A Chinese pale celadon jade vase with a presale estimate of 40,000 to 60,000 Canadian dollars (CAD) sold for a staggering 816,500 CAD late Thursday night at an auction of international and Asian art items in the west coast city.

With 150 people in attendance at Maynards auction house and bidders from more than 50 countries and regions participating by phone and online, the two-day auction exceeded its projected range of 1.2 million CAD to 1.5 million CAD to bring in 2.9 million CAD.

About half of the 640 items offered were Chinese. The Chinese vase with cover came from the reign of Emperor Qianlong in the 18th century and was sold to an unidentified bidder from Hong Kong, according to Hugh Bulmer, Maynards vice president of antiques and fine arts.

The 42-centimeter-high vase features a flattened baluster form body carved in the manner of archaistic bronze with four loose rings and dragon head handles.

A similar light celadon jade incense burner and cover with peony handles with loose rings and six mythical beast masks on a carved and gilt wood stand sold for 598,000 CAD, again to an unidentified Hong Kong buyer, after a presale estimate of 40,000 CAD to 60,000 CAD.

The items were two of five jade lots put up for sale from the collection of late Iranian businessman Habib Sabet, who purchased them from 1963 to 1973 from Christie's, London.

Other items in the collection, all from the Qianlong period, saw a light celadon jade incense burner and cover command 299,000 CAD, while an imperial jade table screen sold for 230,000 CAD. A spinach green jade potpourri holder took in 115,000 CAD.

"The demand today is for period jades as white as possible. That's what all the Chinese collectors are looking for," said Bulmer of the five Sabet lots that took in 2.1 million CAD. He added that it's difficult, if impossible, to put a presale estimate on many Chinese items as the market is constantly shifting and buyers are scouring the world in search of them.

Last year, Maynards sold four Chinese porcelain plaques made in 1937 with a presale estimate of 3,000 CAD to 4,000 CAD for 851,000 CAD, the highest price the auction house had achieved.

"It's something that's been happening over the past few years now, we've seen it," said Bulmer, on the furious bidding for Chinese antiques. "We've seen wild interest in really high quality items, so it's getting really difficult to put a price on some these pieces."

The other big item at the auction, a 22-carat gold Order of the Double Dragon medal from the Qing Dynasty, sold for 69,000 CAD, just below its presale estimate of 70,000 CAD to 90,000 CAD. The elegant medal was awarded to a Scottish missionary, Dr. Dugald Christie, in 1912 by the last Chinese emperor for his efforts in fighting a pneumonic plague that hit Manchuria, killing more than 40,000 people in 1911-1912.

The Order of the Double Dragon was started by the Guangxu Emperor in 1882 and the medals, in different designs, were originally given to foreigners for outstanding service to the throne. The award was extended to Chinese subjects in 1908.

"It's a very rare piece, a very specialized piece, I guess. It hasn't got the big cache to collectors as the white jades," Bulmer said of the medal. "It's going to go to a very specialist collector or maybe a museum, so it's a smaller market. Interesting and rare, but a smaller market." Maynards is holding its next auction of Chinese antiques on June 18-19.

Source:Xinhua

Editor:Jinxin