Lot 101. A pair of deep blue and white plates, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 600 € / 1 000 €. Photo AAG.

With a decoration of a meditating monk and servant surmounted by two flying phoenixes. On the reverse side four flower branches. Marked lingzhi. Diam. 21 cm

Lot 103. A pair of curved blue and white dishes and a bowl, Kangxi six character mark and period (1662-1722). Estimate 2 000 € / 3 000 €. Photo AAG.

All with floral motifs, surrounded by leaf-shaped reserves. Diam. 25.5 / 15.5 cm

Lot 104. A series of four blue and white plates and a pair of matching plates, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 1 200 € / 1 500 €. Photo AAG.

All with a tribunal in a central medallion, surrounded by four flowering branches, along the rim figures with various activities. The reverse with two rows of floral motifs. Diam. 22.5 / 25 cm

Lot 106. A blue and white dish with outlined rim, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 700 € / 1 000 €. Photo AAG.

The centre with a lotus flower surrounded by ruyi-motifs surrounded by lotus leaf-shaped reserves, along the rim twelve reserves. Marked hua. Diam. 35.5 cm

Lot 133. A pair of square bottles with one stopper, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 1 500 € / 2 000 €. Photo AAG.

With a decoration of a river landscape and pagoda alternated by prunus and bamboo by a rock. H. 26.5 cm

TOKYO.- An exhibition devoted to designer Issey Miyake is on view until June 13, 2016 at the National Art Center, Tokyo. The Center has considered design to be an important exhibition theme since it opened in 2007 and is devoted to presenting a wide range of artistic expressions and proposing new perspectives. This exhibition, Miyake Issey Exhibition: The Work of Miyake Issey, promises to be an unprecedented event, focusing on the entirety of Miyake’s 45-year career, from 1970 to the present. 

Miyake has consistently presented new methodologies and possibilities for making clothes, while always focusing on the future. It all began in 1960 when Miyake, a student at Tama Art University, sent a letter to the World Design Conference, which was being held for the first time in Japan that year. The letter took issue with the fact that clothing design was not included in the event. At that point, Miyake’s notion that clothing is not merely “fashion” ― i.e., something that changes with the times ― but a form of design that is closely connected to our lives on a much more universal level was already apparent. Miyake has always explored the relationship between a piece of cloth and the body, and the space that is created as a result, unrestricted by any existing framework. In addition, along with his team of designers, he persistently undertakes research and development to create clothing that combines both innovation and comfort. 

This exhibition sheds light on Miyake’s ideas about making things and his approach to design by examining his entire career, from his earliest work to his latest projects, and his explorations of greater creative possibilities in the future. This exhibition provides viewers with an opportunity to expand the boundaries of their thought and stimulate their creativity, allowing everyone, young and old alike, to experience the joy of creation.  

 Issey Miyake photographed in New York in 1988 by Irving Penn.

Displaying Miyake’s Ideas about Making Clothes 
Acutely aware of temporal and social needs, Issey Miyake makes clothes that place the utmost importance on human beings. This is evident from Miyake’s comment that he hopes “to make clothes like jeans and T-shirts that many people can wear freely.” 
Tradition and the Latest Technology 

While making the most of traditional techniques and craftsmanship in his clothing designs, Miyake has continually strived to develop new materials and methods. These attempts led to epochal designs unlike conventional approaches to making clothes, such as PLEATS PLEASE and A-POC, adding another level of brilliance to people’s daily lives. For the first time ever, we present the production process Miyake uses to make his pleated products. 

The work of Issey Miyake spawns over forty years of intense experimentation with a keen attention to the human factor. With both striking coherence and a constant eagerness to test new solutions, in fabric-making as well as in clothes-making ― the two activities being intrinsically intertwined in his views of bold innovator ― Issey Miyake has developed a unique body of work, at once formally inventive, soulful and pragmatic. He is a designer, first and foremost: he makes things. Issey Miyake creates wearable solutions to basic human needs. That's what clothes, far from being an expression of status, wealth or even sex appeal, represent for him. 

Over the years, Issey Miyake has staged numerous exhibitions as a way to mark the turning points in his ongoing research. MIYAKE ISSEY EXHIBITION: The work of Miyake Issey is, so far, the most comprehensive overview of the Issey Miyake oeuvre as a whole, and, as such, it is the first of its kind. With its vastness, depth and detail, it shows the basic principles of Issey Miyake's design drive and the ever-evolving solutions he has developed. Just like the previous exhibitions, it keeps an active outlook, marking the beginning of a new phase. 

