Lark Mason Associates Triple-header of Asian Art Sales Nears $2.8 on iGavelAuctions.com
New York: Chinese and Other Asian Works of Art, the last in a trio of sales hosted by Lark Mason Associates on iGavelAuctions.com during Asia Week New York, rang up $1,349,458 bringing the total amount of online sales to $2,797,079 including buyer’s premium.
Says Lark Mason: “This season’s series of Asian art sales included masterworks across several categories with international collectors vying for rare Chinese textiles and clothing, ceramics, and jades, many of which achieved stunning prices.”
According to Mason, Mainland Chinese collectors snapped up a number of items including a Pale Celadon Chinese Jade Ewer for $263,404, five times its estimate; Landscape with Beauties, a large early 20th century Chinese ink-on-paper and silk handscroll, for $231,250, ten times over its estimate; and a Pale Celadon Chinese Jade Boulder from the Qianlong Period (1736-1795) which brought $143,750, exceeding its $40,000-60,000 estimate.
The two other sales included Asian Works of Art from the Collection of the Dayton Art Institute, which achieved $204,803 and Property of An American Collector, Part II, which featured a collection of rare silk Chinese robes, rang up $1,242,818.
Though the Chinese robes had its share of competitive bidding, there were many other important works that attracted attention from Chinese and American buyers.
For example, a Qing Dynasty Chinese Amber Figure of Shoulao, was snapped up for $26,2500, three Chinese Carved Jade Birds, a Seal and Two Bangles, and a Jadeite Hair Ornament hammered $24,438, and a large 20th century Chinese Nine Peach and Blossoms Vase, sold for $22,500. Each one exceeded their estimates by ten to twenty times.
The Chinese robes attracted a great deal of attention, and among the top lots were a rare Qing Dynasty, Manchu Empress’s Twelve Symbol Embroidered Yellow Gauze Robe, Jifu which sold for $100,001 ten times over estimate; a Rare Imperial Manchu Silk Gauze Semiformal Insignia Surcoat, Longgua, Qialong Period, hammering $90, 625; a 19th century Chinese Manchu Imperial Semi-Formal Apricot, 12-symbol Dragon Robe, Jifu, hammered $87,500, twenty times over estimate; and a Chinese Manchu Semi-Formal Twelve-Symbol Court Robe rang up $71,875, twenty times over its estimate.
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 twenty years ago 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 c, is noted for his regular appearances on “The Antiques Road Show.”
