International collectors from Malibu to Beijing brought the total of the Fine and Decorative Arts sale presented by Lark Mason Associates on igavelauctions.com to $511,390 including buyer’s premium. A Patek Phillipe 18k white gold Nautilus wristwatch, with the original certificate and box, circa 2009, led the charge when it soared past its $3,000-$5,000 estimate, hammering $53,750.

Among the top lots–many of which belonged to a private collector from Connecticut–that attracted attention was an 18th century Tibetan Gilt Bronze Seated Bodhisattva that sold for $40,000 ten times over its low estimate of $4,000; Female Nude by Emile-Louis Foubert which rang up $18,750, over its $2,000-5,000 estimate, setting the auction record for the artist; two paintings: Snow and Mountain (1925) and Twilight (1941), by Birger Sandzen, the Swedish American artist, each hammering $30,000; an Album of 20 Chinese Paintings, Figures in Various Pursuits, Ink on Silk, Qing Dynasty which brought $18,125 over a $1,000-1,500 estimate; and Jephthah Daughter, Marble Standing Figure, by Joseph Mozier  that rang up $20,000, 4 times over its original estimate.

Says Lark Mason: “This sale had a variety of fine and decorative arts that exceeded their estimates with extended bidding in many instances. We were incredibly pleased with the results which broke an auction record in fine art and achieved strong results in a variety of categories including watches, Asian art, and fine art. This sets the tone for a strong series of Fall sales.”

About Lark Mason Associates

With locations in New Braunfels, Texas and New York City, Lark Mason Associates, the eponymous, auction house specializing in Asian, ethnographic, and ancient works of art, was founded by Lark Mason after many years as an expert at Sotheby's New York.

Mason served as a General Appraiser from 1979 until 1985, and as a Senior Vice President and specialist in Chinese art with Sotheby's Chinese Works of Art Department from 1985-2003.  From 2000-2003 he concurrently was a Director of Online Auctions for Sothebys.com. He also served as a consulting curator at the Trammel and Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, Texas from 2003-2009. He is a generalist in American and European works of art and paintings, as well as an expert in the field of Chinese art and has valued and advised many private collectors and institutions.

Lark Mason Associates regularly hosts auctions on the iGavelAuctions platform and has an established history of record sales of Chinese and other works of art and holds the record for the highest price achieved for any work of art in an online sale, for a painting sold in May 2014 that realized close to $4.2m. Mason, the owner and CEO of iGavel Auctions, is noted for his regular appearances on "The Antiques Road Show."