) high

This charismatic, heavily published, bronze seats the Buddha on a molded cushion supported by a yaksha, two lions, and four throne legs that rest upon a brick-like plinth with a recumbent animals, and male and female donor figures with upturned gazes and hands in obeisance towards him. 

The inspiration for his tasseled mantle can be traced back as far as 3rd-century Sassanian Transoxania by route of a Gandharan fragment published in Kurita, Gandara bijutsu, Vol. II, Tokyo, 1988, p. 291, fig. 4, and also in Harle & Bautze-Picron (eds.), Makaranda: Essays in Honour of Dr. James C. Harle, Delhi, 1990, p. 58, fig. 14. The so-called princely figure wears a strikingly similar four-cornered cape populated with a crescent moon and stars. Harle argues it as evidence for cultural exchange between the Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) and the Ancient region of Gandhara (ibid., p. 58), '...the star-and-crescent motif [is] observed for the first time on a helmet of the Sasanian King Ardashir I [r. 224-241].'

Now, in the inherited regions of Kashmir, circa 8th century, the crescent moon and star appear to have transitioned to either side of this Buddha's shoulders. A similar placement is found on the famed Rockefeller Kashmiri Buddha at the Asia Society, New York (Linrothe, Collecting Paradise, New York, 2004, p. 60, fig. 1.28), and on another the Pritzker Collection (Siudmak, 'The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and its Influences', in Handbook of Oriental Studies, Vol. 28, Leiden, 2013, p. 320, pl. 146). However, in the Rockefeller example they appear as cupped rosettes above the shoulders, whereas in the Pritzker example they appear as finials above stupas. Linrothe suggests that the star has now been reinterpreted as the moon, 'The disks apparently indicate the sun and the moon and are to be thought of as effulgences of light' (op. cit., p. 56). 

Published: Wai-Kam Ho, 'Notes on Chinese Sculpture from Northern Ch'i to Sui, Part I', in Archives of Asian Art, Vol. XXII, 1968-9, p. 24, fig. 23.
Fong Chow, Arts from the Roof of Asia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971, no. 5.
Pratapaditya Pal, 'Bronzes of Kashmir, their Sources and Influences', in Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. CXXI, No. 5207, London, 1973, pp. 726-49, fig. 7.
Pratapaditya Pal, Bronzes of Kashmir, Graz, 1975, pp. 110-1, fig. 32.
Ulrich von Schroeder, Indo-Tibetan Bronzes, Hong Kong, 1981, pp. 116-7, no. 15f.

Exhibited: Arts from the Roof of Asia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1971.

Provenance: Pan-Asian Collection, by 1967
Robert H. Ellsworth
Sotheby's, New York, 24 September 1997, lot 48
Private Collection, New York, 1997-present

Bonhams. INDIAN, HIMALAYAN & SOUTHEAST ASIAN ART, 16:00 EDT - NEW YORK

Banyan, Netherlands, c. 1775-1800. Damask. back: L 135 cm, W 247 cm. BK-NM-13160. Donation Esq. JF Backer, Amsterdam, 1924. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Quilted robe of silk damask, great design of vines, flowers and leaves in green twill in red satin ground. Standing collar with button and buttonhole. Pockets in the side seams, sleeves being cut, no shoulder seam, but middenrugnaad.Button loop as closure. Lining brick red cotton bags lined with coarse linen.

This jacket is a derivative of the 17th century kimono; an origin of silk Japanese kimono which was imitated after a period of time in other materials. Because the warp and weft (weft threads) of this substance have different colors creates a color contrast in the damask pattern. This allows the stabbing green flowers against the red surface. It is remarkable that the dust contains many flaws.

Banyan  originally purple silk interwoven with flowers of gold, possibly belonged to King-William III, Netherlands, ca. 1675 - ca. 1702. l 154 cm. Acquisition 1875. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Kimono originally purple silk interwoven with flowers of gold. Kimono Model. Only Lang, with shawl collar and elongated transfer to three-quarters of the length. Fully Clipped wide sleeves with wide cuffs. Padded. Lining of green taffeta. May have belonged to the King-William III.

Banyan with flowers, Netherlands, ca. 1795. Cotton, linen, h 138 cm. BK-2012-67. Acquisition 1875. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

of cotton printed with floral motif sprinkle in block, with collar and lapels. Model: fitted with tight-fitting long-sleeved beaten back cuffs with three buttons covered with the same fabric. Collar and large lapels with a festoon every buttonhole. Closure center front nine with the same fabric covered buttons on each side and festooned buttonholes. Long slit on the back.Side pockets. Lined with a checked lining in ocher, light brown, beige and blue (Harlingen fur ': linen warp, weft cotton?). Calendered. Fabric: European cotton print, block supplemented by some parties signed. Brown long distance which sprinkled bouquets and steal twisted cord in red, blue and white.

This Banyan with sleeves is made of glazed cotton made in Europe. European cotton was, in contrast to the Indian Chintzes (hand-painted cotton fabrics) is often printed. Delicate floral and plant motifs against a dark background come to the end of the 18th century common.The jacket is lined with a coarse checkered cotton fabric

A famille rose yellow-back dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double-square and of the period (1723-1735) © Christie's Image 2003

The delicately potted dish sparsely decorated on the interior with various scattered flowerheads, the exterior covered with a rich lemon-yellow glaze - 5 3/8in. (13.7cm.) diam. Lot 364. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000. Price Realized $19,120 

Notes: Yongzheng famille rose wares glazed on the reverse in colors other than ruby-red enamel are rare. A Yongzheng-marked dish of similar design, but covered on the reverse with a dark blue glaze, was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 29 November 1978, lot 314. Compare, also, the pair of lime-green-backed Qianlong-marked dishes decorated on the interior with a similar design of scattered flowerheads, from the Edward T. Chow Collection, sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 167, and later illustrated in The K. M. Lui Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 167, no. 136. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

A pair of famille rose, shallow dishes, Yongzheng period (1723-1735) © Christie's Image 2003

With upright sides and painted in delicate enamels, one with an elderly man surrounded by boys pointing at two bats, the other with two scholars and an attendant, both with a brush, ink cake and sceptre mark in underglaze blue within a double circle on the base - 6 3/8in. (16.2cm.) diam. (2). Lot 365. Estimate $5,000 - $7,000. Price Realized $5,019 

Notes: Compare the famille rose shallow dish painted in a similar style in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 74, no. 64. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

A very rare famille rose tri-lobed vase, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double square and of the period (1723-1735) © Christie's Image 2003

Each lobe of the squat, globular body delicately painted with flowering stems and branches including poppies (yingzisu) and asters (malan) on one, variously colored chrysanthemums (ju) on another, and wintersweet (lamei) and pinks (shizhu) on the third, the interior of the neck glazed turquoise below a brown wash on the unglazed rim, with a flat unglazed foot rim of conforming shape surrounding the slightly countersunk base; 4 3/8in. (11.1cm.) high. Lot 367. Estimate $80,000 - $100,000. Price Realized $113,525 

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III.
Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art from an American Private Collection, Christie's, New York, 21 September 1995, lot 259. 

