From Shipwrecks to Showcases | The Alberto Santos Collection

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Since 2005 he has been working with an international team in compiling the definitive work on the Chinese porcelain ordered by the Portuguese market. So far, four of the five volumes have been published. 

Our 8 November Asian Art sale includes lots that all feature in John Ayers’ 2016 book Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen.

^{A fine pair of Chinese export famille rose hounds (£5,000-8,000)}

They include a series of Qing dynasty blue and white figures that arrived in Western ports in cargo ships. These figures were height of exoticism in 17^th and 18^th century Europe, and examples have been found in many of the great shipwreck finds including the Nanking Cargo (the contents of the Geldermalsen sunk in 1752), the Hatcher Porcelain (the wreck of a Chinese junk that sunk 1643-46 and the Cà Mao Shipwreck that sunk in 1725.

These examples, dating from the early years of the reign of the emperor Qianlong c.1740 depict gods and goddesses and more domestic figures. A figure of an immortal estimated at £300-500 while a standing immortal with an attendant is guided at £800-1,200. A rare export porcelain group of a lady holding a naked child carries expectations of £1,000-1,500.

^{A Chinese export porcelain group (£800-1,200)}

From the mid-18th century, the variety of figures made in China for export to Europe expanded rapidly. Birds and animals, including cows, cranes, dogs, eagles, elephants, pheasants, monkeys and puppies, were popular.

Offered here from the Santos collection is a particularly fine pair of Chinese export hounds decorated in iron red with collars picked out in famille rose enamels. Dated to c. 1760, pieces of this type are pictured in all of the major books on China trade porcelain and held in many leading international museums, A slightly larger pair of iron red hounds dated c.1740-70 are in the Royal collection. They are estimated at £5,000-8,000.

Asian Art

Friday 8 November | 10am

asianart@sworder.co.uk | 01279 817778

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