Issey Miyake's work stems from a challenging yet elementary question: how to wrap the body, which is three dimensional, with fabric, which is two dimensional, without forgetting that the body is also alive and moving. Issey Miyake's answers raise topics such as freedom, invention, cultural cross-pollination, innovation, tradition, environmental awareness. All this is intertwined in a profoundly cohesive gamut of different creations. Issey Miyake's work is, metaphorically speaking, a piece of cloth, just as much as using pieces of cloth has been his main creative challenge over the years. 

The exhibition is divided into three rooms.  

Room A 
The body is the starting point of all the design practices related to clothing. As a tangible presence, it makes designs come alive through gestures, movement, postures. Issey Miyake has always put the body, its physicality as well as its needs, at the center of his design activities. However, right from the beginning of his career, his views on the matter have never been predictable. He trained in couture in Paris, in fact, but he was a graduate in graphic design: his take on clothes-making is singular for DNA. For Issey Miyake, the dialogue between body and clothing consists at once of presence and absence, in the sense that the shape of the clothing is created by the body itself, only when it is worn, with the space between cloth and body being of uttermost importance. A dress might appear as a formal abstraction when laid flat, only to reveal its purpose when worn, the balance of pragmatism and invention being a veritable Issey Miyake signature. 

Issey Miyake's early design solutions are explored in Room A, drawing, visually, a long introductory line to themes that will resurface, differently yet regularly. What is immediately clear is that every step was made possible by constant innovation in fabric-making, matched by a deep respect for traditions. 

Issey Miyake founded the Miyake Design Studio in 1970, focusing on ideas of freedom ― of thought and body. He created a jumpsuit with a tattoo motif that looked literally like a wearable second skin, and a multi-size handkerchief dress made of just three squares of fabric joined on the bias; a cocoon coat swept diagonally around the body and a linen jumpsuit was cut in the entire width of the fabric. The free-form shapes took different meanings on different bodies, thus making the wearer more important than the actual clothes ― an adamant freedom principle for Issey Miyake. Also, those shapes were either the result of fabric research or traditional weaves seen anew. 

ISSEY MIYAKE, Tatoo, Spring-Summer 1971, 1970. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki.

ISSEY MIYAKE, Linen Jumpsuits, Spring-Summer 1976, 1975. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki. 

Room B 
The human body, intended as a presence to enhance, streamline and redesign, is central in the work of Issey Miyake, in the Eighties in particular. Invention never happens in a void: Issey Miyake was reacting, with his personal tools and views, to the zeitgeist of a lively, contradictory and eminently hedonistic decade. He actually anticipated a whole movement, proposing the first body-centered creations already in 1980. All of this is exposed in Room B, creating a counterpoint and a suspension to the rest of the Issey Miyake’s oeuvre. 

Issey Miyake's work in this phase carries on the uttermost technological and formal research upon which his design practice has been established. The stress on the body is in fact made possible by the application of new technologies that allow the use of materials never before applied to clothes-making, like the fiber reinforced plastics and synthetic resin infusion that translated into a series of sculptural bodices in 1980. Modeled on a real torso, these items were not intended as a work of art, but as industrially produced multiples. The silicone zippered body follows the same principle, while the rattan body pieces, halfway between clothing and undergarment, stand at the crossing of East and West. The waterfall body pieces, made of Pewlon and modeled on the torso with the aid of a silicone infusion seamlessly mix classic draping, sculpture and science, using a piece of cloth.  

ISSEY MIYAKE, Waterfall Body, Autumn-Winter 1984, 1984. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki

Room C 
Issey Miyake's most radical research springs from a team mentality. Early on, in fact, he refused the status of the fashion designer as a self-obsessed divinity, developing fruitful collaborations both inside the Miyake Design Studio and with textile engineers and fabric firms. 

Using a single piece of cloth to create a piece of clothing is the main creative quest for Issey Miyake, but also an ethical choice. By doing so, in fact, he can develop new shapes, while enhancing the beauty and texture of the fabric and reducing its waste to virtually zero, in respect of the environment. As a result, the almost abstract forms that derive from a single piece of cloth free the body from any constriction, while reacting differently to different body shapes, making clothing truly personal, in an unfussy, immediate way. 

Room C explores the main themes of Issey Miyake's innovative drive and groups them in thematic clusters. A link unites them in a whole, however, because in the Miyake design studio cross-pollination is an essential practice. 

Fabric is pivotal: a maker of things, Issey Miyake believes that any material can be turned into clothing. He used Japanese washi paper, horsehair and raffia; conversely, he has rediscovered traditional materials. 

But he has also experimented special treatments giving surfaces an alive, animal look, as well as exploring futuristic fabrics, such as a polyester that is heat-cut and molded into shape with the aid of just snap buttons. Issey Miyake has also developed treatments based on the idea of re-use, like the Starburst series which acquire a new look after the foil is pressed on the fabric surface, or the needlepunching that produces unique textures by laying layers of different materials. 

