Earning top-lot honors at $203,700 was this pair of 28¾-inch-tall famille verte vases, Kangxi period (1662-1722), that depicted scenes starring poet Pan Yue ($30/50,000).
Review by Carly Timpson
NEW YORK CITY — Asia Week New York 2026 spanned March 19-27, presenting a number of auctions, exhibitions, lectures, gallery open houses, panel discussions and even two book launches. Getting in on the action on March 24-25, Doyle conducted a curated, 571-lot Asian Works of Art auction that featured property from the Argentina “Tina” Hills collection among other artworks from China, Japan, Korea, India, the Himalayas and Southeast Asia. In total, the two-day sale exceeded $2.5 million, far surpassing expectations.
“The big, foundational collection was sold on the first day, property from the estate of Argentina ‘Tina’ Hills. The collector was a woman in Miami who was really an important figure in North America. She was a one-time owner of El Mundo, a major newspaper in Puerto Rico,” shared Richard Cervantes, director of the Asian works of art department at Doyle and a senior vice president of the firm.
Italian-born and New York-raised, Tina Hills was a publisher, arts patron and lifelong champion of the free press in Latin America, according to Doyle’s collection story. The Hills property included 113 lots of Chinese porcelain and other works of art and attracted spirited bidding and resulted in a total that more than doubled the collection’s high estimate.
This Chinese blue-and-white vase with red lion accents, 15 inches tall, had a Qianlong (1736-1795) seal mark and was possibly of the period; it realized $152,900 ($2/4,000).
“What I found appealing about the sale was that many who were interested came to me and characterized it as ‘an old-fashioned collection,’ said very fondly, noting that collections like this aren’t found very often anymore,” explained Cervantes. “People used to be able to put together large and high-quality collections of Chinese porcelain in the 70s and 80s, but you can’t really do it anymore in this market, and that’s what really made this auction special. The property was good, and the majority of things sold were from the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century — that’s a strong period for us, with the Qing dynasty really being our bread and butter.”
The auction was led by a pair of Kangxi (1662-1722) famille verte vases from the Hills collection. Estimated at $30/50,000, the pair skyrocketed to $203,700. The porcelain rouleau-shaped vases were detailed with continuous scenes depicting the prodigious and handsome poet Pan Yue (Chinese, 247-300 CE) riding in a carriage drawn by rams and attended by servants while crowds of ladies fawned over him. Standing 28¾ inches tall and bearing labels from Chait Galleries, New York City, the vases had symbolic cartouches and panel decorations on the neck and shoulders.
Another porcelain from the Hills collection, a Chinese blue-and-white vase with copper red details, achieved the second-highest price: $152,900. The vase had a Qianlong seal mark and was possibly of the period. It had provenance to S. Merchant and Son (London) and was illustrated in the firm’s 1996 publication Imperial Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong.
Standing 30½ inches tall, this large Chinese doucai porcelain vase depicting boys at play in a garden, Nineteenth-Twentieth Century, also brought a large price: $95,750 ($5/7,000).
High marks from the Hills Chinese porcelain offerings were also achieved by a large doucai porcelain vase decorated with scenes of boys at play outdoors ($95,750); a blue-and-white yuhuchun, or pear-shaped, vase featuring dragons chasing shou (longevity) and fu (fortune) pearls that had provenance to Chait Galleries, New York City ($89,400); a Qing dynasty blue-and-white landscape jardinière detailed with a continuous landscape scene ($57,600); and a Southern Song dynasty qingbai ewer and warming bowl, together in the form of a melon resting inside a blossom ($38,400).
Taking inspiration from Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, an elephant-form kendi from Safavid Iran (1501-1736) also impressed bidders. A similar object is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, though the museum’s example, unlike Chinese porcelain originals, is made of stonepaste. The elephant kendi from the Hills collection had vibrant cobalt details with ruyi-head, key-fret and floral motifs; it reached $21,760.
“One of the best things I had was a Tibetan bronze that came on day two,” noted Cervantes, referring to a gilt bronze figure of Virupa, detailed with inset turquoise beads, that came from the collection of Jane Stanton Hitchcock. “It was a big surprise, too, because it was so conspicuously damaged. It had a prominent arm, raised up, but that arm was broken off. Because of the damage, I didn’t really know where it would land — but I knew it was a really rare form. To present something really rare like that and with damage, it’s just exciting to see what happens.” Bidders clearly saw the rarity and not the defects, taking the Sixteenth-Seventeenth Century figure to $152,900.
Though it had a significant defect, this Tibetan gilt bronze figure of Virupa, Sixteenth-Seventeenth Century, 7¼ inches tall, was highly sought-after and finished for $152,900 ($4/6,000).
On the two-dimensional art side, Cervantes said, “There was a really terrific collection of Japanese prints to start the second day. Most of the prints we had were shin-hanga [new prints] from the early Twentieth Century. These were done by a new generation of artists who studied abroad for the first time and incorporated a lot of Western techniques. They’re a little more modern and one of my favorite categories right now. Hasui Kawase prints, in particular, did pretty well.”
The leading print, Kawase’s “A Fine Winter’s Sky at Miyajima,” exhibited the modern techniques and, coming from a private New York collection, it realized $35,200. More traditional, Katsushika Hokusai’s “White Rain Below the Mountain [Black Fuji]” from “Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji” (circa 1831) earned the category’s second-highest price: $32,000. This print had provenance to the late Sotheby’s auctioneer David Redden.
A 1984 oil on canvas painting by Chinese artist Chen Yifei, titled “Start of the Day (Suzhou),” was bid more than three times its high estimate, finishing for $95,750. Cervantes commented, “The Chen Yifei came from the Hills collection and it was an unusual piece for me. The artist straddles the traditional Chinese market — interesting collectors of both Chinese antiques and art. I don’t usually sell those newer oil paintings, but there was overlap in collectors. Given the circumstances, it was certainly a triumph for us. Usually in this auction, we sell traditional Chinese works of art, and the subject was traditional, but it was an unusual piece for us since he’s a modern/contemporary artist.”
Modern Chinese painter Chen Yifei (1946-2005) was represented by his 1984 oil on canvas “Start of the Day (Suzhou),” which measured 30 by 42 inches and realized $95,750 ($20/30,000).
Also from the Redden collection was a Chinese brown-ground embroidered silk Baishou dragon robe, or jifu, from the Qianlong period. “I can honestly say it may be the rarest robe I’ve sold, if not the most valuable. The condition issue with this robe is that it had been exposed to sunlight and the color was affected. But that being what it is, it was the rarest lot in the sale because it was a very unusual configuration.” The catalog noted that Baishou robes from the period are “exceptionally rare,” and this one was likely made for an imperial nobleman. Cervantes continued to explain, “It was probably made for a birthday celebration. You know, we go and get a paper party hat, but this was a month’s long creation with very intricate dragon and Shou characters, which are used to wish happy birthday, giving blessings for a long life.” The robe sold for $38,400 to a knowledgeable individual who Cervantes described as “the happiest buyer.”
Additional property from the Tina Hills collection will be offered throughout the spring, including in Doyle’s Prints & Multiples auction on April 28 and Entertaining with Style on May 6.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.doyle.com or 212-427-2730.
