Oriental & Asian Works of Art

Here at the Oriental & Asian Art department we are busy researching and cataloguing for our upcoming auctions. We provide insurance, probate and other types of valuations for Oriental & Asian porcelain, bronzes, jades and other works of art in collections throughout Scotland and the north of England.

If you have a collection or item that you wish to learn more about, to have identified and valued, or expertly catalogued and presented for auction, then contact our specialist to receive free, no-obligation, professional advice.

The Oriental and Asian auctions are held six times a year at our Edinburgh auction room and broadcast worldwide online to an international market. The department record for a single lot is the £38,000 hammer price achieved for an antique rhino horn libation cup in May 2011. Whilst nothing else, as yet, has come close to knocking this off the top spot, there have also been many other notable results over the past ten or so years including: £12,000 for a Chinese silver tea set in May 2015; £10,000 for a rhino horn perfume stick in August 2013; most recently £8,000 for an 18th century Chinese cloisonné vase in October 2020; £8,000 for a jade carving of a boy in November 2019; £7,800 for a jade carving in August 2013; £7,200 for a Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927) cloisonne enamel miniature teapot in June 2014; £7,000 for a vase by the same maker in March 2014; £7,100 for a pair of bronze cranes in April 2017; £7,000 for a lacquered jar and cover in December 2009; and £6,500 for a Japanese silver reticulated vase in September 2014. 

You may have heard of Thomson Roddick from advertisements in publications including the Antiques Trade Gazette, The Scotsman or Scottish Field. If you are social media inclined, and don’t follow us yet, then we are on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook: you can find our social media icons in the footer of the website to start following us. Perhaps you have seen a member of our team on tv recently? We feature regularly on Bargain Hunt, Antiques Road Trip, Dickinson’s Real Deal, Cash in the Attic and the much missed Flog It, or you may have met one of our valuers presenting a talk on antiques to your local group. Tune in to our new television series, The Edinburgh Auction House, following the Scottish team as they travel around the country searching for exciting lots to sell.  Starting at 9pm on 10th January 2023 on the Really channel, it's sure to be a great watch!

We like jargon, and if you do too, here are some examples that you may find in one of our Oriental and Asian auction catalogues:
Satsuma     Kutani     Celadon     Jade     Ivory     Bronze     Boxwood     Ming Dynasty     Qianlong     Enamel     Cloisonné     Okimono     Rank Panels     Embroidery     Netsuke     Ojime     Woodblock     Tsuba     Qajar     Iznik     Ganesh     Hotei     Quanyin     Cinnabar