Chinese Art From The Metropolitan Museum, Bonhams March 18, With Dessa Goddard

Every now and again, all museums must make a tough decision on what to keep and what to sell, and they go through their holdings making these decisions by looking for duplicates and things that no longer fit the museum for whatever reason. In the big museums, often it's just duplicates and pieces they already have elsewhere. They're going to sell something off to make room for something else, and very often they sell things to fund new acquisitions to fill holes in their collection. And that's sort of what's happening right now, and it's going to be happening at Asia Week at Bonhams in New York on the 18th of March. They're going to be deaccessioning 192 lots from the Metropolitan Museum's collection, all of it unreserved, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. And what's interesting is what you're going to find is when you look at this auction, they're going to be where these pieces came from. The museum was founded on April 13th, 1870, and soon after it was established, a consortium of very well-heeled benefactors, collectors, curators, industrial revolution magnets, and so forth, all got together and they started donating things. And very fortunately for us, a lot of the stuff that they donated were Chinese works of art, because at the time, interest in the Orient, in Asia, the mystery of Asia and all that after 1870, 1880, onward, right up through the beginning of World War II, there was an enormous amount of interest in the Asia and in China in particular. And happily, many of these earliest gifts to the museum were from these benefactors, and they were sort of a show of the kinds of things that were available. And many of them are objects and types that you don't see that often anymore in the auction market of the antique market. And a lot of the pieces in the auction, you'll find provenance going back to the Avery family and people like that who were donating, the Clark family, people who were donating very, very early in the museum's formation, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, and a few later, late editions, you know, from people in the 1950s. But what they're doing is they're going to go, they've gone through it, and they've decided the few things they're going to sell. Many of the pieces came from Yamanaka Company, all these C.T. Liu and all this sort of thing, the Rockefeller family. And in the video that's following right now, we're going to be talking with Dessa Goddard. She is the Vice President of Operations in the Asian Department at Bonhams. She's a global director of the firm. She oversees the sales of Chinese art in Hong Kong and so forth. She's the person to talk to. And the other day, she and I had a very long conversation. We went through the auction, and we're going to go through it sort of piece by piece, not every piece, but a number of them, in a very relaxed sort of just conversation about the objects and what she thinks of them and her impressions and my impressions and that sort of thing. So enjoy. Well, this is going to be a look at the upcoming sale that's going on at Bonhams in New York on March 18th. It's an interesting auction, I think. And I wanted to talk to our guest here, who is Dessa Goddard. She's the Vice President of Bonhams. She's the head of, what is it, U.S. Operations? Operations for Asian Art, yes. You're the big dog, as they say. Both. And I wanted to talk to you about it because the catalog I found to be so interesting and where the stuff came from. And a lot of the material I noticed in the catalog are very typical of the kinds of things we used to see around New England from old collections back 40 years ago, with old houses on the North Shore of Boston, Beacon Hill, because it was the same crowd, that same circuit of people that funded the MFA and put things in there and funded the Met and put things in there. And they all were sort of in the same social group at the time during the 1880s and 90s up through the 1930s. And that was, of course, the magic period of collecting. And I noticed a lot of what I would call familiar faces in this auction. And just tell us briefly how it all came about and what led to this sale. Did you have to go banging on their door, or did they decide to do it? No. The Met, from what I understand, conducts an annual review of their collection to look at duplicates or things that are near duplicates or things that may not be as good or damaged than things that they own. And so then they decide that they would invite auction houses in to propose to sell the collection. And fortunately for us, we were chosen to and hired by the Met to conduct the sale. And we're absolutely delighted. It's a great honor. And we find it incredibly interesting because this also, I mean, personally, I find it interesting because I'm very fascinated by the development of philanthropy in the United States in the late 19th century. And this hits the nail on the head with these 24 philanthropists and, you know, Gilded Age personalities that decided to give their collections and found, you know, four museums in, you know, between 1870 and 1880. The Met was founded in 1870. Within the same 10 years, you have the MFA and you have, you know, Chicago and you have, you know, let's see, where's the Philadelphia? The Philadelphia Museum. Yeah. In Kansas City and those places came along a little later, right? In the 1930s, yeah, late twenties, early thirties. Heading into World War I, World War II. And some of those museums were founded like at the beginning of the depression, which is really fascinating because, you know, some people