ISSEY MIYAKE, Horsehair, Autumn-Winter 1990, 1990. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki.

ISSEY MIYAKE, Colombe, Spring-Summer 1991, 1990. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki

Pleats is a theme that crosses a large dent of the Issey Miyake production. Working first with blends of polyester and natural fibers, then with a specially developed weave of polyester that can be heat processed, Issey Miyake turned pleats, one of the most ancient ways to wrap a three dimensional object with a two-dimensional material, into an expression of aesthetic pureness with a pragmatic aim. He developed a special process of “garment pleating”, which means that a piece of clothing is pleated after it is sawn, resulting in very sharp, defined lines. Pleats allowed Miyake the opportunity of working with shapes that laid flat have almost a purely abstract quality ― a staircase, a circle, a flying saucer ― playing with the space between body and clothing, but pleats and specifically the “garment pleating” process he devised, ultimately provided the solution to one of Miyake’s dreams to create clothing as universal as jeans and T-shirts, and allowed the creation of a whole new species of utilitarian clothes, at once inventive, sturdy and extremely practical. Freeing the movement was the aim, and in fact these solutions were first tested for the William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt, and later introduced into the collection, finally culminating in the launch of PLEATS PLEASE in 1993. Room C actively shows the pleating process as well, revealing the keen engineering that is required in order to pleat a piece that is already sewn. 

ISSEY MIYAKE, Blade of Grass Pleats, Spring-Summer 1990, 1989. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki.

Making things: this is how Issey Miyake defines his activity. Wearable things, in his views, have to be made in respect of the individual as well as in respect of the environment. A-POC and 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE are the result of such convictions, almost thirteen years apart from one another. A-POC is a revolutionary process that Miyake developed with Dai Fujiwara in 1998, that allows to shape clothes integrally through the production of a tubular piece of knit fabric, virtually erasing all waste while doing away with cutting and sewing. Starting in knit, and evolving in wovens, A-POC is the one piece of cloth quest brought to levels of groundbreaking invention.  

Launched in 2010, 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE has been developed inside Miyake's Reality Lab., a think tank cum design collective crossing boundaries and disciplines. Using recycled polyester as material and techniques inspired by the algorithms, a new breed of clothes is born: items that can be completely folded into flat, geometric shapes, and that only gain life through the body movements of those who unfold them and wear them. As such, this technology has been extended beyond clothes making: similar shapes made with the same folding technique characterize in fact the IN-EI ISSEY MIYAKE lamps made with recycled pet bottles. Room C also shows, on 1:2 scale mannequins, the 132 5. ISSEY MIYAKE key pieces, giving visitors the possibility to intersect with this playful objects and discover their useful magic.

ISSEY MIYAKE, No. 1 Dress, 2010. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki. 

ISSEY MIYAKE, Square Wool, Vol.4, 2015. Photo: Hiroshi Iwasaki.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Hat stand: a ‘body’ made from rattan and bamboo using traditional techniques for the shows in 1981. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura. 

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

Body of work: part of the current Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Centre Tokyo. Photograph: Masaya Yoshimura.

This picture shows journalists looking at creations by Japanese designer Issey Miyake during a press preview of the Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo. TORU YAMANAKA / AFP.

This picture shows journalists looking at creations by Japanese designer Issey Miyake during a press preview of the Miyake Issey Exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo. TORU YAMANAKA / AFP.

Michel de Klerk, dresser, 1916-1917, prod. 't Woonhuys, Amsterdam and maple wood clock, 1914, prod. probably Willem Rädecker. Lambertus Zwiers, wallpaper, 1915-1917, prod. N.V. Dieperink & Co, Amsterdam. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg 

AMSTERDAM.- The Amsterdam School is famous for its architecture, both in the Netherlands and internationally. However, the school’s spectacular designs for the interior are less well-known. Next spring, the Stedelijk presents the first-ever major presentation of furniture, lamps, clocks and other designs by this prestigious Amsterdam movement. Featuring blow-ups of photos, and designs, the exhibition has been designed to transport visitors back in time, to the early 1900s when the Amsterdam School designers radically transformed the applied arts. The survey encompasses over 500 objects, and is the fruit of many years of research, and an appeal for help in tracing items related to the movement. The search for objects led to the discovery of numerous designs now in private hands, which will also be included in the exhibition. 

Hildo Krop, clocks, ca 1921, manufactured by Winkelman & Van der Bilj, Amsterdam. Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (donated by NN). Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg

THE AMSTERDAM SCHOOL

With its expressive and rich forms, the Amsterdam School (1910-1930) is unique in the Netherlands. The movement not only consisted of architecture, but also included designs for furniture, lamps, clocks, ceramics and textile. The style was taken up by all disciplines, particularly graphic design, in which a relatively large number of women were active, including Tine Baanders and Fré Cohen.