Notes: This exquisite vase is a very rare example of this trilobate form decorated with famille rose enamels. Only one other vessel of this form appears to have been published. This is a Yongzheng porcelain vase with guan-type glaze, formerly in the collection of Sir Harry and Lady Garner, which was sold at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 12 May 1976, lot 235. The current vase form does, however, relate closely to the Yongzheng unlobed vases of pomegranate shape illustrated by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, pp. 236 and 238, pls. 402 and 405-19, respectively. The Yongzheng trilobate short-necked vase is, of course, also related to the long-necked trilobate vases of the Qianlong period, like those with added peach and children appliques from the Qing Court collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, vol. 39, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 157, no. 139 and p. 158, no. 140, respectively. There is also a relationship between the current Yongzheng form and the trilobate double-gourd vases of the Qianlong reign (for example the vase decorated with bats and gourds in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in the same volume, p. 133, no. 116).

The painting of the flowers on the current vase is particularly fine, with the different varieties of flowers grouped naturalistically, as well as being disposed over the surface of the vessel in a scheme most effectively complementing its shape. During the Yongzheng reign a 'painterly' style of porcelain painting flourished under the influence of the Jesuit artists at the Qing court. While many porcelain vessels painted in the famille rose palette were rendered with great attention to detail, few succeeded in evoking the natural form of the flowers as well as this vase. Each lobe is painted with an artistically composed group of varied flowers apparently rising from the base of the vase.

It is generally recognised that some of the finest flower painting on porcelain in the Yongzheng reign was influenced by the work of the great Qing artist Yun Shouping. The selection, arrangement and painting style of the flowers on this vase is undoubtedly reminiscent of the Yun Shouping masterpiece Hundred Flowers in the Style of Xu Chongsi, which was sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 27 April 1997, lot 148. This scroll, painted in AD 1666, during the Kangxi reign, depicts groups of dissimilar flowers, as does the vase. On both the handscroll and the porcelain vessel, the combination of different flowers is handled with great skill and they complement each other, while still appearing natural. The individual floral elements are also reminiscent in style to those on the famous famille rose 'butterfly' vase from the Yuen Family collection, sold at Christie's, Hong Kong, 30 April 2000, lot 589. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 September 2003, New York, Rockefeller Plaza

Lot 8064. A fine very pale green jade archaistic vase and cover, Qianlong period. Estimate US$ 80,000 - 120,000 (€73,000 - 110,000). Photo: Bonhams.

The large, exceptionally even and pale stone deeply hollowed to form a flattened baluster vase, crisply and shallowly carved on the body with taotie masks separated by triple flanges, the motif repeated in the upper register on the neck and further divided by two handles carved as mythical beast heads and each suspending a loose-ring, the spreading foot also with triple flanges beneath stylized lingzhi heads framed within a decorative band, the cover also with flanges below a pair of confronted mythical beasts each suspending another loose-ring, wood stand. 10 3/4in (27.3cm) high

Provenance: The Joanna Lau Sullivan Trust

Notes: The present vase is a sublime example of finest Qing jade production. It is carved from a large and almost white stone, with much of the body left plain with only a smooth polish to allow the quality of the stone to speak for itself. Deliberate contrasts within the piece create a harmonious and balanced whole: for example between the smooth sides and the fine, shallow-relief decorative bands, and between the bold form and the graceful details such as the loose-ring handles suspended from exceptionally fine stylised chilong, echoing the loose-ring handles of the body. 

With its taotie mask motifs, stylized scrolls and chilong, and vertical flanges, the vase exhibits the archaism so prevalent during the 18th century. The Qianlong Emperor himself exhorted his court and craftsmen to look to China'a archaic past for moral guidance and artistic inspiration.

While a number of similarly impressive archaistic jade vases are known in private and museum collections, the present vase demonstrates the infinite variety within a strict tradition achieved by Qing craftsmen: consider for example the rare and exceptionally fine loose-ring handles suspended from chilong on the cover and the triple-ridged vertical flanges. It is however interesting to note the archaistic motifs combined with three ridges against a smooth body seen on a white jade fangyi in the British Museum illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, London, 1995, no. 29:12. 

A white jade vase from the Newark Museum, the bequest of Joseph S. Isidor, accession number 41.242A, B, and illustrated by Joan M. Hartman, Chinese Jade of Five Centuries, Japan, 1969, shows related shallow archaistic carving against an undecorated body, and a very finely carved stepped finial. Another archaistic two-handled vase from the Qing Court Collection, but of yellow jade and carved all over the body, with a Qianlong four-character mark, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 2006, no. 66, and a white jade vase also from the Qing Court Collection, with loose-ring handles to the cover as well as the body, but of double-gourd form, is illustrated ibid., no. 68. 

A related very pale green vase from the Franco Marinotti Collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 4 June 2015, sale 22882, lot 42. 

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART, 11:00 EDT - NEW YORK

Lot 8063. An exceptional pale green jade marriage bowl, Qianlong four-character mark, 18th-19th century. Estimate US$ 60,000 - 100,000 (€54,000 - 91,000. Photo: Bonhams.

The very pale, green-tinted stone smoothly hollowed as an open bowl, carved in low relief around the exterior with a continuous scene of five cranes wading among luscious lotus fronds and blossoms, the rim with two stylized animal-heads each suspending a loose-ring handle, the interior plainly formed with a soft gleaming polish, and the bowl raised on four feet finely carved as bats with outspread wings, carved wood stand. 8 3/4in (22.3cm) wide

Provenance: The Joanna Lau Sullivan Trust

Notes: Large shallow bowls with two loose-ring handles carved from white or very pale green jade, such as the present lot, were deemed very suitable as prestigious gifts at a wedding, hence their typical designation as 'marriage bowls'. Many feature pairs of butterflies, bats or mythical beasts as the handles, the depiction of the animals or insects in pairs being suggestive of happy union. 