survived the depression with their money intact and decided that they were going to found major museums. So, but back to the Met, it's, you know, there were 24 philanthropists, members of the Gilded Age and their wives that, you know, who are at the subject of this sale and, you know, selected pieces that they decided to give to the Met that the Met decided to sell. And what we've done in the catalog, as you noticed, Peter, is we profiled every donor, some extensively, not just with their interest in Asian art, but for everything that they've done to the institution and how they grew their business and, you know, what contribution they made to American life in this period. And that was, that was as fun for us as actually handling the objects themselves. And we believe that enthusiasm, you know, was part of hopefully why the Met chose us to do this. I want to put the catalog up because I think it's a really, a lot of our users have seen it. I've posted the catalog in book form on our site. I have a thing that converts it back into a catalog because not everybody does catalogs anymore. And I wanted to pop up right here. There it is. And I like the red cover. It grabs your eye. I suppose that was the purpose of it. And you have this bounty of great photographs from the Met, which, which some of these, I haven't seen this, this couple of these before because they, they don't always, there were other auctions of some of their things in the past. And some of these photos, I don't recognize, but I know they're part of that same room, but we're a series of rooms. And getting down here, you have the, the, the, the exhibition catalog from 1867. Right. And that was at the very beginning of all this, right? Yes. Avery, Avery was one of the representatives and was on the board of, of one of the people who organized that exhibition and an advisor to it. Yeah. You've got Mr. Freer here. And there's this room and lots of, a lot, a lot of the photographs are amazing. The photographs are just great to lead into this. And what we tried to do, if you see these photographs is we, we, we use high density magnification to try and relate some of those objects in the photographs. On those cases. And so we, we think we did a pretty good job of doing that. Yeah. And who is this? Mr. Avery? Mr. Avery. Yes. Now he, he, he started out as an engraver, right? Isn't he? Wasn't he? That's correct. That's correct. And then woodcuts and things from newspapers and publications. Yes. Sort of new side. It was almost what Curry and Ives were doing same time. Exactly. And then after he got married to Mary Arden, he, you know, they decided to travel the world and he was a collector of European objects and then decided to just go into the art advisory collecting business. And one of his, you know, great sponsors was, you know, were a number of people. Walters was probably his best sponsor and they traveled together to Paris and he, you know, he helped him, you know, collect for the Walters Gallery. And, you know, his brother was ambassador to China for a very, very short time, I think probably a year and a half, but that opened some doors for him to collect more Chinese art. And then by the time he accumulated a number of works, he donated about 1300 Chinese and Japanese works of art, particularly Chinese porcelain to the Met. And that is basically 79 of those objects are part of the Steve Session. And he worked also as an art dealer. That's correct. Between Europe and America. That's correct. Yes. And had some success there. There's a debonair portrait of him. Very debonair. And that's his wife, who also helped him in his collecting. And she actually accumulated a collection of spoons. And if you'll see on the next page of the catalog, that is her collection of spoons. That were featured in a Met exhibition. In 1893. Right. He was part of the Founding 50 that founded, you know, that made the Met, you know, possible. One of the original committers, so to speak. That's correct. Founding the museum. Yeah. And then straight into the goods, as they say. Right. And this was one of his very compressed, sort of blue and white piece. What do you think that is a 19th century piece or Kangxi? It's Kangxi. There are a number of small pieces that are part of this collection. Not only, you know, porcelain, but also soft paste porcelain, which is a particular type of porcelain where, you know, it's a thinner body. The body composition is different. And it really absorbs the cobalt blue in a very sort of milky, creamy way. So it sits quite differently. So we have a number of those objects, not only from the Avery group, but also from other collectors. When I first started, when I first started in the business, there were old time dealers around that if you found a piece of soft paste, they'd always tell you it was English. Yes, of course. And then offer you a lot less money. These are beautiful examples. Yeah. So the beginning. Now, is that soft paste? This one? No. No. Okay. I think that's sort of an interesting and unusual. This is a classic of what you find in a New England house. Ah, yeah. That kind of thing. Lots of good Kangxi plates with Chud Wah marks on them. Right, exactly. This is sort of unusual. It's very unusual. The design is quite striking, we believe. It's a small piece, but it's absolutely lovely. It's about, what, seven inches tall? Seven and a half inches, yeah. And there's the picture of it in one of the larger photographs. Oh, okay. It's a rare pattern. The pattern on that's very unusual. It is, isn't it? What kind of shape is it in? Well, it's sort of like a compressed ginger. No, I know. Is it repaired or anything? Oh, what