Tiny medal may bring golden results
In 1910- 11, the pneumonic plague swept across Manchuria. An estimated 50,000 people died, including many doctors and nurses who tried to treat plague victims. The plague was said to be as lethal as the Black Death that swept Europe during the Middle Ages.
One of the heroes of the epidemic was a Scottish missionary, Rev. Dr. Dugald Christie, who had founded a medical college in Manchuria. Despite the danger, Christie continued to treat the sick and dying throughout the epidemic. When the outbreak passed, the last emperor of China honoured Christie with the Imperial Order of the Double Dragon. It’s a small but elegant medal fashioned out of 22- carat gold, with blue kingfisher feathers delicately arranged around a pair of golden dragons. And tonight at Maynards in Vancouver, it goes up for auction, with an estimated worth of $ 70,000 to $ 90,000.
But it could go for more — much more. Maynards has had some startling results with Chinese antiques in the past couple of years.
Last September, a quartet of Chinese polychrome decorated wall plaques sold for $ 851,000. In December, 2011, the auction house sold a collection of Chinese jade for $ 1.3 million. A single piece of jade went for $ 736,000.
The same consignor has put up several more pieces of jade for the current auction, a two- day affair which is largely divided into European/ North American antiques Tuesday and Asian antiques on Wednesday.
The highest pre- auction estimate is for a Chinese “mutton fat” jade potpourri and cover, which Maynards believes should sell for $ 80,000 to $ 120,000. The small bowl ( 14 centimetres high) features “scrolling flowers and phoenix, ( with) two carved floral handles below a coiled dragon finial.”
And it is white jade, not the usual green.
“This is the key. This is what all the big collectors want today, pure white jade,” explains Hugh Bulmer of Maynards.
“If it’s pure white, the price is the earth. Everyone’s coming to look and check exactly what colour it is. Is it pure white, is it slightly off- white, has it got a green tinge in it? All these things go towards the end results.”
The piece comes from the estate of the late Iranian businessman Habib Sabet.
“The Sabets were a Persian family who pretty much did everything in ( Iran) before the fall of the Shah,” Bulmer relates.
“They collected enormous quantities of really high- end antiques. Furniture, Chinese pieces, Iranian pieces.”
There are five more Chinese jade pieces from the Sabet collection up for auction, and they all carry estimates of $ 40,000 to $ 60,000. Four are white jade ( two vases, a table screen and an incense burner), and one is green jade ( a “spinach green” potpourri).
The auction has attracted international attention.
“I think we’ve got people from 50 or 60 countries who are registered online,” said Bulmer. “At the moment, something like 1,500 people are registered to bid at the auction, from all over the world.”
The European/ North American antiques are relatively inexpensive — a lovely painting of a horse by American Franklin B. Voss had an estimate of $ 200 to $ 300.
But the Chinese part of the auction helped push the overall estimate to $ 1 million to $ 1.5 million for the 640 lots.
“We have a very good market here ( for Chinese antiques), as shown by the last sale of pieces that ( the Sabets) had,” said Bulmer.
“I think Vancouver is probably a fairly unique market in that it has a very strong indigenous population of Chinese here, as well as connections with mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Many of the people who come here and buy have strong connections with those countries.”