Bidders battle for fighting tigers

A pair of fighting tigers had bidders battling it out at a Cotswolds auction house recently when the tiny white jade ornaments, originally valued at just £80 to £120, sold for £2,500.

Antique white jade ornament

Various artefacts from the Far East in the Cirencester sale at Moore Allen & Innocent attracted international attention when they went under the hammer.

With Chinese bidders in the room, on the telephone lines, and bidding via the internet it was little surprise that several carved jade ornaments performed better than expected.

The white jade tigers were mounted on a hardwood base, and measured just 46mm across. They followed the trend set by a Chinese carved jade pendant depicting two phoenix, raised on a hardwood stand, measuring 61mm across, which exceeded a £100 to £150 estimate to sell for £440.

And with interest from the Chinese buyers’ market piqued, more antiques from the Orient achieved good prices, including:

  • a lacquered and painted Chinese cabinet on stand made £500
  • a set of four Chinese hardwood and hardstone set framed panels in the Shibayama manner, each depicting a scene of a scholar with student in a landscape setting achieved £320
  • a Chinese polychrome decorated charger depicting four women fishing by lakeside, a Chinese brown ground and gilt decorated plate, and a Japanese cloisonné dragon decorated vase sold for £320
  • £300 was paid for a glazed terracotta cistern with tap hole and incised decoration in the Chinese manner of horses, landscapes and flowers
  • a pair of Japanese Meiji period Satsuma vases decorated with panels of figures in an interior amongst trailing wisteria and flowers achieved £280
  • a 19th Century Japanese porcelain scent bottle depicting woman in traditional dress carrying two pails within a landscape and a warrior in costume on horseback sold for £240.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.