Sotheby's and Christie's are heading east to seek their respective fortunes. The two auction houses are offering more than $26 million of Asian art this week in London. The lots themselves are attracting record numbers of buyers from mainland China, a section of the market that has shown signs of life this year. Chinese buyers were quite active in Hong Kong last month.

Nicholas Chow of Sotheby's told Bloomberg News, ""We've seen a really aggressive push from mainland Chinese collectors during the last season of sales" and that "they're buying things at the very highest level." An Imperial jade seal, for example, moved for GBP3.6 million on Tuesday, six times the high-end presale estimate.

On November 3, Christie's sold an aggregate GBP5.7 million, beating the presale estimate of GBP5.2 million. Of the 319 lots, a third didn't move. The top seller was an eighteenth century enamel model of a Buddhist shrine, which beat its presale range of GBP60,000 to GBP80,000 with a hammer sale of GBP229,250. Nine of the top 10 most expensive items went to buyers from Asia.

Collectors from mainland China are quite eager to repatriate art and other objects from their heritage, particularly the Qing and Ming dynasties ... a fact of which the auction houses are fully aware. Christie's sent 210 invitations to mainland Chinese for its 12th annual Asian Art in London event, which ends November 7, 2009. Sotheby's pursued a similar number of collectors. Bonhams has invited 30 new buyers from mainland China.

In October, the Sotheby's Hong Kong art auction was good for $170 million, with plenty of bidding and buying by mainland Chinese buyers.

How's this for a golf foursome: baseball icon Babe Ruth, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and former California Governor Culbert Olson. The four played together as part of a charity golf match in Sacramento in 1942. The scores were kept by Charles Robertson, a member of the golf club, who followed them on the course that day and obtained their autographs in the clubhouse after the match," said Chris Ivy, Director of Sports Auctions at Heritage.The one-of-a-kind autographed scorecard will be sold by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas on October 1 and is estimated to sell for $2,000 to $4,000.

The autographs are signed in pencil on the scorecard from the Sacramento Municipal Golf Course that was kept by Robertson and then his heirs for the past 67 years. The match play tournament scorecard only goes through the 16th hole. Hope and Crosby apparently had won at that point, and left to catch a flight to attend a charity dinner elsewhere that evening.

A tiny piece of change brought in some big money recently. The 1870-S half dime is a small silver coin struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1870. The coin was sold as part of a New Jersey man's collection of 93 mint-condition half dimes to Laura Sperber, President of Legend Numismatics of Lincroft, New Jersey. The entire collection went for $2.2 million and the 1870-S has a value of $1.4 million.

This tiny coin, a forerunner to the modern nickel, was not even known to exist until 1978. There were plans to create the coin but Mint records showed that no 1870-dated half dimes were made at San Francisco Mint. Then in 1978 this coin turned up in Chicago. It was sold for $425,000 and changed hands several times since then. It has been certified genuine by Professional Coin Grading Service of Newport Beach, California.

What's really interesting is that Sperber and Legend Numismatics originally bought the coin for $661,250 at an auction in 2004 and then sold to the New Jersey collector. The company re-purchased it five years later for more than double that price, and has already sold it along with the New Jersey man's other half dimes for an undisclosed amount.

As the world mourns Michael Jackson's death, some are beginning to focus on the future value of Jackson memorabilia. Perhaps no one else is as close to it as Darren Julien, chief executive of the Julien's Auctions. Julien's Auctions specializes in Hollywood collectibles. Earlier this year his company was set to sell around 1,400 Jackson items for auction including Jackson's Rolls Royce, Jackson portraits, costumes and even the gates to Neverland Ranch before the auction was called off by Jackson. It's not known yet if an auction could now take place but even the catalogs that Julien's Auctions had created for the event could be highly collectible.

Jackson-related keepsakes are already on the rise on eBay and elsewhere but buyer beware. Joe Orlando, President PSA/DNA Authentication Services warns of a potential explosion of fake Michael Jackson autographs and counterfeit memorabilia: "This happens every time a famous Hollywood, sports or political celebrity passes away," he says. "Online auctions and flea markets are suddenly filled with spurious signatures, and frankly many collectors don't know exactly what they're buying." Jackson did grant some fans autographs but he was reclusive and didn't offer fans frequent autograph access like some other celebrities. Orlando says that even if the signature is accompanied by what appears to be a certificate of authenticity, that may not offer consumers enough protection. "Collectors who purchase autographs or memorabilia need to know the reputation of the seller and the reputation and expertise of the authenticators. The bottom line is that a certificate or letter of authenticity is only as strong as the name behind it," Orlando said.

Michael Jackson also inspired quite a bit of art. Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons are just two of the artists who used Jackson as a subject. Check out this ArtInfo piece for more on Jackson as a muse.

In 1982, you ran around your living room with a makeshift blaster, aping the mannerisms of Harrison Ford. The film Blade Runner grabbed hold of your imagination, and your life was changed forever. Now, you can take your childhood dream of humanoid hunting to the next level. The very gun that you imitated with what seemed like a large stick is going to be auctioned by Profiles in History on April 30 and May 1, 2009.

If Blade Runner wasn't your childhood obsession, you may find satisfaction from some of the other memorabilia that's coming under the gavel at the end of the month. Profiles in History, an auction house, anticipates a total take of around $3 million from the two days.

The famous weapon comes from science fiction promoter Forrest Ackerman's collection. Also from his stash are a puppet used in the 2005 movie Corpse Bride, costumes from Blade Runner (worn by Ford) and a ring worn by Bela Lugosi when he played Count Dracula.