Bats in particular were a popular motif to celebrate a happy occasion such as a wedding, since the character for bat 蝠 fu, is a pun for wealth and happiness, 富 fu, and 福 fu. The present lot is exceptionally unusual in that finely carved bats are incorporated into the design not as the handles but as the feet of the bowl: no other example featuring this style of carving appears to have been published. It is striking that such skillful carving should be utilized for an area that is less easily appreciated, but this serves to illustrate the dedication, imagination and attention to detail that is so celebrated in Qing jade craftsmanship.

The low relief carving of cranes and lotus is also rare: although other bowls are carved around the exterior, here the skilled craftsman has chosen to use the freedom of the continuous scene inspired by nature to embellish and celebrate the individuality of the jade stone, rather then restricting himself to more typical formal or archaistic designs. A jade marriage bowl with a thickly lipped rim and low relief carving on the exterior is in the collection of the Freer Sackler Museum, Washington DC, accession number S1992.76. See also a pale green jade marriage bowl from the collection of Scott L. Burdett, British Consul in China, with related shallow carving on the exterior with freely-scrolling lotus, sold in our London rooms, 17 May 2012, sale 20108, lot 40.

Bonhams. CHINESE WORKS OF ART, 11:00 EDT - NEW YORK

Lot 8065. An Imperial gilt-decorated spinach jade musical chime, qing. Dated Qianlong 29th year, corresponding to 1764, the gilding later. Estimate US$ 50,000 - 70,000 (€45,000 - 63,000). Photo: Bonhams.

The dark green stone shaped as an asymmetric chevron, with one squared end and one tapered end and a hole for suspension carved at the top angle, each broad side with the gilt-painted traces of a pair of five-clawed dragons reaching towards a flaming pearl among cloud scrolls, the longer upper edge incised and gilt with the characters wu yi and the shorter upper edge with the characters Qianlong ershijiu nianzhi.  13 5/8in (34.4cm) long, longest edge

Provenance: The Joanna Lau Sullivan Trust 

Notes: Sets of jade chimes, and the mysterious, reverberating, unearthly sounds they can produce, were a central element of complex rituals in China. Such rituals were not only spiritual but also political in their significance: performance of the highly circumscribed grand sacrifices of state underpinned the legitimacy of the dynasty and established the Emperor as the single intermediary between Heaven and Earth. 

Stone chimes may be traced back to about 1700 BC, and jade chimes from the late Eastern Zhou period. The notes of these archaic chimes were not simply for musical pleasure, but held a higher, moral power which was considered vital to the health of the state. The Book of Music states that "when the early rulers formed Music, their purpose was not to satisfy the senses, but rather to bring people back to the correct direction in life": see Immortal Images: The Jade Collection of Margaret and Trammel Crow, Dallas, 1989, p. 28. The archaic origins and moral purpose would have greatly appealed to the Qianlong Emperor, who placed much emphasis on high moral behavior achieved through the restoration of ancient ways. 

Jade chimes such as the present lot are made of dark spinach green jade, in contrast to the yellow and white jade which was also prized during the height of Qing jade production. The dark stone was then sometimes enlivened by gilding of dragons or inscriptions, although the stone was often left undecorated but for the inscribed date and the tone. They were produced in sets of 16 tones (or twelve tones and four half-tones) and were commissioned in astonishing numbers: see for example a chime from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, illustrated in Later Chinese Jades: Ming Dynasty to Early Twentieth Century, San Francisco, 2997, no. 196, where it is noted that more than 160 chimes were commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor from the Suzhou workshops in 1761. 

Given the size, rarity and expense of the jade required for each set, their importance for status and ritual cannot be underestimated. A set of such chimes, suspended from an elaborately carved and tasseled stand would have been an awe-inspiring sight. 

A set of sixteen jade chimes dated 1764 from the Palace Museum, Beijing, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 2005 and illustrated in the catalog China: The Three Emperors, 1662-1795, no. 31. Another chime with the same tone as the present lot, wuyi, from the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 2006, no. 1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Freer Sackler Gallery in Washington DC, both contain in their collections a jade chime dated to the Kangxi period corresponding to 1716: museum accession numbers 03.15.1 and F1982.11a-d, respectively. 

Compare also a gilt spinach jade chime dated to Qianlong 29th year, with the tone beiyizi, sold at Sotheby's Paris, 10 June 2014, sale PF1407, lot 80, and another ungilded spinach jade chime also dated Qianlong 29th year, with the tone beinanlu, sold at Sotheby's London, 6 November 2013, sale L13211, lot 168.

 Restored ceremonial nine-tasseled crown, 15th century, before 1441. Gold and gemstones. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang 2001 Hubei Provincial Museum. (Hubei Provincial Museum). 

PASADENA, CA.- The USC Pacific Asia Museum presents Royal Taste: The Art of Princely Courts in 15th-Century China, an exhibition that considers the lives of nobility in late imperial China. The exhibition explores the luxurious lifestyles and religious practices of princely courts in early- and mid-Ming China (1368–1644) and features more than 140 outstanding works of pictorial, sculptural, and decorative arts. Glimmering jewelry and hairpins, important devotional statues, beautiful textiles and porcelain, and painted masterpieces reveal some of the lesser-known aspects of the palatial lives, religious patronage, and afterlife beliefs of Ming princes, whose world has long been a mystery. 

Royal Taste features archaeological finds from dozens of royal tombs—now in museum collections in the Hubei province in China—as well as imperially commissioned statues housed at Daoist temples on Mount Wudang, the birthplace of Tai Chi. Through these significant loans, all of which are traveling to the U.S. for the first time, the exhibition provides a fuller understanding of the visual and religious worlds of Ming princes, and demonstrates the vital role of their sophisticated courts in shaping Ming material culture. 

This exhibition first appeared at the Hubei Provincial Museum in Wuhan, China. The U.S. presentation is organized by The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and curated by Dr. Fan Jeremy Zhang, The Ringling’s Helga Wall-Apelt Associate Curator of Asian Art, in collaboration with the Hubei Provincial Museum. At USC PAM Royal Taste brings together works from the Hubei Provincial Museum and its affiliated institutions, the private collection of Dr. Tei Fu Chen, and USC PAM’s permanent collection. 

Museum Director Christina Yu Yu, Ph.D states, “This is the first time the USC Pacific Asia Museum has mounted an international traveling exhibition of such magnitude and importance.” She continues, “Royal Taste is one of many initiatives we are planning in order to elevate USC PAM into one of the country’s leading university museums.” 

“The range and quality of the objects excavated from the regional princes’ tombs demonstrate the might of the Ming dynasty, which consolidated most of China as known today,” says Associate Curator Yeonsoo Chee. “The exquisite beauty and superb craftsmanship of the gold objects are a testament to the artistic sophistication of the early Ming dynasty.” 

To guard the central throne in Beijing, the Ming emperors bestowed fiefs to more than sixty princes in different provinces. For generations, these regional courts enjoyed great feudal and financial privileges. Royal Taste features archaeological finds from the royal tombs of Prince Zhuang of Liang Kingdom, Prince Jing of Ying Kingdom, and the Princes of Jing Kindgom in modern Hubei province. The presentation also includes religious statues from Mt. Wudang, a site that received continuous imperial patronage after the Yongle emperor (reign 1403–1424) selected Zhenwu as his dedicated Daoist deity to worship. 

At USC PAM, Royal Taste is presented in three sections. The first area features gold, silver, and jade objects from the tombs of regional princes. A second section showcases objects related to the lifestyle of nobility, such as textiles, ceramics, and paintings. The final section of the exhibition presents religious objects related to Tibetan Buddhism and Daoism.

EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS: 

 Forty works from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang (d. 1441) in Zhongxiang city, which is one of the most significant discoveries of Ming archaeology in the past fifty years. Important finds, such as an imperial certificate of the royal marriage and luxury court gifts of gold and silver, provide a rare glimpse into the court life of Ming China. 

Gold ingots with inscriptions, Yongle reign (1403-­‐24), 1416 and 1419. Gold, left: L. 5⅛ in. (13cm), W. 3⅞ in, (9.8cm), D. ⅝ in. (1.5 cm), Wt. 1937g; right: L. 5 1/2 in. (14 cm), W. 3⅞ in. (10cm), D. ½ in. (1.2cm), Wt. 1874.3g. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang, 2001. Hubei Provincial Museum.

Bracelet & spiral bangle set, 15th century, before 1441. Bracelet: gold and gemstones, L. 1 in. (2.6 cm), Diam. 2¼ in. (5.7 cm), Wt 130 g. Bangle: gold, L. 4⅞ in. (12.5cm), Diam. 2⅝ in. (6.7 cm), Wt, 294 g. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang, 2001. Hubei Provincial Museum.

Plaque of Panjarnatha Mahakala, 15th century. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang 2001. Hubei Provincial Museum.

Blue-­and-­white stem cup, Late Xuande reign (1426-­‐35) to early Zhengtong reign (1436-­‐49), before 1437. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt blue decoration, H. 4⅛ in. (10.4 cm), Diam. (mouth) 6⅛ in. (15.6 cm). Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang, 2001; Hubei Provincial Museum. 

Gold ewer, Hongxi reign. Gold, H. 9½ in. (24.2cm), Wt 868.4g. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhongxiang, 2001. Hubei Provincial Museum.

Hat top ornament with jade and gemstones, Yuan dynasty, 14th century or earlier. Gold, nephrite, and gemstones, H. 2¾ in. (7cm), Diam. 3⅛ in. (7.8cm), Wt. 114.6 g. Excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhuang of Liang, Zhong xiang.

 Thirty objects from royal tombs of the Jing Kingdom in Qichun County, including a variety of personal jewelry made of gold and gems of extreme beauty. 

Hairpins in pheonix shape, Mid-­‐16th century. Gold, L. 9⅞ in. (25cm), W. 2¾ in. (7.1cm), Wt. 146.9 g. Excavated from a royal tomb of the Jing Principality at Wanxuan, Qichun, 2009. Qichun County Museum.

 Fifteen religious statues from the sacred Daoist Wudang Mountain, featuring imperial-granted Daoist statues of the Perfected Warrior, Jade Maiden, and Heavenly Saver.

Statue of Celestial Marshal Gou of the Thunder Gate, 16th century. Gilt bronze and polychrome, H. 28¾ in. (73 cm). Wudang Museum.

 Twenty-five pictorial and decorative works from the permanent collection of the Hubei Provincial Museum, including masterpieces by famous Ming painters Dai Jin (1388–1462), Lü Ji (1477– unknown), Wu Wei (1459–1508). 

Statue of Zhenwu, 16th century. Bronze, H. 14½ in. (37 cm), W. 10½ in. (26.7 cm). Hubei Provincial Museum.

“There’s a remarkable wealth of the material world of Ming princes yet to be given enough scholarly attention,” said Dr. Fan Zhang. “The royal patronage from the regional courts truly had a significant impact on the art-making and consumption of late imperial China. One of the largest exhibitions of courtly art from this period ever presented in the U.S., Royal Taste offers a fantastic showcase of the courtly art and life of provincial Ming China.”

Pair of Rare and Exceptional Huanghuali And Huamu ‘Fu’ Character Yokeback Armchairs. Estimate $500/700,000. Photo: Sotheby's

NEW YORK, NY.- Asia Week at Sotheby’s will be led by two single-owner sales of Chinese Works of Art. The Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Classical Furniture will feature 63 lots from one of the few remaining private collections of Chinese hardwood furniture in the United States of such scope and magnitude. Ranging from small table-top objects such as brushpots to a Pair of Rare and Exceptional Huanghuali And Huamu ‘Fu’ Character Yokeback Armchairs, this sale will be offered without reserve (estimate $500/700,000). 

Chinese Art from Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts 
15 March 2016, 2pm 
A dedicated sale of Chinese Art from the Rosen House will feature a broad range of Song Dynasty to early 20th Century ceramics and works of art, many of which were acquired by the Rosens in the mid-20th century. The sale will be led by an exceptional selection of Imperial enameled metal wares dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties. A Rare and Impressive Cloisonné-Enamel and Gilt-Bronze Five-Piece Altar Garniture (Wugong) represents the pinnacle of artistic and technical achievement of imperial enamel craftsmanship during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty (estimate $300/500,000). 

