Featured Impact of history and provenance on inherited Chinese curios from 1948

Hello everyone,

I have inherited a series of items that were gifted to my parents on the occasion of their marriage in Shanghai in 1948. My father was a senior diplomat and his circle included many well-known people at the top of the political and economic post-war Republic of China world. I have the items, the cards that accompanied the items, my father's hand-written list of who gave what, a newspaper clipping about their wedding and various personal photos of what might be these folks. [I wouldn't recognize them but certainly experts would as they were often in the news of the time.] The gifts include a carved coral boat to heaven, a gold gilt buddha, several Chinese silver dinner sets in their travel boxes and possibly another item or two. I have been told that these items should be presented as a 'collection' as the personal relationships between my father and these men is an important historical moment. I am also told the value at auction would increase exponentially with the added information about provenance.

What do you all think? Is this accurate advice--about presenting things to an auction house with the context added? I'd only give copies of my father's handwritten list and the news article, but the personal cards would go with each item.

Thanks for your perspectives and any thoughts! I can post pictures of the items but hesitate to do so before getting initial feed back. It's a bunch of pictures!

 

I suggest you contact Heritage Auctions, or another one of the high end auction houses and their experts will advise you.

An auction house that already sells high end Chinese items could also be a good idea. Sign up with some auction houses and you can search and see sold prices.

LiveAuctioneers is a good one to start with since you can see sold prices for free

 

Thank you, Joe for these great ideas!

 

Yes, this is good advice. Well documented provenance almost always enhances value, as can the specific association with important individuals.

 

Documentation, paperwork, provenance, etc, is gold-dust for antiques of any kind. Often, that's the only way that people know the full history of any given item. So if you have the chance to include the information with the collection - do it.

 

Agree with Shangas, and I'd add a couple of practical things before you contact anyone.

Scan or photograph your father's handwritten list, the gift cards and the clipping, and match each card to its item in the photos. Keep the originals in a folder that stays with the collection. When you send pictures to the Asian art departments (Bonhams, Christie's, Sotheby's and Heritage all take photo submissions online for a free auction estimate) send the item shot and the matching card together, so they see the provenance right away instead of reading about it.

Don't polish the silver. Look for maker marks on the underside and note the weight of each set. Chinese export silver with a known maker sells on its own merit, but the silver weight is also a floor you can always check against.

Get two or three houses to quote before you sign anything, commission rates and how they'd market a named provenance collection can differ a lot.

 

@tagsale_notes. Who are you? If you don't mind my asking, most new members introduce themselves before posting.

 

@ola402 Fair question, I should have said hi first. I'm new here. I work on FlipWorth, the resale pricing app that's in my signature, so I spend most days on how people figure out what inherited things are worth and where to sell them. Not here to push it in threads, just trying to be useful where I actually know something. Happy to take a telling off if I stepped on toes.

 

No toes stepped on. We are a curious bunch here. Welcome to Antiquers!

 

If the silver never left the presentation boxes, it should be fine and you don't have to worry about polishing it.
But if it is tarnished, my advise is to polish the silver, but don't overpolish it. It has to be close to what the maker intended, not a grey mass of dirty non-descript metal.
Besides, tarnish isn't good for silver. Don't worry, the age-related patina will still be there.

As you can see in the link, Christie's only sell clean, polished silver:

https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/collections-incluant-la-succession-de-francoise-lambert-vendue-au/lots/3993?page=1&sortby=LotNumber&themes=Orfèvrerie

The other up-market auction houses require the same.

 

You sound like a bot. You are all over this forum since yesterday. Convince me that you're not.

 

They can't.
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/ai-invaders.94567/#post-13149853