Rongbaozhai, one of the oldest art dealers in China, will present an important part of its huge and mysterious collection of Chinese paintings and calligraphy at its autumn auction this December. This year also marks the dealer's 110th birthday. Pre-auction viewings are to be given around China starting tomorrow.

Established more than 300 years ago, the Beijing-based art dealer was first known as "Songzhuzhai" (House of Pines and Bamboo). It changed its name to "Rongbaozhai" (House of Glory and Treasures) 110 years ago when it opened a shop at Liulichang Antique Street in Beijing, which still stands at the site.

Rongbaozhai's collection has been nicknamed the "Small Forbidden City" among Chinese collectors.

The collection allegedly houses a large number of traditional paintings and calligraphy that have been accumulated over the past two centuries.

Between the 1950s and 1980s, Rongbaozhai was one of the three most important art dealers in China, the other two being Duoyunxuan in Shanghai and Shizhuzhai in Nanjing. Only very few similiar art dealers continued business after becoming State-owned in the 1950s,

"Modern and contemporary Chinese art, even those by masters, were priced as craftworks then," said Liu Shangyong, deputy general manager of the Rongbao Auction House, an affiliate of Rongbaozhai.

Insiders said the artworks were very inexpensive when Rongbaozhai bought them, as the shop was one of the few places where artists and collectors could turn art into the money they badly needed.

"We sold many of them in the early 1980s at very low prices, in return for the precious foreign exchange. It was a labour to sell art at the time - I hung a dozen paintings onto the wall when exhibiting for a visiting foreigner, and he would often say: 'I want them all.' So I got them off the wall and hung another dozen," Liu recalled.

Since 2002 the dealer has been releasing a minor part of the collection - often about 30 works - at the spring and autumn auctions of the Rongbao Auction House.

To celebrate the 110th birthday of Rongbaozhai and 10th birthday of the auction house, the dealer will present some important works at the latter's autumn auction, on December 18 and 19 at the Asia Hotel in Beijing.

After a three-day public viewingin Beijing, it will travel to the Yan'an Hotel in Shanghai on November 13 and 14, Huachen International Hotel in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province from November 16 to 18, Nanjing Museum from November 20 to 23, and finally Shandong Plaza in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province from November 26 to 28.

It will return to Beijing for a final public viewing at the Asia Hotel from December 15 to 17.

Rongbaozhai focuses exclusively on traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy at its exhibitions and auctions, while other auctioneers of Chinese art put much more emphasis on ceramics and oil paintings, said Wang Wei, spokesman of the auctioneer.

Highlights include large-sized representative works by big names such as Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Qi Baishi (1864-1957), Huang Binhong (1864-1955) and Huang Zhou (1925-97).

Among them is a spectacular calligraphic scroll by Chinese calligrapher, poet and scholar Guo Moruo (1892-1978).

Guo, then vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, created the 3.5-metre-long, 1.5-metre-wide piece in 1964 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

It reads "Zili Gengsheng, Fenfa Tuqiang" (to depend on our own efforts to strive for a strong nation), which was called for by then Chinese leader Mao Zedong (1893-1976). Critics said Guo's forceful brushwork endowed the piece with the grandeur of a large, independent nation.

The auction will also include "Xingfu Shidai" (Happy Time) by Huang Zhou, which has been printed in Chinese books used in all primary schools in the country since it was created in 1962. The painting tells the story of two young girls in North China's grasslands, who were regarded as heroines around China.

Another famous painting to go under the hammer is "Jiuzhou Wushi Le Gengyun" (Happily Farming in a Peaceful World) by Xu Beihong. Xu painted the piece in 1951 and sent it to Guo Moruo, his old friend who gave a speech at the World Peace Congress in Warsaw in 1950.

The painting, sold for 1.93 million yuan (US$230,000) at an auction of the China Guardian Auction Co Ltd in 1996, and has an estimated price of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million).

The more than 800 lots at the auction have an overall estimated price of more than 120 million yuan (US$14.5 million), said the auctioneer's spokesman.

(China Daily November 10, 2004)