In January 2020 I visited a client in Munich, who I had known for some time whilst I worked at Sotheby’s London. We spent the day at his place in the country and the following morning at his apartment in the city.
Not wishing to appear too pushy on my first visit, I did not take any photographs and composed the valuation later from memory whilst the pieces were still fresh in my mind. I really enjoyed seeing this client’s collection, as he has a real love of Chinese ceramics and essentially purchased what he liked.
Part of the collection of early pieces, including a couple of significant stone sculptures from the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534 AD) were inherited from his father. This must have had an early influence on the direction of his collecting. The strength of the collection was in its various Song dynasty wares, as well as blue and white 17th century and 18th century imperial porcelain.
The client was visited by the specialist from Sotheby’s Paris – Christian Bouvet, in March and a selection of pieces was made for the June auction.
The pieces were offered in two sections, one in the morning, which comprised mainly the Song and Yuan wares. But the highlight lot of this section was lot 55, an important Northern Wei dynasty carved limestone standing figure of Buddha. It had originally come from the collection of Friedrich Alfred Schmid Noerr (1877-1969) and was acquired from him by the father of the owner in January 1963. It was estimated €80,000-120,000 and sold for €144,000.
(Estimate €80,000-120,000).
This was followed by a number of ceramics from the Song to Ming dynasty, some of which I highlight below.
The afternoon section featured works of art and later ceramics from the 17th to 20th century. The two sections totalled 44 lots and sold for €361,080 against a €337,000 low estimate, with 70% sold by lot.
