888 Auctions to sell Zhang Daqian watercolor March 29

888 Auctions will launch its spring auction season by featuring a fine collection of Chinese arts with its Spring Chinese Estates sale Thursday, March 29. Composed of 444 lots, the auction will feature several standout pieces that boast exceptional provenance.

With the prices achieves by the Zhang Daqian painting in 888 Auctions’ January auction, collectors will be pleased to find additional paintings fresh to the market and of high quality. Lot 51, a Xu Beihong (1895-1953) Chinese watercolor features a group of swan and a pair of perched birds, signed and inscribed with two seals. Interestingly, it also boasts a certificate signed by Liao Jingwen with pictures of Beihong’s wife inspecting the painting firsthand. It carries an estimate high of $60,000.

Lot 263, an 18th century Qianlong mark and of the period gilt bronze Amitayus figure will be the highlighted lot from the collection of metalware. Estimated at $12,000-$15,000, this finely casted figure with an eight-character Qianlong mark is expected to generate great interest on the basis of its sale history and provenance.

Blue and white porcelains continue to garner a significant amount of interest at 888 Auctions, and March’s auction may feature the most significant piece of blue and white porcelain at Lot 419. It is a Chinese Qianlong mark and Qing period hexagonal porcelain vase decorated with boughs of pomegranate, flowering branches of peony, lotus and chrysanthemum, and its spandrels painted as spiky lotus scrolls rising from the linked trefoils encircling the base and ruyi border around the angled shoulders. The cobalt blue simulates the heaping and piling effect typical of blue and white porcelains. It is estimated $40,000-$60,000