A few days ago, I had a premonition that there would be a "big fish" at Christie's auction house: a blue-and-white porcelain jar with four big fish, mackerel, silver carp and mandarin fish, playing in the water grass, which is scheduled to be auctioned at Christie's headquarters in London on June 1 1 day, and on February/kloc. Buyers and insiders were talking about this lot the other day.
When the auction began, there seemed to be an expectation brewing in the hall. Half an hour before the auction scheduled to start at 1 1, the hall was crowded with people. Originally, there were only 50 people in the auction hall, and the aisles and doors were full of "standing passengers". /kloc-About 0/00 buyers, 80% are China people's faces.
The auction that started on 1 1 in the morning started with jade carving, screen carving and rhinoceros horn carving. By about 12, the price of "Lao Zi riding an ox" had climbed to 240,000 pounds during the Qianlong period. At the same time, a piece of red sandalwood with inlaid teeth hung on the Phoenix screen 1 10000 Jin; A bronze Buddha with a height of 27 cm, which was gilded in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, was auctioned for 6,543.8+0.4 million pounds. An old silk Bodhisattva statue of the Tang Dynasty sold for 6.5438+0.45 million pounds.
At about noon 12: 30, the preheating seems to have reached a climax: Yuan blue-and-white porcelain pot shouted out a high price of 600,000 pounds, and then almost climbed from 6,543,800 pounds to 5,000 pounds at a dazzling speed.
The competition is finally locked between two or three buyers. The soaring price seems reasonable, but the speed of the auction is somewhat unexpected, so that people are still a little lost in thought when they find a 40-year-old man locking the price at 6.5438+0.9 million pounds and hearing the sound of a hammer falling soon.
It is said that the man who took this blue and white porcelain jar was behind a British collector. Some people say that this collector has made up his mind to win.
Look carefully at this porcelain jar with a height of 365,438+0 cm and a belly circumference of about 34 cm. There are four fish in different shapes playing in the water. These four kinds of fish are mackerel, white fish, silver carp and mandarin fish, which are homophonic "clear, white, cheap and clean".
There are waves at the mouth of the altar, peony on the shoulder, ganoderma lucidum, conch, money, flame and other patterns painted on the auspicious clouds at the bottom of the altar.
This porcelain jar is beautifully painted, and its shape and attached stripes matching the main picture are strikingly similar to several Yuan blue and white jars with figures painted on them. In particular, the impressive wavy lines on the bottleneck are reminiscent of Ghost Valley Down the Mountain, which cost 65,438+056,800 pounds (about 267 million yuan) last year, and the bottle of Jinxiang Pavilion, which was shot in Hong Kong last June.
In addition, the peony on the shoulder and the auspicious lotus petal pattern on the foot of the jar, as well as the drawing, trimming and enamel of the carcass, are exactly the same as the two-yuan blue-and-white jar photographed last year.
In the tradition of China, fish has been an auspicious thing since ancient times, and auspicious words such as "harmony between fish and water", "like a fish in water" and "carp crossing the dragon gate" have become congratulations for weddings and further studies; Because of the homonym of "fish" and "surplus", fish has also placed the hope of prosperity and happiness for the people of China.
As early as the Song Dynasty, fish pattern cans were very popular. It is said that at that time, Song Taizong had a soft spot for calligraphy and painting, and Song Huizong was even better at it. At that time, the emperor ordered the public collection to be classified into a book called "Xuan He Hua Pu", which was divided into ten doors, among which "Arowana" was one of the ten doors, which was listed on the doors of mountains, rivers, animals and flowers and birds.
According to experts, the fish pattern and graceful lotus flowers painted by this Yuan blue-and-white fish pattern jar can be seen on the blue-and-white plate of the official kiln in Xuande period, and there are also hidden cases in the Palace Museum in Beijing and Taipei, which shows that this blue-and-white fish pattern jar plays a connecting role in the history of porcelain making in China.
In July last year, Christie's "Ghost Valley Down the Mountain" Yuan blue and white cans set a record for Yuan blue and white auctions, and the price of Yuan blue and white in the auction market soared. It is similar to "Ghost Valley Down the Mountain". Why are the auction prices so different?
The insiders believe that the main reason is that the basic law of "scarcity is precious" is at work. It is understood that there were only a few fish-patterned jars in the Yuan Dynasty, and there were similar fish-patterned jars in the Topca Museum in Islamabad, the Tokyo National Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and private collections in Britain. At present, there is a similar blue-and-white fish tank in Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, but it is damaged along the mouth, polished and added with a copper mouth. A fish bath jar in the Palace Museum in Beijing, the main pattern is similar to this jar, but the attached pattern is different, but this jar in Beijing is also poorly repaired.
Although there were not many blue and white flowers in Yuan Dynasty, compared with Ghost Valley under the Mountain, there seemed to be more jars with fish patterns. It is conservatively estimated that there are more than 10 similar fish jars in the world, and Ghost Valley Down the Mountain is even less.
27 million took the Ming dynasty porcelain pot.