kind of condition is it in? It's in good condition. Oh, okay. Because I love the fact that it still has its lid, and I was wondering if the lid was repaired. Because often lids are fixed, because people used to drop them. Right, yes. Or often the lid for that piece. Well, you see around here, you see a lot of vases, big vases. You get them out of houses, the 18, 20-inch, 25-inch vases. And around the mouths, you always find chips. And I learned years ago, that was because a lot of these old houses had soapstone sinks. And the servants, when they cleaned porcelain, were very careless in the sinks with them. And they used to bang the mouths of the vases, rinsing them out, because they'd smell inside. And they'd bang the mouths of the vases, either on the edge of the soapstone sink or against the iron faucet. Oh, fascinating. Yeah. That's an addition to my toolbox. Thank you. An old Yankee, a name you would know, they had servants, and she told me this. She said, oh, we were told that was because the servants used to bang them. That's why you find gilding stripped off of things. Because around here, they used to routinely wash porcelain with a concoction that had a lot of ammonia in it. Ammonia will take off gilding like nothing. It won't bother the enamel, but it'll strip away the gilding on the porcelain. Now, this is an unusual pattern as well. Really stunning, yes. With the leaping carp. Yeah, the leaping carp pattern, which you see on collect, in really rare, rare pieces, but with the dragons running around on the outside. No, it's a wonderful piece. I'm very pleased. I think your estimates are very modest, by the way. Well, by the way, the whole sale is being sold without reserve. Ah, okay. Yeah, I noticed that. I should have started with that right off the top, that you don't see many unreserved auctions these days. No, actually, it's a good way to actually inspire people to bid when you can. With the museum, they want to move on and add to the pot to buy other things. This is a wise strategy, and we believe that it will really help the success of the sale. We're delighted that they allowed us to do this. Old-fashioned white glove sale. Yes. That's what they used to call it. We did this with the Roger Cavern sale two years ago in the summer, because Roger wanted to move his stock on. That auction lasted 16 hours, the first auction, because people were just bidding all the time. We hope that doesn't happen with the Met, but you never know. Well, 16 hours isn't the record, though. I think Skinner Boston beat that. They had a sale in there one day. I swear the thing went 20 hours. It was a massive sale, and I don't think they'll be doing it again, but they were in a position where they had to do that sale, and they did it. They went to about nine auctioneers. And then you have this I thought was very striking. With the peacocks around the edge. And you know, the Peacock Room, which was something that I guess Mr. Leland had sold that in the late 19th century to Charles Lang Freer, who then set up his Peacock Room in the Met, because it's just an absolutely stunning, stunning motif to find on a blue and white concha dish. Right. And it's 15 inches in diameter on top. A big one. It's a big one. So it's a beast. And the perfusion of cobalt is pretty amazing, I have to say. And this struck me, and this is basically the Aster pattern, I guess, is what you said to me. But it's an unusual shape for a concha pot. It is, and it's a lovely piece. We sold a similar one at Bonham's, I believe, last year, and it brought an astoundingly good price. So we're very hopeful for this. I thought it was awfully attractive. And you have nice cobalt pieces. Yes. And then there's some nice, these are good lots if you have somebody in the trade where they can buy and break it up and sell it, you know. I hate to say it that way, but that's what it is. Look, this is, say, a sale for people at all price points. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, this is what you want. Now, these are all 19th century, but they have that, see, these are the kinds of things, like they have that dry brown dressing on the shoulder and base. Right, right. It's sort of emulating bronze, if they had applied the piece in bronze. But these are not the types that you ever see anymore. No, they're not, particularly with the underglaze red decoration. You know, these are quite unusual. But even with the pattern, just the general pattern, usually it's, you know, Femi Rose or Femi Bear with, you know, the same things. But you have another jar in here that has the figure on the lid as well. Yes. For people that like 19th century Qing pieces that are, you know, Caiqing, Daoguan, I assume that's when these are probably done, somewhere in those two eras. That technique of applying this brown dressing usually wasn't put on jars that look like this. So I thought they were awfully nice. I agree. They're, how big are they? Six or seven inches, probably? Yeah, six and a half, seven inches. Yeah. And then we get down to the big boy. Oh, yeah, yes. We have a few of this large size Kangxi period pieces in the sale, you know, garnitures, etc. But, you know, some from Avery and others. They're, you know, really, really lovely. And oftentimes they do, you know, they're part of a garniture. Right. We do a garniture later on in the sale that's quite lovely. Isn't there one, isn't there a garniture set of these in the British Museum that got smashed to bits years ago, and they had to re-glue them all together? Oh, dear. Somebody in the museum bumped them going down a stairwell. Oh, my God. They made a video about the restoration of them all. They