The Blade Runner weapon is expected to fetch between $100,000 and $150,000.

Smoking bans may ultimately keep cigar connoisseurs from buying that next lighter or cigar cutter, but there is a group – that may or may not smoke – that is buying cigar-related items aggressively. Collectors are being drawn to antique smoking-related items, even if their use has become less popular over the past several decades.

Pipes, ashtrays, cigar boxes and cigarette dispensers are on the list for this subculture. Others are drawn to packaging and advertising, scooping up old cigar bans, boxes of matches, in-store ads and other forms of "tobacciana." Some are even quite expensive.

So, when your kids get on your case about the stack of empty cigar boxes in the living room, just tell them that's how they'll get through college ... if they're lucky.

[Photo by Steve Zak]

The Wall Street Journal reported that Visionaire magazine -- a publication where design, marketing, style, trends and art intersect -- is charging $50,000 for a special Goyard trunk designed for its collectors. The handmade trunk will house the magazine's first 50 issues. This summer, Visionaire also will offer 10 complete sets of its first 50 issues in the Goyard trunks for $150,000. The customized steamer trunks, assembled by hand, will have shelves and insets designed for all 50 issues. Collectors also can buy an empty trunks for €34,500 ($54,000).

From its premiere issue in April 1991 (now up to 54 issues, with each issue typically priced between $150 - $350), Visionaire "challenged notions of what it meant to be an art and fashion publication and was conceived of as a venue for artists such as Mario Testino and Steven Meisel to publish personal work," WSJ stated. It has morphed into something more like a design challenge for its many contributors.

Each issue (which can take between nine months and three years to complete) is typically a mixed-media riff on a theme, posing an ongoing set of challenges to a small crew of designers. For example, White began with the question: How do you publish without using ink? Answer: a combination of Braille, embossing, varnish and paper-cut illustrations. Scent came with perfume capsules, Taste had specially-designed flavor-strips and Sound featured a Mini Cooper toy car that played record albums.

The tiny principality of Liechtenstein is selling off property from five centuries of European art history. The private collection of the prices of Liechtenstein will be sold at Christie's Amsterdam on April 1. The auction is 450 lots of furniture, paintings, clocks, sculpture, tapestry and works of art with estimates ranging from €300 to €300.000. The sale is being held so that the family can continue to invest in the many works of art which will remain in their private collection. Highlights include rare bronze statues from the Italian Renaissance, a pair of celestial globes created by Willem Janszoon Blaeu who studied mathematics with the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, and a Dresden cabinet.

This latest home theater highlighted by Electronic House isn't remarkable so much for the theater part of things but for the unique decorations. The owner, a Batman fan who collects the action figures, actually has built-in toplight boxes to display the figurines. The room also has Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles and in-wall speakers and Novawall acoustic paneling to create one fancy basement. The complete slideshow is over at Electronic House.

It's Gucci's 85th anniversary and to celebrate there are the usual assortment of handbags. There's also this little guy. The limited edition collectible horse is made in chocolate guccissima leather with signature web and a Gucci 85th anniversary plaque. The horse is pricier than many of the Gucci purses, he sells for $1095.

Sometimes the simplest designs are the most beautiful. The Stellastar pen from Visconti is created from a single silver bar that is lathe-shaped, smoothened and rhodium plated into the gleaming column with a distinctive star shape. The pen has a two-toned 18k gold nib and each pen in the limited edition of 1,917 (the birth year of the designer,architect Ettore Sottsass ) has a serial number with the author's signature on the base. The pen stands inside a transparent cylinder on a steel and wood base. It sells for $3,500.

Tennis great Bjorn Borg is selling off the best moments of his career. Borg, the only person to win five consecutive Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship titles will be selling all five Wimbledon trophies and two rackets from his 1976 and 1980 final matches. This is the first time a tennis player has sold a Wimbledon-winning trophy at auction. The trophies will be sold at Bonhams in London on June 21  and will go as one lot and are  expected to bring £200,000-300,000. The rackets will be sold as individual lots and should bring in  £10,000-15,000. Why the sale? Borg has cited the need for "some long-term financial security for those close to me" as the reason.

[via the Daily Press]

Bored with auctions featuring fine works of art and vintage jewelry? Check out Christie's London sale of the Nic Costa Collection of Amusement Machines on January 19. The 150 machines range from the 1880s to the 1950s. There is a coin-operated stereo viewer, a 'Digger' coin-operated standing machine by the Buckley Manufacturing Co. and several mutascopes, devices which work sort of like flip books to create a moving picture. The happy guy shown here is a laughing policeman coin-operated automaton by Raffler & Walker which is estimated to sell for 2,000 - 2,500 British pounds.

The theme of the Swarovski Crystal Society edition for 2005 was Harmony, this year it is Eternity. The 2006 sculpture features a clear crystal sea turtle and blue crystal coral. Like last year's edition it is also available in an all clear crystal version. members of Swarovski's Crystal Society get the exclusive chance to purchase the 2005 edition.The piece sells for $450.

In order to celebrate Fountain Pen Hospital's 60th anniversary, Stipula Pen Company of Italy has created the Blue Dusk Limited Edition. The pens are done in blue resin with sterling silver trim. They are selling 60 numbered fountain pens and 30 rollerballs. The fountain pens have Stipula's 14 kt gold nib, available in fine, medium and broad. Both pens can be purchased as a set for $395.