christie’s new york is selling an extraordinary collection of chinese furniture.
the extraordinary collection of robert hatfield ellsworth includes not only chinese furniture, but also buddhist art, scholar’s objects, and contemporary paintings.
as well as chinese bronzes, jades, and ceramics.
along with japanese, himalayan, indian, and southeast asian art.
the ellsworth collection is the largest private collection of asian art ever sold at auction. the 2000 object collection will be sold during six live auctions and one on line auction held from 17-21 march 2015.
i was thrilled that my recent trip to new york coincided with the auction preview, which is, not surprisingly, generating unprecedented crowds. the auctions also seem to be generating unprecedented results.
robert ellsworth (1929-2014) was a prominent american asian art collector, dealer, and scholar. he sold asian art from his 22 room new york apartment, located on fifth avenue near the metropolitan museum of art. as an asian art dealer, ellsworth has been credited with establishing new collecting categories, such as ancient chinese jades, or chinese furniture from the ming (1368-1644) and qing (1644-1911) dynasties. his clients included major museums, such as the met, the museum of fine arts, boston, the cleveland museum of art, the philadelphia museum of art, and the nelson-atkins museum. plus, important private collectors, such as john d. rockefeller III, who donated his asian art collection to the asia society.
ellsworth’s publications include chinese furniture: hardwood examples of the ming and early ch’ing dynasties, which is considered one of the chinese furniture reference books.
some of the most important pieces of chinese furniture in the ellsworth collection are huanghuali wood tables and chairs.
chinese furniture is usually categorized according to construction technique. chinese tables usually have either corner legs or recessed legs. corner leg tables can be either unwaisted or waisted.
chinese games tables are usually square. this table is exceptional because it is the only known example of a rectangular games table with drawers. the removable top and game boards are also unusual.
recessed leg tables can have either plain or cloud shaped spandrels.
this painting table is exceptional because of the massive timber, generous width, and early date.
chinese armchairs usually have either rectangular or round backs with either protruding or continuous crest rails.
this pair of horseshoe back armchairs is exceptional because the chairs have continuous back rails, which are quite fragile, and therefore extremely rare. the round members, undulating aprons, and wrap around stretchers emulate bamboo, which was a less expensive material than hardwood.
several unusual features distinguish this set of four armchairs from other horsehoe-back armchairs.
the extremely elegant curve of the crest rails. the exceptional sweeping hooks of the handles. the unusual three-part pierced backsplats. and, the sublime grain of the wood, which suggests a mountain landscape.
do you think that these features make the four armchairs worth US$ 9,000,000?
two of the twelve bronze zodiac animal sculptures that once surrounded the fountain in the gardens of the old summer palace (yuanmingyuan), a qing dynasty (1644-1911) imperial retreat near beijing, have been returned to china by french billionaire francois-henri pinault.
the zodiac sculptures were not only the subject of circle of animals/zodiac heads, a public outdoor sculpture exhibition by chinese artist/activist, ai weiwei, but also, the subject of chinese zodiac, a jackie chan action movie.
christie’s sold the the two sculptures for 31.4 million euros (US$40 million) during the february 2009 auction of the collection yves saint laurent et pierre berge. but, the buyer, a chinese national, withheld payment in protest. so, the two sculptures remained in the collection of pierre berge until they were acquired by the pinault family.
the pinault family controls kering, the french luxury brand group formerly known as ppr, which also owns christie’s.
could this be a convenient coincidence?
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