shattered them, and they had no insurance on them. But it was one of these, and it was in a jar. There was a jar, I think, like this in that lot that got, not a lot, but grouping. Then you've got these nice little cafe au lait pieces. I wanted to get over to this. Yes. This little jar on the right. Yes. Unusual as all get out. Yes, it is. And the lid itself is European. It's what, what is it? It's, the lid is European. Yeah, you mentioned the lids replaced, but the pattern. The pattern is highly unusual, but it is Chinese. Oh, yeah. No, I get it. It's Chinese. Just, but the minute I saw it, I said the one on the left is a very familiar, you know, transitional early Kangxi face. Right, right. But the one on the right is a very unusual pattern. I agree. And the lot is estimated pretty modestly, 2500 to 3500. And I think you'll blow through that like Sherman to Atlanta. No, because it's good looking. You know, it's striking. And then you have a couple of more 18th, 19th century pieces. And then you get this. I love this. Yes, it's a wonderful piece. Really. Yeah, brush pot by Dong. But did you, do you have any comps of identical mates to this that you're familiar with? Not really. You know, there are patterns that certainly illustrate, you know, the, a story that's similar to that, you know, but we, we haven't been able to find a direct comp. Well, yeah, the archer, the horseman, but you have the boat scene on the other side. Right. Yes. There's some, there's some, you know, we were trying to relate it to the to a particular chapter, but the chapter sort of get confused later on in that period. So we do believe it's the, our hero running off to take the imperial exams while his woman in the boat, his, his, his lover in the boat waits sort of forlornly. Right. But yes, that's how we've cataloged it in. Waiting on the shore. Yes. What's the estimate on this? Five to 6,000, six to eight? Six to eight. Awful rare brush pot. It would be more if you didn't have it. It was what? It does have a chip on the rim. So yeah, but it's, it's a stunningly beautiful piece. Again, another one of those things that you used to see, we used to see a lot of these around here, these crackled red celadons. They were endlessly popular. Well, this, you know, the, this, this sale has a number of really lovely small monochrome monochromes in it, you know, not only from Avery, but from others. And, you know, it's, it, it ties the sale together very nicely in terms of those people who are interested in, collectors who are interested in, in this material. And this one. Yes. Wonderful piece. That's what, late Chudlong, early Jai Ching period. Okay. And it's eight inches. So it's one of those small birds, those, those, those delicate little ones. Avery was a big monochrome buyer, huh? Yes. As were others, you know, there are, there are a number of pieces from later collectors or contemporary collectors, pieces we have in the sales. Some really, really beautiful powder blue monochromes, copper red monochromes. Yep. Yes. That creamy, that creamy beauty right there. That's got a very modest estimate. And it's, it's, it's quite, and it's a soft paste molded example with dragons. Yes. Very attractive. That's very attractive. Extremely. Yes. Now, what are you, 18th century, right? You think it's Kangxi, maybe, or Chudlong, Chudlong? Right. I think probably more Kangxi than Chudlong, but we split the difference, 18th centuries. No, I know, I know. It's, it's, and then this nifty lot with that box, the, the, Oh, yes. Isn't that, that's wonderful. No, you didn't want to lock that separately, no? Ah, Peter. But, you know, the, the, the glaze on a number of these monochromes is, is, is really, really lovely. And, you know, it really has caught the eye of a number of people who are coming to view already. All those sales two weeks away. Yeah, I bet. Well, also the, you know, the, the magic of things that haven't been on the market in a hundred years. Right. Exactly. It's really a chance to buy something that's been in, you know, this major, fantastic institution. It's coming from a very romantic sort of period. It's true. You know, of, of, you know, things pouring out of CT Lou era and all these guys going back and forth and the, the Morse's and here in Boston and all them going over there and everybody fighting over who gets what. And it's Bigelow, you know, lots of famous people from around here. And this is quite attractive. It's aubergine. This is Peter's Samuel Avery, right? Avery. The next one up is one of my favorites. Well, it seems to glow pretty well. Doesn't it? It does, doesn't it? And the rim looks nice. Very thinly decorated. Oh, it's elegant. So elegant. It's sort of a grayish blue. Is that, is that the color right there? Yes, it is. Wow. Yeah. I think the estimate's low. Thank you. