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Highlights from the Hausmann Collection
Objects from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann return to Sotheby’s 10 years after a single-owner auction set multiple category records.
T he sale of later bronzes from the collection of Ulrich Hausmann (1947-2023) a decade ago in Hong Kong was not the highest value single-owner sale I have organised but, in many ways, it was the most satisfying. The atmosphere in the packed room was truly electric, with record after record falling as prices for each category of later bronzes broke new barriers. Every single lot was sold in an extraordinary white-glove sale that achieved a total of HK$34 million (equivalent to £2.7 million), several times its low estimate of HK$6.9 million.
The most satisfying element of the sale was the way that its success paid testament to the vision and indefatigability of the humble German scholar and architect, Ulrich Hausmann. Ulrich had been collecting in this neglected category since the 1970s, when there was limited interest or knowledge of it. So, to now see those Yuan vases, frequently bought by him for little money, fetching sums of over HK$900,000, was a delight. There were spectacular prices across the board, including a handwarmer by Zhang Mingqi, bought by him thirty years earlier, which made HK$1.8 million against an estimate of just HK$80,000.
Ulrich was a polymath, skilled in so many fields, including horticulture – he was asked by Dr Joseph Needham (1900-1995) to plant the Chinese garden at the Needham Institute at the University of Cambridge, where he is fondly remembered for bringing back chunks of the Berlin Wall after its fall in 1989. However, his collecting and study of later Chinese bronzes was his most passionate focus.
Coming to auction at Sotheby’s London on 6 November 2024 is a small holding of his favourite pieces that he chose not to sell 10 years ago, and a few others that he could not resist acquiring afterwards. Highlights of the group include a gold-inlaid incense burner of archaistic gui form acquired in Hong Kong in 1982, which, amidst the multitude of vessels with apocryphal Xuande marks, he was convinced was a genuine reign-marked example. This was one of his most treasured bronzes, which he referred to as the “cloud censer”.
There is also a superb bronze vase created for the arrow game touhou, of classic pear-shaped hu form intricately inlaid in gold and silver, and an exquisite little tortoise-form water dropper, formerly bought by the collectors Ian and Susan Wilson from Ulrich’s close friend and mentor Paul Moss, whose scholarly catalogues in the 1980s and 90s included articles by Ulrich which were foremost in expounding the field of later Chinese bronzes.
