Bonhams Announces Asian Art Week Sale Highlights for September 2021

A very rare, large, and early gilt copper alloy figure of Standing Buddha from the 11th/12th century; a premier group of modern Chinese paintings from the Fabian Collection, Part III; and rare Japanese surimono prints from The Crawford Collection are among the highlights of Bonhams Asian Art Week sales. This September, Bonhams will present seven sales of fine and rare works from a range of art historical periods throughout Asia’s past and present, the sales include:

Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy III - September 20
Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings - September 20
The Manfred Arnold Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles - September 21
The Emily Byrne Curtis Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles - September 21
Fine Japanese and Korean Art, including an Important Collection of Surimono - September 22
Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art - September 23
Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas Online - September 17 – 24

Bonhams will also present Old and New Traditions, a special non-selling exhibition of six treasures of Japanese Art from a private collection. This will be on public view from September 16- 22.

Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy III
Monday, September 20, 2021
10AM EDT

Building upon the successful sales of the Reverend Richard Fabian Collection in 2019 and 2020, Bonhams presents Part III of fine paintings and calligraphic works from America’s premier private collection of modern Chinese paintings. Reverend Richard Fabian – founder and rector of San Francisco’s ecumenical St. Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church – first discovered the compelling beauty of Chinese paintings while majoring in Chinese art at Yale University in the 1960s. Over three decades, he formed a panoramic collection spanning the 200-year development of modern Chinese paintings. Most of the works being offered have been featured in dedicated exhibitions of the Fabian collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 2000-2001 and the Honolulu Academy of Art in 2007, each institution producing a scholarly publication to accompany the exhibition. Sale highlights include:

• Zhao Zhiqian (1829-1884), Calligraphy in Running / Standard Script, a set of four hanging scrolls, dedicated to Ziting (Fang Junyi 方濬益/濬頤, 1815-1899), an example of the artist writing in Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) style script and one of several important works of Chinese calligraphy from the Jinshi (metal and stone) movement of calligraphy in the sale (estimate: US$80,000-120,000)
• Huang Binhong (1865-1955), Abstract Landscape, a hanging scroll painted when the artist was approaching his nineties, and his vision was dramatically hindered by cataracts. Despite his impairment, he created an incredibly powerful composition, infused with energy and passion (estimate: US$50,000-80,000)
• Su Renshen, Sunset at Changjiang with a Hundred Poems, 1845, a stunning and rare example of the artist working in the horizontal handscroll format. Complementing the landscape, the artist wrote a series of emotive poems, the text of which eventually fills the composition (estimate: US$25,000-40,000)

Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings
Monday, September 20, 2021
12:30PM EDT

Bonhams sale of Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings will offer an impressive array of 250 lots from several notable collections. Highlights include a magnificent and rare ’robin’s-egg’ glazed archaistic hu-shaped two-handled vase, Qianlong six-character, impressed seal mark and of the period (1736-1795) from the Estate of Robert P. Youngman (estimate: US$400,000-600,000); an impressive zitan luohan chuang (bed) late Qing/Republic Period (estimate: US$200,000-300,000); Mountain Gorge, a splendid modern painting by Li Huayi (1948- ) from a West Coast collection (estimate: US$100,000-150,000); two archaic bronze ritual wine vessels (gu) Shang dynasty, 13th century BC (estimate: US$80,000-120,000); a cloisonné enamel and gilt bronze double-handled vase from The Asbjorn Lunde Foundation (estimate: US$60,000-80,000); and a varied group of primarily Ming and Qing lacquer and a lovely group of mother-of-pearl-inlaid Ryukyuan lacquer from the 17th-19th centuries from the Robert W. Moore Collection. His collection also offers Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing bronzes all cast in the archaic style of the Zhou and Han dynasties.

