Lot 9364. A Dehua figure of Guanyin, Late Qing-Republic period. Estimate US$ 1,000 - 1,500 (€900 - 1,400). Photo Bonhams.

Shown holding a scroll in one hand as she stands on a huge lotus leaf supported on waves with applied lotus plants, the pearl pendants and necklace applied to the surface of the figure stamped on the reverse with the seals Dehua and bo zhi yu ren; together with an elaborate colored silk lamp shade and wood lamp stand that holds the figure. 16 3/8in (41.5cm) high

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 21. Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), Jackie, 1964, signed and dated 1964 on the reverse, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 50.7 by 40.7 cm. 20 by 16 in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,800,000 GBP. Lot sold 1,445,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Fine Art Exchange, Palm Beach

Todd Brassner, New York

Lee B. Gordon, USA 

Christie’s, Los Angeles, 14 October 1998, Lot 52 

Jane Holzer, New York

Acquired from the above by the previous owner in 2013

Bibliography: Georg Frei and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculptures, Volume 2A, 1964-1969, New York 2004, p. 164, no. 1023, illustrated in colour

Notes: Jackie is a compelling work of exceptional quality and clarity, completed with such a clean crisp screenprint that the viewer is not only drawn to Jackie’s exquisite visage, but also to the movie-star good looks of her husband, the legendary J.F.K. Where in most works from this series, the President is all but a blurry background to the beaming protagonist, in the present example, we can clearly make out his entire visage, from the gleam of his smile to the sharp side-parting in his hair. This work is rare, one of only two white works in this series of 34 Jackies that are based on this specific source-image. It is tribute to the efficacy of this corpus that seven of the works are held in prestigious museum collections – including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, and the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Thus, Jackie counts among the very best of these works to remain in private hands and should be considered as the pictorial pinnacle of theJackie motif, which is itself one of the most celebrated images of Andy Warhol’s iconic 1960s praxis. In its technical execution and clarity it delivers a masterclass in Warhol’s trademark screenprinting technique, while in its content, it can be identified as perhaps the most emotive portrait of the first lady by this artist. Unlike those images of Jackie at her husband’s funeral, in this work we understand the joy of her married life, and as such, better comprehend the poignancy of its abruptly curtailed conclusion.

John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. Image: © Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock

The source image for the present work is a photograph taken of John and Jackie Kennedy on the 22nd November 1963, the day that J.F.K. was assassinated. We join the couple at Dallas Love Field airport, in some of their final moments before beginning the limousine journey that would be interrupted by the most significant assassination of the Twentieth Century. The most striking aspect of this work is the beaming smiles that adorn the faces of both figures. The innocence of their happiness fills us with dread; their radiance suffuses the work with an inescapable mood of impending morbidity and portentous doom. In this context, we can understand this work as a modern day memento mori, a sense that is compounded by the stark black and white palette of the present work. Through comprehending the fate of these characters, we are reminded of the inevitability of our own demise.

Jackie Kennedy leaves the Capitol after JFK’s funeral, 1963.

The J.F.K. funeral was one of the first national events to be extensively covered by the American media; TV networks went live with wall-to-wall coverage and news editors documented every twist and turn. Jackie Kennedy became a symbol for mourning America. Her facial expressions were recapitulated in the media “to such an extent that no better historical monument on the exhibitionism of American emotional value is conceivable” (Rainer Crone, Andy Warhol, New York 1970, p. 29). This deft appropriation of a national icon is absolutely in keeping with Warhol’s most subversive style. Indeed, it is no surprise that when Warhol first painted Jackie in 1962, he used the same full-frontal movie-star format in which he had originally depicted Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. He treated Jackie just as he treated them, not as a true portrait subject, but rather as an icon; an image that had become entirely ubiquitous within the American media. Warhol intrinsically grasped the whimsical nature of celebrity; he understood that an identity that had been broadcast so pervasively through so many different channels ceased to be anything but an artificial construct. Thus, in the present work, Warhol transforms a photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy into the Jackie motif, not to commemorate or glorify her plight, but rather to appropriate that artificial construct. In this sense, Warhol treated celebrities in much the same manner that he treated soup cans: inimitable icons of a capitalist contemporary age that were immediately identifiable to the American populace and rife for reproduction in his distinctive brand of Pop.

