Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Two Qianlong Porcelain Masterpieces Sold for Over HK$100 Million Each at Sotheby's Hong Kong
october 03, 2018 - Sotheby

Two Qianlong Porcelain Masterpieces Sold for Over HK$100 Million Each at Sotheby's Hong Kong

At Sotheby’s #hongkong this morning, the Yamanaka Reticulated Vase – recently discovered in a Private Japanese Collection – sold for HK$149,091,000 / US$19,009,102 /£14,637,024, almost three times its pre-sale estimate (HK$50-70 million / US$6.4-8.9 million). Bidding opened at HK$40 million and steadily climbed as five bidders competed for the vase.

Pair to the famous Bainbridge Vase which made international headlines when it was sold in the UK in 2010, the vase had remained dormant in Japan for almost a century since its acquisition in 1924 following a public showing with Yamanaka in New York in 1905. Carved and exquisitely painted with four pairs of fish below Rococo-inspired motifs on a yellow sgraffiato ground, the exceptional famille-rose reticulated vase is skilfully modelled with an inner blue-and-white vase. It ranks among the most complex porcelains ever commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795).

This porcelain masterpiece is not only a reflection of the exacting standards on technical proficiency and the insatiable demand for stylistic novelty at the court of the Qianlong Emperor, but also an aesthetic representation of the cultural confluence of East and West at its pinnacle in Chinese history.

Further information in the press release to download