The set of two Buddhist Sutra Manuscripts dating back to the Ming Dynasty, being the two most important manuscripts to hit the auction block, broke records at Sotheby's Hong Kong on April 3, 2018. The Imperial Wisdom Sutras sold for £21,656,005. From the Golden Age of the Ming Dynasty the relics were made in the early 15th century by the imperial order of the Ming Emperor Xuande.
The manuscripts being Biddhist Sutras are an official scripture of the teachings of Buddha, originally brought and copied from India. These examples being made upon the request of the Emperor Xuande were made with the most refined materials and only by the best craftsmen. The Prajnaparamita Sutra high quality albums are handwritten and illustrated in gold ink on indigo-coloured paper.
The only other set of Sutras in the same intact condition can be found at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The manuscripts first reappeared in 2014 at the British Museum's Ming exhibition after their last recorded appearance in a Kyoto aristocratic collection in 1917. The previous record of a Buddhist Sutra was held by "Anonymous (Ming Dynasty) Collection of Buddhist Sutras" sold at Sotheby's New York in March 2015 for HK$ 14,026,000.
A unique pink Falangcai bowl also made high numbers at the auction. A very fine example, with a unique design was bought for a staggering £21,656,005. Made at the kilns in Jingdezhen the bowl, personally used by Kangxi Emperor, was painted beyond the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
This item also has a spouse in the National Palace Museum in Taipei bearing a motif of different flowers but all in the same ground colour.
The handscroll, Ten Auspicious Landscaped of Taishan, sold for £13,311,858 after 40 minutes of bidding. Made by the court painter Qian Weicheng the scroll portrays ten views of Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang province featured with ten poems written by the Qianlong Emperor. The scroll made its auction debut after a hundred years this morning.