Andy Warhol, Blue Jackie, 1964, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford. Image: © Allen Phillips / Wadsworth Atheneum Artwork: © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London.

Andy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies, 1964. Artwork: © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London

Lot 9380. A black glazed stoneware bottle vase, Song-Jin dynasty (960-1234). Estimate US$ 1,500 - 2,000 (€1,400 - 1,800). Photo Bonhams.

Thickly potted with a cupped rim and raised string band around the waisted neck spreading outward above the globular body and tall foot, the dark brownish-black glaze covering all surfaces except the foot pad (rim repaired and retouched). 6 3/4in (17.1cm) high

Provenance: Spink & Son, G. de Menasce collection label #153
G de M (Baron George de Menasce, 1891-1967) label numbered 341

Exhibited and Published: Mostra d'arte Cinese, Venice, 1954, cat. no. 503, listed p. 141, as 'Honan type, Sung Dynasty, 17.1cm, Collezione Privata, Londra'

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 9376. A pale blue glazed water coupe, matizun, 19th century. Estimate US$ 1,200 - 1,500 (€1,100 - 1,400). Photo Bonhams.

Molded with a flared rim and waisted neck rising from the rounded shoulder with upright sides, the exterior walls and recessed base covered with a pale blue wash beneath a densely crazed colorless glaze that continues onto the interior (glaze abraded). 5 1/4in (13.2cm) diameter

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 9375. A powder blue glazed baluster vase, 19th century. Estimate US$ 1,000 - 1,500 (€900 - 1,400). Photo Bonhams.

Potted with a flared rim to the short neck, an elongated ovoid body flaring outward above the set-in foot, the mottled blue layer applied to the exterior walls and a double ring drawn on the recessed base, all beneath a clear glaze (hairline crack to rim). 10in (25.5cm) high

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 9379. A pair of cobalt glazed octagonal footed basins, Republic period. Estimate US$ 1,500 - 2,500 (€1,400 - 2,300). Photo Bonhams.

Each molded with a flat lobed rim above conforming upright walls that curve sharply inward to the flat base raised on four cloud-collar feet, the cobalt wash and colorless glaze covering all surfaces except the tiny spur marks on the base and the pads of the feet (glaze scratched, one dish with chipped rim). 9 5/8in (24.5cm) maximum diameters

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 9377. A turquoise glazed moon flask, Late Qing dynasty. Estimate US$ 1,000 - 1,500 (€900 - 1,400). Photo Bonhams.

Molded with a cupped rim of rounded rectangular form and flowering branch handles that curve downward onto the shoulders of the compressed ovoid body raised on an oval sectioned foot, the concave surface of the recessed base and the foot pad left unglazed (handles repaired and retouched). 11 1/2in (29.2cm) high

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 123. Zao Wou-Ki (1921 - 2013), 13.1.90. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 GBP. Lot sold 629,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

Provenance: Jan Krugier - François Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Geneva
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1990

Exhibition: Geneva, Jan Krugier - François Ditesheim Art Contemporain, Zao Wou-Ki, April - May 1990

Zao Wou-Ki in his studio in Paris, circa 1958. Image: © Rights reserved / Archives Zao Wou-Ki Artwork: © DACS 2016

Notes: 13.1.90 is a stunningly lyrical example of Zao’s later works, a painting of elegiac beauty and extraordinary grace, brimming with light and vibrancy. Through misty hues appear elevated mountain-like shapes in the background that are contrasted by inky traces reminiscent of branches and trees. Light seems to emanate from the canvas, in particular a warm radiance of yellow golden paint at the lower left of the composition, imbuing the painting with a sense of physicality and corporality. The artist himself recalled the importance of light within his compositions in an interview in 1997: “Light is space. A void at that. But not a true void. It has to be a space for breathing, a space of breath, in other words a ‘lived’ emptiness” (Zao Wou-Ki quoted in: Exh Cat., Paris, Galerie Thessa Herold, Zao Wou-Ki, Peintres et Encres de Chine, 1998, p. 134).