It is not the green Hualien pattern pot in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, nor the bronze gold-plated pharmacist Buddha of Ming Dynasty. With the hammer of the auctioneer, at the 2007 Shenyang Art Autumn Auction held yesterday, a jar with colorful fish and algae patterns in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty was finally sold at a sky-high price of 27 million yuan, creating the highest auction record of porcelain miscellaneous items in Shenyang Art Auction. What is even more surprising is that the buyer of this porcelain jar is not a foreign buyer, but the owner of a real estate enterprise in Shenyang.
The price of porcelain pots in Ming Dynasty was lower than that of the whole audience.
At the autumn auction held in Shenyang yesterday, * * * had more than 500 pieces of porcelain, gold and bronze Buddha statues, handicrafts, calligraphy and painting treasures that had appeared in many auction markets in China. In order to prevent malicious bidding, every bidder must pay a bid bond of 50 thousand yuan in advance before the auction.
360 thousand! At the calligraphy and painting auction in the morning, a highly regarded calligraphy work by Gan Long Yu Bi was taken away at a price of 360,000 yuan. A four-screen auction of Liu Kuiling's flowers, birds and animals sold for1100,000 yuan, setting a record for the morning auction. Unexpectedly, this record only lasted less than two hours, and it was broken by many porcelain miscellaneous products in the afternoon.
Lot No.38, a green Hualien pattern pot in Yongle period of Ming Dynasty, was favored by many collectors before the auction. When the auctioneer quoted the starting price of 5 million, everyone was watching, 7 million! When this lot was finally taken by buyer 488, there was a commotion for the first time at the auction.
Just when everyone was still lamenting that the hip flask in Ming Dynasty had not exceeded 10 million yuan, a colorful fish and algae jar in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, which also started at 5 million yuan, suddenly became unpopular. There were three or four bidders bidding for this porcelain at the scene, and each bid was as high as more than 50,000 yuan, and there was even a price increase of 8 million yuan. 7 million,100000,180000 ... When the price was set at 20 million, the audience burst into warm applause. After 35 price saws, the lot was finally won by the No.270 bidder for 27 million yuan.
The auction price of 27 million yuan also created the highest auction record of porcelain miscellaneous items in Shenyang art auction, and it was also the second highest price in Shenyang art auction. In the autumn auction of Shenyang art in 2006, a narcissus scroll by Amin painter Chen Chun was sold for 50 million yuan.
The buyer is the boss of Shenyang.
After buyer No.270 took this colorful fish and algae tank for 27 million yuan, he and three companions quickly and mysteriously left the venue. At the elevator entrance, the reporter interviewed the person. According to his introduction, he is a staff member of a real estate enterprise in Shenyang. The project under construction in Shenyang is the Wanxin Building of Shenyang Dynasty located on the Golden Gallery of Wulihe River. According to him, he came to participate in the auction on behalf of the company. The person said that after taking the porcelain jar, the company will not change hands again. According to informed sources, the boss of the real estate company also appeared at the auction site yesterday afternoon.
In yesterday's auction, some popular lots performed well, and few lots were sold. A tiger picture of Feng Dazhong, "Clear Springs Out of the Mountain", fetched a high price of 570,000 yuan; The starting price of the bronze-plated Buddha statue of God of Wealth in the Ming Dynasty was 6.5438+0.000 yuan, and it was finally sold at 6.5438+0.7 million yuan. The starting price of the Ming Dynasty bronze gilded pharmacist Buddha was 2.2 million yuan, and it was finally auctioned at a high price of 3.3 million yuan, which became the highest price for this autumn auction of bronze gilded Buddha statues.
Ming dynasty porcelain still has room for appreciation.
Du Chunguang, chairman of Liaoning Guopai, told the reporter that the colorful fish and algae cauldron in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty was the imperial porcelain of Ming Dynasty, and it was also a big porcelain. Due to the limitation of firing conditions, it is difficult to fire this kind of large porcelain regularly, especially in Jiajing period. However, this vessel is regularly fired, round and perfect, painted with fish and algae patterns, and the fish is lively and vivid, swimming among the algae, which is a rare official kiln. It should be said that the price of 27 million yuan for this porcelain is still very suitable. At the auction held in Hong Kong before, the same kind of Amin Jiajing multicolored fish and algae can was sold at a high price of HK$ 40 million. Du Chunguang said that the client of this auction is a well-known domestic entrepreneur, and the lot was purchased from a foreign auction in 2003.
Du Chunguang said that compared with previous auctions, many of the current auctions are corporate collectors. On the one hand, corporate collectors participate in art auctions as personal hobbies, and on the other hand, they can achieve the purpose of promoting enterprises through bidding.
A collector surnamed Liu who participated in the auction told the reporter that in the domestic auction market, the rising trend of Ming Dynasty colored porcelain has been relatively slow, but on the contrary, this kind of colored porcelain is the darling of big collectors in the international market, and the disparity between hot and cold will inevitably indicate that Ming Dynasty colored porcelain has a huge space in the domestic market. With the rationalization of domestic collectors' collection, the colorful porcelain of Ming Dynasty will inevitably trigger a new wave of collection, and its value will eventually rise to its due position.