With the Asia Week events just wrapping up in the USA, there are still a few more important Asian Art themed auctions coming up on the block. Freeman’s in Philadelphia will be offering their important Asian Arts sale on April 8th. Historically, the Freeman’s Asian art auctions features hundreds of lots of artwork from China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayan region and India. This time, they chose to have a much smaller sale consisting of only 138 lots, thus emphasizing quality over quantity. Their focus is specifically in the categories of Chinese porcelain and ceramics, furniture, paintings and textiles. Lot 12, A Chinese carved and underglaze red "Dragons and Waves" vase, Meiping Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period. Estimate $150,000-$250,000 The star of the auction is lot 12, a Chinese carved and underglaze red “Dragons and Waves” ...Read More

For the second year in a row, Bidsquare is proud to virtually host the MassArt Auction - a highly anticipated, annual event made fully accessible, online, through two main events: the Live Auction, which will be held on Saturday, April 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET, and will once again be conducted by Karen Keane, auctioneer and CEO of Skinner, as well as, a Timed/Silent Auction catalog, with online bidding open from March 27th-April 11, 12pm EDT. Both the Live and Timed Auctions will be exclusively available via Bidsquare, register here to participate. For over three decades, the MassArt Auction has served as the College's largest annual fundraiser and New England's biggest annual contemporary art auction. This signature event features an extraordinary array of artwork that continues to attract the most discerning collectors. MassArt Auction proceeds...Read More

As we end March heading further into Spring, we notice the bright sun, the smell of fresh air, and the birds chirping in the morning. The end of March also gives us a great opportunity to review the first quarter of 2021 from a collectible economist’s standpoint. If you refer back to our Top Picks article from October 2020, Pop Culture had already been setting records compared to years prior through the pandemic. When compared to the present day, October, 2020 was in some cases a 50% clearance sale in comparison to the prices we’re realizing today. The market is strong, more buyers enter the market every day while supply only goes down. We’re living in the time of cryptocurrency, NFT digital art, and people are seeking alternative investments more and more. Comics, trading cards, toys, video games, fine art, watches, automobiles - you name ...Read More

“A good fashion is a daring fashion, not a polite one." — Daisy Fellowes These words of the famous French socialite and fashion icon can describe the life and times of Elsa Schiaparelli, the Italian fashion designer who Daisy Fellowes once patronized. Elsa Schiaparelli, a Surrealist and avant-garde fashion designer, was path-breaking in more ways than one.  Elsa Schiaparelli was an intuitively imaginative designer and a noteworthy fashion personality, especially through the first and second World Wars. Paul Poiret greatly influenced Schiaparelli in the initial days of her fashion journey. Poiret was known for crafting styles that promoted freedom of movement among modern and forward-looking women. Poiret inspired Schiaparelli to launch her Maison in the 1920s.      George Hoyningen-Huené, Portrait of Elsa Schiaparelli, 1932, Hoyningen-Huené...Read More

As the Asia Week events continue in the USA, Bidsquare will be offering many more Asian-themed auctions that should satisfy both collectors and connoisseurs alike. One of the marquee sales is at Hindman in Chicago, where they will be featuring Chinese & Southeast Asian Works of Art on March 25th. This 312 lot auction includes objects from China, the Himalayan region, India, and Cambodia and covers numerous categories such as such as scroll paintings, jade carvings, textiles, furniture, porcelain and Buddhist sculptures. Lot 29, Qi Baishi, Flowers of the Four Seasons: Wisteria, Lotus, Chrysanthemum and Prunus, ink and color on paper, four framed scrolls. Estimate $80,000-$120,000 The most anticipated highlight from this auction is lot 29, a set of four scroll paintings by Chinese master Qi Baishi 齊白石 (1863-1957). Qi is one of the most signif...Read More

It’s mid-March and that means another round of Asia Week in North America! Typically this event will bring hundreds of international collectors, scholars and art lovers to the New York area where they participate in the dozens of Asian-themed auctions, gallery and museum openings, and lectures. With the abundance of global travel restrictions, this year will be much more subdued despite the USA’s progress with vaccinations. Many potential attendees will have to rely on a virtual approach – through apps including Zoom, Wechat, and Facetime – to preview the thousands of artworks on display. Here’s all hoping the world will have a semblance of normalcy in the coming months. Skinner in Boston is one of the major stops on the Asia Week tour. This month, they will be offering their online Asian Works of Art sale from March 16th until March 25th. ...Read More

The internet wasn’t always the boundless landscape of shoppable items and virtual experiences as we now know it to be. The early developers who saw it as a sharp tool for military intelligence and academic research (snooze…) would have never foresaw the degree to which the online world has become a personal and dynamic extension of our everyday lives. As a matter of fact, the first secure transaction ever made on the internet was 27 years ago, when a college kid named Dan Kohn sold his friend a Sting solo CD for $12.48, plus shipping - a radical ideal in 1994, but in our post-covid world, making purchases through the internet is readily commonplace and evolving quickly across multiple industries. Now, the convenience of restocking one's refrigerator is met with the same clickable ease as, say, securing a valuable artwork during a live, onli...Read More

The phrase “art for art's sake” aptly expresses the spirit of fine art, which typically holds more aesthetic appeal than functional value. It is this very characteristic which distinguishes fine art from crafts and applied art, which has a utilitarian focus. Tracing back the history of human civilization, one can find enriching examples of various artifacts crafted for the sole purpose of aesthetics.  What is Fine Art? According to the aesthetic theories of the Italian Renaissance (15th – 16th centuries CE), fine art is the highest form of art as it allows a wholesome expression of artistic imagination unlike other forms of art that are governed by practical considerations. Another distinguishing factor is the number of people involved in completing the artwork. Fine art is all about a single artist completing a piece or series, whereas app...Read More

One of the most important and mesmerizing designs in Asian art is the geometric diagram known as a mandala. You might not be that familiar with the term ‘mandala’, but its presence has been recently popularized in pop culture from tattoos, to adult coloring books to the protective Tao Mandala shields used by characters in Marvel’s superhero movie Doctor Strange. Let me explain what is a mandala and what does it mean? In Sanskrit (considered the world’s oldest language), a mandala can be translated to ‘circle’ and it can be found in numerous East Asian religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. At its essence, the mandala guides the viewer for religious meditation, but it can also be a complex microcosm of the universe. Mandalas are very common in Tibetan Buddhism, and these types will be the examples used for this short essay. As a...Read More

The popularity of luxury and expensive items is on a constant rise. Leading expensive watch brands provide limited-edition and first-class items to collectors and other patrons. Designer brands are especially capable of blending fashion and reliability. They design and manufacture watches that live up to their prices while making a style statement. Many customers look for watches that suit both their budget and fashion preferences. Luxury vintage watches are the product of outstanding craftsmanship intended to last for centuries. These watches can be used and enjoyed by you and your descendants. The first step in your expensive watch investment is finding the right brand. Here are some of the most expensive and quality watch brands in the world.  Lot 2086, An 18 Karat Yellow Gold Ref. 3448 Wristwatch, Patek Philippe for Tiffany & Co., Circa...Read More