China MORE IMPERIAL CHINESE ITEMS AT LONDON AUCTION

[KIMKAN]

Dear all,

The well-knowm house of Spink in London will auction off some interesting imperial Chinese medals on April 24th. Catalogue is online on their website. Only 7 items (number 325 to 331) pertaining to China. Worthy of note is a 2nd type First Class 3rd Grade ODD set, in its original case of issue and in perfect condition.

If we add up these items to those of the Hong Kong auction just mentioned by Drclaw in a previous post, this boils down to an amazing quantity of high quality Chinese medals that suddenly swamp the market. It is springtime after all, flowers and Chinese medals are blossoming all over the place !...

Just fascinating....

Regards to all.

KimKan

[KIMKAN]

This is the link straight to the auction catalog

https://www.spink.com/auction.aspx?id=14001

KimKan

[JapanX]

Here they are

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Price estimates look realistical

[drclaw]

These are beauties. A cased First Class Third Grade is very, very rare and the insignia look like in perfect condition.

The Third Class Bacqueville BREAST star is also an interesting piece and follows on from Kimkan's observations that some recipients commissioned Third Class insignia from European manufacturers to be worn as a star, not a neck badge as standard. Note the green enamel variation too.

Thanks Kimkan and Nick for the photos.

[utopis]

The 2nd type 1cl 3rd grade DD sold for $32.150 (incl. bp)

The Bacqueville star sold for $10.500 (incl. bp)

[JapanX]

DD-related plans - good buy!

Or is it goodbye DD-related plans?

Edited April 24, 2014 by JapanX

[KIMKAN]

Dear all,

Yes, it is quite expensive indeed and out of reach to most "ordinary" medal collectors. Spink is a global house and they can easily tap international markets. Please note that a very traditional British set of medals sold for nothing less than 120,000 UK Pounds in that auction ! Chinese badges look like petty cash after that....The most amazing thing is that the 3rd Class ODD neck badge that was presented in a glass frame sold for almost twice as much as the other 3rd Class ODD badge which was a higher grade (1st grade) and a much larger badge (95 mm instead of 75 mm). At first sight, one would have bet on a totally different result, i.e the highest price to the highest grade and, possibly, to the most impressive one. Just the opposite took place. The same can be written on the Golden Grain knight badge that went for 2.000 UK Pounds ! Similar badges frequently sell for a third of that price at public auctions. We just have to conclude that auction results are just unpredictable.

Regards to all.

KimKan

[utopis]

DD-related plans - good buy!

Or is it goodbye DD-related plans?

Well, it doesn't have to be that way.

This 2nd type 1cl 3rd grade DD sold last weekend on ebay for $18.000.

[JapanX]

Yea, right.

Everything is fine now

P.S. As we both know "sold on eBay" can be very tricky concept :whistle: