Bonhams New York will hold Asian Art Week auctions from 17 to 24 September. These sales are in parallel with Christie’s and Sotheby’s versions.
This international auction house will have seven sales of fine arts – six sales will be live and one sale will be online. Artworks include Chinese paintings and calligraphy, ceramics, snuff bottles, Buddhist sculptures, Japanese and Korean art.
Some key highlights include a Tibetan gilt copper alloy figure of Sakyamuni Buddha from the 11th to 12 century, an enamel Chinese-subject snuff bottle during the Qianlong period (1736-1795) and Chinese modern painter, Huang Bihong’s artwork from the mid-20th century.
Here is an overview of the sales, together with the highlight lots:
Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy III
Reverend Richard Fabian was the founder and rector of San Francisco’s St. Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church. He studied Chinese art at Yale University in the 1960s and developed an appreciation for Chinese paintings. Most of the works offered in this sale featured in exhibitions of the Fabian Collection at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Honolulu Academy of Art.
Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings
250 lots of Chinese ceramics, works of art and paintings will be offered in this sale. Highlights include a Qianlong-period (1736-1795) ‘robin’s-egg’ glazed two-handed vase and a zitan luohan chuang (Chinese wooden ornated bed) from late Qing dynasty (circa 18th century to 1911) / Republic period (1912-1949).
Manfred Arnold Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles
Amongst the three major international auction houses, Bonhams has key sales of snuff bottles. The Manfred Arnold Collection features 132 snuff bottles. Arnold purchased one of his first snuff bottles in 1966, along Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Emily Byrne Curtis Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles
Curtis has a deep passion for Asian art. She dedicated much time to refine her taste and broadened her understanding through extensive academic research. This sale has 92 artworks, including those made from glass, jade, lacquer and porcelain.
Japanese and Korean Art, including an Important Collection of Surimono
This is one of the traditional sales during Asian Art Week in New York. There are 350 lots, including Japanese prints called surinomo. Highlights include ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock prints and paintings) artists such as Kubo Shuman, Katsushika Hokusai, Totoya Hokkei and Yashima Gakutei.
Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art
This is another traditional sales during Asian Art Week in New York, with Buddhist sculptures as highlight objects. There are two key objects, including a Tibetan gilt copper alloy figure of Standing Sakyamuni Buddha from 11th-12th century, and a Ming dynasty gilt copper alloy figure of Yamantaka Vajrabhairava and Vajravetali from mid-15th century.
Arts of India, Southeast Asia and Himalayas Online
This online sale has a low price range – from US$600 to 6,000 dollars, suitable for new art collectors. It has a wide range of 60 artworks, including sculptures, paintings and pottery.
Huang Binhong (1865-1955)
Abstract Landscape | Ink and colour on paper Created in 1952 Sale: Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy III Estimate: US$50,000 – 80,000
Zhao Zhiqian (1829-1884)
Calligraphy in Running / Standard Script|Ink on paper, Collection of four hanging scrolls Sale: Reverend Richard Fabian Collection of Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy III Estimate: US$80,000 – 120,000
‘Robin’s egg’ glazed archaistic hu-shaped two-handed vase with Qianlong six-character impressed seal mark and of the period
Created in Qianlong period (1736-1795) Sale: Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings Estimate: US$400,000 – 600,000
Zitan luohan chuang (bed)
Created in late Qing dynasty (circa 18th century to 1911) / Republic period (1912-1949) Sale: Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings Estimate: US$200,000 – 300,000
Miniature inside-painted crystal snuff bottle | Signed by Ma Shaoxuan
Created in 1897 Sale: Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Paintings Estimate: US$12,000 – 18,000
Beijing enamel Chinese-subject snuff bottle with Qianlong Mark and of the period
Created in Qianlong period (1736-1795) Sale: Emily Byrne Curtis Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles Estimate: US$70,000 – 90,000
A Set of 12 Miniature Album Leaves Depicting Scenes from Chapters 11 through 22 of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji)
Created in Momoyama period (1573-1615), circa 1600 Sale: Japanese and Korean Art, including an Important Collection of Surinomo Estimate: US$30,000 – 40,000
Kubo Shunman (1757-1820)
Owl on a Flowering Magnolia Branch Created in circa 1800 Sale: Japanese and Korean Art, including an Important Collection of Surinomo Estimate: US$6,000 – 8,000
A gilt copper alloy figure of Standing Sakyamuni Buddha | Central Tibet
Created in 11th / 12th century Sale: Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Estimate: US$800,000 – 1,200,000
A gilt copper alloy figure of Yamantaka Vajrabhairava and Vajravetali
Created in Ming dynasty, mid-15th century Sale: Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art Estimate: US$600,000 – 800,000
Monochrome green glazed stoneware bowl with large carved floral decoration | Vietnam
Created in Tran-Le dynasties, 14th / 15th century Sale: Arts of India, Southeast Asia and the Himalayas Online Estimate: US$4,000 – 6,000
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
