Committed to focusing on selling items of quality and rarity, Sotheby’s New York Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department presents a strong sale this season. Among the notable highlights of this fall’s sale is an impressive archaic bronze ritual vessel (hu) dating to the late Shang or early Western Zhou dynasty, its elegant S-curves offset by the powerful articulation of the crisply cast decoration. In addition to the hu, a fine group of archaic bronzes is being offered from the Sano Art Museum, Mishima, Japan including a rare Shang dynasty fangyi (Lot 267).  There are also two unusual stone fragments of large Buddhist figures dating to the Northern Qi period as well as a rare early gilt-bronze votive steel of a Buddha dated to the year 471 of the Northern Wei. A good group of Qing dynasty jades formerly in the estate of Walter F. Dillingham of Honolulu includes a fine white jade washer bearing a Qianlong mark and of the period. A wide selection of fine ceramics, ranging from a rare imperial numbered Song dynasty purple-glazed jardinière to an attractive array of Qing dynasty imperial wares, will be on offer. Ming dynasty furniture is also well-represented with two good pairs of huanghuali yokeback armchairs; one of notably large scale (Lot 166), the other with fine flowing lines (Lot 131). The sale also includes an extraordinary twelve-panel Coromandel screen deftly carved with animals, birds, flowers and mythical beasts and a 17th/18th century rhinoceros horn libation cup carved with hawks and signed by You Kan.