Christie’s Offers Property from India House Club in Asian Art and Americana Week Sales

 Christie’s announces property from India House, a private club that has been a fixture of downtown Manhattan since the early 20th century, will be offered in the September Asian Art Week and January Americana Week sales in New York. The collection encompasses over 60 lots of maritime paintings, books and manuscripts, and Chinese, Indian & Southeast Asian works of art.

Tina Zonars, Christie’s Co-Chairman, Asian Art comments, “With its rich, distinguished history, the property from the India House Club is sure to excite collectors. The variety and quality of the works speak to the sophisticated and eclectic taste of the Club’s founding members as well as to the Club’s stately atmosphere that was enjoyed by generations of New Yorkers.”

Founded in 1914 by James A. Farrell and Willard Straight, India House was conceived as a meeting place in lower Manhattan for the interests of foreign trade, and its name paid homage to the Dutch West India Company. Farrell and Straight envisioned that “New York should have a place, maritime in spirt, purpose and atmosphere, where those interested in rebuilding a merchant marine worthy of America could meet.” In this vein, many leaders in foreign trade and worldwide commerce have since gathered at India House, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., James Byrnes, W. Averell Harriman, George C. Marshall, Henry Cabot Lodge and Cyrus Vance.

A group of 23 works will be offered across the Asian Art Week live and online sales in New York in September. Highlighting the collection is a large 17^th-century silk painting of Guandi, the God of War, which will be offered in the Important Chinese Ceramics And Works of Art Sale on September 23 (estimate: $30,000-50,000). The painting was formerly in the collection of the India House co-founder Willard Straight and is set within a spectacular, elaborately carved gilt-wood frame crafted in Guangzhou (Canton) or at the turn of the 20^th century.

The selection of maritime works to be offered in January 2022 is anchored by William Bradford’s Northern Light ($40,000-60,000) which is thought to be one of only 10 from the artist’s clipper ship series.

Founded in 1766, Christie’s is a world-leading art and luxury business. Renowned and trusted for its expert live and online auctions, as well as its bespoke private sales, Christie’s offers a full portfolio of global services to its clients, including art appraisal, art financing, international real estate and education. Christie’s has a physical presence in 46 countries, throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, with flagship international sales hubs in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva. It also is the only international auction house authorized to hold sales in mainland China (Shanghai).

Christie’s auctions span more than 80 art and luxury categories, at price points ranging from $200 to over $100 million. In recent years, Christie’s has achieved the world record price for an artwork at auction (Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvador Mundi, 2017), for a single collection sale (the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller, 2018), and for a work by a living artist (Jeff Koons’ Rabbit, 2019).

Christie’s Private Sales offers a seamless service for buying and selling art, jewellery and watches outside of the auction calendar, working exclusively with Christie’s specialists at a client’s individual pace.

Recent innovations at Christie’s include the groundbreaking sale of the first NFT for a digital work of art ever offered at a major auction house (Beeple’s Everydays, March 2021), with the unprecedented acceptance of cryptocurrency as a means of payment. As an industry leader in digital innovation, Christie’s also continues to pioneer new technologies that are redefining the business of art, including the creation of viewing and bidding experiences that integrate augmented reality, global livestreaming, buy-now channels, and hybrid sales formats. 

Christie’s is dedicated to advancing responsible culture throughout its business and communities worldwide, including achieving sustainability through net zero carbon emissions by 2030, and actively using its platform in the art world to amplify under-represented voices and support positive change.