J. Boersma (attributed to), photo frame, 1920-1925; Elias Ott, cover of Tuschinski cover program, 1921. Jalouska-collection. Photo: Erik and Petra Hesmerg

Two variants of the Amsterdam School emerged: the more expressive style with exuberant shapes, deep, contrasting colors and distinct contour lines, and the crisper, more geometric style influenced by the journal Wendingen, the platform of the Amsterdam School. Not only architects like Michel de Klerk, sculptors like Hildo Krop and furniture designers such as Harry Dreesen and Louis Deen worked in the Amsterdam School style; the movement also inspired companies like Metz & Co. This led to the movement’s aesthetics extending far wider than one might originally have thought—its influence not only spread throughout the Netherlands, but also reached the Dutch East Indies. 

Joan Collette, cover for Amsterdam City Theater program with advertisement for 't Woonhuys, showing furniture by Michel de Klerk from 1916-1917, 1922. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

The exhibition begins with an introduction to the architecture, which evolved against the backdrop of World War I, and the women’s suffrage movement. In addition to focusing on different designers, the presentation also explores the commercial dissemination of the style, and the links with bars, restaurants, and the theater - of which the lobby of the Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam is a spectacular example. The exhibit also features the presentation of the Amsterdam School at the International Exhibition in Paris, in 1925. 

John Rädecker, Mascaron, 1924. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (donation by World Exposition Implementation Committee Paris 1925). Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Some five hundred objects will be presented, loaned by almost one hundred lenders. Included are pieces by Louis and Willem Bogtman, Joseph Crouwel, De Nieuwe Honsel, Jaap Gidding, Dick Greiner, Michel de Klerk, Piet Kramer, Hildo Krop, Marie Kuyken, Joan Melchior van der Mey, Gustaaf Adolf Roobol, and H.Th. Wijdeveld, among others.

Covers of magazine Wendingen, designed by: above left Michel de Klerk, no. 2, 1918. Above right Hildo Krop, no. 3, 1918. Bottom left. Hildo Krop, no. 5/6, 1932 Bottom right Tine Baanders, no. 7, 1929 Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

RENEWED APPRECIATION

The Amsterdam School was at the height of its popularity in the 1920s, but after World War II, the style was overshadowed by the constructivism of De Stijl and the Functionalism of the Bauhaus—design movements felt to be more in keeping with the Netherlands. It wasn’t until the nineteen seventies that the Amsterdam School saw a resurgence of interest, partly as a result of attention from Italy and the US. The Stedelijk Museum organized the first major exhibition in 1975, which centered on architecture. With this, the museum was instrumental in rekindling renewed appreciation of the movement.

Willem Bogtman, hanging lamp, around 1920, manufactured by W. Bogtman, Haarlem (signed). Private collection.

In the nineteen nineties, a modest degree of interest in Amsterdam School interiors began to emerge, brought about partly by the restoration of large social housing projects in Amsterdam and buildings such as the Shipping House and Tuschinski Theater. 

Postmodernism also played a role in this renewal of interest: expressivity and decoration were once more able to play a larger part in architecture and design. The work of contemporary architects like Claus + Kaan and Liesbeth van der Pol, and designers such as Aldo Bakker, sometimes display an evident kinship with the Amsterdam School. 

One of the gallery spaces will be entirely devoted to giving visitors a chance to experience the Amsterdam School for themselves. Are the chairs comfortable? Which techniques were used? And what was it like to be an Amsterdam School designer or architect? Visitors can also see short videos here that explain more about the manufacturing and design process.

Collector Richard Hopman in his living room. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Over the last few years, curator Ingeborg de Roode (Stedelijk Museum) and Marjan Groot lecturer in Design and Domestic Culture (University of Leiden) have led a major study that comprised the first comprehensive inventory of the furniture design of the Amsterdam School. Visual material from archives, literature, and museum files and photos of objects belonging to private collectors, dealers and auction houses resulted in a database that currently contains 5,000 records. Designs by figures such as Hildo Krop and Willem Bogtman could be studied for the first time, in addition to which, objects thought to have been lost or which were previously unknown, came to light. Magazine advertisements revealed that objects in the Amsterdam School style were also sold through furniture retailers and galleries and that furniture, clocks and stained glass lamps in particular were extremely popular, many of which have been preserved. This project also reveals that the Amsterdam School was adopted by almost every design discipline: from jewelry to glass, from posters to interior fabrics. Until now, exhibitions paid little attention to examining the true breadth of the movement. 

