Six Top Auction Houses for Buying, Selling, Viewing Jade

Some of the finest and certainly most expensive examples of jade artistry are found at auction, particularly the high-end international auctions. While prices may be prohibitive for many of us, on-line or print catalogs provide rare views of these objects.

Here are some of the top auction houses and links to pages where some of their jade offerings may be
displayed. Please advise of dead links.

Using search boxes at the main pages of these firms may provide further views, information about catalogs, or, for the fortunate who can do so, information on attendance or other participation.

Christie’s is one of the top auction houses. Founded in 1766 in London, it now has a global presence, holding some 350 auctions each year. Using the search term “jade” brought many interesting results at this site (click here).

Sotheby’s has been around since 1744 and is a name synonymous with high-end auction. The firm is well established internationally and has many specialty departments and services. This link takes you to an illustrated write-up on a bright emerald green jadeite necklace which sold at a world-record price, $27.44 million. On this page (link) there is a search box for more exploration of jade offerings at Sotheby’s.

Bonhams is also a British firm, founded in 1793 and quite active in the international marketplace. The firm offers evidence that it has successful challenged the leadership of Christie’s and Sotheby’s in a number of important sales areas. Using Bonhams search box I arrived at a sale about to take place featuring many antique Chinese pieces. Once the sale is held I suppose the page will change, at any rate you can use the search box to look for jade sales at Bonhams. Here is the link.

Skinner is a leading auction house offering quite a bit of carved jade. A display of items for bid and sold may be found here (link).

China Guardian apparently specializes in returning antiques to their home country, as many were taken away by looting.  Quarterly auctions are held in Beijing featuring treasures gathered around the world. A visit to the company search engine revealed over 400 pages of jade objects, an education on the sort of items of interest to the Chinese market. Here is the link.

Poly International Auction Company is a huge state-run operation in China where sales by foreign firms are generally prohibited. Particularly, foreign firms may not sell cultural relics, those being items produced before 1949. That is very limiting. An article on Poly, focused on the fine art aspect but quite informative, may be found here (link). 

Certainly other auction houses handle jade, this collection only covers those often referred to as top of the line. Here is a list of some other US companies.

Any additions or corrections are always welcome.