Past Highlights

Archaic Owl-Shaped Bronze Covered Ritual Wine Vessel (Zun)

Dimensions: 21cm (H)

Shang dynasty, 12th - 11th century BC
Millennium Exhibition, 2000

Shang bronzes in the shape of animals are exceptionally rare and much sought after.  This particular example, although stylized, is a highly convincing representation of an owl.

Archaic Bronze food Vessel (fang ding)

Dimensions: 22.5cm (H)

Late Shang Dynasty, 11th century BC
Ancient Chinese Bronzes from the Stoclet and Wessén Collections, 1975

The Stoclet collection was one of the most celebrated formed in the twentieth century.  It encompassed many different cultures - Chinese works of art, Old Master European paintings and Medieval works of art to name but a few - and was housed in the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the masterpiece of the 'Viennese Secessionist' architect, Josef Hoffmann.  Eskenazi have sold many pieces from the collection over the course of thirty years.

Bronze and silver inlaid monkey with arms stretched

Dimensions: 18.5cm (H), 5.0cm (W)

Warring States, 4th - 3rd century BC
Millennium Exhibition, 2000

The skillful characterization and superb workmanship shown here belie, probably, the rather utilitarian purpose of this fitting.  It seems probable that it would have hung from a hook in the ceiling from which a lamp might have been suspended. 

Gilt Bronze and Jade Finial

Dimensions: 16.2cm (H)

Jade: late Eastern Zhou-early Western Han period, 3rd-2nd century BC
Gilt Bronze: Western Han period, 2nd-1st century BC
Inlaid Bronze and Related Material, 1991

This extraordinary item seems to have no counterpart.  The gilt-bronze finial of anthropomorphic appearance was made specifically in the Western Han period to hold the curving jade element which is perhaps a hundred years earlier in date.        
 

Bronze Figural Oil-lamp

Dimensions: 23.4 (H)

Han dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD
Sculpture & Ornament, 1996

The kneeling man who supports the tray to hold the oil is modelled with great realism for a Han period bronze.  Both his physical appearance and his costume indicate that he is from one of the minority groups - perhaps the Xiongnu in the north - living a more or less autonomous existence on the borders of China
 

Bronze tube inlaid in Gold and Silver

Dimensions: 26.5 (H)

Western Han period, late second - early first century BC 
Inlaid Bronze and related material, 1991

This simple tubular fitting is lavishly inlaid in gold and silver with a huge menagerie of recognizable animals, as well as more imaginative spirit figures.  It records auspicious omens (xiangrui) directly identifiable with many of these animals and figures who act as intermediaries and means of communication between heaven and earth - a belief widely held in the Western Han period.

Marble Stele with a Central Figure of Buddha Sākyamuni

Dimensions: 119cm (H), 63cm (W)

Northern Qi Period, 549 - 577
Early Chinese Art from Tombs and Temples, 1989

This sculptural group, carved both on the front and the reverse, is beautifully carved in the finest white micaceous marble.  The iconography of the stele, with Buddha Sākyamuni flanked by attendants and Bodhisattvas on the front and a meditating figure of Maitreya on the reverse, found a special favour in the Northern Qi period.  Most unusually, the present carving still retains much of its original pigments.
 

A Sancai-glazed Earthenware Zodiac figure of a Horse

Dimensions: 22.2cm (H)

Tang dynasty, 618 - 907 AD
Tang ceramic sculptor, 2001

Whether eleven other zodiac figures originally accompanied this piece or it was buried in the tomb of one who was born in the year of the horse as a 'one off' will never be known.  However, the extraordinary sensitive modelling and luminous glazing are not equalled in any of the other Tang zodiac figures so far known.

Falconer & Horse

Dimensions: 24.8 (L)

13th century
Classical Paintings, 2009

The clothes worn by the groom in this painting, as well as his neat beard and mustache, suggest Central Asian that he represents a central Asian.  The large peregrine falcon on his wrist was probably used to hunt swans.

Porcelain Pillow in the shape of a Reclining Boy, Ding Ware

Dimensions: 13.8 (W), 20cm (L)

Northern Song, 960 - 1127 AD
Song; Chinese Ceramics, 2003

The subject matter of young boys at play or rest was popular in Song ceramics and associated with the theme of fertility and the wish for numerous sons.  The depiction of boys with lotus flowers or leaves forms the rebus lian zi, or 'successive sons'.

Blue and White Porcelain Jar

Dimensions: 33.3 (H)

Blue and White Porcelain Jar (Guan) Painted with a Narrative Scene
Yuan dynasty, mid 14th century

Blue and white porcelain - the painting of diluted cobalt oxide on to porcelain and covering it with a transparent shiny glaze - was a development of the Yuan dynasty.  The technique was rapidly perfected as witnessed by the beautifully drawn and complex scene on this vase.  It shows a story from Warring States history concerning a conflict between the states of Yan and Qi.

Image thanks to Christie's

Black and Red Lacquer Dish

Dimensions: 56.8cm (Diameter)

Wanli mark and of the period, 1573 - 1619
Chinese Works of Art and Furniture, 1998

This large dish is carved in varied tones of red and black lacquer with Shou Lao, the god of longevity, standing on a veranda with two attendants and looking out at Eight Daoist Immortals (Ba Xian) with whom he is frequently associated.

Imperial spinach-green jade water buffalo, on gilt-bronze stand

Dimensions: 20.8cm (L)

Qian long mark and of the period, 1736 - 1795

This exceptional carving is of the finest green colour with inclusions which are almost emerald in tone.  Formerly in the collection of the Earl of Yarborough, it was hidden from sight in a bank vault for some sixty years before appearing on the market once again.

A magnificent and highly important ruby-ground famille-rose porcelain vase

Dimensions: 37.5cm (H)

Qianlong mark and of the period, 1736 - 1795

This superb vase demonstrates to perfection the extraordinarily high artistic and technical levels reached in the ceramic production of the early and middle years of Qianlong.
The enamels are brilliantly coloured, delicately painted and contrasted in unusual combinations. The ruby ground of this particular vase is finely etched with curling fronds, giving an almost imperceptible texture that subtly catches the light.