FREITAG, 21. NOVEMBER 2025 
Asian Arts: Exceptional Highlights on Display at the Hôtel Drouot
O pening the week dedicated to Asian Arts, the most significant pieces—on loan from the auction houses holding dedicated sales in early December—are showcased in a curated selection from 21 to 25 November in Room 12 at the Hôtel Drouot.
The selection notably features a stunning group of cloisonné enamels that once decorated a private mansion in Neuilly. Highlights include a pair of he-type zoomorphic ewers shaped like phoenixes and resting on monkey-shaped feet, as well as a tripod incense burner with elephant-figure supports, characteristic of Qianlong-period craftsmanship, bearing the emperor’s mark on the reverse.
In the hardstone category, a rare collection of jade pieces from Victor Segalen’s collection reflects his taste for delicate scholar’s objects. Segalen, a multifaceted and passionate figure—physician, poet, novelist—was also a distinguished archaeologist and sinologist, with deep knowledge of China’s artistic traditions. Three pieces from his collection enrich the exhibition: a bracelet box carved with geometric motifs, a large peach-shaped cup, and a brush holder decorated with the “Three Friends of Winter” motif and two poems by Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795).
Ceramics and enamel works are also well represented. Among them: a wulianping vase—a rare form composed of five adjoining square containers in celadon-glazed porcelain with gilded enamel decoration, bearing the six-character mark of Qianlong; a small guan jar in porcelain and doucai enamels adorned with the Eight Buddhist Emblems; and a cup decorated in underglaze blue with dragons and phoenixes, produced in Chinese workshops for Vietnam.
Japanese printmaking is represented by an accordion-style album containing seventy views of the Kisokaidō Stations—the second most famous route in Japan during the Edo period—by two iconic ukiyo-e artists, Hiroshige and Eisen. The album once belonged to Étienne de Villaret, a military officer who assembled a significant collection of Japanese objects during his mission to the Land of the Rising Sun in the 1880s. The display is complemented by prints from the 1920s and ’30s, including two sheets by Hasui Kawase (1883–1957), one of the leading figures of the Shin-Hanga revival movement.
In the hardstone category, a rare collection of jade pieces from Victor Segalen’s collection reflects his taste for delicate scholar’s objects. Segalen, a multifaceted and passionate figure—physician, poet, novelist—was also a distinguished archaeologist and sinologist, with deep knowledge of China’s artistic traditions. Three pieces from his collection enrich the exhibition: a bracelet box carved with geometric motifs, a large peach-shaped cup, and a brush holder decorated with the “Three Friends of Winter” motif and two poems by Emperor Qianlong (1736–1795).
Ceramics and enamel works are also well represented. Among them: a wulianping vase—a rare form composed of five adjoining square containers in celadon-glazed porcelain with gilded enamel decoration, bearing the six-character mark of Qianlong; a small guan jar in porcelain and doucai enamels adorned with the Eight Buddhist Emblems; and a cup decorated in underglaze blue with dragons and phoenixes, produced in Chinese workshops for Vietnam.
Japanese printmaking is represented by an accordion-style album containing seventy views of the Kisokaidō Stations—the second most famous route in Japan during the Edo period—by two iconic ukiyo-e artists, Hiroshige and Eisen. The album once belonged to Étienne de Villaret, a military officer who assembled a significant collection of Japanese objects during his mission to the Land of the Rising Sun in the 1880s. The display is complemented by prints from the 1920s and ’30s, including two sheets by Hasui Kawase (1883–1957), one of the leading figures of the Shin-Hanga revival movement.