In the marriage of abstract and figurative elements from which emanates a physical experience of light, the present work recalls the sublime composition of the late Turner. Indeed, Zao’s entire oeuvre is a celebration of the primacy of colour; the artist’s great admiration for Matisse and his understanding of the essence of colour and space clearly influenced the artist’s bold use of it: “I spent whole days bent over a sheet of paper with a brush in my hand, trying to understand how Matisse painted, how he put the colours together, how he organised the space, why the work as a whole conveyed that sensation of freshness, lightness, quivering” (Zao Wou-Ki quoted in: Zao Wou-Ki and Françoise Marquet, Ibid. cit., p. 37). 

J.M.W. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, 1844. The National Gallery, London.

Zao’s turn towards Western art was nurtured by his culturally minded family through books and magazines, in which he discovered the artistic freedom and gestural expression that was being oppressed in the rigid culture of academicism in his native China at the time. From an early age on, the artist was critical of Chinese painting as being governed by a recession of copying and reproducing. Leaving Shanghai for Paris at the age of 28 on 26 February 1948, Zao just left the country prior to Mao’s assumption of power the following year and so escaped the Cultural Revolution which followed. In Paris, the artist embarked on an exceptional path which eventually led him to merge his technical aptitude of his previous classical training with the exuberant notion of individual expression. Immersing himself in the museums and galleries newly available to him, Zao encountered a creative environment that proved essential in developing his unique style. His gradual associations with artists such as Joan Mitchell and Jean-Paul Riopelle as well as the painters of the Paris School such as Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung and Georges Mathieu helped the artist settle in his new home and provided a fertile artistic and intellectual inspiration. At the same time, the artist remained deeply connected to his cultural heritage; the abstract world seen in the present work, so richly suggestive of East Asian aesthetics embedded in Buddhist and Daoist philosophy, reflects the intellectual and spiritual influence of the ink medium, to which Zao returned increasingly in the 1970s. 

Over the decades in France, Zao tirelessly refined his artistic style, which led from his early abstract experiments reminiscent of Klee to the bold gestures of the following decades up to the more refined compositions of his mature years as masterfully exemplified in the present work. “When I go up to my studio in the morning, I still feel that same anxiety: ‘Will I be able to go on where I left off or will I have to start again from the beginning?’ I sometimes feel discouraged but I never feel tempted to give up” (Zao Wou-Ki quoted in: Ibid., p. 37). By 1990, the year the present work was painted, Zao was one of the most established and admired painters of his time in both East and West. Starting in the 1980s, Zao’s works would be increasingly exhibited in Asia and particularly in China, which provided the artist with frequent travel opportunities, the influences of which clearly manifested in his paintings from this later period. The mountains, rivers, and forests but also insubstantial images of clouds, mists, and air in order to display the technical skill of the artist are echoed in the present work. Zao’s mature style, whose elegant compositions of fluid colour fields stands in contrast to the bold strokes of his earlier works, is clearly marked by a change in temperament yielding more serene and purer compositions. The pursuit of space in a Zen-like emptiness is ultimately attained through the juxtaposition of subtle colour nuances intertwined with Zao’s unique expressive marks and gestural brushstrokes. 

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Day Auction, Londres, 29 juin 2016

Lot 141. Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), Mao, signed and dated 74 on the overlap, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 30.7 by 25.7 cm. 12 by 10 1/8 in. Estimate 450,000 — 650,000 GBP. Lot sold 545,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

stamped by the Andy Warhol Authentication Board, Inc. and numbered A108.042 on the overlap. 

Provenance: Private Collection (acquired from the artist)
Marvin Ross Friedman & Company, Miami
Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco
Private Collection
Phillips de Pury & Company, London, Contemporary Art, 16 February 2012, Lot 12
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Bibliography: Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture 1970-1974, Vol. 03, New York 2010, p. 251, no. 2459, illustrated in colour.

Painting of Chairman Mao by Andy Warhol at Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin Germany. Artwork: © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS 2016, London.

