Chinese Imperial Treasures Set World Auction Record

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 ◆ Chinese Imperial Treasures Set World Auction Record

An embroidered silk tapestry and a Chinese calligraphy work, both bearing marks of Chinese emperors, set a world auction record for any Asian textile and for Chinese calligraphy respectively at Christie's sale recently.

The tapestry, commissioned by the Emperor Yongle (1402-1424), the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, achieved 30,874,100 HK dollars (4,013,633 U.S. dollars).

It was sold to a private buyer by telephone after fierce bidding, three times over its estimate.

It also smashed the record of 1 million U.S. dollars that it made at Christie's New York sale in June 1994.

The tapestry is intricately worked with varied colored silk threads, and some threads are enriched with fine strips of gold foil, to give an array of tonality to the depiction.

The album of the Huayan (Buddha Avatamsaka) Sutra written by the Southern Song Dynasty calligrapher Zhang Jizhi (1186-1266) realized 8,874,100 HK dollars (1,137,705 U.S. dollars).

The album became part of the imperial collection in the Qing dynasty, containing an astounding total of 13 of the collection seals of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795).

It was subsequently given as an imperial gift to Prince Zheng (Wu'er Gong'e), and later came into the collection of the importantlate Qing connoisseur, Chong En (19th century).