Christie’s sale of Important Chinese Furniture and Works of Art, held over two days at Rockefeller Center in New York, totalled $22,768,068. The sale was 233 percent sold by hammer and premium against the low estimate and 78 percent sold by lot. More than one in four buyers were Millennials, and almost 15 percent of bidders and buyers were new to the category.
Fine furniture was a particular strength, with many lots well ahead of their estimates, alongside important porcelain, bronzes, jades and statues. The top lot was a rare huanghuali ‘ Official’s Hat’ armchair that brought four times its low estimate at $3,256,500, followed by a large blue and white iron-red ‘ Dragon’ dish that more than doubled its low estimate to make $2,772,500.
Other leading furniture results included a finely carved huanghuali floor screen that sold for more than 22 times its low estimate at $2,228,000, a massive huanghuali corner-leg painting table at $1,804,500, and a twelve-panel huanghuali folding screen at $604,800.
Among the porcelain, a rare famille rose ‘daylily’ cup brought $1,381,000, a doucai ‘chicken’ bowl realised $756,000, and a large blue and white ‘chrysanthemum’ dish made $655,200.
Vicki Paloympis, head of Christie’s Chinese Works of Art department in New York, said the market showed particular strength in Qing porcelain and classical Chinese furniture, especially pieces with provenance from private American collections.
(Press Release)
