Roseberys’ two day sale of Asian Art set another house record for the highest total hammer for a specialist auction. Led by an exceptionally rare pair of 18th century porcelain wine warmers formed as ewers (Lot 49) which generated unprecedented pre-sale interest attracting no less than sixteen telephone lines primed to compete to acquire the pair. Each impeccably painted with dragons and bats in iron red amid cloud motifs in underglaze blue, respectively they bore in black enamel on each base a Yongzheng Emperor seal mark and a Yanghe tang hallmark. Yanghe tang, or ‘Hall for cultivating harmony’, was a hall within the Old Summer Palace, Yuanming Yuan, and a hallmark used from the Yongzheng to the Jiaqing period. Bidding on this lot started tentatively at £10,000, gathering pace as three telephone bidders remained determined until one dropped out around £180,000, and two carried on until the hammer fell at £260,000. 
Head of Department Bill Forrest commented ‘this was a remarkable price for a remarkable pair of ewers which we have been privileged to live with for the past six months. This was indicative that London remains the place to offer the very best Chinese works of art, and strong bidding across the two days clearly shows that the market remains incredibly strong in this area.’
This pair spearheaded Roseberys’ curated wine themed section on day one and also played an integral role in Roseberys’ contemporary version of the famed Orchid Pavilion Gathering held in ancient China in the year 353 BCE held prior to the sale. Roseberys’ commissioned architectural designers Ioana Oprescu and Oscar Maguire to design and build a striking winding table from hardwood and red velvet, on which cups of wine could be floated along a perpetual stream of water.
Winding Stream Design: Ioana Oprescu and Oscar Maguire
Also offered in the wine themed section of the sale was a Chinese Ming dynasty 16th century cloisonne enamel wine ewer (lot 23). Inspired by Persian prototypes, the shape of this ewer was widely used in China throughout the Ming dynasty in various media from porcelain and jade to gold and bronze. Despite losses to the enamel, this rare ewer sold to a telephone bidder for £21,648.
Following the wine section a selection of objects and paintings from the infamous Mu-Fei collection were offered. The stand out lot from this collection was a group of three early Chinese ceramics from the Sui and Tang dynasties (Lot 50). One a particularly rare white glazed water pot from the Sui dynasty excited a whole swathe of internet bidders and telephone bidders, pushing the final hammer price to a remarkable £29,000.
LOT 50: A group of three Chinese miniature vessels, Tang dynasty
The top selling lot from a collection of over three hundred snuff bottles was lot 95, a fine white jade bottle inscribed with a Tie'An seal mark, much favoured for the quality of the stone and its refined simplicity.
The final lot offered on day one (lot 577) closed a concise Japanese art section. Selling for £11,152 to a telephone bidder, it was a Japanese ‘Namban’ lacquered cabinet made for the Portuguese market circa. 1600. The term Namban, or ‘Southern Barbarian’, refers to a rare group of Japanese works of art produced in the 16th and 17th centuries for export to Europe, and are now highly sought after by European collectors.
The second day offered over three hundred lots of ceramics including a private collection of Tang pottery which collectively sold for over £120,000. The single highlight of the day came from the Qing dynasty, though, in the form of a large porcelain vase produced during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng (1722-1732) (Lot 861). It is finely painted in vibrant enamels with a plethora of Luohan, some depicted riding auspicious animals. Symbolically significant and significantly large, porcelains of this period are particularly rare, so despite elements of damage, this sold for £34,040.
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