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just looking at it saying the provenance, the history, the. Yes. Well, exactly. Everything comes together to, you know, local people to the table. Absolutely. But also getting back to my first comment was that these are the kinds of things that you see a lot of, we see a lot of the things that have been recycled over and over in styles that became very popular in the last 40 years. But the things that were very popularly collected back then are sort of gone into, a lot of them are institutions like this. And now they're coming back out. And, and, and you're only going to get a, like this piece here. You don't have, you don't see this, this type of Guam type pottery turning up. No. And this was, was this another Avery piece? Yes. Yeah. Well, he must have had a lot of fun. And that. This is absolutely stunning. Absolutely stunning. You just pick this up and it just shines. And it's emulating what, an iron glaze? Iron finish? Yes. It's a combination of iron and manganese glaze. It's just, it's beautiful. Right. But when I first saw it, I thought it was like, I thought it was a piece of iron, an iron, an actual iron. It looks like metalwork, but it's not. Yeah. And nine, nine inches tall. Yes. 1,500, whoops, 1,500 to two grand, 2,500. That seems very reasonable. Thank you. And there's this piece. There's your piece with the cover that you like so much. I just, well, it just struck me as being, somebody very clever put this together with that top. I agree. And that nifty little carving is, what is it? Is it a boxwood? It's boxwood. You know, I, I think that it probably is, was once an Ashinaga, you know, a Netsuke. Right. That had a stand-on-length figure that, you know, was incorporated into the design of the cover. Yeah. Well, a lot of places did that. Yamanaka did that with a pile of things. I have an inkwell here from Yamanaka that was, as their, you know, their signature on their Yamanaka company on it. It's a silver brush pot, ink pot, langau, with a jade dragon head on top of the inkwell to lift it. And it has all kinds of stuff been screwed into it by Yamanaka and they just cannibalize things. But this is a great package. And this is a very, how old is it? Mid-19th century, you think? Yes. I think it's probably 18. First half. Well, we say first half, it could be possibly, you know, 1850, 1860. We do have some light examples that certainly were, you know, we can date to before 1870. Okay. So, yes, that's how we positioned this piece. But very unusual. Very unusual in the central band there. And then this lot with the magic. Oh, yes, yes. The vase. The vase in the center is really. You called it a snuff bottle? Well, yeah, it could be. It could be used as a magnum that are that large. But nonetheless, it's a lovely, lovely design of women in a lotus pond. Right. It's very, very lovely. And I like the cup. Actually, the cup and saucer on the right, on the left, rather, is the one on the right, I've seen, but the one on the left. Yes. The Yongchen? Yes. It's very unusual pattern. Yes. Again, the kind of unusual things you don't see very often. And then that big familial rose. What is this now? Your Qinlong, early Qinlong? Early Qinlong. It's got a hairline here, maybe. On the shoulder. Yes. But what a pot. Yes, what a pot. It's what? It's standing alone in a very lovely case all by itself, even during the period. It's absolutely beautiful. Thank you. And a great Yongchen. Great Yongchen, early Qinlong. Now, this originally had a saucer matching that, or no? I know they did for the cups. Yeah, I know for the cups. I'm not sure with the pot itself. Yeah, I don't either. I'm just wondering. That's wonderful. When you get down, there's the bell of the ball. Right. And this beautiful magnolia blossom tree, you know. Go ahead. It's beautiful. And, you know, the molding of handles is superb. You know, the vase just shines. And it's, you know, it's worth its weight, worth its money. And it has very shallow scrapito decoration on it. I noticed that. Finely done. Yeah, really delicate. And is that blue aqua interior? There's a better. Well, that's the back of it, right? Yeah. That's wonderful. And then you have. Which is basically the porcelain is made in China and then decorated in Thailand. And the story of the person who sold this collection to the Met and other museums is capitalized on in our little profile of him, a very, very handsome commander who spent a lot of his time in Thailand as part of a delegation from Norway to Thailand in the late 19th century. And then fell in love with Vantaran and brought much of it back to the United States. Basically, Norway at first, and then back to the United States and managed to place it in a number of museums, including the Met. The one on the end is unusually big. Yes. How big is the biggest one? Does it say in the list? Probably. Let's see. 10 inches or so? Yep. Hard for me to hear. Yeah, no, no, it was just a lot of a lot of the people that watch our channel collect this stuff. Oh, I see. Well, then. Every time there's a piece of Ben Crong turning up anywhere, we talk about it, and it always seems to do well. So to the people out there who are attracted to these, there's a chance to buy a set. Well, just point them all away. The quality varies on this lot. That's why we've closely lotted them together. But there are some lovely examples within it that make them highly desirable. That's a wonderful detail. Yeah, I've always liked them. And there's more of them. Wow. Yeah, I remember going through this. It was a ton of the stuff. So those of you who are into the Ben Crong way, this is your golden moment this year. Right. Well, you see, what we've also done, there are some pieces that some collectors that just have one piece in this auction, but we've given them pretty much equal due. Because, again, it's the idea of passion and philanthropy that we promote for the Met. These people were big sponsors, big supporters of the Met while they were doing many, many other things in their lives. And we certainly want that tradition to continue among the museums today. So this is a plug for collecting and supporting your institution. And that's an unusual piece. Yes, it is. It's a mix of many designs. And then you get nice... Yes, your Ami Veritas, which we have a few choice examples in the sale. That's pretty striking. The negative space makes it jump out. That's right. Yes. Makes it very three-dimensional. Oh, Jacob Rogers. Yes. Nice Rogers, you