SPOTLIGHT by Asian Art in London | Issue #5 | February 2022

ASIAN ART IN LONDON | ISSUE 5 | FEBRUARY 2022

SPOTLIGHT by Asian Art in London

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Introduction 20 - 21 Aktis Gallery (U.K.) Ltd. 22 - 23 Raquelle Azran Vietnamese Fine Art 52 - 53 Joost van den Bergh 28 - 29 Eskenazi Limited 24 - 25 Martyn Gregory 26 - 27 Grosvenor Gallery 46 - 47 Michael Goedhuis 32 - 33 Hanga Ten 36 - 37 J.A.N. Fine Art 6-7 Lam & Co UK 18 - 19 Lam & Co Antiquities 48 - 49 Lam’s Gallery

50 - 51 Littleton & Hennessy 34 - 35 Marchant 32 - 33 Martindale Chinese Art 40 - 41 The Mayor Gallery 10 - 11 Galerie Mingei 44 - 45 Sue Ollemans 38 - 39 Kevin Page Oriental Art 14 - 15 Susan Page Chinese Snuff Bottles 12 - 13 Simon Pilling 42 - 43 Priestley & Ferraro 30 - 31 S.A. Fine Arts 8-9 Shahnaz Gallery 16 - 17 Shapero Rare Books The description and attribution of pieces advertised are the sole responsibility of participants.

SPOTLIGHT | ISSUE #5 | FEBRUARY 2022 Welcome to our final issue of ‘Spotlight’ for the season 2021.

As I turn the pages of this magazine I am, once again, struck by the extraordinary range of offerings by our participants. From Neolithic Chinese pots over 5000 years old to contemporary ink works made in the last year, the quality is extraordinarily and consistently high. Of course, we are now in the Chinese year of the Tiger which is well represented by Priestley and Ferraro with their tiger sculpture (featured opposite) and tiger design ceramic pillow of Song dynasty China. The diverse cultures of the wider geographical and cultural world that is ‘Asia’ range from an elegant 16th Persian manuscript with Shapero Rare Books to works by Vietnamese artist Phan Cam Thuong at Raquelle Azran.

Hanga Ten presents two works by Japanese artist Katsunori Hamanishi while earlier Japanese art is represented by Galerie Mingei with their 11/12th Century carving of a flying apsara. From South Asia to North Asia, from Persia to Japan, I encourage you to leaf through this publication and feel free to contact any of the participants direct should anything ‘catch your eye’.

Henry Howard-Sneyd, Chair of Asian Art in London

SPOTLIGHT SUBSCRIPTION Sign up to the Asian Art in London mailing list to receive future issues of Spotlight directly to your inbox.

LAM & CO UK

4 Masons Yard, St James’s, London

Lam & Co UK specialises in Chinese works of art, with a particular emphasis on early ceramics, paintings, terracotta figurines, Buddhist sculpture, and Ming/Qing scholars’ objects.

CONTACT

Rex Lam Phone: +447754970153 Email: gallery@lamcouk.com Website: https://www.lamcouk.com

Three Cizhou Painted Bowls Jin Dynasty (AD1115-1234) Ceramic 15.5cm/16.5cm/16.2cm

PROVENANCE Flores & Iva, November 1999 Bonhams Los Angeles, 14 December 2020, lot 113

White Glazed Brush Washer

Northern Song (AD960-1127), Ding Kilns Diameter: 20cm

SHAHNAZ GALLERY

101 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 7LN Shahnaz Gallery is a second generation gallery and successor to Bashir Mohamed Ltd. founded in 1980 with its first premises on Old Bond Street, London.

Specialising predominantly in Islamic and Indian art, the gallery is globally renowned for rare and important acquisitions.

Shahnaz Gallery pride themselves on their reputation for in-depth knowledge and expertise in the field.

Scholars and academics were popular subjects for artists during the Deccan court. This work is an example of the new class of rulers who obtained a level of independence after the conquests of the Deccan, by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Their patronage of artists formally in the royal Deccani employment led to a genre of portraiture which preserves qualities of both Deccani painting and the contemporary Mughal manner of painting.

This miniature shows particularly the influence from Persian miniature painting, reflected in the artist’s rendition of the pose, robes and turban, indicating the direct influence of Iran to India. Note the pose and gesticulation of the scholar, here projecting a serene yet distinguished portrait. The gold ornamentation, fine detailing and bold palette of his clothing accentuate the exquisite quality and atmosphere found in Deccan painting.

The rider of the elephant in this lively scene bears a resemblance to Jahangir, the fourth Mughal Emperor, the eldest surviving son of Emperor Akbar, who himself had a love of elephants, well attested in the Akbarnama. The implied wild attack of the lion serves to heighten the imagined bravery of the rider who fends off the attack from the side, powerfully displaying his bravery highlighting his gloried stature in comparison to the futile effort of the attendants.

CONTACT

Shahnaz Mohamed Phone: +447903022669 Email: info@shahnazgallery.com

A Seated Sheikh or Scholar

c. 18th century Gouache with gold on paper, with inner blue-green band and outer border of decorated gold foliate design Painting: 25.5 by 14.8 cm.; Leaf: 26.1 by 15.3 cm

A Lion Attack, cut from a larger composition

c. 18th century Gouache on paper, cutout and laid down on card Painting: 10.5 by 11.7 cm.; Framed: 23 by 23 cm.

GALERIE MINGEI

5, Rue Visconti, Paris, 75006, France Mingei Gallery, located in the antiques district in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, specialises in ancient and contemporary art from Japan, and particularly in Japanese bamboo baskets as a pioneer and leader in Europe. The gallery works with museums and institutions and periodically organises thematic artist exhibitions with catalogues. The Mingei Gallery is managed by Philippe Boudin and his daughter Zoé Niang.

Hiten, literally “Flying Apsaras”, are heavenly beings invisible to the human eye, believed to fly with superhuman power and speed. Japanese Buddhist depictions show Apsaras flying over Buddha’s pure land, praising him by scattering flowers, playing instruments or burning incense. Celestial beings such as this were usually placed on the rims of a halo or mandorla behind a Buddha image. The swirling pattern of the cloud indicates that the work was placed on the right side of the mandorla.

