Group of Two Wrestlers, c. 1680
Japanese Porcelain
H: 12 ½ inches
An employee of one of the major auction houses, accidentally dropped the above pair of wrestlers which shattered into 31 pieces. Fortunately, they called me immediately. Telling them to leave it in place on the floor, I collected it from there to be certain we had every shard. The accident happened after the sale catalogue had been distributed which included a photograph of the pair being offered at auction.
This is one of the world’s most important pieces of Japanese porcelain. China first developed porcelain during the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 CE); the Japanese could not duplicate it until they found Kaolin, the foundation for porcelain. They first made it in the Arita region of Japan during the 1610’s. Known as Imari ware after the port from which the pieces were exported to other areas.
There are only four known examples of boys wrestling which relate to this pair: one in The Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, collection; another example listed in the Toto Bunka Shuppan Company’s, Nihon no Toki No. 245; another example sold through Sotheby’s London in June 1990; and “China boyes [sic] wrestling” listed in the 1688 inventory of Burghley House, Devonshire, England, which is still there. In the 1980’s Lady Victoria, descendant of the Cecils of Burghley who purchased the wrestlers in the 17th century, discovered that the door stop that had been used for many, many years was actually this fine porcelain!
Before the pair was broken, it was estimated in the sale catalogue for $30,000 to $50,000. The price I originally quoted the client for the complex restoration was the same amount that the auction house thought the piece would bring in the restored condition; $10,000. So that was too much to restore it. I agreed to a price much, much lower, less than half, plus 15% above whatever it brought at auction in excess of $12,000; it realized $135,000 ($240,000 today), four and a half times above the low estimate in good condition. The owners came to me with long faces saying they owed me a lot of money – a lot more than the original $10,000. I told them that I had made them a lot of money, but as a gesture of good will, I would stick to my original estimate and simply ask for the balance of it, since in actuality the restoration cost would have been $10,200. We left friends and have worked together ever since.
When your humpty-dumpty falls calls us to put it back together again!