The Manfred Arnold Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
10AM EDT

The Manfred Arnold Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles features 132 exceptional examples formed over a span of fifty years. Manfred Arnold purchased one of his first snuff bottles, an inside-painted bottle in 1966 while strolling along Fifth Avenue in New York City and his passion for snuff bottles just grew. His collecting expanded into all types of snuff bottles, from enamels, glass, hardstones, organic and ceramic wares, while maintaining an avid interest in inside-painted examples.  Highlights from the collection include an inside-painted glass snuff bottle signed Ma Shaoxuan, dated to 1907, Beijing (estimate: US$12,000-18,000); a miniature inside-painted crystal snuff bottle signed Ma Shaoxuan, dated to 1897 (estimate: US$12,000-18,000); and a rare inside-painted glass snuff bottle depicting President Woodrow Wilson, dated 1914 (estimate: US$2,500-3,500).

The Emily Byrne Curtis Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
1PM EDT

Bonhams presents The Emily Byrne Curtis Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles, a sale of 92 rare and unique examples of glass, jade, lacquer, and porcelain. Emily developed a passion for Asian art and dedicated much time to refining and educating her eye which soon broadened to serious academic research. Highlights in the sale include an important Beijing enamel Chinese-subject snuff bottle Qianlong Mark and of the period (1736-95) (estimate: US$70,000-90,000); a rare inside-painted ’portrait’ glass snuff bottle by Ma Shaoxuan, 1925, depicting the Beijing actress Qin Xuefang (estimate: US$15,000-20,000); and an enameled opaque white glass Snuff Bottle Qianlong mark and of the period (1736-95) (estimate: US$12,000-18,000).

Fine Japanese and Korean Art, including an Important Collection of Surimono
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
10AM EDT

The Fine Japanese and Korean Art sale comprises more than 350 lots, led by rare Japanese prints from The Crawford Collection. These extraordinary prints are known as surimono, privately commissioned prints, and this is one of the largest collections ever to come to auction. Highlights are from renowned artists like Katsushika Hokusai, Totoya Hokkei, Yashima Gakutei, and Kubo Shunman with estimates ranging from US$1,000 to $20,000. Other highlights from the sale include richly colored, meticulously painted miniature album leaves depicting scenes from The Tale of Genji, Momoyama period (1573-1615), circa 1600 (estimate: US$30,000-40,000) and a group of modern paintings by Araki Minol (1928-2010), which demonstrates his masterful use of ink and his influences from China, Japan and the West with estimates ranging from US$7,000 to $25,000.

Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art
Thursday, September 23, 2021
10AM EDT

The sale of Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art will offer 26 carefully chosen lots and is led by a very rare, large, and early gilt copper alloy figure of Standing Buddha, Central Tibet, 11th /12th century (estimate: US$800,000-1,200,000). This figure’s elegant, swayed posture and hand gestures trace back to some of the earliest bronze depictions of Buddha from North India and Central Asia but are rarely seen throughout the subsequent millennia in Tibetan sculpture. Finely chased Central Asian motifs also appear within the robes, recalling a cult of kingship that preceded Buddhism in Tibet. At over two-and-a-half feet tall (31 ¾ in., 80.7 cm), the figure has the scale of a central shrine image for a smaller chapel and considering the increased difficulty of metal casting at high Himalayan altitudes, this bronze is a technical tour-de-force. Another incredible highlight in the sale is a museum-quality gilt copper alloy figure of Yamantaka Vajrabhairava and Vajravetali, Ming dynasty, mid-15th century (estimate: US$600,000-800,000). The thirty-four-armed, buffalo-headed Tibetan Buddhist deity is cast to a scale much larger than usual, at a foot-and-a-half high (19 ¼ in., 49 cm), lending it a colossal presence. This exceptional figure was exhibited in 1987 at the National Palace Museum, Taipei, as part of a landmark exhibition dedicated to Buddhist Art from the prestigious Nitta Group Collection.

Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas Online
September 17 - 24, 2021

Bonhams is pleased to offer the online sale of Arts of India, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas taking place from September 17 to 24. This online sale brings together a diverse range of 60 sculptures, paintings, and pottery with estimates ranging from $600 to $6,000. Highlights include a selection of Vietnamese ceramics from the prestigious John Menke Collection, Indian paintings from the collections of two esteemed scholars, Milo C. Beach and F.S. Aijazuddin, and Tibetan thangkas from the Estate of Joseph W. Foxell Jr. This online sale offers the opportunity for collectors of all interests and tastes to acquire works of good quality at affordable price levels.