FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Josh Chait
310.285.0182
josh@chait.com

I.M. Chait Set To Challenge NYC Asia Week’s “Big Auctions” with an Auction of Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art.

View Sale

Lot 223

Beverly Hills, CA. In its first New York auction, I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, the West Coast leader in sales of Asian Art, is set to offer an alternative to the “telephone number prices” greeting the international community of private collectors, leading dealers and curators that will flock to New York for the March Madness known as Asia Week.

In an atmosphere driven by the new Asian millionaires that have stepped into the arena offering their Western counterparts a heightened degree of competition, auction prices of Asian Art have soared over the past few years. Isadore M. Chait, founder and president of I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, believes that the time is right to introduce these buyers to his family operated alternative – auctions that consistently bring quality Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art to market at realistic prices.

Generally credited with creating the West Coast market for Asian arts more than 40 years ago, Chait has since developed relationships with two generations of collectors, dealers and curators, many of whom are the resources for the one-of-a kind Chinese ceramics offered in I.M. Chait’s auctions. Reflecting on the state of the market, Chait states, “I have on many occasions sold pieces at my auctions in Beverly Hills and then months later seen the exact same pieces in major East Coast or Hong Kong sales go for five or more times what was paid in my sale.”

The upcoming New York sale will feature many entry-level objects: highly desirable snuff bottles, Export wares, jade toggles and porcelains. Mid- tier estimates for Imperial porcelains from the Ming and Qing dynasties, carved jades, as well as Chinese pottery and stoneware spanning over 2000 years of Chinese Dynastic Art range from $10,000 - $40,000. The sale’s highest estimated object is expected to bring in the mid-six figures, for an extremely rare early Ming Dynasty glazed copper-red pear-shaped vase, Yuhuchunping, produced during Emperor Hongwu’s reign (1368-1398) of which several remarkably high priced similar examples have sold in the last few years. Including an example purchased last year by Mr. Steve Wynn for over 10 million dollars and recently donated to Macau.

Lot 221

Among the featured items is a selection of fine Japanese Satsuma & Cloisonné from a noted California collection. New Yorkers intent of maintaining local provenance will find an Upstate New York collection of Chinese bronzes that includes fine Khmer and Zhou Dynasty examples.

From the legendary Ming dynasty (1368-1644) comes a tall blue and white porcelain vase with dragons amid clouds. The bulbous center of the tall form is beautifully decorated with phoenix and florals.

Lot 224

Another rarity in the sale is a Song Dynasty Junyao glazed tripod "narcissus" bowl. This gem can not be overlooked. Wide and shallow, it is set on three lingzhi shaped feet. The interior is a thick glaze of light blue, the exterior mostly purple splashed. The number "five" is incised at the base.

Lot 220

Portraying a slice of life as it was lived in antique Japan, is a signed and superbly painted large, Satsuma vase of ovoid form. It’s meticulously detailed panels depicts a festival, with ornately dressed geishas by the waterside. On the verso, children feed pigeons. A ground of bamboo, cherry blossoms and rockery is in underglaze blue, making the overall effect as delightful as it is artistically well done.

Lot 56

For collectors interested in mixing their pleasures, a pair of eighteenth century Imperial Qianlong wine cups in Famille Rose porcelain, each with bats and Buddhist flowers on a plum colored ground with turquoise interiors, should suffice.

Lot 183

Also high in aesthetic value is a pair of antique Chinese, greenish-white jade perfumers. Each intricately carved slim cylinder is reticulated with continuous landscapes of pavilions, stairs, figures and pine branches amid stepped rockery. Dating from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, the pair stand 8 ˝” high.

Lot 263

Among other featured items is an eighteenth century mottled green jade mountain, with high relief carvings of two horses grazing beneath a willow, with pine and hawthorn trees on the verso that is reputed to have been housed in Beijing’s Summer Palace.

Lot 250

For those with a spiritual component to their collecting, an antique Chinese gilt bronze head of Buddha with well-detailed snail-curl hair and a serene countenance to the face should be a masterful addition to any home. It is slightly larger than life size, and probably eighteenth century.

Lot 130

The 339-lot sale of Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art opens with a three-day preview that begins on Thursday, March 22 and continues through Saturday, March 24th. Preview hours are 11:00 – 5:00.

A Beverly Hills preview will be held from Monday, February 26 through Saturday, March 3, 11:00AM to 5PM PST. The auction will also be simulcast from New York to the I.M. Chait gallery in Beverly Hills for West Coast clients. Bidders can also bid at www.chait.com, absentee, via telephone and LIVE online (in real time) with eBay Live Auctions.

For a complete inventory of items in I.M. Chait’s Asia Week sale, visit www.chait.com. Catalogs are available for $35 plus postage. (800) 775-5020 or (310) 285-0182 or by email: chait@chait.com

New York Auction Location:
267 5th Avenue
11th Floor
New York, New York 10016
(On the corner of 5th Ave and 29th St)

New York Auction Location:
267 5th Avenue
11th Floor
New York, New York 10016

New York Preview: Thursday, march 22 – Saturday, March 24 11:00 – 5:00PM EST

Auction: Session I: Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Sunday, March 25, 10:00AM EST