A Rare and Impressive Cloisonné-Enamel and Gilt-Bronze Five-Piece Altar Garniture (Wugong), Qing dynasty, Qianlong period. Estimate $500/700,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

comprising: a tripod incense burner, a pair of gu vases and a pair of candlesticks; the censer with a globular body supported on tall cylindrical legs, with a pair of upright loop handles, the body with a band of raised gilt bosses beneath the rim, the pierced domed cover surmounted by a coiled dragon finial; the gu vases with a bulging middle section below a trumpet mouth and above a splayed foot; the candlesticks raised on a bell-shaped lower section, rising to a circular drip pan with flaring sides supporting later added gilt-bronze ornaments of cylindrical form with coiled dragons, servings as covers for the candle prickets, each vessel intricately enameled with lotus scrolls, lappet bands and archaistic taotie masks reserved on a turquoise-blue ground (6). Height of largest 24 in., 61 cm 

Provenance: Collection of Samuel P. Avery (1847–1920).
Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, c. 1909 to 1941.
Ralph M. Chait, New York, 1945.

Literature: John Getz, Catalogue of the Avery Collection of Ancient Chinese Cloisonnés, Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1912, pl 16. 

Notes: This five-piece garniture is notable for its large size, reflecting the technical developments achieved by cloisonné craftsmen active in the 18th century who were able to produce high quality pieces of considerable proportions. The design on each vessel has been carefully executed; the layout of the thin wires forming the cloisons are precise and well planned and the bright enamel colors are all delicately blended and sophisticatedly done. Wares of this type were probably produced in one of the Palace Workshops, located in the Forbidden City, or in a private workshop in Guangzhou. 

Known as wugong (the five offerings), wares of this type were made in the finest materials to serve as ceremonial furnishings in the many shrines, temples and ritual spaces within the compounds of the Imperial palaces. A universal monarch at the center of the world, the Qianlong emperor lent his support to a variety of religious institutions, including Daoist and Buddhist temples, as well as Manchu shamanic shrines and the buildings and altars that housed the so-called ‘State Religion’, the worship of impersonal Heaven. Altar garnitures typically comprise an incense burner, placed in the center, flanked by two candleholders and gu-shaped vases, all placed on tall stools, as seen in a 20th century picture of the Daxiongbaodian of the Tanzhe Temple near Beijing, illustrated in Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, p. 53, fig. 29. These ceremonial wares were conventionally modeled after archaic bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. By the Song dynasty this practice had already been established, but abandoned at the beginning of the Ming, when the Hongwu emperor decreed that daily utensils were to be used during state rituals. It was however reinstated in the first part of the Qianlong emperor’s reign, reflecting the emperor’s interest in the correct performance of ceremonies and rituals. Notably, the vessels that constitute this lot, combine an archaic form with designs popular during the Qing dynasty, evident in the ding incense burner, which is decorated with taotie masks over a geometric design that simulates luxurious textile brocade. 

Whilst variations to the design elements of the individual vessels may suggest the possibility the group was united as a garniture some time prior to 1909, the enamel palette and specific decorative elements appear to carry through from one vessel to the next; namely the stiff green-ground blades enameled with archaistic strapwork and the alternating aubergine, white and yellow and red, blue and yellow lotus scrolls. Variations in the designs are similarly evident in a small number of extant five-piece cloisonné enamel altar garnitures. A Qianlong period square-form archaistic garniture set in the Uldry collection enameled with taotie to the censer and vases, but not to the candlesticks, is illustrated in Helmut Brinker and Albert Lutz, Chinese Cloisonné. The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1989, pl. 267. An 18th century altar garniture, sold in these rooms, 18th April 1989, lot 159, is enameled with shou characters to the censer and candlesticks, but not the vases. Similarly, the relatively small size of the central incense burner compared with the flanking candlesticks and vases can be seen on a Qianlong period white jade temple garniture from the Qing Court collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 113. 

Compare a five-piece altar garniture of similar large size, but with different decorative motifs, from the altar of the sacrificial hall at the Mausoleum of Yong, Xinbing, Liaoning province, illustrated in Wang Qiheng, Zhongguo jianzhu yishu quanji[Architecture of Qing Mausoleums], vol. 8, Beijing, 2003, pl. 11; and another of slightly smaller size, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collection in the Palace Museum. Enamels, vol. 3, Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 7, together with a much smaller example, pl. 6. 

A tripod censer of similar form and decoration to the one in the present lot, also in the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated ibid., pl. 187, together with one fitted with a black-ground cover, pl. 175; and a bell-shaped candlestick applied with similar lotus petals, published in the Compendium of Collection in the Palace Museum. Enamels, vol. 4, Cloisonné in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 39.

Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art 
15 March 2016, 10am 
111 lots of Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art will be sold on Tuesday, March 15th. The sale is anchored by a monumental painting by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde. Untitled (1960) is the largest known painting by the artist, and the highest-estimated work of art at Sotheby’s Asia Week (estimate $2.5/3.5 million).

 Vasudeo S. Gaitonde (1924 - 2001), Untitled. Signed and dated in Devanagari on reverse. Oil on canvas, 59½ x 103 in. (152 x 262.5 cm). Painted in 1960. Estimate $2,500,000 — 3,500,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

Another highlight from this sale is Amrita Sher-gil’s In the Garden from the collection of her Hungarian cousin Viola Egan, estimated at $1.8/3 million. This rare, unpopulated landscape captures her transformation from a Portraitist trained in the 19th Century Salon-style to a Modernist with roots in Indian and Hungarian painting traditions. These masterpieces will be sold alongside important works by Indian modern masters including Tyeb Mehta, M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza and Sayed Haider Raza, amongst others. 

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913 - 1941), Untitled (In the Garden). Oil on canvas, 29½ x 23⅝ in. (75 x 60 cm.). Painted circa 1938. Estimate $1,800,000 — 3,000,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

A Rare and Important Sancai-Glazed Pottery Figure Of A Court Lady, Tang Dynasty. Estimate $700,000 — 900,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

exquisitely modeled, the elegant lady sitting demurely on a waisted rattan stool, wearing a long, pleated bright green-glazed skirt, tied above the waist and falling to the base, stopping short to reveal green 'triple-cloud' slippers with amber-glazed soles, the left hand lightly resting on one knee and holding the end of a long cream-glazed shawl tucked into the high-waisted sash and draped over the left shoulder, the right hand holding a long stemmed flower, the stylized bloom resting on one shoulder, a simple beaded necklace tied at the back of the neck, the gently rounded face with delicate features, the hair bound up in an elaborate winged coiffure set to either side with a floral ornament, all supported on a square green and ochre-glazed plinth - Height 16 in., 40.6 cm

Provenance: Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez, USN, acquired in China in the mid-1940s.
Sotheby's New York, 18th November 1982, lot 57.
Eskenazi Ltd., London.
C.C. Wang Family Collection.
Collection of Irene and Earl Morse.
Sotheby's New York, 1st June 1988, lot 88.
Acquired from the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman.

