Chinese brush pot smashes saleroom record to sell for £155,000

The saleroom price record at a leading Shropshire fine art auction house was smashed yesterday as a rare 18th century Chinese cinnabar lacquer brush pot sold for an astonishing £155,000.

The finely carved brush pot, which was less than 13cms high, was discovered by Halls at a routine Monday morning valuation session held at the company’s headquarters in Battlefield, Shrewsbury. It more than tripled its pre-sale estimate at Halls’ £250,000 Asian art auction when it sold to a telephone bid from a European buyer after stiff competition from a bidder in the saleroom.

The South Shropshire owner inherited the pot from her mother who purchased it when she was in university in Oxford in the 1950s and had no idea of its high value.

The brush put, or bitong, depicts Wang Xizhi, known as the Sage of Calligraphy, on a veranda watching his geese in a pond. Wang Xizhi lived during the Jin Dynasty and was the most esteemed Chinese calligrapher during and after the Tang Dynasty.

The Emperor Taizong was said to have admired Wang Xizhi’s works so much that the original of his most famous work, ‘Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion’, was buried with him in his mausoleum.

“I knew it was an important piece the moment I saw it,” said Alexander Clement, Halls’ Asian art specialist. “The quality of the carving was exceptional and it’s identical to a brush pot in the National Palace Museum in Beijing and a similar example in a museum in Taipei. It’s the sort of thing you would expect to see in the Imperial Palace and it’s as good as you can get, of its time.”

Mr Clement took the brush pot and several other pieces in the auction to promote to potential buyers at a special Asian Art Week presentation in London last weekend.

“It generated an awful lot of interest from serious buyers in London and I was confident it would reach its reserve but you don’t know what the reaction is going to be at the auction,” he explained, “The price achieved was staggering. In the back of my mind I had a feeling it could get to that level but didn’t allow myself to get carried away.

“I’m absolutely delighted to achieve another record for Halls in the Battlefield saleroom – the previous record was £85,000 for a pair of rare 19th century Chinese Daoguang vases in May.

“It shows that these rare Chinese pieces are out there tucked away in cupboards, on shelves and propping open doors in Shropshire and surrounding counties. The owners invariably have no idea what they are and that’s when it gets really exciting.

“It’s the dream of every fine art auctioneer and vendor to discover an object that is truly magnificent and then to achieve a fantastic result for it. It’s what keeps us getting out of bed in the morning to go to work. The next exciting Asian art object is out there waiting to be discovered.

“The brush pot had been purchased by the vendor’s mother in the 1950s while she was studying at Oxford University. It was a time in her life when she had the money to purchase luxury decorative items and it has been with the current vendor all her life.”

Jeremy Lamond, Halls’ fine art director, said the result demonstrated the value of the free valuation sessions provided by Halls every Monday and he encouraged anyone with Asian art items to have them valued by the company. He also praised Mr Clement for his detailed research work and marketing of the brush pot in London.

“I would advise members of the public to search their cupboards and attics because you never know what you have until it’s checked by a specialist and that’s where we come in,” he added. “Our specialists are happy to make home visits where necessary.”