Interest inworks fromthe Orient

Leader of the Oriental sale was an impressive early 20th century Chinese carved ivory figure group depicting a scholar with two children and their mother.

Albeit from an age of less environmental conscience than today, the group was nonetheless an exceptional piece of craftsmanship, carved from a single piece of ivory with exquisite detail.

If it had been Japanese, it would likely have been made from a number of separate carvings joined together. Just one slip of the chisel during weeks of work on this 26cm-high piece would have been a disaster for the craftsman.

Such quality comes at a premium and on the day at Toovey’s it was a top London dealer who shrugged off stiff competition from the Chinese trade to secure the piece at the hammer price of £10,000.

As is the way at present, Chinese pieces claimed many of the top prices of the auction but fine Japanese items stood their ground well.

An outstanding shibayama lacquer and silver filigree ornamental dish, Meiji period (1868-1912), diameter 33cm, richly inlaid in silver, ivory, mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell with a treasure ship laden with flowers, went to a top Sussex trader at £6,200.

A Meiji period Satsuma earthenware circular box and cover, diameter 8cm, finely painted with miniature landscape panels by Sozan, one of the period’s greatest exponents of the Satsuma decorative style, achieved £3,200, selling to a private collector in California.

Private buyers were strong contenders in Toovey’s select sale of pictures too.

An oil on panel study of ponies at Hurlingham by Frances Mabel Hollams (1877-1963), a prolific commission painter of equestrian and canine portraits for wealthy clients, sold to another American collector at £2,200.

‘Second Ring, Kemptown Park’, a small pencil sketch by one of England’s finest painters of equestrian scenes, Alfred James Munnings (1878-1959), went under the hammer at £1,300 to a Lincolnshire collector.

An Italian coastal scene, ‘Castello di Paraggi’, by noted German artist Gustav Schoenleber (1851-1917) went to an Italian collector at £4,400 and a study of a black grouse cock in flight by the celebrated Scottish watercolour artist and bird illustrator Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) sold to a Sussex collector at £6,400.