Fré Cohen, cover writing paper notepad for the Workers Youth Centre, 1925. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Early last century, the explosion of energy, creativity, new shapes and innovative materials culminated in 1916 with the opening of the prestigious Scheepvaarthuis, or Shipping House, now the Grand Hotel Amrâth. It’s also when the movement became known as the Amsterdam School. In 2016, various cultural venues throughout the capital will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Amsterdam School with exhibitions and activities. A website has been launched with details of the program of the Amsterdam School Museum ‘Het Schip’, ARCAM Architecture Centre, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Grand Hotel Amrâth, and the Monuments & Archeology Department of the Municipality of Amsterdam. This special commemorative year officially kicks off in February 2016. 

Cornelis Jouke Blaauw, Chairman's chair and meeting chair for School of Applied Arts in Haarlem, where he taught architecture, 1918-1919. Coll. Frans Leidelmeijer, Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg.

A comprehensive publication of the same name, edited by Ingeborg de Roode and Marjan Groot, will accompany the exhibition. The publication is based on sources and a review of the literature, and contains both historical and new visual material. The essays include an analysis of the furniture design of the Amsterdam School, an essay on its commercial reception, on the international context and influences on contemporary design, and case studies on Michel de Klerk, stained glass manufacturing companies, the use of photos as source materials, and the restoration of interiors. The book is a joint publication of the Stedelijk Museum and Dutch publisher Thoth, and is available in both Dutch and English, approx. 300 pp., in both paperback and hardback editions.

The exhibition Living in the Amsterdam School. Designs for the interior 1910-1930 and the accompanying publication are designed by KOSSMANN.DEJONG.

The exhibition Living in the Amsterdam School is made possible with the support  of the VSB Fonds, the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and additional support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the Gravin MAOC van Bijlandt Stichting and the PW Janssen Friesche Fonds.

The Stedelijk Museum would like to express its sincere thanks to principal sponsor Rabobank Amsterdam for making this exhibition possible.

Liem Bwan Tjie, armchair and coffee table, around 1930. Coll. I.S. Rombout-Liem, Overveen. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Jaap Gidding (attributed to), carpet, around 1921, manufactured by KVT, Rotterdam. Private collection. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Advertisement photo for Philips,with on the background the clock by Michel de Klerk from 1914/1915, photographed by Bernard Eilers in his own interior, 1928. Coll. Leiden University documentation photo collection

Lambertus Zwiers, design for wallpaper, 1915-1917. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (donated by Mr and Mrs J.C. Snoeck Henkemans, Amstelveen). Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Lambertus Zwiers, wallpaper, 1915-1917, manufactured by N.V. Dieperink & Co, Amsterdam. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Hendrik Herens or Frits Woltjes, ceiling lamp, 1920-1923, manufactured by De Honsel, Loosduinen. Private collection. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Table lamp, so-called 'Viking ship', 1920's, manufactured by De Nieuwe Honse, The Haguel. Coll. Richard Hopman; designs for De Nieuwe Honsel in album, 1920's. Coll. M.D. Herens-Breeman. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Hildo Krop, bookcase designed for C.A. Crena de Iongh, Amsterdam, 1927 or earlier. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg. (detail carving of a woman with child).

Marie Kuyken, fireguard, around 1920. Coll. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Toon Rädecker, clock, around 1921, manufactured by Winkelman & van der Bijl. Coll. Meentwijck. Photo: Erik & Petra Hesmerg

Installation view Living in the Amsterdam School. Photo: Gert-Jan van Rooij.

Lot 130. Two blue and white vases, Wanli period (1573-1619). Estimate 900 € / 1 200 €. Photo AAG.

With short rising neck and a decoration of flowers and vines. Marked aiye. H. 16 / 17 cm

Lot 132. Two blue and white kendi, Wanli period (1573-1619). Estimate 800 € / 1 200 €. Photo AAG.

The body with flowers, around the neck rising leaves. H. 18 cm

Lot 109. An Oushak 'Small Pattern Holbein' Carpet, West Anatolia, Late 15th-Early 16th Century. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

approximately 13 ft. 4 in. by 6 ft. 11 in.: 4.06 by 2.11 m. 

Provenance: Adolpho Loewi, Venice (no. 6494)
Private Collection, Trieste

Bibliography: Ellis, Charles Grant, "Ellis in Holbeinland," Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies I, London 1985, no. R-49, p. 72 (listing, not illustrated)
Ellis, Charles Grant, Oriental Carpets in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia 1988, pl. 17, note 11 (cited, not illustrated)

Note: 'Holbein' rugs, like many other Anatolian rug types produced from the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, were becoming increasingly popular in Europe during the late 1400s and exported in large quantities to the western market. The specific patterns of imported pieces were associated with the names of the artists that used them most frequently, which included Ghirlandaio, Bellini, Crivelli and Lotto, with each design being named for its respective painter. ‘Holbein’ rug designs  include the 'small pattern' and 'large pattern' of staggered repeat geometric octagonal patterns and a repertoire of Kufesque borders.  Holbein employed rugs featuring these designs in several works including a ‘large pattern’ rug appears in The French Ambassadors and a ‘small pattern’ rug in the 1532 portrait of George Gisze. 

Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of the Merchant Georg Giese, 1532. Oil and tempera on oak, © Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Jörg P. Anders

The 'small pattern Holbein' carpet at Caramoor is one of some seventy known examples of these fifteenth and sixteenth century weavings to have survived into the twenty-first century. Many of these are incomplete fragments or fragmentary rugs and carpets pieced together from fragments, and the majority of them are in institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Berlin Museum, the Textile Museum in Washington, D. C., and various churches and museums in Europe and Istanbul. The Caramoor 'Holbein' carpet is one of the twenty or so carpets known to be in private collections. The large size of the Caramoor carpet also distinguishes it among these surviving examples.

A closely related carpet from the collection of Heinrich Wulff is in the Danish Museum of Art and Design, formerly the Museum of Decorative Arts, in Copenhagen, see Charles Grant Ellis, "Ellis in Holbeinland," Oriental Carpet and Textile Studies I, London 1985, no. R-4, p. 62. In the 1973 catalogue of rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the authors mistakenly attributed the Caramoor carpet as being the carpet once with Heinrich Wulff, see M. S. Dimand and Jean Mailey, Oriental Rugs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1973, p. 180. The Wulff carpet is still at the museum in Copenhagen. Ellis identified the Caramoor carpet as having been sold to the Rosens (previous owners of Caramoor) by Adolfo Loewi, and it is quite possible that they purchased this at the same time as the Oushak medallion carpet (lot 182 in this catalogue) in the collection, which would have been on August 27, 1930 in Venice.

The Caramoor carpet retains good color and clarity of drawing and features a deep blue-green ground with the octagonal motifs rendered in a variety of colors.  These repeating medallions are arranged according to color in diagonal rows across the field.  In his description of these carpets, Ellis notes "The electricity crackles when we come to R-30, 42....49 (the present lot)--the rugs in which the color treatment seems most eccentric and whimsical," op.cit. p. 59.  The Kufesque border of the current lot is of the 'C1' type as classified by Pinner, see Robert Pinner and Jackie Stanger, “Kufic Borders on 'Small Pattern Holbein' Carpets,” Hali, vol. 1, no. 4, 1978, pp. 335-8, see D14.  This border can be seen in a painting by Antonio Badile entitled Madonna and Child with SS. Andrew, Peter and John the Evangelist and dating from 1544 in the Museo del Castelvacchio, Verona, see John Mills, “'Small Pattern Holbein' Carpets in Western Paintings,” Hali, vol. 1, no. 4, 1978, p. 332, m. 34. For related carpets see Jon Thompson, Milestones in the History of Carpets, Milan 2006, pls. 2 and 3; Alberto Boralevi, Oriental Geometries: Stefano Bardini and the Antique Carpet, Florence, 1999, pl. 12, p. 50-51; Ellis, op. cit., R.28, pp. 65 and 67; for a rug in the Bavarian National Museum, Munich, T.1598, and another in the Hungarian National Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest (inv. no. 14.785) see Ferenc Batari, “The First Turkish Carpet Exhibition in the West,” Hali, Issue 136, p. 71. 'Holbein' carpets of dimensions such as this lot rarely appear on the market, with the most recent example being a 'large pattern' carpet that sold in Venice in 2002 for a record price.  Fragments of 'small pattern Holbein' carpets that have appeared on the market include Christie's London, The Christopher Alexander Collection, October 15, 1998, lot 218 and Christie's London, October 12, 2000, lot 201; as well as the 'Holbein' fragment upholstered armchair from the Bernheimer collection, Sotheby's London, 24 November 2015, lot 13.

Sotheby's. European Decorative Arts from Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, New York, 12 avr. 2016, 10:00 AM

Lot 102. A series of three blue and white armorial plates, Qianlong period (1736-1795). Estimate 800 € / 1 200 €. Photo AAG.

The centre with the coat of arms of the family Schreuder-de la Haye, along the rim a vase surrounded by flowers. On the reverse butterflies and flowers. Diam. 23 cm

Lot 135. A pair of oval blue and white spice containers, Qianlong period (1736-1795). Estimate 700 € / 1 000 €. Photo AAG.