Notes: Whilst China was shaken by the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 70s, Andy Warhol had officially ‘retired’ from painting. Having focused his energies more and more on film and video, the artist’s painterly output had come to a temporary standstill from which the portrayal of Mao Zedong would herald a turning point. Nixon’s visit to China in February 1972 stimulated Warhol to return to painting as a medium in its own right and to start a new group of works which would end up comprising an ambitious total of 199 portraits in various sizes and styles. Warhol’s motivation to depict a man who was quintessentially the face of late 20th century totalitarianism was not at all of political nature. In 1971, he remarked that: ”Since fashion is art now and Chinese is in fashion, I could make a lot of money. Mao would be really nutty… not to believe in it, it’d just be fashion” (Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz, Eds., The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture 1970-1974, Vol. 03, New York 2010, p. 166).

Bob Colacello, who worked alongside Warhol for 12 years at Interview magazine in the 1970s and early 1980s, later recalled how Mao was to become the subject of this important group of works: “It began with an idea from Bruno Bischofberger, who had been pushing Andy to go back to painting… Bruno’s idea was that Andy should paint the most important figure of the twentieth century” (Bob Colacello, Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Up Close, New York 1990, p. 111). Initially, Albert Einstein was suggested for the impact of his Theory of Relativity, however for Warhol, fame was more important than ideas; appearance more important than importance itself. “That’s a good idea”, he replied, “but I was just reading in Life magazine that the most famous person in the world today is Chairman Mao. Shouldn’t it be the most famous person, Bruno?” (Andy Warhol quoted in: Ibid.) More than an individual, it was the mechanism of fame itself that fascinated Warhol, the degree to which fame consumes creativity by repeating one and the same image to a point of banality.

Chinese School, (20th century), Long Live the All-Round Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, August 1967 (colour litho), Private Collection. Image: © The Chambers Gallery, London / Bridgeman Images

By the early 1970s, chairman Mao had become one of the most extensively reproduced public figures in history. His portrait could be found in books, public spaces and a giant version of it still famously hangs at Tiananmen Square. China’s leader had become a superstar, a readymade icon of totalitarianism. By choosing him over other contemporary icons such as Che Guevara, Warhol achieved a transition between Western contemporary art and a Chinese imagery that had in itself risen to the point of fetish: “Mao’s portrait was, in effect, already a Warhol.” (Sally King-Nero and Neil Printz, Eds, Op. Cit., p. 166). Through the use of bold colours and an expressionistic handling of paint, the icon of late Twentieth Century communism was appropriated as a consumerist commodity offered on a Western capitalist market.

The present work is one of the 122 small 12 by 10 inch canvases which were executed towards the end of the opus. Amongst the Mao paintings, this series of small works is the most painterly and experimental, with Warhol often adding paint on top of the silkscreened image, giving each image its unique characteristics. Warhol decisively progressed from the stencilled, machine-like precision of the Liz and Marilyn portraits to a looser, abstract-expressionistic handling in the Mao series. The touch of his hand, the material properties of the medium and the nuances of mixed and unmixed colour played an increasingly important role and is particularly visible in the present work.

Three distinct colours, a strikingly intense blue and orange and a more subdued earthy brown are broken up only by the sharp black outlines of Mao’s features. Vigorously and fast, Warhol applied the light blue background and breached the borders into the chairman’s jacket and face. Distinct passages of the composition are not isolated as in earlier works, but instead flow and mix into a complicated, abstract frenzy of line, colour and movement. The wide brush used in relation to the size of the canvas further enhances the effect of abstraction. From underneath all this, Mao still stares at the beholder like he does in his official portrait, but he has been stripped of context and his intimidating, all powerful aura is nothing but a faint memory.

Sotheby's. Contemporary Art Day Auction, Londres, 29 juin 2016

Lot 9371. A yellow glazed  ruyi scepter, Wang Bingrong mark  (1840-1900). Estimate US$ 1,000 - 1,500 (€900 - 1,400). Photo Bonhams.

