Tremont hosting Asian extravaganza April 23

NEWTON, Mass. – A monumental Chinese vase and three miniature Persian painting are in Tremont Auctions' April 23 sale.

Tremont Auctions is hosting the sale online and in the firm’s gallery at 26 Ossipee Road, Newton, Massachusetts. Internet bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and the Chinese platform Artfox.com. Telephone and absentee bids will also be accepted for select lots. The auction begins promptly at 10:30 a.m. EST. In all, around 600 premier lots, all of them Asian and mostly Chinese, will be sold.

The Chinese temple vase, 48 inches in height, comes with a superb provenance. It descended through the family of the American banker and philanthropist Morris Ketchum Jesup (1830-1908). Mr. Jesup served as president of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The vase was kept at Jesup’s summer home, Belvoir Terrace, in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The vase is pear-shaped, with a trumpet mouth. The pate-sur-pate decorations are of pagodas, figures, animals and flowers, in a white slip of slate blue ground (estimate $10,000-$15,000).

The three miniature Persian paintings were done in the early 1600s using ink, colors and gilt on

heavy paper. All three are framed and glazed and have an average size of 12 inches by 7 1/4 inches. One depicts a combat scene from a Shahnama. Another boasts a scene of Sultan Sanjar and his Vizier. The third showcases a scene of The Fire Ordeal of Siyavush, from a Shahnama. The paintings come from the collection of an octogenarian collector in Boston’s Back Bay area. They will sell individually. 

Other items up for bid will include a group of more than 100 carved jade objects. In addition gilt Buddha bronzes will cross the block. Plus, works of art, textiles, and porcelain will be available.

A selection of fine carved jade will include a white stone finial with russet shading. Also an 18th century surface carved grey stone disk with black markings of two Kuei dragons flanking a mythical animal. In addition, an 18th century white with a greenish hue stone ring will be presented.

Other carved jade pieces will feature a late 19th century covered jar. It is stone of a grey-white color with russet veins and has a surface carved in high relief with dragons and clouds. Also set for sale is a pale celadon jade pendant. It is in the form of a scabbard ornament, made in the 18th century. A large area of it is russet, with a surface carved with a Tao Tieh mask and archaic Chinese scrolling.

Bronze offerings will include a 19th century Chinese archaic style bronze bell, Chung, with archaic scrolling and Kuei dragons, on a rosewood stand carved with dragons; an 18th century gilt bronze Buddha image, made in Tibet and showing Kubera, the God of Wealth, seated on an engraved throne; and an 18th century Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze figure of Yama, 7 inches tall.

Two lots of Japanese vases, both from the Meiji period (1868-1912) will cross the auction block. One is a pair of cloisonné vases with silver wire work, decorations showing landscapes and geese with flowers and borders of floral scrolling. The other is a Japanese Satsuma ware pottery vase with a melon-shaped body, decorations of flowering plants in red, blue and green enamels.

China will be represented by vases, including a pair of 19th century Roleau-shaped examples with Kuei dragon handles and a thunder meander border at the mouth with a band of celadon, both 24 1/2 inches tall; and a 19th century drum-shaped celadon vase with a foo dog jump ring and two-character Hsuan Ho mark on the base, 8 3/4 inches tall.

Chinese porcelain plaques include an 18th century plaque shaped in the form of a double gourd vase having gilt wan brocade ground with blue bats and reverses with the characters Tai Chi (“Great Good Luck”); and an early 20th century white glaze plaque housed in a rosewood frame and having a surface decorated with birds and flowers.

Artworks feature a 9-inch, 18th century Chinese bamboo root carving of the figure Liu Hai, with

his magic frog; and an album of paintings signed by the Chinese artist Wu Hu Fan (1894-1968), depicting 13 landscapes, and with a lavender brocade cover.

Rounding out some of the expected top lots are a Chinese snuff bottle carrying the Ch’ien Lung mark and period (1735-1796), with a decoration of stylized mallow flowers on a pale yellow ground, just 2 3/4 inches in height; and a signed 18th century Chinese bamboo brush pot, having a surface carved in high relief showing scholars in a mountain landscape.

For more information on the April 23 auction, visit www.TremontAuctions.com.