Many lots, like the bed, were introduced.
The hammer price was just under the lower estimate of $180,000. It sold for $170,000 plus 25 per cent premium of $212,500. The top estimate was $250,000 EBP.
Mr Martin Farrah, the auctioneer, was closer in the estimates than many others selling Chinese antiques for high prices recently, when results were many times the estimates.
But then he was armed with some very precise cataloguing.
The bidding was also a little more transparent than some. The lot went to a Chinese man in the room accompanied by his advisor openly bidding for 10 minutes against the one or two others on the Internet.
The type of bed has a long history in China and was made in one of the two most esteemed Chinese woods, huanghulai. Lawson's gave it the accolade " rare and magnificent", the wood being one of the two most desirable used in Ming furniture”
This Luohanchuang was constructed using complex compound mortise and tenon joints, without glue or nails and can be dismantled into twelve separate components
Buyers were referred to similar examples in the Dr. S. Y. Yip collection of Classic Chinese Furniture, catalogue by Grace Wu Bruce and Essence of Style: Chinese Furniture of the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties, Mimi and Raymond Hung Collection, by Robert Hatfield Ellsworth.
The article Comfort and Joy: A Couch Bed for Day and Night Journal of the Classical Chinese Furniture Society (JCCFS), Winter 1991, contains a15 page discussion on the history and uses of the Luohanchuang
Wang Shixiang, Classic Chinese Furniture, Ming and Early Qing Dynasties cites other examples
Lawson's catalogue informs us "the influence and adaptability of the Luohanchuang, used by scholars and the elite since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) as the centrepiece in any interior setting, can still be seen today."
It is a very practical: "Decked with soft furnishings, it replaces the three seater couch in the living room or function as a chaise longue / day bed for the bedroom and study"..
"The simple and classic design of the Luohanchuang, comprising an elevated platform with a three-sided panelled railing, has endured the centuries to remain a relevant centrepiece in the modern home."
The previous record was held by Mossgreen for a pair of Ming Dynasty zitan hardwood chairs which sold for AU$146,400 (IBP) against an estimate of AU$12,000 – $18,000.
Some people said yesterday's purchase, which was made in the room, was made by the same man who bought the chairs at Mossgreen.
The previous record was also set by Mossgreen on June 15 in their Autumn Auction Series this year with a pair of huanghuali throne chairs selling for AU$73,200.
The Ming chairs were what appear to be an identical or the same lot that appeared at a Theodore Bruce sale in Sydney for a fraction of what Mossgreen sold its lot for.
Showing the enormous unpredictability of the Australian market in Chinese antiques these chairs had been sold by Theodore Bruce for $5,040 against estimates of $8,000-$10,000, in October last year.
They are almost indistinguishable to a the chairs sold by Mossgreen but it has been impossible to button-hole Mossgreen's vendor to establish the relationship between the two lots.
The consignment of the bed to a "hybrid" sale by a buyer who held it in storage for many years was for convenience of a house setting and the lack of sufficient major goods from the $5 million house to attract attention.
The second highest price (excluding two cars) went to a zitan corner cabinet, luckily lotted at number 88, which made $17,500 plus premium.
When finally catalogued, with externally sourced paintings and rugs included, the number of lots was around 400.
McKenzie's auctions, Perth in June 2014 sold a painted porcelain fan shape panel attributed to Wang Qi , est. $5,500-9,500 for $287,500 including a 15 per cent buyer's premium. ($250,000 hammer)
At the same sale, also attributed to Wang Qi, a painted porcelain fan shape panel, estimated at $4,000-$7,000 sold for $172,500 including a 15 per cent premium.
These are understood to have gone to an overseas Chinese buyer.
Some auctioneers have found the spending a little scary with the market having a lot of possibilities for manipulation made even worse by language differences.
The enthusiasm for the furniture in particular contrasts strongly with that for English antique furniture although little of comparative rarity is being offered to the market.
It also contrasts severely with colonial times when furniture makers boasted they did not use Chinese craftsmen.
The price compares with $310,000 paid by the Federal Hotels group for a colonial cedar sofa made a century or so after the love bed.