Both with two hinged lids, one half with a partition. With a decoration of flowering branches. L. 13.5 cm

Lot 193. A German Rococo polychrome-decorated and parcel-gilt commode, Potsdam or Dresden, mid-18th century. Estimate 70,000 — 100,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

height 32 in.; width 52 in.; depth 32 1/2 in. 81 cm; 132 cm; 82.5 cm

Provenance: By repute, Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam;
Gifted by Frederick the Great to an officer of his Guards in Spandau;
Thence by descent until 1928;
Adolfo Loewi, Venice

Note: With its silver decoration against a pale ground and its distinctive bombé shape, this outstanding commode is a fine example of furniture-making in the German states in the mid-eighteenth century. Juxtaposing rich gilt and silver decoration against a white or cream-colored field was a hallmark of rococo interiors from the Bavarian court at Nymphenburg to Frederick II’s Sanssouci, where master designers and furniture makers such as François de Cuvilliés and Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt created some of the most dazzling and luxurious interiors of eighteenth-century Europe.

Until the reign of Frederick the Great, the Berlin palaces had been furnished in a rather conservative and sober taste. Soon after Frederick's accession, however, he appointed Georg Wenzeslau von Knobelsdorff as superintendent of his palaces and under his leadership, the so-called `Frederican Rococo' evolved, which was developed by Johann August Nahl and Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt. Hoppenhaupt was born in Merseburg and trained in Dresden and Vienna. He arrived in Berlin on Frederick the Great's accession to the Prussian throne. In 1746, Hoppenhaupt replaced Nahl, under whom Hoppenhaupt had worked as a woodcarver, as `Directeur des Ornements'. He decorated Schloss Sanssouci where his greatest achievement was the Music Room.

Hoppenhaupt's designs for interior projects and furniture were engraved by Johann Wilhelm Miel and published in 1751 and 1755. A number of the drawings relate to furniture in the palaces of Potsdam and include commodes that were generally of bold bombé form and carved with floral and foliate motifs. For an engraving by Miel showing a Hoppenhaupt commode related to the present lot with its overall shape and similar feet and mounts, see Heinrich Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, vol. II, Munich, 1970, fig. 740. A commode by Hoppenhaupt in the royal bedroom and study at Sanssouci with comparable incised gesso decoration and overall exaggerated curves is illustrated ibid., fig. 739. An almost identical commode from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lehmann, Fritzlar, Germany, was offered Sotheby’s London, December 2, 2008, lot 117. Even though that commode was considered to be of Dresden manufacture, probably because it hailed from Schloss Moritzburg near Dresden, it was also catalogued as a piece closely related to Hoppenhaupt’s oeuvre. The commode offered here and the Moritzburg commode are almost identical and were without doubt executed by the same craftsman or at least following the same design. Knowing that Hoppenhaupt trained in Dresden, it is possible that these commodes are part of his earliest oeuvre as a designer. It is also possible that these commodes were intended for the same interior or rooms connecting en filade. What makes the present commode particularly rare is its honest and unadulterated condition. The silver and the polychrome decoration all appear original and with proper conservation this piece could be restored to its dazzling glory.    

Lot 109. A curved 'famille-verte' dish, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 2 000 € / 3 000 €. Photo AAG.

In the centre a handle basket with flowers surrounded by twelve reserves with rocks and flowers. Marked hua. Diam. 35.5 cm

Lot 107. A 'famille-verte' dish, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate 1 500 € / 2 000 €. Photo AAG.

The centre with a handle basket with flowers, along the rim stylised flowers in cobalt blue. Marked hua. Diam. 38.5 cm

Lot 306. Very Fine Platinum, 18 Karat Gold, 9.84 carats Colombian Emerald and Diamond Ring, Harry Winston. Estimate 400,000 — 600,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

Centered by a square emerald-cut emerald weighing approximately 9.84 carats, framed by pear-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 7.80 carats, size 5¾, signed Winston, with maker's marks for Jacques Timey.

Accompanied by AGL report no. CS 1073341 stating that the emerald is of Classic Colombian origin, clarity enhancement: insignificant to minor, type: traditional.

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels: Starring the Shirley Temple Blue Diamond, New York, 19 avr. 2016, 02:00 PM

Lot 86. Bureau Mazarin en marqueterie Boulle, de laiton et écaille rouge. Epoque Louis XIV. Estimation 40 000 € / 50 000 €. Photo Aguttes.

Il présente un riche décor à la Berain de personnages, phénixs, singes musiciens, papillons et rinceaux. Il ouvre par sept tiroirs, dont six en caissons latéraux et une porte en retrait. Il repose par huit pieds en console, réunis par des entretoises. Petits pieds boules. H: 80- Larg. : 121 - P. : 66 cm (restaurations d’usage) 

Note: L’ensemble du meuble est entièrement décoré d’un riche décor en marqueterie Boulle. 

Lot 91. D'après Martin van den Bogaert dit Desjardins (1640-1694), Statue équestre en bronze finement ciselé et patiné, représentant Louis XIV, son bâton de commandement à la main, XVIIème siècle. Estimation 40 000 € / 60 000 €. Photo Aguttes.

