Whom You Know: BONHAMS MAKE WORLD RECORD PRICES FOR GLASS AND PORCELAIN CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES IN HONG KONG

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

BONHAMS MAKE WORLD RECORD PRICES FOR GLASS AND PORCELAIN CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES IN HONG KONG

“Message in a Bottle”: Art Market is Very Strong as Miniature Chinese Art Reaches World Record

Prices at Bonhams

Bonhams Hong Kong today (23 November 2010) celebrated its second “Golden Gavel Auction”, when Part II of the world’s finest collection of important Chinese snuff bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, sold 100% and achieved world record prices. Against presale estimates of HK$24,000,000, the sale total was HK$54,832,000 (£4,437,930) with every one of the 155 rare bottles successfully sold. A good number of the lots sold for twice to four times its estimate.

A new world record for a porcelain snuff bottle was reached when Lot 121 sold for a staggering HK$8,384,000 (£678,815), four times its pre-sale estimate of HK$2,000,000. Commissioned by the Qianlong emperor and enamelled in the palace workshops of the Imperial Palace between 1736 and 1760, this extraordinary snuff bottle, decorated with ‘double-gourds’, symbolic of long life, is identical to another rare example still preserved in the Forbidden City Palace Museum.

The highest price of the sale, and a new world record for a glass snuff bottle was achieved by

Lot 152, a 'famille-rose' enamelled gold-ground glass 'lotus' snuff bottle, which sold for HK$9,056,000 (£732,921), almost four times its presale estimate of HK$2,500,000. This exquisite snuff bottle was commissioned by the Qianlong emperor (1736-95), and decorated with lotus flowers against a rich golden ground, and incised on the base with the Imperial mark.

Bonhams’ Head of Chinese Ceramic and Works of Art in Hong Kong Julian King who prepared the auction, said: “We are delighted that these extraordinary snuff bottles are returning to Beijing, where they were originally commissioned by the Qianlong emperor. The same real-estate tycoon who broke the world record when he paid HK$9,280,000 for a snuff bottle on his first day of collecting them at the Part I of the sale held on 29 May made a triumphant return to Bonhams auctions today.”

Part III of the Snuff Bottles from the Mary and George Bloch Collection will take centre stage at the Bonhams Spring 2011 Auctions to be held in May 2011.

Bonhams

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further five throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; Toronto, Canada; and France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com

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