Dossier on an old Melbourne collection of Chinese artwork and antiques (April 2023)

In recent years, Ely has prepared a number of dossiers to support the sale of valuable Chinese artworks at auction. Please follow this link for a PDF version of the most recent example, which provides information about items that were originally held in the private collection of celebrated collector Choi Jit-fu (蔡哲夫; 1879–1941). As in one previous case, Ely was also instructed to prepare a biography of the collector, which is included at the beginning of the document.

While he is not a trained art authenticator or researcher, Ely has met with considerable success in identifying ‘sleepers’ and establishing the provenance of artworks, owing to his knowledge of Literary Chinese and obscure resources, and perhaps too to his background in forensic investigation. He has found work in this field thoroughly rewarding and welcomes commission requests, large and small, with respect to old works of Chinese art that have a textual element.