collector

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.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the publishing of A.A. Milne's children's classic, Winnie-the-Pooh, Steiff has released a limited edition, plush Pooh bear. The bear is the largest yet made by the company and is 32-in. tall. He is made with blonde mohair fur and wears a suede vest. The details are hand-sewn. Only 1,000 of the fully jointed bears were produced, making them highly collectible for Steiff fans, as well as for fans of the book. Price: $775.

And if you're going for Pooh bear, don't forget to pick up his buddies Eyeore ($315), Piglet ($235) and Tigger ($235), too!

[via bornrich]

When Vertu first announced their Racetrack Legends phones, which pay homage to some of the world's most famous tracks, the company planned to sell them individually, releasing only 1000 of each of the six designs. So far, only 4 of the 6 designs have come out. To appeal to collectors during the holiday season, Vertu has just released a very limited edition Racetrack Legends Box Set that includes all six of the phones in a carbon-fiber box. The box also has three trays with cases for headsets and other mobile phone accessories. Only 51 sets will be sold. Price: £30,000 (approx. $59,000).

A Stradivarius violin made in 1707, known as "The Hammer", sold for far more than its estimated price of $1.5-2 million at a Christie's auction today. The winning bid, placed by a private collector, was for $3.54 million. This makes it the most expensive musical instrument ever sold at auction, though there are reports that say private sales have gone even higher. Stradivari is believed to have made more than 1,100 instruments in his lifetime and approximately 600 violins are believed to survive today. The Hammer is said to be from the master craftsman's "golden period," when he produced his finest pieces.

[Image from The Age]

A rare 1792 half-dime sold at the Central States Numismatic Society convention last Thursday night to a private collector for $1.33 million. The coin is believed to be one of the first minted by the United States. The half-dime, or "disme," as it was originally spelled, was in excellent condition and believed to be one of the best examples of the few hundred that remain around today. It depicts the figure of Liberty, a woman with flowing hair, on one side, and an eagle on the reverse. The cataloger for the Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, which was selling the coin, said that the coin might have been pressed twice at the time of minting because it's details are so clear.