Considering the work’s size, it may have been part of the mandorla that framed a Buddha about five meters in height. Because of the relative proportions of the head and the body, as well as the shape of the clouds, the sculpture appears to have been made in the late Heian Period, around the 12th century. The survival of such celestial beings in private hands is extremely rare.

In the world of the bamboo arts and the Ikebana tradition of floral arrangement for the tea ceremony, Nagakura Ken’ichi’s work is unique. His respect for tradition was not been a hindrance to the development of his deliberately contemporary sculptural approach.

Nagakura Ken’ichi was born in 1952 in Shizuoka, and began his career with a brief stint as a kimono dyer. Later, with his grandfather, a bamboo wholesaler, he spent three years cutting and calibrating this incredible hollow-cored woody grass, and began to twist, braid, and weave it, and to amalgamate it with clay and powdered minerals.

Although not affiliated with any artists’ guild, he was the first and very surprising recipient of the prestigious Llyod Cotsen Bamboo Prize in 2000. Tens of exhibitions in the United States have crowned his peerless creative achievements.

CONTACT

Philippe Boudin Phone: +33609766068 Email: mingei.arts.gallery@gmail.com Website: http://mingei.gallery

HITEN (Flying Apsara), Heian period, 11/12th Century. Dated 1062 - 1158 by 14C Wood, 40 (h) x 32 cm

PROVENANCE Private japanese collection FEATURED LITERATURE • Two similar Hiten can be seen at the Metropolitan New-York.

• One similar Hiten can be seen at the Osaka City Museum.

Two similar Hiten can be seen at Collection Kyoto Byodoin.

Hosoi Kage, 2016

Nagakura Ken’Ichi Bamboo madake, clay, persimmon juice and stone powder 15x 60 x 112 cm

SIMON PILLING

PO Box 834 Rickmansworth WD3 0RA Established in 2005, Simon Pilling offers Japanese works of art. All are sourced directly from Japan and so are fresh to the Western market. A particular focus is on the 20th century – a period of artworks still largely undiscovered in the West – and contemporary works. While carrying pieces in a variety of media – ceramic, metal, wood and graphic – his specialisation is in lacquer, the quintessential, perfect Japanese artform.

An extraordinarily beautiful, technically superb, life-sized recreation of a male Japanese mitten crab, mozuku-gani. It takes its name from the furry cuffs on its claws, here formed in shibuichi, the Japanese alloy of 95% copper mixed with 5% silver. The crab’s legs are tipped with silver, as are the pincers. The moveable eyes are patinated shakudo, an alloy of approximately 90% copper mixed with 10% gold.

Lighting in urban society is now so bright that we no longer see gentle moonlight in the sky. Moonstruck is Ando’s statement to “bring the moon down to the eyes of those who might have forgotten to look up at the sky.” The rich background colours and complex textures symbolize the amazing modern world that we live in, while over it floats the Moon, vying for our attention, with subtle textures and silvery glow. With time, the silver will oxidize and change itself into countless different shades.

CONTACT

Simon Pilling Phone: +447946577303 Email: simon@simonpilling.co.uk Website: http://www.simonpilling.co.uk

CRAB okimono, MIZUGUCHI Sadataka 水口貞孝 (b. 1842) Taisho period, 1915 Copper, silver and gold, 19 x 11 x 4.5 (h)

MOONSTRUCK

ANDO Saeko (b.1968) Heisei period, completed 2019 Coloured lacquers, eggshell and metal foil inlays 60 x 60 x 3.8 cm

PROVENANCE Direct from artist

SUSAN PAGE - CHINESE SNUFF BOTTLES Green Park House, 15 Stratton Street, London, W1J 8LQ Susan Page worked with leading snuff bottle dealer Robert Hall for 31 years before setting up on her own in January 2018. Susan is a board member of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society.

Porcelain, painted in famille rose enamels each side with a cricket, with its eyes picked out in gold, the base with an iron red Daoguang mark The cricket (xishou) either alone or with its cage became a very popular subject on snuff bottles of all types in the 19th Century. This may be due to the interest in keeping and training crickets for sport and entertainment, a habit which started in the court at Beijing in the late 18th and early 19th Century. Another reason for the popularity of the subject is suggested by Victor Graham (see ‘Chinese Snuff Bottle Lore’, Journal ICSBS Summer 1984, pp 12-13. He suggests that crickets on either side of a bottle could conceivably suggest a pun which meaning ‘be loyal to one’s country’ (meaning be loyal to one’s Emperor). Large quantities of Imperially made porcelain bottles were used as presentations to officials around the country, and many of these have Daoguang marks.

Nephrite, spinach-green with darker flecks, of flattened rectangular form, sitting on a well carved foot.

This beautiful spinach-green material is dated to after the conquest of Chinese Turkestan by the Qianlong Emperor in 1759.

CONTACT

Susan Page Phone: +442030360044 Email: susan@snuffbottlepages.com Website: https://snuffbottlepages.com

Porcelain snuff bottle with cricket Jingdezhen Imperial Kilns, 1821-1850, Porcelain Height: 6.3cm

Nephrite, spinach green 1760-1850, Height: 6.6 cm

SHAPERO RARE BOOKS

106 New Bond Street (1st floor), London, W1S 1DN Shapero Rare Books is an internationally renowned dealer in antiquarian & rare books and works on paper. Our specialists have over 250 years of experience between them, with particular expertise in fine illustrated books from the 15th to the 20th century, travel & voyages, natural history, literature (including modern first editions), children’s books, guidebooks, Hebraica & Judaica, works of Russian interest, and Islamica & Near Eastern books & manuscripts.

Shapero Rare Books have selected two scientific manuscripts for this issue of Spotlight. The first of these is an important medicinal treatise dedicated to a Muzzafarid Princess, and the second a commentary on astronomy and time-keeping written by one of the Imams of Marrakech.

CONTACT

Roxana Kashani Phone: +442074930876 Email: rarebooks@shapero.com Website: https://shapero.com

Ikhyarat’i Badi’i

Al-Ansari, Ali ibn Hussayn [9]97 AH (1589 AD) Illuminated manuscript on paper 240 by 170 mm

Ikhyarat’i Badi’i is a manual of herbal medicine, offering remedies in the form of simple and compound mixtures drawn from traditional Persian medical practices. Al-Ansari was chief physician to the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shuja’ (r. 1358-1384 AD) for sixteen years and this work carries the alternative title Badi’ al-Jamal, which is a tribute to the Princess to whom the text is dedicated.

Kitab al-Muqni

Al-Marghithi Al-Susi, Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Sa’id 1132 AH (1719 AD) Decorated manuscript on paper 210 by 160 mm

Excellent copy of Al-Susi’s commentary, relating to astronomy and timekeeping. Al-Susi, known also as Al-Marghithi, was born in Sous (southern Morocco) in 1598 and was a very well respected scholar and religious leader in the region. At the height of his career he was the Imam of the grand mosque in Marrakech before his death in 1678. The present manuscript was copied in Morocco only 41 years after al-Susi’s death.

LAM & CO ANTIQUITIES

2/F 151 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong Lam & Co Antiquities, established in 1998, is one of the respected dealers of Chinese antiques worldwide. We specialise in early ceramics, tomb sculptures, and Buddhist art, with an emphasis on rarity, quality and aesthetics.

CONTACT

Addy Lam Phone: +85225438877 Email: gallery@lamcoantiquities.com Website: https://www.lamcoantiquities.com

Celadon Bowl with Cover Southern Song Dynasty (AD1127-1279), Longquan Kilns Ceramic H: 8cm

A rare steatite melonshaped vase with silver cover Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) H: 8cm

AKTIS GALLERY (U.K.) LTD.

50 Jermyn Street, London, SW1Y 6LX Aktis Gallery specialises in the post-war lyrical abstraction movement, focusing on some of the most influential Chinese émigré artists of the 20th century, such as the internationally renowned Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun as well as the contemporary Paris-based artist Gao Xingjian and the exceptional contemporary sculptor Wang Keping.

In 2015 Aktis Gallery organized a major solo exhibition for Gao Xingjian aimed to celebrate the artistic diversity and complexity of Gao’s multidisciplinary oeuvre. It provided the opportunity to view a variety of Gao’s ink on paper works, his important inks on canvas, as well as his literature, cinematography and poetry. Aktis Gallery held a Q&A session with Gao Xingjian, where the artist’s shared his insights into his work.

Since then, Aktis Gallery has continued to collaborate with Gao Xingjian and is delighted to present his works at Asian Art London 2021. Aktis Gallery will further showcase selected watercolours and inks by Zao Wou-Ki, one of the most celebrated 20th century Chinese artists.

As one of the main artists of the gallery, Zao Wou-Ki’s works are represented through various media, including a collection of stunning lithographies! Zao Wou-Ki made his first lithographs in 1949 in Paris with Edmond Desjobert.

“The idea of throwing colour on a large white porous stone, like on China paper, pleased me. I used a lot of water, which is not at all to be recommended. Edmond Desjobert, a remarkably skilful lithographer, criticised me for it and told me the outcome would be poor, because one could not mix so much water with the lithographic ink. Even so I tried, and while the proofs were being printed he became enthusiastic.”

“Although the influence of Paris is undeniable in all my training as an artist, I also wish to say that I have gradually rediscovered China. Paradoxically, perhaps, it is to Paris I owe this return to my deepest origins.” (Zao Wou-Ki, 1962) Inspired by his Chinese culture and his study of Western painting, Zao Wou-Ki creates extremely modern works never seen before. Contact us for more info on our Zao Wou-Ki collection!

CONTACT

Anna Chalova Phone: +442076296531 Email: anna@aktis-gallery.co.uk Website: https://aktis-gallery.co.uk

Hortensias, 1953

Zao Wou-Ki Lithography with 6 colours (62/95) 50 x 65,4 cm

PROVENANCE Private Collection, France

Untitled, 1954

Zao Wou-Ki Ink and watercolour on paper 18x13,5 cm

PROVENANCE Private Collection, Paris Certificate of authenticity issued by the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation

RAQUELLE AZRAN VIETNAMESE FINE ART 320 East 57th Street New York NY 10022, USA A leading specialist in Vietnamese Fine Art since 1997, Raquelle Azran is an international collector, museum curator and dealer.

Based in Hanoi since 1991, her personal access to Vietnamese artists has enabled over 100 exhibitions - in Asia, Europe and the United States - of the most exciting modern and contemporary Vietnamese paintings.

“I believe that artwork must be experienced viscerally. The conversation between viewer and artwork is a very personal moment, which I am delighted to offer to aficionados of Vietnamese fine art as well as to those for whom the delight of discovery lies ahead.”

Phan Cam Thuong (b. Hanoi 1957) is a beloved professor of art history, an author of eight scholarly tomes, an iconoclastic artist who creates his own mineral pigments, and a unique figure rooted in both the secular world and the pagoda. I had the honour, in 1998, of curating his first exhibition outside Vietnam.

Thuong’s work is mystically Oriental. It echoes the past and reflects traditions. Painting with natural mineral pigments and chinese ink, Thuong invests the heavy rice paper with layers of contemporary reflection. Thuong’s paintings, filled with inspiration and ecstasy, quietly portray life. They are imbued with humanism, with human existence and destiny. The serene calmness of Thuong’s being shines through the expressive beauty of his art.

CONTACT

Raquelle Azran Phone: +12127150565 +972503018889 Email: raquelle.azran@gmail.com Website: https://www.artnet.com/razran.html

My Daughter, 2008

Phan Cam Thuong Natural mineral pigments on handmade paper 82 x 62 cm

PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist in Hanoi

Womensong, 2009

Phan Cam Thuong Natural mineral pigments on handmade paper 62 x 82 cm

PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist in Hanoi

MARTYN GREGORY 34 Bury Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6AU

With a gallery spanning two floors of the building at No. 34, Martyn Gregory has been a mainstay of Bury Street since 1974, having been in St James’s for more than fifty years. One of the world’s leading specialists in ‘China Trade’ paintings, the gallery also deals in topographical paintings and drawings of India and the Far East by western artists—notably George Chinnery (1774–1852), who spent his career in India and the south China coast. Martyn Gregory holds an annual exhibition in Hong Kong and participates in fairs around the world.

William Alexander travelled to China as Draughtsman to the British Embassy led by George Viscount Macartney in 1792. Despite the embassy failing to achieve its objective of freer trade with China, Alexander’s numerous images, published by Staunton in 1797, gave the British public a firsthand view of the mysterious empire.

The Cantonese ‘export artist’ Lamqua closely imitated the style of George Chinnery and, after the Englishman’s death in 1852, was the most famous and sought after portrait artist on the south China Coast. The sitter is traditionally identified as Ten Qua, due to a similar likeness by Lamqua inscribed ‘Ten Qua’, held in the Peabody Essex Museum.

CONTACT

Martyn Gregory Phone: +442078393731 Email: info@martyngregory.com Website: https://www.martyngregory.com

A view of a Pai-Loo, improperly called a Triumphal Arch, and of a Chinese fortress

William Alexander (1767 - 1816) 1793/4 Pencil & watercolour 28.6 x 45.5 cm

PROVENANCE with Arnold Seligman, Rey & Co., Inc, New York; from whom purchased by Usher P Collidge (1917 1971); thence by descent FEATURED LITERATURE Sir George L Staunton, An authentic account of an Embassy...to the Emperor of China, 1797, vol. 3, pl. 31, ills.

Portrait of a Chinese merchant, described as Ten Qua, c. 1840

Lamqua (active 1820 - 60) Oil on Canvas 83.8 x 64.2 cm

PROVENANCE Thomas B Williamson (1902 0 1982) FEATURED LITERATURE Henry and SIdney Berry Hill, Chinnery and China Coast Paintings, 1970, pl. 65, ills.

GROSVENOR GALLERY

35 Bury Street, London, SW1Y 6AY Grosvenor Gallery was founded in 1960 by the sociologist and writer Eric Estorick who began to collect works of art when he came to live in England after the Second World War. Its first premises was on Davies Street and it was the largest and best equipped gallery in England at the time. The Gallery showed important European artist of the time – some for the first time in London such as Magritte, Picasso, Sironi and Chagall.

In 2006, the Gallery shifted its focus to specialize in South Asian Modern and Contemporary art especially the works of mid 20th century Indian modernist such as the Bombay progressives, as well as Chughtai, Gulgee and Sadequain from Pakistan. The contemporary program includes exhibitions of work by Rasheed Araeen, Faiza Butt, Olivia Fraser, Senaka Senanayake and Dhruva Mistry amongst others.

This is a limited edition print is by Maqbool Fida Husain (1915-2011) , who was one of India’s most well known artists and often referred to as ‘India’s Picasso’. This work is from a series of limited edition prints titled ‘Ashta vinayak’ which translates to ‘Eight (Asht) Ganeshas (Vinayaka)’ in Sanskrit. Ganesha (also known as the elephant God) is the Hindu deity of unity, prosperity, learning and removing obstacles. He is usually worshiped first before any other worship service is carried out to any other deity.

Eight effigies found amongst nature and sculpted by nature have been housed in the temples created ages ago at the places where the effigies were first identified. These ‘Swayambhu’ effigies, are now the sacred idols termed as the famous “Ashta Vinayak. The Ashtavinayak yatra or pilgrimage covers the eight ancient holy temples dedicated to Lord Ganesha which are situated around Pune, Maharashtra. even though Husain was muslim, he had a lot of hindu friends and respected the Hindu culture immensly. The series he created here draws attention to these eight holy sites which Husian had himself visited during the course of his life.

This is a limited edition print is by Sayed Haider Raza (1922-2016). Raza was one of the founders of the Progressive Artist’s Group. After receiving a French Government Scholarship in 1950 he left for Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts, Paris. Sayed Haider Raza’s early themes were drawn from his memories of a childhood spent in the forests of his native village of Barbaria, in Madhya Pradesh. Raza’s style has evolved over the years - the current works is a print of a painting done in the late 1970′ s, where the artist’s focus turned to pure geometrical forms; his images were improvisations on an essential theme: that of the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind. The circle or “Bindu” now became more of an icon, sacred in its symbolism, and placed his work in an Indian context.

CONTACT Conor Macklin, Charles Moore and Kajoli Khanna Phone: +442074847979 Email: art@grosvenorgallery.com Website: http://grosvenorgallery.com

Untitled (Ashta Vinayak Series) Maqbool Fida Husain 2007 Offset Lithograph on Paper 50.8 x 35.6 cm

PROVENANCE Private collection, UK

Untitled (Bindu)

Sayed Haider Raza 1982 Silkscreen on paper, Signed and dated lower right and numbered 11/120 lower left Print produced by the Noblet workshop in Grenoble 49 x 48.5 cm

ESKENAZI LIMITED

10 Clifford Street, London, W1S 2LJ Eskenazi Limited is one of the world’s most respected dealers in Chinese art. Over the past 50 years, the company has built a reputation as the leading player in the field, having sold some of the finest works of art seen on the market during this period.

The material the gallery handles includes bronze, ceramic, sculpture, lacquer, works of art and contemporary ink painting.

The company holds regular themed exhibitions and has placed objects in private collections and in over seventy international institutions.

The variety of decorative techniques used on early ceramics is seen on these two vessels. The Tang dynasty (618-907) jar is covered with a rich sancai green and amber glaze against a cream ground to form a continuous chevron pattern while the delicate lotus motif in the well of the Northern Song (960-1127) bowl was created by incising and combing.

CONTACT

Daniel Eskenazi Phone: +442074935464 Email: daniel@eskenazi.co.uk Website: https://www.eskenazi.co.uk/

Sancai-glazed White Earthenware Globular Jar

Tang dynasty, 8th century Earthenware Height: 13.5cm Diameter: 12.0cm

PROVENANCE Private collection, Tokyo.

Kochukyo Co. Limited, Tokyo.

FEATURED LITERATURE Eskenazi Limited, Tang: ceramics, metalwork and sculpture, London 2021, number 8.

Celadon-glazed stoneware ‘lotus’ bowl,

Yaozhou kilns, Shaanxi province , Northern Song period, 11th - 12th century Stoneware, Diameter: 13.6cm

PROVENANCE Shimojo Art Co. Limited, Tokyo.

EXHIBITED London, 2018, Eskenazi Limited FEATURED LITERATURE Sotheby’s, New York, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 16 and 17 September 2014, number 110.

Eskenazi Limited, Song: Chinese ceramics, 10th to 13th century (Part 5), London, 2018, number 3.

S. A. FINE ARTS

54 Purely Avenue, London NW2 1SB S.A. Fine Arts, London was established in 2005 in the UK to promote modern and contemporary art from India and other Asian countries to a European audience. S A Fine Arts has held several exhibitions in London promoting artworks from Masters to Contemporary artists from India at prestigious venues like the V&A Museum (TATVA Show, showcasing Masters of Contemporary Indian Art) and at Royal College of Arts (Emerging India), 54 Emerging artist from India and Santiniketan Show- 55 artists including the founders like Rabindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Benode Bihari Mukherjee to alumni of Santiniketan.

The mission of the company is to create a platform in London and other parts of Europe to exhibit both established and upcoming artists to art lovers and collectors from around the world. To promote art with a purpose - bringing joy to both art lovers and collectors, by expanding the reach art has across generations and communities. We promote a collaborative relationship with our artists, valuing their creative perspective.

The zinc plate etching “Mahavira-The Enlightened One” is based on the life of Mahavira, the twenty fourth Tirthankar. It is based it on the dreams of Trishala, the mother of Mahavira, the stories connected with his growing up, renunciation and liberation.

The work has been shown at the Kochi Biennale 2014, Venice Biennale 2015 and at India Art Fair 2017.

Navagraha is the nine planets that are relevant to Indian astrology. We find their mention in Hindu Puranas and Upanishads.

These Grahas (planets) or houses correspond to our weekdays as Chandra, Mangala, Budha, Guru, Shukra Shani, and his two chaya graha Rahu and Ketu; Surya is in the centre around which all the planets are revolving.

CONTACT

Ms. Sangeeta Ahuja Phone: +447985078670 Email: sangeeta.ahuja@safinearts.com Website: https://www.safinearts.com

Unending Dance of light- Mahavira, 2014 Etching on Fabriano paper, 305 x 122 cm

PROVENANCE Acquired directly from artist Seema Kohli.

Currently exhibiting with S. A. Fine Arts Virtual Gallery.

Navgraha Series, 2020

Seema Kohli Acrylic colours and ink on canvas with 24 ct gold and silver leaf 61 cm diameter

PROVENANCE Acquired directly from artist Seema Kohli.

Currently exhibiting with S. A. Fine Arts VIrtual Gallery.

HANGA TEN

PO BOX 67812, London, SW7 9BL, (by appointment only) Hanga Ten (in Japanese “Shop of Prints”) is a leading specialist of contemporary Japanese prints. Established over twenty years ago in London, Hanga Ten has been instrumental in introducing the works of master print artists from Japan to a worldwide audience of private and institutional collectors. Hanga Ten represents twenty-five artists and exhibits at major art fairs in the UK up to six times a year. Frequent visits to Japan ensure strong and long-term relationships with our artists which our international clientele can confidently rely upon.

Hanga Ten is pleased to introduce two works by the Japanese mezzotint printmaking master, Katsunori Hamanishi (b. 1949). He is known internationally as a leader in mezzotint which is recognised as one of the most difficult print-making techniques. He is “The Artist’s Artist”. Although mezzotint print-making was invented in Germany in the 17th century, it is the Japanese artists who have enhanced this genre as an art form adding colour for the first time. With Hamanishi’s technique, colour and style, East truly meets West.

In “Flowers of Heaven 3”, Hamanishi beautifully captures the vibrant red colours against the velvety black of mezzotint. In “The Four Elements”, a large work composed on four sheets of paper, Hamanishi emphasises the most important of natural elements for humans - earth, fire, air and water, managing to combine these most topical of sustainable elements into his Japanese style.

CONTACT

Chiko Nara Phone: +447788458201 Email: japaneseprints@hangaten.com Website: http://hangaten.com

Flowers of Heaven - No. 3 Katsunori Hamanishi (b. 1949) 2020 Mezzotint Image: 60 x 45 cm; Sheet: 75 x 54 cm

PROVENANCE Direct from the artist Hamanishi is represented in the permanent collections of The British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, Museum of Modern Art NY, The Art Institute of Chicago among others

Four Elements - Earth, Fire, Air, Water (Quadriptych), 2016 Katsunori Hamanishi (b. 1949) Mezzotint with gold leaf Image: 60 x 154 cm, Framed: 85 x 180 cm PROVENANCE Direct from the artist

MARCHANT

120 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4BH The company was founded in 1925 by Samuel Sydney Marchant and is still family-owned and run, now in the fourth-generation. The specialities are Imperial Chinese Ming and Qing porcelain, jades, cloisonné, pottery and works of art. Emphasis is placed on rarity, quality and provenance.

Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai deep bowl painted with four circular medallions with birds and insects amongst flowering plants including peony, prunus, pink, daisy, tree peony and bamboo, all on a moulded ‘reticulated’ ground with fretwork, gently inset with pale green glaze, above a lappet band, the interior glazed white, the base with a six-character mark of Chenghua within a double ring in underglaze blue.

Chinese jade rhyton, gong, of archaic style carved on each side with a central band of taotie masks between archaic style cicada lappets and leaves beneath a key-fret band at the rim. The stone pale celadon, russet and taupe.

CONTACT

Stuart Marchant Phone: +442072295319 Email: gallery@marchantasianart.com Website: http://marchantasianart.com

Chinese porcelain famille verte, wucai deep bowl painted with four circular medallions with birds and insects Kangxi, 1662-1722 Porcelain 19 cm diameter

PROVENANCE • Sold by Matthias Komor, New York.