The figure in the collection of Captain Sergius N. Ferris Luboshez

Exhibited: Chinese Art from the Ferris Luboshez Collection, University of Maryland Art Gallery, 1972, cat. no. 85.

Literature: Jane Tilley Griffin, 'The Luboshez Collection', Arts of Asia, July - August, 1972, pp. 25-31, illus. pl. 26. 
Sarah Booth Conroy, 'From China to Maryland with Love...One of the greatest private collections',Washington Post, 26th March 1972.
Rita Reif, 'Antique View; A Captain's Store of Chinese Treasure', The New York Times, 14th November 1982.
Sarah Booth Conroy, 'Ferris Luboshez and the Great Call of China', The Washington Post, 25th November 1982.
Giuseppe Eskenazi, A Dealer's Hand, The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, pp. 66-68 (not illustrated).

Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art Including Property from the Estate of Dr. Claus Virch 
16 March 2016, 10am & 2pm 
The Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art department is pleased to present the second selection of classical Indian miniature paintings and drawings from the Estate of Dr. Claus Virch, alongside their seasonal sale. Highlights include an elegant selection of Tibetan and Tibeto-Chinese bronze sculptures and thangkas; Buddhist ritual objects; classical Indian stone sculptures and paintings; Southeast Asian bronze sculptures; and fine Jain paintings and sculptures. The sale is led by a rare Pala-period Stone Stele Depicting Scenes from the Life of Buddha from the 11th/12th Century, which served as a sacred memento for pilgrims on their journey from eastern India (estimate $100/150,000). 

A Fine Sedimentary Stone Stele Depicting Scenes from the Life of Buddha, Eastern India, Pala period, 11th-12th Century. Estimate $100,000 — 150,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

Himalayan Art Resources item no. 13093. 
Height: 5  7/8  in. (14.9 cm)

Provenance: A&J Speelman, Ltd., 1998.

Exhibited: On long-term loan to the Brooklyn Museum, New York, October 2004-July 2006. 

Notes: This exquisite stele is one of a small group of miniature sculptures carved during the Pala period (8th-12th Century) in eastern India. A number have been found in Tibetan and Burmese monastery collections indicating that they were probably made in part as pilgrims’ sacred mementos.

These shrines were originally thought to be Burmese but recent research has confirmed their origin as eastern India, see Hiram W. Woodward, “The Indian Roots of the ‘Burmese’ Life-of-the-Buddha Plaques”, Silk Road Art and Archaeology 5, 1997-98, pp. 395-407; and Steven Kossak’s seminal article “A Group of Miniature Pala Stelae from Bengal”, Orientations, July/August 1998, pp. 19-27 which firmly established the Indian provenance of the group.

The central figure of Buddha portrays the moment at which he triumphs over Mara just prior to his enlightenment: this momentous episode took place while seated beneath the bodhi tree at the vajrasana site in Bodh Gaya. In common with the majority of similar miniature stone stelae, the Buddha is depicted with a noticeably short neck, a stylistic trait associated with the principal image of Buddha in the Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, now lost. The Mahabodhi sculpture is likely to have been a massive bronze made in contrasting metals, copper for the red monk’s robe and brass for the golden body of Buddha, and would have incorporated the idiosyncratic short neck: the statue was probably removed and destroyed for its metal content during the Muslim invasions of the twelfth century, see David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet, London, 1999, pp. 61-7. The present stele commemorates the Mahabodhi vajrasana Buddha in form and style, and portable plaques such as this served to spread the eastern Indian aesthetic and stylistic idiosyncrasies to Burma, Tibet and beyond.

The stele depicts the Eight Great Events in the life of Buddha. The nativity at Lumbini is depicted at the top left, with the first sermon at Sarnath below, and the taming of the Nalagiri elephant beneath.  The miracle at Sravasti is depicted top right, with the descent from Trayatrimsha heaven below and the presentation of honey by the monkey at Vashali beneath. Above the central image of Buddha seated beneath the bodhi tree at the vajrasana site is a scene representing his death and final enlightenment, or mahaparinirvana.

Compare a similar miniature sedimentary stone shrine in The Asia Society, see Sherman E. Lee, Asian Art: Part II: Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, The Asia Society Inc, 1975, pls. 13-4, pp. 24-5; and nine similar shrines in Ulrich von Schroeder’s survey of Tibetan monastery collections, Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, Hong Kong, 2001, Vol. I, pp. 400-05, pls. 129A-31C.

Fine Classical Chinese Paintings & Calligraphy 
17 March 2016, 10am & 2pm 
Comprised of approximately 220 pieces, Fine Classical Chinese Paintings & Calligraphy will be offered over two sessions. A single-owner sequence of Property from an Important Private Collection features Huang Daozhou’s Epitaph for Wang Shilian in Regular Script, published in Calligraphy of Ming and Qing Masters edited by Jiang Zhaoshen (estimate $60/80,000). Kuncan’s Recluse in the Deep White Clouds is another highlight from this sale (estimate $200/250,000). Formerly in the collection of Zhang Xueliang, this hanging scroll of ink and color on paper appears on the market for the first time in over 25 years. 

Huang Daozhou (1585-1646), Epitaph for Wang Shilian in Regular Script; signed Huang Daozhou, dated jiaxu (1634) of the Chongzhen reign, the tenth lunar month, with four seals of the artist, shi zhai, shi zhai, zi qu dao, shi zhou, and two others illegible. With two collectors' seals, ceng wei zhi yu zhi shan zhai suo you, qian; ink on paper, handscroll, 29 by 238 cm. 11 3/8  by 93 3/4  in. Estimate $60,000 — 80,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

Literature: Jiang Zhaoshen (ed.), Calligraphy of Ming and Qing Masters, Vol. 2, Tokyo: Nigensha, 1987, pp. 4-5, 10-25

Kuncan (1612-After 1674), Recluse in the Deep White Clouds; signed Dianzhu Canzhe, dated jiyou, the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month (September 10, 1669), with five seals of the artist, jie, qiu, dian zhu lao ren, kun can dao zhe, da jie tang zi wan shu hua yin ji. With two collector's seals of Shen Yuangong (20th Century), yuan gong yan fu, yuan wu ban sheng jing li suo ju, and one other collector's seal, jin chun jiang shen ding zhang; ink and color on paper, hanging scroll, 113.1 by 32.5 cm. 44 1/2  by 12 3/4  in. Estimate $200,000 — 250,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

Note: Owner received directly from Zhang Xueliang in the 1990's.

Saturday at Sotheby’s: Asian Art 
19 March 2016, 10am & 2pm 
Sotheby’s Asia Week New York auctions wrap up on the 19th with Saturday at Sotheby’s: Asian Art. The March 2016 edition, exhibited in a space designed by the architect David Ling, includes pieces from the Collection of A. Alfred Taubman and the Weatherspoon Museum of Art, as well as property from across the Asian continent, from China to Korea, India and Southeast Asia to Japan. One of the highlights from this sale is A Large Cloisonné Enamel Baluster Form Vase from the Qing Dynasty. Formerly in the Ian G. Smith Collection, this 19th Century vase is expected to fetch $20/30,000. 

A Large Cloisonné Enamel Baluster Form Vase, Qing Dynasty, 19th century. Estimate $20,000 — 30,000. Photo: Sotheby's.

supported on a tall splayed foot, the ovoid body rising to a flaring trumpet neck flanked by large gilt-bronzechilong-form handles, the body enameled in green, yellow, white, red, blue and pink with four shaped medallions enclosing leafy chrysanthemum blooms amidst rockwork, reserved against pairs of lotus blooms and bats centering on stylized shou characters, all between ruyi-head borders, the neck with scrolling lotus between bands of stiff leaves, repeated around the foot, all on a turquoise ground. Height 26 3/8  in., 67 cm

Provenance: Acquired in Canada in the 1970s.

S|2 
Liu Dan: Transitions 
The Literati Within 
10-20 March 2016 
In addition to our seven sales, Sotheby’s will host two selling exhibitions, Liu Dan: Transitions and The Literati Within. The first of these S|2 shows is a retrospective of Liu Dan’s work, beginning with works from his visit to the Dunhuang caves in the late 1970s, transitioning into self-portraits and Hawaiian landscapes from the 1980s, and culminating with his iconic flower and rock studies from his New York years. The Literati Within builds upon Shuimo shows of years past, bringing together fifteen artists from Asia, Europe and the United States who express the spirit of the literati scholar in ink paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography. The result is a stimulating conversation between past and present, and among contemporary Western and Chinese artists with a striking shared aesthetic sensibility.

Liu Dan, b.1953, Sunflower, signed with one seal of the artist, ink on paper, 56 x 40 1/2  in., 2002. Photo: Sotheby's.

Road and Trees, 1962. Edward Hopper, American, 1882 1967. Oil on canvas, 33 1/2 x 59 1/2 inches (85.1 x 151.1 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced today that its collection has been enriched by the bequest of more than fifty works of American art from the late philanthropist and art collector Daniel W. Dietrich II. Additionally, the Museum has received an endowment gift of $10 million from Mr. Dietrich’s charitable funds that will support a broad range of initiatives in the field of contemporary art.

The collection is rich in works by contemporary artists such as Cy Twombly, Philip Guston, Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse, and Paul Thek, and by other major twentieth-century American artists, among them Edward Hopper, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, and Horace Pippin. Mr. Dietrich was also a lifelong admirer of the nineteenth-century Philadelphia realist Thomas Eakins and bequeathed to the Museum a major portrait by Eakins as well as photographs, drawings, and a large cache of Eakins-related archival materials.

Constance H. Williams, the Museum’s Chair of the Board of Trustees, stated: “Dan Dietrich’s gifts represent a remarkable act of philanthropy. I have no doubt that these generous gifts will be ranked in the same category as those made to the Museum by other great donors to our collection such as Louise and Walter Arensberg, Albert E. Gallatin, and, more recently, Keith L. and Katherine Sachs. Dan will be remembered as a collector of great insight and a quiet visionary whose commitment both to contemporary art and to this city’s cultural institutions was exceptional.”

Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, noted: “Dan Dietrich’s life revolved around the arts, with interests that ranged from painting and poetry to music and theater. He had a deep and abiding love for contemporary culture and delighted in sharing this with others. While Dan was gracious and soft-spoken, he also acted boldly. It comes as no surprise, then, that his gifts to this institution are transformative, strengthening our rich holdings of contemporary art with works by artists he greatly admired such as Cy Twombly, Agnes Martin, and Philip Guston. What’s more, the generous gift from Dan’s charitable funds will enable us to create a new endowment entitled The Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art. This will provide the resources that we need to continue to strengthen an already strong program in contemporary art and, as Dan wished, to encourage innovation and experimentation in this field.”

The works in the Dietrich bequest wonderfully complement the Museum’s holdings of nineteenth-century, modern, and contemporary art. It includes two important works by Cy Twombly: Untitled (Roma) (1961), and Untitled (Bolsena) (1969), from a series of fourteen large-scale canvases that the artist painted during a stay at Lake Bolsena, located north of Rome. Both paintings exemplify the artist’s distinctive style of mark-making and the profound lyricism that characterized his work. They represent a welcome addition to a collection of Twombly’s work that already includes his celebrated series, Fifty Days at Iliam (1978), which has been a cornerstone of the Museum’s collection since it was acquired in 1989.

Untitled (Roma), 1961. Cy Twombly, American, 1928–2011. Oil-based house paint, colored pencils, and colored crayons on canvas. Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016 © Cy Twombly Foundation

The donation also includes two monumental paintings by Philip Guston: The Night (1977), and Kettle (1978). Each is emblematic of Guston’s provocative—and much admired—return to figuration following several decades of work as a painter of abstractions. These are the first paintings from this important period in the artist’s career to enter the Museum’s collection, and as such now enable the Museum to represent fully Guston’s remarkable achievements.

Kettle, 1978. Philip Guston, American, 1913–1980. Oil on canvas, 70 x 93 inches (177.8 x 236.2 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016 © Estate of Philip Guston

Dietrich was also a good friend of the artist Agnes Martin, who lived for many years in New Mexico. Martin made use of simple grid-like compositions to create the “ego-less” structure of paintings in which she sought to express a timeless sense of beauty. This donation includes four exceptional paintings by Martin, among them Leaf, Hill, and Play II, all from 1965, which was a critical moment in the artist’s career.

