Paris – A highly important 13th-century Ge Mallow-Shaped Brush Washer belonging to the celebrated jewellery designer Elsa Peretti (1940-2021) sold for €1,379,400 at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris today (11 June 2025).

Asaph Hyman, Bonhams Global Head of Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, commented: "It is a great honour to have been entrusted with the outstanding Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation brush washer. Following a travelling exhibition from New York to Taipei, Hong Kong, and Paris, this rare brush washer sold for €1,379,400 on behalf of the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation. I was delighted that collectors and institutions around the world appreciated the rarity and the quality of this piece. Elsa Peretti's genius was the ability to distil forms and functions to design-perfection transcending time."

Then the surprise of the following Asian Arts sale came from a magnificent and very rare pair of massive bronze-alloy mythical beasts (bixie) from the Qianlong period (1736-1795) which sold for €4,065,600 against an estimate of €300,000-500,000. Powerfully built, seated on their hind legs, with their majestic heads raised, eyes bulging and fangs bared, their winged bodies indicate their supernatural powers believed to ward off evil. Pairs of similar large mythical beasts or lions made in stone were prominently displayed at the entrances of Imperial temples.

Today's sales made a total of €6,873,934.

Caroline Schulten, European Head, Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, said: "I am delighted by these exceptional results achieved today at Bonhams for these superb ceramics and works of art from various European collections. It was a great privilege to research these exceptional works of art, rediscovering them and offering these wonderful pieces to Chinese and European enthusiasts."

Other highlights of the sale included:

• An Imperial, yellow-ground green-enamelled 'dragon' vase made in the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty was also made to grace the Imperial quarters of the Qianlong emperor sold for €241,700, twice its estimate of €120,000-150,000. It comes from the collection of John Dearman Birchill (1828-1897), a wealthy English clothing manufacturer with a passion for Chinese porcelain which he displayed in his mansion Bowden Hall in Gloucestershire.

• An Imperial album illustrating the Dharani Sutra from an English private collection is another testimony to the appreciation of the Qing emperor's reverence for Buddhism sold for €140,100, doubling its estimate of €50,000-80,000. Painted representations of Bodhisattvas and Buddha are finely and colourfully rendered and texts are written in gold on a vibrant blue silk representative of other 18th century Imperial albums similarly executed.

• The sale also featured two important examples of 18th century furniture formerly in French private collections. A wonderfully refined yet luxuriously decorated zitan side table with cloisonné and champlevé enamel applications and silver-inlaid details sold for €127,400 and a pair of gold-painted black lacquer display cabinets, belonging to an important group of Imperial palace furnishings and illustrating the refined taste of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, achieved €76,600.

• The sale also included a very rare documentary polychromed clay portrait figure of the 28th Sakya throne holder Ngawang Sonam Wangchuk (1638-1685) from the Michael Henss Collection sold for €102,000. Consecrated with a piece of the monastic robe worn by Sakya Pandita, the fourth of the five founders of the Sakya Order, this important figure, made between 1685 and 1687, is inscribed and memorializes the head of the Sakya monastery.

• Finally, two paintings by icons of 20th century Chinese painting closed the sale. A wonderfully coloured painting of amaranths by Qi Baishi (1864-1957), dedicated to Dr. Oskar Paul Trautmann (1877-1950), German ambassador to China in Nanjing between 1935 and 1938 and pioneer in collecting and promoting modern Chinese artists, sold for €89,300 against an estimate of €60,000-80,000. The second painting from a French family collection is by Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) and was included in an important exhibition on Chinese artists working in Paris, held at the Musee Cernuschi in Paris in 2011 sold for €127,400.