Bonhams continues to score with the George and Mary Bloch Collection of Chinese Snuff Bottles which sold all 142 lots sold out for a total of HK$38,361,600 ($4,931,201/£3,054,329)
The Island Shangri-La Hotel’s ballroom was filled to capacity today as bidders from Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Singapore, London and California vied with bidders on the telephone to acquire the superb snuff bottles from the third selection of the world’s finest private collection, by far the best ever to come to the auction market. For the third time in this series of sales, every lot was successfully sold, maintaining Bonhams’ unique auction tradition in Hong Kong. […]
As anticipated, top price was paid for a gold-ground enamelled copper Imperial snuff bottle, manufactured in the Beijing Palace Workshops probably in the 1770s, which sold for HK$4.2 million (£334,323) to a private Asian buyer (lot 141, estimate in excess of HK$3.5 million).