Socle en marbre vert de mer. H : 79 - L : 50 - P : 23 cm 

Provenance: Vente Galerie Georges Petit - Succession de Madame la Comtesse B....- lot 144 vente des 26,27 et 28 juin 1919 
Aurait figuréà l’exposition rétrospective de la ville de Paris en 1900, n°494 

Lot 92. Exceptionnelle et rare horloge de parquet en forme de lyre, entre 1727 et 1740. Estimation 300 000 € / 400 000 €. Photo Aguttes.

en placage de satiné et amarante richement décoré d’une ornementation de bronzes très finement ciselés, moulurés et dorés à motifs de rocailles, d’instruments de musique et de scènes mythologiques. 
Le cadran de l’horloge est sommé d’une figure de Diane chasseresse, tenant un arc, et entourée d’un Amour et d’un chien. De part et d’autre de ce sujet principal retombent en cascade des guirlandes de fleurs encadrant l’horloge. Au centre, le cadran circulaire, à deux aiguilles, en laiton doré est orné de chiffres romains émaillés entourés de vignettes de chiffres arabes. Le mouvement de pendule à répétition et sonnerie des quarts est signé« J. P. Du Commun à Paris». 
L’amortissement est constitué d’un grand bronze en cul-de-lampe formé d’une pomme de pin inversée surmontée de feuilles d’acanthe. 
Le fût forme proprement la lyre. Le corps de l’instrument est souligné dans son renflement par de larges feuilles d’acanthe de bronze doré. Le centre est orné d’un bronze représentant Louis XIV en buste sous les traits d’un empereur romain. Sept tiges de bronze doré, évoquant les cordes de l’instrument de musique, sont en façade du corps principal. Les côtés, marquetés en demi-losange, sont ornés d’agrafes en ruban figurant les Arts Libéraux. 
Le piétement est composé de deux parties. Une énorme tête de monstre marin dans un décor rayonnant est située à l’amortissement, entre quatre supports mouvementés et marquetés, soulignés de motifs rocaille en bronze doré. Le bâti du socle est supporté par quatre larges pieds en bronze à motifs de feuilles d’acanthe stylisées, le tout souligné de rinceaux et garni en son centre de deux branches de chênes ornées de glands et réunies par une agrafe. 
Toute l’ébénisterie est soulignée, dans ses mouvements, par des filets de laiton et d’ébène. Dimensions : H. : 220 cm - l. : 85 cm - P. : 39 cm 

Estampille sur l’horloge de parquet : E. J. Cuvellier (actif entre 1745 et 1775) 
Inscription sur le mouvement : signature « J. P. Du Commun à Paris » découverte sous une plaque de laiton gravée « Lespine hger Du Roy » 

Note: Notre horloge de parquet, présent dans la collection Gould à la fin du XIXe siècle, s’apparente à un modèle dit «à la lyre » et porte à trois le nombre de modèles de ce type connus à ce jour. 

Le premier modèle, particulièrement bien documenté, est aujourd’hui conservé dans les collections du groupe AXA (Hôtel de la Vaupalière, Paris, voir photo). Il est mentionné sous le lot n° 579 dans la vente de 1753 des collections du peintre Charles Coypel après son décès survenu en 1752: « Une pendule à secondes qui donne l’heure du temps vrai, la course du soleil, le jour et la date de la semaine, le mouvement est de Monsieur Claude Martinot et la caisse de Monsieur Meissonnier »1. Outre le nom de l’horloger, il est su, par cette mention, que le modèle « en lyre » ainsi que les bronzes furent conçus par Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1695-1750)2. C’est Julien Le Roy, horloger de Louis XV, qui fait alors l’acquisition de l’horloge de parquet pour 725 livres3. Selon Peter Furhring, Charles Coypel n’était probablement pas le commanditaire de cette horloge de parquet dont la date de réalisation – 1727 – est indiquée avec la signature au dos du mouvement : « Claudius Martinot / invenit, et fecit. / ad Luparam / 1727». La qualité de ce modèle, créé par un artiste, témoigne en revanche d’un commanditaire important, peut-être royal, capable de financer une telle entreprise à titre privé4. Un commanditaire averti et désireux de posséder une pièce d’exception qui aurait alors fait appel à Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier pour concevoir cette commande si particulière. en 1931, une deuxième horloge de parquet, inspirée du modèle de Meissonnier et estampillée par Duhamel ME, a été mis en vente chez Christie’s London le 9 juillet (n° 92, voir photo)5. 

Grenat, Northern area Shiger valley, Skardu, Pakistan. Taille: 24 x 23 mm. Photo Tóth László