NEW YORK, 31 August 2016 – Sotheby’s autumnal offerings of Asian Art collate in Asia Week, 9-17 September 2016. The auctions will kick off in New York on Tuesday, 13 September 2016 with Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gorō: Early Chinese Art followed by four sessions of Important Chinese Art. On Wednesday, 14 September 2016 at 6:30pm, the Chinese Classical Paintings department will host its first evening sale – 122 lots from The Roy and Marilyn Papp Collection of Chinese Paintings. Chinese Paintings will continue their sales through Thursday, 15 September 2016. The Asia Week series will conclude on 17 September 2016 with Saturday at Sotheby’s: Asian Art, taking place at 10am and 2pm.

Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gorō: Early Chinese Art celebrates the beauty of works created in the Shang to Tang Dynasties. Particularly well represented are archaic bronzes and pottery: the Rare Bronze Double-Owl-Form Ritual Vessel is formed by conjoining two owls back to back, creating a ‘you’ vessel (estimate $400/600,000). Like the one in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., this complex work from the Shang Dynasty, 1300-1046 BC, combines form and function. The collection of pottery is led by a Magnificent Sancai-Glazed Ewer, which encapsulates the international spirit and opulent atmosphere at the Chinese court in the first half of the Tang Dynasty (estimate $500/700,000).

Immediately following Chinese Art Through the Eye of Sakamoto Gorō: Early Chinese Art will be four sessions of Important Chinese Art, over two days, 13-14 September. The highlight of the sale is a Qianlong Seal Mark and Period Rare Turquoise-Ground Famille-Rose 'Hui Mountain Retreat' Teapot and Cover (estimate $300/500,000). Celebrating the Qianlong Emperor’s adoration of tea, the beautiful porcelain teapot features a figure, possibly the Qianlong Emperor himself, being served tea by an acolyte while admiring an open handscroll. This delicate outdoor scene is accompanied by an imperial poem, entitled Jihiuquan peng zhulu ge (Brewing Tea by Hui Spring), included in the Siku quanshu [The Complete Library in Four Sections], Yuzhishi erji [Imperial Poems, vol. 2], juan 24, p. 4, written by the Emperor himself following a visit to the Hui Spring, a stop along his Southern Inspection Tour.

Important Chinese Art also includes The Richard Lehman Gray Collection of Dehua Porcelain: ‘Divine Figures and Elegant Vessels’, an assemblage of 40 Blanc de Chine figures and wares. Purchased from notable figures in the field including Patrick Donnelly, the foremost collector of Dehua, and dealers such as Ralph Chait, John Ayers, Warren Cox, Alan Hartman and Roger Keverne over the course of four decades, Richard Lehman Gray’s collection has been exhibited in prominent locales around the United States. The group is led by a ‘Dehua’ Figure of a Seated Guanyin from the Qing Dynasty. Featured in the China Institute exhibition, Blanc de Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain, this beautifully sculpted figure bears a Lin Xiaozong yin seal mark on its back (estimate $30/50,000).

The final sale of Asia Week is the fourth edition of Saturday at Sotheby’s, with an exhibition curated by Jarret Yoshida, an interior designer trained at the Corcoran Gallery School, Parsons, FIT and École des Beaux Arts et Décoratifs. This season’s auction is made up of approximately 300 works of art and 100 paintings from China, Japan and Korea. From large works of art, including Four Carved Cinnabar Lacquer Panels from the Late Qing Dynasty (estimate $30/50,000) to smaller decorative objects such as a Pair of Large ‘Kakiemon’ Vases from late 17th century Japan (estimate $25/35,000), collectors are invited to explore works of all sizes, dynasties and countries in the Asian continent. For those interested in Chinese Paintings, the majority of the offerings in Saturday at Sotheby’s are classical in nature, including seventeen works from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō.