A tiny 18th-century ceramic bowl decorated with apricot blossom and swallows that was made for an emperor smashed the world record for a piece of Chinese porcelain yesterday by selling for more than $19 million (£9.8million).

The exquisite masterpiece of famille rose ware, which once belonged to Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, fetched double its expected sale price to become the most expensive artwork sold in Asia. Famille rose refers to the type of glaze used to coat the bowl.

The seller of the bowl, which measures 11.3cm (less than 4½ in) across, was Robert Chang, the collector, whose father owned an antiques business in Shanghai before the 1949 Communist takeover. The buyer was his sister, Alice Cheng, managing director of Chiense Taiching Petroleum Co.

After the Christie’s auction, she said: “I paid more than double because I thought if a person wants to buy it, it must be worth that money. Maybe I’ll lose money if I sell it, but . . . I will not sell. I never sell my things.”

The bowl, which carries a blue enamel four-character mark of the Qing dynasty emperor, Qianlong (1736-1795), is believed to be the pair of a similar rare porcelain in the Percival David Foundation collection in London. Both carry a similar ten-character poetic inscription and are decorated with swallows. The previous record price was paid for a 20cm vase decorated with a pair of pheasants that was also created during the reign of Qianlong.

Just a decade ago, such colourful porcelains could not compete with prices paid for porcelain from the 11th century. The rising prosperity of Taiwan and China are, however, revolutionising the market and tastes are changing.

The art market

• 25 per cent of buyers at Christie’s auctions are Chinese. The figure is rising with each auction
  
  
• Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong real estate tycoon, last week paid $17.4 million (£9m) for Andy Warhol's portrait of Mao Zedong
  
  
• The Taiwanese artist Chen Chengbo’s oil-on-canvas Danshui was sold for a record HK$34.8 million (£3.2m) at a Sotheby’s auction last month

  Source: Artprice, Reuters, Times archives

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