The bequest also includes fifteen works by Paul Thek, which makes the Philadelphia Museum of Art a major repository of the artist’s work and comes at a time when his remarkable accomplishments in many different media are the subject of renewed appreciation.

Time is a River, c. 1988. Paul Thek, American, 1933–1988. Acrylic on canvas board, 9 x 12 inches (22.9 x 30.5 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016. Image © The Estate of George Paul Thek, courtesy Alexander and Bonin, New York

Edward Hopper’s Road and Trees (1962), the gift of which is accompanied by a closely related charcoal drawing, conveys a wistful, glancing view, perhaps from a car window, of a seemingly prosaic subject: a road that runs parallel to a copse of trees, their boughs silhouetted against sky, some gently outlined in sunlight. As with all of Hopper’s greatest paintings, the subject is simple, but its treatment is nuanced and deeply compelling. As the first painting by the artist to enter the collection, it complements the Museum’s extensive holdings of graphic works by one of the greatest American artists of the twentieth century.

Marsden Hartley’s The Rope and the Wishbone (1936), in which a braided loop of twine and a chicken bone occupy a shallow space of muted tones, may relate to the artist’s visits to Nova Scotia in 1935 and 1936. This painting adds significant depth to the Museum’s holdings of work from this important period in Hartley’s career.

The Rope and the Wishbone, 1936. Marsden Hartley, American, 1877–1943. Oil on board, 28 x 24 inches (71.1 x 61 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016.

The Dietrich bequest includes three important works by the self-taught African American painter Horace Pippin, including The Getaway (1939), a stark winter scene in which a fox makes off with a bird in its mouth; Study for Barracks (1945), which conveys the everyday activity of African American combat soldiers in a dugout during World War II; and The Park Bench (1946), which is often interpreted as a psychological portrait of the artist and was painted in the last year of his life. These paintings join three others in the Museum’s collection, which now comprises one of the richest holdings of Pippin’s work to be found anywhere in this country.

The Getaway, 1939. Horace Pippin, American, 1888–1946. Oil on canvas, 24 5/8 x 36 inches (62.5 x 91.4 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016.

The work of Thomas Eakins, an artist for whom the donor had a special affinity, is represented in the bequest by a handsome three-quarter-length 1903 portrait of Eakins’s friend William B. Kurtz, who is depicted informally in a sports jacket that speaks to the sitter’s passion for cricket and cycling. The gift also includes many oil sketches, drawings, and photographs, as well as archival materials that add greater depth and breadth to the Museum’s renowned Eakins collection, which is the most comprehensive in the world. The oil sketches bequeathed by Dietrich relate closely to such major works in the Museum’s collection as The Old Fashioned Dress, and there is a rare life study of a nude woman’s back. Among the photographs by Eakins and his circle are several portraits of Walt Whitman that served as studies for an oil painting of the poet, and the frontispiece of the complete edition of Leaves of Grass. Sketches of the artist by his wife, Susan MacDowell Eakins, are included, as well as Eakins’s own palette and brushes and a tilt-top table that is most likely the one depicted in many of his paintings, such as the Museum’s Professionals at Rehearsal.

Portrait of William B. Kurtz, 1903. Thomas Eakins, American, 1844–1916. Oil on canvas, 57 x 37 inches (144.8 x 94 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016.

Untitled (Samuel Murray, Thomas Eakins, and William R. O’Donovan in Eakins’s Chestnut Street Studio), 1891–92. Circle of Thomas Eakins, American, 1844–1916. Platinum print, 37 x 57 inches (94 x 144.8 cm). Bequest of Daniel W. Dietrich II, 2016.

In addition to establishing The Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art, Mr. Dietrich’s charitable funds have also provided funding both to support the maintenance of the collection that Mr. Dietrich bequeathed to the Museum and to complete the acquisition of the Paul Strand Collection, which enabled the Museum to add more than three thousand works to its collection by one of the pre-eminent photographers of the twentieth century.

Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, stated: “A long-standing member of the Museum’s Contemporary Art Committee, Dan was an exceptionally kind and generous man whose sensibility was always attuned to artists and their work. His collection was a reflection of his personality and it was clear in every conversation I had with him how much he valued each and every object he had acquired. The establishment of The Daniel W. Dietrich II Fund for Excellence in Contemporary Art is a landmark in the history of the Museum’s commitment to this field. It will enable us to innovate, take risks, and build capacity by developing ambitious exhibitions and programs, presenting the collection in new ways, and working collaboratively with artists.”

On Friday, February 26, Edward Hopper’s Road and Trees will be on view in Gallery 124. Other works from the Dietrich collection will be placed on view in months to come.

About Daniel W. Dietrich II
Daniel W. Dietrich II lived in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He had a lifelong interest in the arts, including theater, music, film, literature, and the visual arts. He was a longtime supporter of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and was a member of the Anne d’Harnoncourt Society and served as a member of the Museum’s Contemporary Art Committee. He also provided significant support to many other cultural institutions, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Association for Public Art, for which he acquired Symbiosis, Roxy Paine’s large-scale sculpture located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

"Bergère rentrant des moutons", Camille Pissarro, 1886.

WASHINGTON (AFP).- A painting by Camille Pissarro will return to a Jewish family in France whose art collection was looted by the Nazis in 1941, a lawyer who led the negotiations said. 

The University of Oklahoma will give back "La bergère rentrant des moutons" - or "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" - to Holocaust survivor Leone Meyer, her New York lawyer Pierre Ciric told AFP about the restitution agreement signed Monday. 

Meyer is the adoptive daughter of late businessman Raoul Meyer, who was co-owner of the French retail company that owns the upscale department store chain Galeries Lafayette. 

He deposited his art collection in a vault at the bank Credit Commercial de France in 1940 before the Nazis seized it during their occupation of France. 

Pissarro completed "Shepherdess bringing in sheep" in 1886. 

The oil-on-canvas painting -- valued in its last appraisal at $1.5 million -- was later acquired by a Swiss merchant and a New York gallery before it was bought by collectors Aaron and Clara Weitzenhoffer. 

They bequeathed it to the University of Oklahoma in 2000. 

Under the settlement's terms, the painting will be displayed for five years in France before it will move on a rotating basis between the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Museum and a French museum. 

The deal also requires Meyer to donate the painting to a French art institution during her lifetime or in her will. 

"The priority was for public display," Ciric said about the negotiations, which began after Meyer filed suit in May 2013. 

The university drew criticism during the process for objecting to returning the work based on procedural rules and the statute of limitations. © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse