Lark Mason Associates Rings Up $765,790 for Fall Sale of Asian, Ancient and Ethnographic Works of Art on iGavelAuction.com
New York: The impressive array of rare Chinese 18th century cloisonné, huanghuali furniture, ancient bronzes and archaic jades presented by Lark Mason Associates on the iGavelAuctions.com platform rang up $765,790 in sales including buyer’s premium. With a two-thirds sell-through of the nearly 300 lots, a third of the objects went into extended bidding including a pair of Chinese Lacquered Bronze Guardian Figures, Ming Dynasty, which hammered $187,500, far exceeding its estimate of $12,000-18,000; and a Chinese Western Zhou Style Bronze Gui’ which brought $71,500.
“We are pleased that our sale generated such enthusiasm among our bidders,” says Lark Mason. “There were a number of important pieces that attracted the attention of discerning collectors who recognized their quality and provenance.” According to Mason, many of the pieces came from private collectors who purchased the very best in each of the categories from a variety of international galleries such as C.T. Loo and Sydney L. Moss, Ltd. and from the estates of the Christian R. Holmes Collection and Sotheby’s from the 1960s-1990s.
Additional sales included: a Chinese Bronze Jue, Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC), which sold for $33,150, over its $1,500-2,500 estimate; a Chinese Polychrome Wood Seated Figure of a Luohan, Ming Dynasty, hammered $32,500, six times its low estimate of $5,000; a Chinese Bronze Gu Vessel, Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) was snapped up for $30,625, exceeding its estimate of $3,000-5,000; two Chinese Archaic Bronze Censers, Zhou Dynasty and later rang up $30,400, surpassing its estimate of $1,000-2,000; a Chinese Bronze Vase, Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) sold for $26,250 with an estimate of $1,500-2,500; a Chinese Large Seated Bronze Buddhist Figure brought in $18,125 over its $1200-1,800 estimate; a group of Jade and other Carvings, Zhou Dynasty and Later closed at $14,375, over the $1,500-2,500 estimate, and a 17th century Chinese Huanghuali Recessed Leg Long Table, hammered $25,000 with an estimate of $40,000-60,000.
About Lark Mason
With locations in New Braunfels, Texas and New York City, Lark Mason Associates, the eponymous, auction house specializing in Asian, ethnographic, and ancient works of art, was founded by Lark Mason after many years as an expert at Sotheby’s New York.
Mason served as a General Appraiser from 1979 until 1985, and as a Senior Vice President and specialist in Chinese art with Sotheby’s Chinese Works of Art Department from 1985-2003. From 2000-2003 he concurrently was a Director of Online Auctions for Sothebys.com. He also served as a consulting curator at the Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas from 2003-2009. He is a generalist in American and European works of art and paintings, as well as an expert in the field of Chinese art and has valued and advised many private collectors and institutions.
Lark Mason Associates regularly hosts auctions on the iGavel Auctions platform and has an established history of record sales of Chinese and other works of art and holds the record for the highest price achieved for any work of art in an online sale, for a painting sold in May 2014 that realized close to $4.2m. Mason, the owner and CEO of iGavel Auctions, is noted for his regular appearances on “The Antiques Road Show.”
