The Caretti Collection: Imperial Treasures from China’s Pivotal Century

In 1901, an Italian naval officer named Evaristo Caretti arrived in China, a nation teetering on the precipice of profound transformation. What began as a posting would crystallise into something far more enduring: a lifelong career within the Chinese Post Office and, more significantly, an impassioned devotion to collecting the artistic treasures of an empire in flux.

A Collector's Moment in History

The era in which Caretti assembled his collection remains singular in the annals of art history. As the Qing Dynasty waned and the Republic emerged, an unprecedented dispersal of imperial works of art transformed the market for Chinese cultural property. Objects of extraordinary refinement and provenance, once sequestered within palace walls, became accessible to discerning collectors with the knowledge and means to recognise their significance. Caretti possessed both.

His collection unfolds as a portrait of this liminal period, each object a testament to the artistic achievements of dynasties and the historical currents that liberated them from imperial custody. The assemblage encompasses imperial porcelain of exquisite manufacture, zitan furniture of architectural ambition, and works spanning the refinement of the Qianlong period through the tumultuous years of the Republic.

The November Sale

Bonhams' Fine Chinese Art sale on 5 November at New Bond Street in London presents the Caretti collection to the contemporary market of collectors and institutions. The sale arrives during London Asia Week, a period when the capital's galleries, auction houses and cultural institutions celebrate the artistic traditions of Asia.

Collectors and institutions wishing to examine the collection or register to bid are invited to engage with Bonhams' Asian Art specialists, whose expertise encompasses the historical contexts, technical accomplishment and cultural significance that distinguished objects from this era.

A Collector's Legacy

The Caretti collection represents more than an accumulation of objects; it embodies a singular life lived at the intersection of two cultures during one of history's most dramatic transformations. For collectors today, such assemblages offer both aesthetic pleasure and a tangible connection to the mechanics of taste, circumstance and historical privilege that shaped collecting itself in the twentieth century.

The sale unfolds across the autumn season, offering the international collecting community an opportunity to acquire works of imperial refinement gathered during an era when such acquisition was possible only for those positioned at the precise convergence of history, geography and discernment.

Key Facts

• Sale: Fine Chinese Art
• Date: 5 November 2026
• Location: Bonhams, New Bond Street, London
• Collection Provenance: Evaristo Caretti, assembled during the late Qing Dynasty and Republic period
• Material & Style: Imperial porcelain, zitan furniture, Qianlong period through Republic era

The Simply Luxury View

Single-owner collections of this calibre and historical depth appear infrequently at auction. The Caretti assemblage is distinguished not merely by the quality of individual objects but by the coherence of its formation during a moment when imperial dispersal was at its apex. For collectors of Chinese art, such collections represent an opportunity to acquire pieces with documented, traceable histories gathered by a figure whose life spanned the very epochs from which the works derive.

Bonhams' positioning of the sale within London Asia Week signals its significance within the contemporary market for Chinese art. The collection offers both scholars and collectors material evidence of taste, commerce and cultural exchange during one of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' most consequential transformations in Chinese history.

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