Welcome
Just as you and I contemplate which pieces of furniture we can consign to the fire to keep warm this winter, we learn of an Asian collector who forked out an eye-watering £14.4m for a wooden folding chair. Of course it wasn’t any old folding chair, it was one of only six surviving folding chairs from China’s Ming dynasty and designed 300 years ago for the easy transport of dignitaries around imperial China.
In one fell swoop of the auctioneer’s gavel in Hong Kong the horseshoe-back armchair became the third most expensive piece of furniture ever sold on the secondary market (joining the €22m paid in 2009 for a chair by the Irish designer Eileen Gray and $33m spent two years later on a Han dynasty dressing table and stool. For more details see our news piece on page nine.
The Ming chair wasn’t the only Chinese treasure making headlines in the run up to this month’s celebration of Asian Art in London. At Hansons auctioneer’s October sale a rare double-gourd vase with a Qianlong seal mark (1735-1799) – bought inadvertently as part of a house’s contents – attracted a guide price of £40,000-£60,000.
Such is the topsy-turvy world of Asian ceramics – one day they are being used as the dog’s water bowl, the next they are selling for a five-figure sum. In this month’s issue, we try to shed some light on exactly why this is.
On page 40, specialist Dr Matthew Wills considers the up-and-coming collecting field of Chinese books. Imagine if you’d invested in Chinese ceramics back when they were selling for peanuts. You might have joined the owner of the Ming-dynasty manuscripts which sold for a staggering 1,000 times their pre-sale estimate two years ago.
Elsewhere in the magazine Paul Fraser considers the future of royal autographs on page 24; on page 16 David Harvey lifts the lid on some very unusual metamorphic stools and, if you are looking for some low-budget entertainment in the current cost of living crisis, why not tackle our quiz on page 44? Enjoy the issue.
Georgina Wroe, Editor
PS Because the next magazine is a joint December and January issue, it will be with you slightly later. Expect delivery from around the second week in December.
KEEP IN TOUCH Write to us at Antique Collecting, Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, or email magazine@accartbooks.com. Visit the website at www.antique-collecting.co.uk and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @AntiqueMag
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ISSN: 0003-584X
We love
This pair of Qing dynasty (1644-1911) Chinese cloisonné candlesticks, 10cm high, which has an estimate of £600-£800 at Sworders’ Asian art sale on
November 4.
FIRST WORD
IN THIS ISSUE
FELIX TURNER opens London’s newest auction house at the age of 22, page 7
EMMA RUTHERFORD puts the life of the 18th-century artist Sarah Bi n in the spotlight,
page 18
PAUL FRASER reveals the royal autograph collectors are really after, page 24
DR MATTHEW WILLS opens a new chapter in the world of Chinese collecting, page 40
THE TEAM
Editor: Georgina Wroe, georgina.
wroe@accartbooks.com Online Editor: Richard Ginger, richard.ginger@accartbooks.com
Design: Philp Design, james@philpdesign.co.uk Advertising and subscriptions:
Charlotte Kettell 01394 389969, charlotte.kettell
@accartbooks.com
ANTIQUE COLLECTING 3
