Buffalo Breaks Records
26 May, 2009
A Chinese jade
carving of a water buffalo has helped Woolley and Wallis break
several records this week. The 250 year old eight inch piece of
jade is not only the highest single lot to be sold in Asian Art
week, it is also the highest price ever for a jade carving at
auction, and the most expensive lot ever sold outside of London. It
tops the previous record held by the salerooms, which was for the
Alexander Vase sold for £2.6m in 2005.
The buffalo came
with a gilt stand, bearing a four character mark for the Emperor
Qianlong, and is believed to have been made for him during his
reign in the second half of the 18th century. It was
bought by the 5th Earl of Yarborough in 1938, but put
into storage for safe-keeping at the outbreak of the Second World
War. The Earl's eldest daughter, Lady Diana Miller, inherited it at
her father's death in 1948, but emigrated to southern
Africa
and never retrieved it from storage. On her return toEngland in
2005, the buffalo was discovered wrapped in newspapers in a box in
a bank vault, where it had been hidden for 65 years.
The incredible
price of £3.4m (£4.2m including buyer's premium) was paid by
Eskenazi Ltd., one of the major Asian Art dealers, who was underbid
on the telephone by a dealer inHong Kong. It contributed to a sale
total of just over £5m - the highest ever achieved by Woolley and
Wallis, and included a jade brushpot that sold for nearly half a
million, a bi disc that made £290,000 and a private collection of
early Chinese ceramics that made £107,000.