• From the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat.

• Sold by Christie’s New York in their auction of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 2nd June 1994, lot 354, p. 196 (pair).

• From the collection of Jeffrey P. Stamen, The Jie Rui Tang Collection, collection no. 1180.

FEATURED LITERATURE • Illustrated by Jeffrey P. Stamen, Cynthia Volk and Yibin Ni in A Culture Revealed: Kangxi-Era Chinese Porcelain from the Jie Rui Tang Collection, no. 57, p. 148 (pair), where the authors note, “A similar bowl is in the Walter’s Art Museum, Baltimore”, illustrated by Stephen W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art, fig. 105.

• A brush pot in the Qing Court Collection with a similar ‘reticulated’ ground is illustrated by Wang Liying in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 38, no. 147, p. 161, where the author notes that this ‘reticulated’ decoration is not common on Kangxi famille verte, wucai porcelain; another also painted with particularly high-quality panels, is illustrated

by Sam Marsh in Brush Pots, A Collector’s View, the Ashfield Collection, PB 23, pp. 252/3.

Chinese jade rhyton, gong, of archaic style Late Ming/early Qing dynasty, 17th century Jade, 13.1 cm high

PROVENANCE • Sold by William Clayton, 38 Bury Street, St. James’s, London, 19601985, by repute.

FEATURED LITERATURE • A similar rhyton wine vessel, gong, in the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated by Zhang Guangwen in Jade Ware (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing, no. 135, p. 167.

• A Qing imperial dated rhyton, gong, described as the Hodgson Rhyton, was included by Marchant in their 90th anniversary exhibition of Ninety Jades for 90 Years, 2015, no. 88, pp. 164-171 and front cover.

J.A.N. FINE ART

134 Kensington Church Street, London, W8 4BH Established in 1977 by Kikue Shimizu, J.A.N. Fine Art is located on Kensington Church Street, specialising in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Himalayan and South East Asian ceramics, porcelain, paintings and works of art Standing smiling boy on waves looking joyously upwards wearing a robe decorated with floral designs.

Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. The tradition dates back to Heian period, when floral offerings were made at altars. Later, flower arrangements were instead used to adorn the tokonoma (alcove) of a traditional Japanese home. Byōbu are Japanese folding screens made from several joined panels, bearing decorative painting and calligraphy, used to separate interiors and enclose private spaces, among other uses. Signed Shoho

CONTACT

Adam Shimizu Phone: 07703989724 Email: info@jan-fineart-london.com Website: https://jan-fineart-london.com

Chinese Wood Carving of a Smiling Boy China 17 - 18th century Fruitwood H: 19cm

PROVENANCE English collection

Japanese two-panel ‘Ikebana’ screen

Signed Shoho, Kyoto, Japan.

Meiji/Taisho Gofun on paper H:170cm x W:190cm

PROVENANCE Japanese collection

KEVIN PAGE ORIENTAL ART 7 Pierrepont Row, London, N1 8EE

Established for over half a century, Kevin Page Oriental Art is one of the most trusted and respected names in Oriental Art. With one of Europe’s leading collections of Japanese Meiji-era (1868 – 1912) Fine Art and Antiques, our Islington galleries also house a broad collection of fine Chinese porcelain ranging from Ming dynasty through to early 20th century.

From our “Masters of the Meiji” collection, we are delighted to showcase two wonderful examples of late 19th Century craftsmanship from the celebrated Kinkozan Satsuma studio.

Kinkozan was the biggest producer of made-for-export Satsuma ware and the Kinkozan dynasty was active from 1645 through to 1927. Their factories produced a wide range of different products and they are known for working extensively with some of the best artists of the day.

The two pieces highlighted in this edition of Spotlight showcase some of the incredible techniques used by the leading ceramists of the time. Both pieces feature intricate reticulation and exquisite painting. You can see more images of both pieces on our website.

CONTACT

Kevin Page Phone: +442072268558 Email: info@kevinpage.co.uk Website: https://kevinpage.co.uk

A large and beautifully crafted reticulated Satsuma vase

Kinkozan Ceramic. Earthenware pottery Circa 1880 Height: 49 cm

An outstanding Japanese Meiji Period satsuma vase signed Kinkozan c. 1880 Ceramic. Earthenware pottery Height: 24 cm

THE MAYOR GALLERY/JAMES MAYOR 21 Cork Street, First Floor, London, W1S 3LZ

The first gallery to open in Cork Street in 1925; with nearly 100 years in the art trade, The Mayor Gallery is internationally renowned today for being London’s foremost gallery for exhibiting artists from the Zero and international Concrete movements, particularly 1950s and 60s, and continues to offer works of leading Pop artists as well as Dada, and Surrealism.

Shinkichi Tajiri (b.1923 Los Angeles, USA - d.2009 Baarlo, The Netherlands) was primarely a sculptor who played with the theme of violence, eroticism and later friendship through metal assemblages and bronze sculptures. Two of his main themes were Knots and Warrior, both immediately recognisable and dynamic, mixing abstraction and figures with a perfect equilibrium.

The work of Taadaki Kuwayama (b. 1932 Nagoya, Japan - lives and works in NYC, USA) is characterised by a radical neutrality. Since the early 1960s the artist has adamantly broken from existing modes of artistic expression in order to create a neutral art with unitary colour fields. His most representative works comprise of four equivalent squares within black borders, each framed with aluminium, a structure with no top or bottom, free of composition. In order to fully appreciate Kuwayama’s artworks, the viewers need to leave one’s own conventional ideas behind.