Molded as a gnarled branch of ruyi fungus with bats on clouds applied to the handle and further bats combined with raised bosses on the scepter head, the underside bearing the impressed mark Wang Bingrong zuo beneath a mustard yellow glaze. 13 1/2in (34.2cm) long

Bonhams. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 2016-06-29 10:00 PDT - SAN FRANCISCO

almakarinastudio. Blocks. De Grisogono earrings shot for Hong Kong Tatler.

almakarinastudio. Blocks. Cartier watch shot for Hong Kong Tatler.

almakarinastudio. Blocks. Messika necklace shot for Hong Kong Tatler.

almakarinastudio, Structures. Chaumet watch and ring shot for Hong Kong Tatler Weddings.

almakarinastudio, Structures. Dior, De Grisogono and Cartier rings shot for Hong Kong Tatler Weddings.

almakarinastudio, Structures. Chanel and Dior bracelets shot for Hong Kong Tatler Weddings.

Lot 11. Maerten Jacobsz. van Heemskerck (Heemskerck 1498-1574 Haarlem), The Entombment, oil on panel, 125.6 x 141.6cm (49 7/16 x 55 3/4in). Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 (€24,000 - 36,000). Photo Bonhams

Provenance: The Collection of André-Javier Flores, Madrid
With H. Scagliola, Geneva, 1976-78
With Knoedler, New York, 1978-79.

Literature: R. Grosshans, Marten van Heemskerck. Die Gemälde, Berlin, 1980, p. 168, cat. no. 52, ill. fig. 77
J. Harrison, The Paintings of Marten van Heemskerck: A catalogue raisonée, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Virginia, 1987, cat. no. 51

Notes: Of three known works of this composition, the present painting is considered the prototype. One is now in the Musée de Semur-en-Auxois, the other was formerly in the collection of Robert Langton Douglas, London, and offered at Christie's London, 16 December 1998, lot 128. All depict, with small variations, The Entombment with the dead Christ at the centre surrounded by half-length figures, one of whom looks directly out at the viewer over Christ's shoulder. Harrison believes that this man, shown as Nicodemus, may be a self-portrait of the artist. A dramatic nocturnal landscape with the rocks of Christ's tomb appear behind them. Of all three versions, this is the only one still to include this landscape. The composition was clearly popular, as attested to by the existence of the two early copies and further suggested by Barend Graat's later repetition now found in the Sint Petrus-Brandenkerk, Driesbergen-Rijsenburg. 

Grosshans suggests a date of circa 1545, given the greater understanding of the spatial arrangement of the figures, placing it after Heemkerck's earlier Entombment of 1540 which is now in the Pinacoteca dell'Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, Turin. Harrison agrees with this date, comparing the work to the artist's triptych of 1544 now in the National Museum, Warsaw.

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 14:00 BST, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Lot 13. Edward Collier and possibly Studio (Breda circa 1640-circa 1706 London), A trompe l'oeil still life of a letter rack with letters, pamphlets, scissors, a quill pen, a wax seal and an oval miniature of King Charles I, inscribed 'for/Mr.P.R.idley/Painter att/London' (on letter, centre left), oil on canvas, 63.4 x 76.4cm (24 15/16 x 30 1/16in). Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 (€24,000 - 36,000). Photo Bonhams

Notes: Collier moved to England in 1693 and thereafter started to paint what became his signature works: illusionistic representations of letter racks, in which painted letters along with combs, for example, sealing wax and dog-eared political pamphlets are tucked in behind painted strips of leather. Many of these are indeed literally signature works, since they include letters addressed to 'Mr E Collier, Painter at London'. Dror Wahrman, the author of Mr Collier's Letter Racks states that there are 14 'confirmed "Collier" paintings signed with the names of others that I have managed to track down'. While none of the artists whose 'signature' they bear are otherwise recorded, every one of these 14 works carry their respective 'signatures' in Collier's typical fashion, through the device of an addressed folded envelope. Wahrman suggests that Collier may also have had a hand in a whole range of other letter-rack paintings apparently signed by other artists, and which, he argues, have 'EC' monograms hidden in them. Wahrman notes that the lining up of the three dots from M. P. R. in the letter addressed to Mr. Ridley in the present work (see fig. 1) implies that they are intentional including the third; and yet the third does not make any sense and should not be there, which is precisely how Collier worked. He also tentatively suggests that 'if you look at the mirror image the side flourish on the left of the P is a cursive E, and the same flourish to the left of the R can be seen as a C.' Fred Meijer is also of the view that Collier had a hand in the present work. 

