Hammering it home
The million-yuan club
Chinese painting and calligraphy:
1. Di Zhu Ming (Poly International 2010 Spring Auction)
Price: 436.8 million yuan
The hand scroll by Huang Tingjian, one of the Four Masters of the Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279), features a calligraphic representation of a famous epigraph by Wei Zheng, a Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) politician. It is adorned with Huang's portrait and valuable inscriptions from several dynasties. It demonstrates Huang's penmanship and moral principals, and is considered an example of his change in style in his later years.
2. Eighteen Arharts (Poly International 2009 Autumn
Auction)
Price: 169.12 million yuan
By Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) painter Wu Bin, Eighteen Arharts gives a meticulous depiction of 18 Buddhist monks journeying through a mountainous landscape. Qing Emperor Qianlong (1711-99) adorned the piece with his own calligraphy that vividly described each arhart, one who has achieved enlightenment.
3. Desolate Temples and Autumn Mountain
(Poly International 2010 Spring Auction)
Price: 136.64 million yuan
4. Settling Down the Western Regions and Presenting
Prisoners (Sungari International Auction, October, 2009)
Price: 134.4 million yuan
A hand scroll by Xu Yang, an imperial court painter of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
5. Landscapes and Figures as Described in The Book of Poetry (Sifang 2010 Spring Auction)
Price: 134.4 million yuan
The work of Ma Hezhi, a royal court painter of the Song Dynasty (AD 420-479), it includes several paintings of natural scenes and people's lives as described in Shi Jing, or The Book of Poetry, and is portrayed in a refreshing and elegant manner.
6. A Painting of Mount Yandang (Above, Poly International 2010 Spring Auction)
Price: 129.92 million yuan
7. Letter Leaf (Poly International 2009 Autumn Auction)
Price: 108.64 million yuan
8. Writings by Prominent Personage in the Song Dynasty on Attendant Xu's Seal Character (Below, China Guardian 2009 Autumn Auction)
Price: 100.8 million yuan
9. Aachensee Lake (China Guardian 2010 Autumn Auction)
Price realized: 100.8 million yuan
The landscape derived from Zhang Daqian's (1899-1983) trip to Austria has a fresh touch of modern Chinese ink-and-water art and unparalleled charm. It is a refined combination of the languages of Western abstract art and Chinese literati painting. It is considered a signature piece of Zhang's splash ink-with-watercolor art in his later years.
Chinese ceramics and works of art:
1. Guiguzi Downhill Blue-and-white Jar (Christie's London 2005 Spring Auction)
Price: 230 million yuan
The rare and exquisitely preserved Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) jar vividly narrates scenes from the story of the conflict between the states of Yan and Qi in the Warring States Period (BC 475-221). It is finely decorated in vibrant under-glazed cobalt blue. It features a peony scroll band around the shoulders and a petal band around the base.
2. Imperial Famille Rose "Swallows" Bowl (Christie's Hong Kong 2006 Autumn Auction)
Price: 151.32 million HKD (131.55 million yuan)
The important potted bowl of the Qianlong period (1736-95) is enameled to the exterior in two shades of pink, yellow, green brown and black with graceful swallows in flight beside a blossoming apricot tree. It is one of a pair, the other being in the Percival David Foundation in London.
3. Gilt-Bronze Figure of Shakyamuni Buddha (Sotheby's Hong Kong 2006 Autumn Auction)
Price: 116.6 million HKD (101.36 million yuan)
The large Buddhist statue from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) is a masterpiece in pristine condition, which includes the separately made throne, the beautifully prepared scrolls and inscribed tablets used during the statue's consecration ceremony.
4. Guyuexuan Vase (Sotheby's Hong Kong 2005 Autumn Auction)
Price: 115.48 million HKD (100.39 million yuan)
This vase from the Qianlong period was delicately potted in the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen out of white kaolin clay and applied with a milky-white glaze; and then was exquisitely enameled in the Imperial Palace workshops in Beijing.