CONTACT

Christine Hourde Phone: +447766950550 Email: christine@mayorgallery.com Website: https://www.mayorgallery.com

Granny’s Knot, 1995, Shinkichi Tajiri Cast iron, 31.5 x 43.5 x 11 cm PROVENANCE Shinkichi Tajiri Estate FEATURED LITERATURE London, The Mayor Gallery, Shinkichi Tajiri, 16 Feb - 31 Mar 2017, ill. in cat. p. 49

TK8932-1/2-‘66, 1966 Taadaki Kuwayama Acrylic on canvas 82.5 x 82.5 cm

PROVENANCE The artist FEATURED LITERATURE London, The Mayor Gallery, Tadaaki Kuwayama : Radical Neutrality, 7 June - 28 July 2017, ill. in cat. p. 33

PRIESTLEY & FERRARO

3 Bury Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6AB Priestley & Ferraro specialises in early Chinese art, with a focus on the ceramics of the Song dynasty and the periods immediately before and after. This was an exceptional time in the history of Chinese – and world – ceramics. Innovation was matched only by the perfection of technique, resulting in the proliferation of kilns all over China, each dedicated to a range of beautiful and characteristic wares. It is in this rich and rewarding field that we aim to find the finest pieces for the collector.

Although our primary emphasis is on ceramics, we enjoy dealing in many categories of earlier Chinese works of art, including lacquer, both carved and undecorated, jades and cloisonné enamels, and from the pre-Song period, Han and Tang dynasty pottery animals and figures and Buddhist stone carving.

The business was established in 1994 by David Priestley and Benedicta Ferraro. David studied Song dynasty ceramics under Mary Tregear at Oxford, before joining Sotheby’s in London where he worked as an expert in the Chinese Department. In 2002 Priestley & Ferraro was joined by Alice Williamson, also formerly of Sotheby’s and a graduate of SOAS. Priestley & Ferraro is a member of the British Antique Dealers Association (BADA).

No comparable large carved wood figure of a seated tiger appears to have been published.

However, the seated position and the goggle-eyed facial appearance provided by the foil-backed glass eyes create a compelling similarity with the kinds of tigers depicted in traditional Korean folk art paintings known as jakhodo, in which – typically - a tiger is seated beneath a tree with a magpie or magpies in the branches. For a good example of a jakhodo painting. see “ ‘91 Korea Antiques Composite Exhibition”, catalogue no. 174, p. 83. The presence of the cut-away section on the rectangular base suggests that the tiger was part of a larger group, perhaps beneath a tree in a jakhodo-like tableau.

Pillows modelled in the form of recumbent tigers are found in some numbers among the Cizhou family of wares, but it is rare to find a tiger as the principal decoration rather than the form, and even rarer to find a tiger on a fish-roe-ground pillow of the type made at the Dengfeng kilns.

Apart from the present example, only one other similar example appears to have been published, a rectangular pillow illustrated in “Origin of Dreams. Qing Ya Ji Gu Ceramic Pillows Collection”, no. 22, pp. 96-97. Slightly more common are tigers depicted in painted designs on black and white pillows. For an example of a pillow with a painted tiger, see “Sung Ceramic Designs”, PL.47e with discussion on p. 101. The tiger design here, as is typical for Dengfeng wares, appears to have been prepared using some kind of stencil. The technique reveals itself most clearly where the eyes of the tiger have been pricked through to mark the starting point of the design.

CONTACT

David Priestley, Alice Williamson Phone: +442079306228 Email: gallery@priestleyandferraro.com Website: http://www.priestleyandferraro.com

A very rare painted ashwood figure of a seated tiger

Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) or north China, Qing dynasty (1644-1922) 18th or 19th century Painted ashwood Height: 86.5cm, 34 inches

PROVENANCE Joseph Stanley Ltd. Philadelphia, 1973 Collection of Mrs Peggy Rea Joyner, Sewickley PA

A Dengfeng tiger pattern fish-roe ground pillow

Northern Song dynasty (960-1279) Glazed stoneware Length: 25 cm, 9 ¾ inches

SUE OLLEMANS

8 St James’s Square, London, SW1Y 4JU Sue Ollemans has been selling Ancient Asian Jewellery for more than 40 years. Most items are sourced from Private Collections from Europe and the United States of America. The pieces come from all over Asia and are found in their original state.

Two beautiful examples of traditional jewellery from South India.

A GOLD TALI PENDANT The Chettiars were former salt merchants belonging to the caste of rich merchants who were once settled on the Coromandel Coast and later migrated inland. The auspicious wedding necklaces were comprised of large central pendants and a number of smaller ones such as this that would flank the central pendant. These pieces evoked crab claws and shells that the Chettiars wore as ornaments or would represent the hands of the bride and groom.

These necklaces were part of the dowry offered by the parents to their daughter. They were considered as auspicious and protective and under Hindu law remained undisputedly her property to be used for her protection and security.

The word Tali comes from the name of a palm tree, the talipet that in some communities is used as a single strip of palm leaf tied around the bride’s neck to serve as a marriage emblem. The use of this auspicious emblem goes back into antiquity and in Southern India marriage tokens are strung on a sacred yellow thread and tied with three knots around the neck of the bride invoking the blessings of the Trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

CONTACT

Sue Ollemans Phone: +447775566356 Email: sue@ollemans.com Website: https://www.ollemans.com

A GOLD TALI PENDANT

Inset with rubies and red stone.

Part of a Kali Thiru (auspicious necklace) Chettiars Nattukottai Tamil Nadu South India 19th Century, c.1850 Length: 12cm

Provenance: A Private English Collection.

Similar Examples: Barbier Mueller Museum, Geneva, Switzerland.

Metropolitan Museum, New York, United States of America.

A CORAL GOLD AND RUBY TEMPLE NECKLACE South India 19th century, c.1850 Length: 50cm

Provenance: A Private English Collection.

MICHAEL GOEDHUIS

Flat 3, 61 Cadogan Square, London, SW1X 0HZ Michael Goedhuis has been dealing in Chinese art since the 1980s, after having gained experience in numerous fields within the art world. He initially focused on Chinese later bronzes for which he became world-renowned before broadening his interest to Chinese contemporary Ink painting.

Michael was one of the first dealers in the West to deal in Chinese contemporary art, building major art investment companies and organising pioneering exhibitions and auctions.

Guan Zhi was introduced to Ink painting as a child but initially pursued a career in business before turning to painting. His primary aesthetic commitment is to transforming the classical canon of Chinese Ink paintings into works that are meaningful to both Chinese society and the West today.

Yao Jui-chung is now recognised as one of the most innovative Chinese artists of his generation. His work runs against the current of much of the mainstream avant-garde in its unabashed delight in producing a visual experience for the viewer that is beautiful as well as intellectually provocative.

He is also a curator, art-critic and art historian and has been dedicated to evaluating and promoting Taiwanese contemporary art both in Taiwan and internationally.

CONTACT

Michael Goedhuis Phone: +442078231395 Email: london@michaelgoedhuis.com Website: https://www.michaelgoedhuis.com

A Thousand Miles of Torrents Cleaning My Heart, 2021 Guan Zhi Ink and colour on paper, 62 x 110 cm

Good Times: Boating Together Yao Jui-chung 2020 Handmade paper, gold leaf and ink 198.5 x 77 cm

LAM’S GALLERY

3C, Yally Industrial Building, 6 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Lam’s Gallery is one of the world’s most respected and trusted Chinese art dealers based in Hong Kong. Founded in 1988 by Mrs Lam Chan Mei Lam, Lam’s Gallery is now run by her youngest daughter Midco Lam who has more than 25 years of experience dealing with the finest works of Chinese art spanning 5,000 years of history patronised by world-class museums, dealers and long-term customers from around the world.

Chinese late Neolithic pottery includes a range of delicate, coloured and polished ceremonial vessels. This piece belongs to the Majiayao culture in the upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai.

Marble wares (jiao tai) were produced between the Tang dynasty and the end of the Song dynasty. The marbled pattern was produced by kneading together white and brown clays.

CONTACT

Midco Lam/Bobo Lam Phone: +85294740066 Email: info@lams-gallery.com

A rare large painted pottery jar

Neolithic Period (3,000BC) Painted Pottery Height: 54.6 cm

PROVENANCE Sotheby’s New York, 2003

A marble-glazed tripod censer Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) Glazed Pottery Height: 9.3 cm

PROVENANCE Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 1994

LITTLETON & HENNESSY ASIAN ART 1 Princes Place, Duke Street, St. James’s, London, SW1Y 6DE Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art is an art advisory group specialising in Asian works of art. We hold several exhibitions a year in our London gallery, in the heart of St. James’s. We are also regular exhibitors at various art fairs in the world, including the prestigious European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in New York and Fine Art Asia Hong Kong. We have established numerous world records in the fields of Chinese porcelains, bronzes and paintings.

Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art have either purchased pieces on behalf of or sold pieces to various Institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Museum of Fine Art (Boston, MA), Museum für Lackkunst (Germany) to name but a few. We are proud to say that we have been instrumental in forming some of the finest private collections of Chinese art in the West.

Part of our latest catalogue ‘New Forms - Song/Yuan’, these two exquisite works exemplify the aesthetic of Song Dynasty ceramics.

The small Henan-type bowl is covered in an unusual, deep persimmoncoloured glaze, further emphasising its delicate shape. The Cizhou-type oil spot bowl combines this simplicity in shape with a fascinatingly rich and lustrous glaze. The iconic oil spots pulling the viewer in, almost transporting them to another dimension.

CONTACT

Mark Slaats Phone: +447717825828 Email: mark@littletonandhennessy.com Website: https://www.littletonandhennessy.com

A SMALL HENAN-TYPE PERSIMMON-GLAZED BOWL Song Dynasty, 960-1279 Stoneware, 8.5 cm diameter

PROVENANCE - Formerly in the collection of Sir Herbert Ingram, Bt. (1875-1958) - Sotheby’s London, 15 May 2007, lot 214 The unusual bowl of shallow flattened form, the delicately potted sides rising steeply from a flat base. Overall covered in a vibrant russet glaze. The rim bound in copper. The base and shallow foot left unglazed.

A SMALL BLACK-GLAZED CIZHOUTYPE ‘OIL SPOT’ BOWL Song/Jin dynasty, 960-1234 Stoneware 9.5 cm diameter, 4.7 cm high

PROVENANCE - Formerly in an important Japanese museum collection, by repute - Christie’s South Kensington The deep rounded sides of this bowl rising to a slightly inverted rim, supported on a short, neatly finished and unglazed foot. The bowl is covered with a lustrous black glaze decorated with delicate, silvery ‘oil spots’.

This type of decoration is achieved by applying an iron-rich slip to the stoneware body of the bowl, before covering it with an iron-rich glaze. The glaze melts and diffuses during firing, with an iron-rich layer surfacing to create the iconic oil spot design.

Two similar bowls are illustrated in Robert D. Mowry, Hare’s Fur, Tortoiseshell, and Partridge Feathers, Cambridge, MA., 1996, no. 43a & b, p. 148-9. The author mentions that the present type of bowl is most likely made at Xiaoyu cun kilns, Hauiren, Shaanxi, in imitation of the ‘oil-spot’ bowls made at the Jian Kilns in Fujian which had naturally dark bodies.

JOOST VAN DEN BERGH

One Princes Place, Duke Street, St James’s, London, SW1Y 6DE

Based in London since 1988, Joost van den Bergh has dealt in Indian and South East Asian art for over 25 years, focussing particularly on Tantra, Jain and Hindu ritual art, as well as other works of art. He also specialises in 20th century modernist Japanese art.

The tree-of-life is an ancient and worldwide symbol alluding to the interconnection of all life on our planet and served as a metaphor for common descent in the evolutionary sense.

This large bronze ikebana vase is in the highly unusual shape of a Cactus. Interest and commercial sale of cacti began in the late 19th century in Japan. Initially these were very rare and expensive, as the Japanese economy grew cacti became more popular reaching its climax in the early 1940’s.

CONTACT

Joost van den Bergh Phone: +442078398200 Email: post@joostvandenbergh.com Website: https://www.joostvandenbergh.com

Tree of Life Gouache on paper India, Rajasthan 19th century Height: 94 cm, 37 in Width: 52 cm, 20 1/2 in

Bronze flower vase in the shape of a cactus

Japan, Showa Period 1926 - 1989 Height: 49.5 cm, 19 1/2 in Width: 36.5 cm, 14 3/8 in

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ASIAN ART IN LONDON 2022

Indian & Islamic Art: 20 – 29 October 2022 East Asian Art: 27 October – 5 November 2022

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