The Asian Art auction at Cheffins on Thursday 4th April saw mixed results as Song Dynasty ceramics and Japanese prints made strong prices at auction.

A Song Dynasty small carved dish which made £9,500, whilst two similar examples sold for £4,800 and £2,600, all from the Harley Preston Collection. Following these, an original drawing by world-famous 18th century Japanese artist, Hokusai, achieved £2,200. Good quality Ming porcelain also sold well with a highly-rare Kraak dish selling for £3,000. 

Philippe Smolarski, Head of Asian Art says:

“The prices achieved for the dishes from the Harley Preston collection are illustrative of the emphasis being placed on age, quality and provenance within the market, with buyers including both British and Chinese collectors.  Another area of the market which is seeing some significant growth is Japanese artworks.  The most prized of these at the auction was an original drawing by Hokusai. Hokusai was the foremost Japanese artist working in the late 18th century and earlier 19th century and is best known for his depictions of Mount Fuji, and the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. This drawing was a part of Hokusai’s illustrations of the Chinese novel, Water Margin, and achieved £2,200.  

Porcelain from from the Ming period continues to be the most popular, for example, an extremely rare Kraak dish, dating to around 1600 – 1644 sold for £3,000 whilst another a Ming dynasty dish sold for £1,700. However, this is far from prescriptive, other items from the Ming dynasty only sell for the numbers in the low hundreds this is all down to quality, rarity and subject matter.”