DALLAS, TX.- In conjunction with this month’s Asia Week New York, Heritage Auctions presents a robust Fine & Decorative Asian Art Auction on March 20 led by exquisite Chinese monochrome porcelain and prints by premier Japanese artists, along with Chinese jade and jadeite, Japanese ceramics, lacquerware, silver work and cloisonné enamel, Chinese Huanghuali furniture and more. Heritage also rings in this year’s Asia Week with its announcement that the auction house is expanding its global presence with the opening of a new state-of-the-art office in Tokyo that will become a destination for collectors throughout Japan.

“With Heritage’s expansion, our Asian Art category is growing rapidly,” says Moyun Niu, Heritage's Consignment Director of Asian Art. “This spring, we’re very excited to present over 400 lots of extraordinary Asian works of art in two carefully curated sessions, and we’re honored to be showcasing highlights in our New York Park Avenue Flagship.”

Collectors of Chinese monochrome porcelain understand that the work’s value is in the aesthetics of the glaze, with techniques that evolved over centuries. Leading this event is a selection of Chinese monochrome porcelain works from an important private collection, and among the highlights is a Chinese pea-green glazed bowl from the Kangxi Period, a Chinese Clair-de-Lune glazed Hundred Rib jar from the 18th century, an iron rust-glazed hexagonal Hu Vase from the Qianlong Period and a Chinese robin's egg glazed globular vase.

Highlights from other private collections include a showstopper from the collection of Prince Michel Cantacuzene, Count Speransky, whose family fled the Russian Revolution: a Chinese carved jadeite boulder depicting Guanyin and her attendants. Carved in high relief, the scene is set in a rocky mountain landscape with bamboo and lotus buds across the red, green, and pale lavender of the jadeite. A selection of Chinese and Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze works, including a Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze Ganesh Dancing on a Rat figure, joins it, as well as a pair of massive Chinese enameled double-gourd vases from the 20th century over which a stunning and delicate hand-painted scene of a peacock courtship plays out.

The market for classical Chinese furniture runs hot, and currently Huanghuali pieces from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties are the most sought after; this event boasts several excellent examples of the rare wood furniture, including this 17th century Chinese burl wood inset Huanghuali side table with its narrow waist and beaded square-form legs terminating in ruyi-form feet, and this Qing Dynasty Chinese Huanghuali wood chest with its splayed base and white brass hardware.

The Japanese works in this auction — which include ceramics, lacquerware, silver work, cloisonné enamel, paintings and prints — signal Heritage’s continuing growth in the category. “An auction highlight is the prints section,” says Niu. “We’re presenting one of Kawase Hasui’s most important works along with many other fine prints by premier Japanese artists such as Utagawa Hiroshige, Toshi Yoshida and more.”

The iconic work by Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) titled Zojoji Temple in Shiba (Shiba Zojoji), from the series Twenty Views of Tokyo, 1925 (14th year of Taisho), is one of the most indelible woodblock print images in history, and it makes an appearance in this event. It depicts a winter scene with falling snow indicative of the shin-hanga movement, initiated in large part by the publisher of this print, Watanabe Shozaburo. Hasui's gift for setting the mood via color and light are at full strength in this work.

When it comes to attention to detail, the Japanese tradition and sensibility is second to none, and other treasures from Japan in this event include an elegant and surprising silver horse figure from the Meiji Period, and this Japanese School (19th century) scroll of a crane on silk; while the horse is three dimensions and the crane two, they both burst with the fine particularities of their personalities and showcase the observational talents of their creators. Heritage celebrates these artists and all the creators behind the treasures that hit the block on March 20.