know, garnitures, etc. A lot of very lovely blue and white in this group. Didn't he also fund the museum pretty heavily? And there's a lot of things that have Rogers fund purchase. Well, basically, these are Rogers fund purchases. He gave, according to our biography anyway, he gave about $5 million in kind, you know, worth of assets to the museum to start the Rogers fund. And he used not only to buy things such as this, but also, you know, for paintings and other works of art in which, you know, the museum has benefited enormously. Yeah, yeah. No, I've seen... At that time was a lot of money. Well, it was a huge amount of money. And every time I've been down there, I always read the stickers, the labels on things. And you see Rogers fund purchase pretty often. Now you have this striking Kangxi pot. Wonderful, yes. Terrific. And then this. I love this design. It's really compelling, isn't it? It's a type that you see, but this is... How big is this thing? It's about... 20 inches. Yeah, it's a big one. Yeah, 20 inches in height. Because you see this pattern more often on smaller things. Yes. So this is a beast. And that's a beast. Yes. Very nice. And then here you have this wonderful molded... It's hard to see in this photograph, the fact that these are... The sides of this have vertical molds to them. Right. And these are large. Yes. I think they were 19 inches or so. 19 to 20 inches. Yes. Let's see. Yeah, 19 and a half inches. Yeah. So these are very big. So it's important to know because it's hard from a photograph to get a sense of scale. Absolutely. You can look at these and say, oh, you know, 10-inch garniture, Kangxi. But 20-inch Kangxi garniture, that's a different thing. Well, we've tried to, you know, I believe all auction houses try and give you a matter of scale in their photography. If they don't, then it can be a problem. So, you know, this has a whole page illustration and, you know, it's a stunning set. Yeah. But I've been through that. I once bought from an auction house in Florida, a giant transitional period charger that was 22 inches in diameter. And I thought it was a nine-inch plate. And they had no Chinese buyers. So I threw a bid on it and I got it for $100. And when the shipper called me, he said the shipping's $444. And I said, what? And he said, well, the plate's enormous. It's over two feet wide. The photograph had no sense of size in it. And I got it. I was extremely pleased. All right. Oh, there it is, crossing the Delaware. Why was this in here? What was the? Well, no, no. As I said, we're trying to show everything that this collector gave to the institution. He gave this? Yes. Okay. All right. I didn't know that. Oh, yes. The reason I noticed, I know the bit about this painting, is that because all of the men paddling this boat, all of these horsemen on this boat were from my hometown. They were all from Marblehead, Mass. Oh, my. Oh, okay. And Washington wanted them because they were, well, they were notorious pirates, but they were also very daring sailors. And they were the only ones that would get in the boat with them. All right. John Stuart Kennedy, right. Made that possible. Great gift. Oh, yes. You see these quite a bit. You know, I've seen many, many of these in my career. But, you know, you have them in the context of other monochromes, and they come to life. Yeah. Yeah, I've had these too. For years, everybody thought they were 19th century. Dealers always, oh, it's a 19th century pot. It's, you know, it's nothing. And we would buy them happily. Okay. And then you have this very strongly colored. Yes. Upper red. Yes. Yeah. Probably Qianlong, I would think. But is it finished nicely around the foot? Is it very neat? Well, it has, you know, the plain Qianlong, you know, 18th century monochrome, you know, slightly recessed base. Right, right. But the base underneath is nice. And, you know, the color is great. Well, the Fletcher's, you know, the Fletcher monochromes in the sailor are lovely. They're very nice. Very strong color. Same with this one. And another one. Wow. Oh, yes. Wonderful. This looks like one of those things they'd blow the glaze on with a straw. Yes. How big is this one? Powder blue. Nine and a half. Nice size. Unusual. You have so much unusual stuff in here. Well, that's, and then, of course, is the Harkness group. This one, yes, just one piece, this mallet vase is terrific. We've used this in some advertising. It's just, it's. I remember seeing it. And the, you know, and the shape is rare. High shoulder on it. Yes. Nice pattern. Beautiful flowers. And this came from their collection? No, it's Harkness. Oh, the previous one. Okay. Another name you see. I just thought, I thought the figure standing on a plinth like this, typically it's a full lion or just a single figure. And in this, it's a standing figure holding a child with two kids around them. And I just think the package, it's just such an unusual combination for these biscuit wares. That's all. It just struck me as, you know, for people that like things that are unusual. And it's got a couple of hairlines in it and stuff and maybe a repair here or there, but very unusual type. This piece was given by Mary Clark Thompson. And she was the daughter of the former governor of New York. And her husband was the founder of the City Bank of New York, which became City, or the Bank of New York, which then became City Bank. So she was quite a wealthy woman. We discussed her earlier offline. And this is wonderful. It does have some damage, which is why it's estimated the way that it is. But it's a very provocative piece. Yeah, but what a piece of porcelain, you know. Is that the description? Yeah, there it is on this side. Three to four thousand. It's a foot, over a foot tall. Okay. Yes. So it's a big, bigger piece. We're getting into pretty... Oh, it's Young Shen from Milrose, I assume. Is it Young Shen or? Yes, very good. Peter, you're great. I'm what? You're great. No, I don't know. I'm just looking at it, saying that looks Young Shen. Well, a lot of times, you know, it's early chin-lung, you know, you can't be... It's hand grenades sometimes. Now, this William Rhinelander Stewart is one of our favorite people, because he really had an interest in soft-paste porcelain. He was a very, very serious collector, and as was his daughter, who was absolutely gorgeous. She was called Princess Brizanga, I believe, and she gave a few pieces to the Met. But he had an especially strong interest in soft-paste porcelain, and we actually took this opportunity to write a little something in the catalog about soft-paste. Which this is not, but as you scroll down, you will see them. But he loved blue and white. Sure did. That's a nice clementine bowl. People always chase these. There are certain patterns I really, really like, and this is... Ah, okay, yeah. Yes, you can see how the cobalt sort of has this sort of creamy, it just sort of sinks into, you know, the body of the piece. It's really, really striking when you hold these in your hand. You know, of course, they're quite thin, thinly constructed pieces, but they're stunningly beautiful. Oftentimes, if they're a little over-fired, there's too much crackle in soft-paste. But if they're caught just right, they're just stunningly beautiful. And the design here, in this space in particular, is just lovely. Well, isn't that because the porousness of soft-paste allows the cobalt to absorb? Yes. When it's heated, it sort of melds into it. It's a little less hard-edged than, you know, than your normal blue and white porcelain. So this guy was way ahead of the curve on soft-paste. Oh, he was, he was. You see it within the catalogue, but this is really the core group that we have focused on. Look at that. The design is wonderful, the shape is wonderful, and it conforms beautifully. The two of them work together to make it. Well, it's a well-known design, but they took full advantage of the shape. That's correct. To get it all in there. Very clever in that. I've actually had jars like that before. There was some stuff that came from the Agassiz family up here years ago. Oh, yeah. And I bought a lot of it. And there was a jar that looked very similar to that. What's on the other side? Is that the main decoration on that bottle? No, turn it, keep going, keep going. Oh, okay. All right, all right. A stunning willow tree. Great willow tree. Yes. And again, they took full advantage of the shape. They worked it in right to the edge, the visual edge. The Blumenthal's early, early, early stuff. Mr. Rollins also loved, he was an author of Western. Oh. Yes. Yeah. Yes. That's the guy that wrote those. Yes. And he was a collector? Yes. I never knew that. I knew those books though. Now, did he collect Western stuff too, or? That I'm not sure. The black lace bottle dots is wonderful. Very striking, yeah. Very striking. Seven inches of diameter. Unreserved. Now, right. We could not find a photograph of Robert West. We scoured and scoured and could not find a photograph. So we don't have a photograph, but he had great taste. And he collected a lot of Chinese porcelain. Nine inches. There's a dry surface on that. That's nice. I love that cup. Now, this is a strange one. Yes. It looks Japanese. That's what I said when I first saw it. Oh, you did? Yes. It looks like an 18th century Japanese bottle. But it's not. So it wasn't, the Japanese weren't the only ones, you know, because for years, you know, when they did learn to make porcelain, they were cropping Japanese stuff that they were familiar with. The blue and white wares, especially the Wan Li copies and all that. So the river went the other way in this case. The Chinese made one of their style. Now, would they have made that for the Japanese market, per se, or? That's a source of speculation, I would say. Yeah, no, I know. I'm speculating. No, it's, never know. But yes, that is, that struck me, you know, because of my interest in experience in Japanese art, it struck me like a Tokuri. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And, but the decoration is very, would be very atypical for them, but the shape was bang on, nailed it. Yeah. Five to eight thousand, no reserve. And these are terrific. I always like these. I've always loved these, these turquoise things. This is Bingham, yes. Eight to twelve hundred for the lot? Yes. They say? All right, everybody. Very reasonable. That's handsome, too. That's very pretty. Yes, this has a great product. 10-inch jar, 11-inch, yeah. And it has its lid. Yes, Garland Collection, Morgan Collection. With the leaf pattern on it, that's nice. And this is beautiful. Right, great color. Yes, great color. It's that strong, that blue? Yes. Really? Yeah. Six inches, very nice. And another one. And these are all from the Brighams. And then you had just, you got a pile of jades? Yes, we have a lot of jades from Mr. Peters, the Peters Collection, that he gave in three, three installments between 1911, 1913, and 1916. The first two he purchased from Yamanaka. Right, okay. We don't know the background of the third group, but at the time of the gift, knowledge about the dating of Chinese jades was not what it is today. And so these were accepted as early pieces. And now time has moved on, and we know that they are, we've dated them all as late Qing dynasty. But the designs, you know, harken back to Sean and Joe prototypes, and some of them are absolutely beautiful. So. This was very common back then. Yes. The Peters Collection, though, that was a massive collection. Very big collection, not only of Chinese jades, but also porcelains and Korean works of art. Yep, I know. There was a very rare piece of, they used to give Chinese and Japanese and Korean art as wedding gifts to people pretty routinely, and as presents. Because there's a couple families on the North Shore here that have passed down pieces, and they say, oh, this came from our friend the Peters family, or my grandparents' friends, yeah. Transitional sleeve vases, Korean underglaze red vases, that kind of thing. Rare birds. They used to give them out to people as gifts. Well, this is a nice lot. These are all nice lots, though. And you date them all as late Qing dynasty? Yes, we do. If people have different opinions, then they can bid accordingly. But this is how we represent them. Well, they often do with jades. Yes, they do. More catfights over jade than anything else. You remember, I've talked about it a number of times on the videos with everybody, the famous pig jade that was in the Irving collection with a $5,000 to $7,000 estimate. Don't you wish? These are charming, though. They're well done. Yes. And they're inexpensive. My goodness. These are 71 lots. That's a wonderful opportunity, that necklace, that sprung necklace. How long is it? It's long. Well, we don't actually measure the length of it. No, I know. I know. I thought maybe you'd throw it in. I think. I don't like to speculate when I don't know. Gift of Samuel Peters, yeah. Little something to wear out to dinner. You don't think Mrs. Peters might have worn that to a soiree? I bet she might have. Like that. Well, it's a heck of a nice grouping. Even the late Qing is fine, as long as they're honestly dated. Not done in the late Qing style, clearly. And who did he buy them all from, Yamanaka? The first, yeah, you see, we've put them in, we've ordered them in, except for the large necklace, which is a bit mixed. We've ordered them by date of acquisition. So these are the 1916 pieces. But we start out in the sale of the group of 1911 pieces, then 1913 pieces. And then we put the Yamanaka provenance. You'll notice that on the 1916 dated acquisition date, there's no provenance, because we don't know where he acquired that last group. You don't know, absolutely. But pretty good chance he got them from Yamanaka. No? I don't want to speculate. No, I know, you don't want to stick your neck out. I get it. Yeah, it's fine. And how many lots of jade are there? About 71. 71? That's interesting. Brush handle. It's either a brush handle or a flute, one or the other. There's an interesting example of a very shang, or not shang, western jowl? Western jowl. Western jowl jade, yeah. You got a heck of a nice sale on your hands. Thank you very much. We also have a various owner sale, which should be up shortly. And that also has a mostly different kind of composition, although there are some early jades in that sale. But it's predominantly early material from the Hartman collection, part two. Yeah, yeah. And then we also have a sale of snuff bottles and Chinese paintings. Yeah, I saw those. Right. There are also three screens from the Met that are part of the Japanese and Korean works of art sale. So we split them off from the Chinese material because we wanted to have, we did not want to mix the Japanese material with the Chinese material. So those are all Japanese screens from the Met? Yeah. I'm assuming? There are three lots, just three lots. Okay. And they're not Korean screens? No. Okay, all right. Well, you've been a busy, busy lady. I have been a little busy. Been a little bit busy. And I looked at the snuff bottle collection. It looks like there's some nice bottles in there. Yes. And the Japanese sale I'm always interested in because I like Japanese things a great deal and, you know, I was peeking around. I just lost a bit over the weekend on a piece I wanted somewhere. Oh dear. We also have a collection of inro from the collection of Joe and Elena Kirsten. We sold their Netsuke about a year and a half ago in December. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this is part one of their inro collection. How big is their inro collection? It's pretty big. We've got maybe 60 lots in this sale. So this is just part one. Okay, all right, all right. Well, I wish you a great deal of luck. What else? Do you have anything to say before we wrap this up? Well, I encourage people to come and look at the collection. And it's an incredible opportunity to buy a piece of history. You know, it's been in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for over 100 years, the vast majority of these pieces. And well cared for, wonderful objects. And as I said, as we have said, to be sold with no reserve. So we're very honored to be able to present the collection. And very honored, Peter, that you've decided that you are spending the time to talk with us. I'm just a little dealer. I'm just a New England antique dealer, but I like what I do. So thank you very much for the opportunity. All right. Well, you have a great, great success at it. And we're going to do a video on the rest of the site. We're going to do one for all the other houses. We're going to do a video going through the lots, highlight pieces and sort of give a broader overview of all the other things that you're going to be selling. We've got that done this week. And take care of it that way. Yeah, yeah. Good. All right. Thank you, Peter. You're very, very welcome. Take care. All right. Bye-bye.