Similarly a Vanitas Still life with Works of Montaigne which is signed 'Charles Field' but which Dror Wahrman persuasively argues was painted by Edward Collier is one of four nearly identical paintings that Collier almost certainly had more than a hand in: one with Collier's signature, one without signature, and two with signatures ascribed to others, although all four paintings have Collier's initials ('E.C.') inscribed within them. 

Wahrman writes that Collier began to paint letter racks as a result of coming to England and being exposed to the newly frantic and ephemeral world of late 17th century pamphleteering. This series of paintings can thus be seen as depicting the transience of an age in which kings and queens and pamphlets come and go, but all is finally vanity.

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 14:00 BST, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Lot 17. Jakob Ferdinand Voet (Antwerp 1639-circa 1700), Portrait of Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin, as Cleopatra, oil on canvas, 75.1 x 60.9cm (29 9/16 x 24in). Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 (€24,000 - 36,000). Photo Bonhams

Provenance: Acquired at the beginning of the 20th century by Commander Charles Edward Evans of the Evans and Reid Coal Company Ltd, who hung it at his country house, Nailsea Court, Somerset, until his death in 1944, when it was bequeathed to his daughter, Primrose, and thence by descent to the present owner.

Notes: The quality of the present portrait by Jakob Ferdinand Voet may be compared to the extremely fine oval version by Voet in the Castello Masino; while a version which follows this rectangular format is in Earl Spencer's collection at Althorp House. A 'limned' miniature of the Duchess of Mazarin is recorded as having been in the Royal Collection during the reigns of James II and William III, which is probably the miniature copy of Voet's portrait which is still in the Royal Collection. A further copy after Voet is in the Musée des beaux-arts de Chambéry.

Hortense Mancini (Rome 1646-1699, Chelsea) was the favourite niece of Cardinal Mazarin, the at one time all-powerful Chief-Minister to Louis XIV of France, and the fourth of the five Mancini sisters, who were celebrated at the French court for their great beauty. When in exile Charles II of England proposed to Hortense in 1659, but his offer was rejected by her powerful uncle who believed Charles at that time to have little in the way of prospects. Mazarin realised his mistake when Charles was reinstated as King of England only months later. It was then the Cardinal who approached Charles, offering a dowry of 5 million livres, but Charles refused.

Following her marriage to Armand Charles de La Porte de La Meilleraye, one of the richest men in Europe and the death of her uncle soon after, Hortense became fabulously wealthy, the Palais Mazarin in Paris being known for its fine art collection. At one point she was reported to have been the richest lady in Europe. The marriage was not a happy one, Hortense finding affection elsewhere, notoriously first in the person of the sixteen-year-old Sidonie de Courcelles (she was also famous for cross-dressing). Following impoverishment after her estrangement from and the subsequent death of her husband, Hortense's fortunes were revived when she travelled to England, becomingMaîtresse en titre to Charles II by the middle of 1676. 

After her fall from favour with Charles and his subsequent death, Hortense's name was romantically linked with the Countess of Sussex, the Prince of Monaco and even the poet, Aphra Ben. When James II succeeded his brother in 1685 the Duchess continued to be provided for, no doubt because the new Queen, Mary of Modena, was her niece. She went on to preside over a salon of intellectuals. The symbolism of the present composition might be considered eerily prescient since it is thought that Hortense may have committed suicide.

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 14:00 BST, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET

Lot 9219. A kesi-woven green silk ground dragon robe, 19th century. Estimate USD 2,000 ~ 3,000. Sold for US$ 1,875 (€1,688). Photo: Bonhams.

The pale sea-green silk ground contrasting with the thin gilt-wrapped threads used to weave the dragons amid clouds, bats, peaches and wanzi emblems above the wide lishui border, all rendered in a variety of bright colors with a few details painted in color, the collar and replacement cuffs from a woman's coat similarly woven on a black ground (extensive degrading to fabric, soiling and staining, repairs). 53 3/4in (136.5cm) long

Bonham's. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 10:00 PDT, SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 9223. A composite blue ground brocade silk dragon robe, Late Qing dynasty elements. Estimate USD1,500 ~ 2,500. Sold for US$ 2,500 (€2,251). Photo: Bonhams.

Constructed from one or more robes into a long coat with center front closing, the dragons and wide lishui border woven in fine gilt-wrapped threads while the surrounding auspicious emblems and clouds are colored in white and bright pastel threads that repeat in the black ground collar, sleeves and cuffs; the robe now lined with pieced black silk gauze brocade (assembled, minor surface wear, discoloration). 55 1/2in (141cm) long

Bonham's. ASIAN DECORATIVE ARTS, 10:00 PDT, SAN FRANCISCO

Lot 124. Robe de cour officielle, chaofu, remaniée, Chine, XIXème siècle. Estimation : 3 000 € / 4 000 €. Adjugéà 3500 €. Photo Leclere.

Ensemble composite, comprenant la jupe et la collerette provenant d’une robe chaofu, la jupe en gaze noire et soie brodée de fils de couleurs et fils métalliques dorés de dragons à cinq griffes au-dessus de flots, et de médaillons à décor de dragons lovés, la collerette en soie noire brodée de dragons et bordée de brocart bleu et or, le haut de la robe et les manches, provenant d’une autre robe d’été, en gaze bleu à décor de grands médaillons (usures et déchirures à la collerette). H.: 160 x 170 cm.

Ancienne collection Laurent Giovangrandi diplomate en Asie jusqu’en 1960.

Art d'Asie, le 24 Juin 2016 à 14h30. LECLERE - MAISON DE VENTES, 75009 PARIS

Lot 125. Robe de cour en soie brune, chifu, Chine, époque Guangxu (1875-1908). Estimation : 1 000 € / 1 500. Adjugéà 5 000 €. Photo Leclere.

En soie brune brodée en fils de soies de couleurs et fils métalliques dorés, de dragons à cinq griffes et leur perles enflammées dans la partie centrale et sur les manches, parmi les nuées, fleurs et chauve-souris, le bas de la robe et la bordure des manches se terminant par un décor de mer tumultueuse autour de rochers, doublure bleue (usures et déchirures au col et extrémités des manches). H.: 152 x 175 cm. 

Ancienne collection Laurent Giovangrandi, diplomate en Asie jusqu’en 1960.

Art d'Asie, le 24 Juin 2016 à 14h30. LECLERE - MAISON DE VENTES, 75009 PARIS

Lot 28. Luca Carlevarijs (Udine 1663-1730 Venice), A view of the Molo and Piazzetta, Venice, looking towards Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana, oil on canvas, 66.5 x 102cm (26 3/16 x 40 3/16in). Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 (€85,000 - 120,000). Photo: Bonhams.

Provenance: Lanhydrock House, Cornwall, until 1969 and by descent to the present owner

Literature: D. Succi, Carlevarijs, Gorizia, 2015, p. 193, no. 56, ill.

Notes: This relatively recently discovered work by Carlevarijs is unique in the artist's compositions: although a few are known which look towards the Molo from the Piazzetta, they also incorporate the Palazzo Ducale (for example, Milan, private Collection, Aldo Rizzi, Luca Carlevarijs, Venice, 1967, fig. 129; and Toronto Art Gallery of Ontario, Rizzi, fig. 130). 

The sophisticated depiction of perspective which is evident in the present work is something for which the artist was famous during his lifetime. Particularly innovative was this eye-level view-point which renders the looming architecture of Venice to be experienced from ground-level as it is in reality so that the viewer feels himself to be participating in the scene. Luca Carlevarijs was in many ways the inventor of the large-scale views of Venice which were to make the reputations of such artists as Canaletto and Guardi. Although he owed something to two seventeenth century artists in particular Gaspar van Wittel and Joseph Heinz, Carlevarijs animated his own vedute by breathing life into the figures who inhabit them. His fascination with the details of dress and the peculiarities of pose and gesture are evident in the numerous figure studies he sketched in oil from life before incorporating them in his finished works.

Bonhams. OLD MASTER PAINTINGS, 14:00 BST, LONDON, NEW BOND STREET