Our firm was engaged by the executor of a Chicago estate for the valuation and sale of a large collection of Chinese paintings and ceramics formed over many decades by a lady who had emigrated to America from Shanghai in her youth. The collection was dispersed in a series of major auction sales in Los Angeles and New York.
Having been raised in a family of collectors and foreign diplomats, the lady embarked on a world tour in1950 that brought her to Chicago, where she settled permanently and became an entrepreneur and businesswoman. Under the guidance of Zhuang Yan and Na Zhilang of the Taipei National Palace Museum, and with assistance from her uncle, C.F. Yao, owner of the prestigious Tonying & Company, the lady began forming a collection rich in 18th and 19th century enameled porcelains.
A stunningly attractive woman, she loved depictions of women in social settings. Noteworthy in her collection, therefore, was a monumental painting attributed to Zhenran (1816-1884) entitled Twelve Beauties from the Dream of the Red Chamber and featured at an exhibition in the Art Institute of Chicago in1997. Estimated at $40,000-60,000 and illustrated on the cover of the sale catalogue, the painting made $300,312.
The undisputed star of the collection, however, was a rare Imperially-Inscribed White-Glazed Ingot-Shaped Pillow, also exhibited at the Art Institute and acquired from the landmark sale in 1943 at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York of the famed inventory of Yamanaka & Company. This masterpiece, also illustrated on the cover of the sale catalogue, was estimated at $50,000-80,000. After some nineteen minutes of bidding, it brought a stunning price of $882,312.
