Reviews: Art

Ceramics and paintings

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts will sell more than 20 pieces of Chinese ceramics from its collection during an auction by the China Guardian Auction Co Ltd this weekend at the Beijing International Hotel. A preview will be held at the hotel today and tomorrow.

The 131-year-old museum is one of the seven in the United States that has a great collection of Chinese arts. Among its Chinese ceramics includes high-quality works spanning two millennia. There are delicate vases made in the Yue Kiln of the 3rd century AD and cloisonne enameled bowls for royal use in the Qing Dynasty. The pieces on sale this time are blue-and-white and polychrome porcelains from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Wang Shanshan

Priceless Qing furniture

Part of the most famous collection of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) royal furniture in Hong Kong is on display at the X-in-Beijing Art Gallery until March 30.

The Yuehuaxuan Collection of the Lee Family features more than 100 beautiful pieces of red sandalwood furniture used in the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. It also includes hundreds of sandalwood artefacts, such as birdcages and brush pots, from the Qing royal family.

The exhibition at the gallery highlights six pieces of furniture, one birdcage and one brush pot from the Yuehuaxuan Collection among more than 30 other sandalwood furniture pieces in Beijing's private collections.

China Cultural Heritage Press has published a book about the HK collection, which was compiled by renowned sandalwood furniture expert Tian Jiaqing. Both the exhibition and the publication are sponsored by the China Guardian Art Auction Co Ltd.

WSS

(China Daily 03/15/2007 page20)