By Intelligent Collector Staff | December 18, 2020
A rare Chinese handscroll associated with the Song Dynasty realized $675,000 at Heritage Auctions on Dec. 11, establishing what was then the highest price achieved by any lot in Heritage’s Asian Art department. The Fine & Decorative Asian Art auction totaled $1,337,455.
The Chinese School, After Li Song, Riders on Horseback is an ink-and-color-on-silk handscroll depicting figures playing polo on donkeys. Heritage noted that representations of donkey polo, or lvju, are rarely recorded in Chinese painting. The scroll also bears collector seals that provide evidence of a long ownership history.
Other Chinese paintings attracted bidders well beyond their estimates. Three album leaves by Zhang Daqian, Li Qiujun and Pan Junnuo realized $47,500, nearly seven times their high estimate. The grouping brought together works by artists whose personal and artistic relationships added context to the lot.
A large Landscape by Huang Binhong brought $16,250. The broader sale also included Chinese ceramics, sculpture, jade and textiles.
Asian paintings can require particularly careful scholarship. Attribution, inscriptions, seals, provenance, period and subject matter may all materially affect how collectors understand a work.
The $675,000 result demonstrates why Heritage Auctions can be the best place to sell fine art. Specialist research can identify and explain the historical characteristics that distinguish an important work, then present that scholarship to collectors capable of recognizing its significance.
Source: Heritage Auctions press release (December 18, 2020).