Lot 52. Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Paysage de neige, Circa 1924. Huile et crayon sur toile, 61 x 50 cm (24,02 x 19,69 in.). Estimation 300 000 € / 400 000 €. Photo Artcurial.
Provenance : Succession Pablo Picasso (photo n° M521)
Collection Paul Lombard
Collection Paul Lombard chez Artcurial, 75008 Paris, le 10 Octobre 2017 à 19h00
Lot 88. Georges Braque (1882 - 1963), L'oiseau et son ombre, 1959. Huile sur carton parqueté. Signé en bas à droite "G Braque", 57 x 80 cm (22,44 x 31,50 in.). Estimation 200 000 € / 300 000 €. Photo Artcurial.
Provenance : Atelier de l'artiste
Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Paris
Adrien Maeght, Paris
Collection Paul Lombard
Expositions : Paris, Galerie Maeght, juin-juillet 1959, n°8
Barcelone, Galerie Maeght, avril-mai 1980, n°28
Saint-Paul de Vence, Fondation Maeght,Georges Braque, juillet-octobre 1980,lot 144, reproduit en noir et blanc p. 154
Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts,Strasbourg, Musée d'Art Moderne, Braqueen Europe, mai-novembre 1982
Commentaire : Un certificat d'Isabelle Maeght sera remis à l'acquéreur.
Cette oeuvre a servi de modèle pour une séries de lithographies de 1959 et deux séries d’eaux-fortes de 1961, toutes trois éditées par Maeght.
Collection Paul Lombard chez Artcurial, 75008 Paris, le 10 Octobre 2017 à 19h00
Lot 29. Pierre Bonnard (1867 - 1947), Jeune femme au col marin (étude), Circa 1916. Huile sur carton, Cachet de la signature en haut à droite "Bonnard", 46 x 38 cm (18,11 x 14,96 in.). Estimation 150 000 € / 200 000 €. Photo Artcurial.
Provenance : Succession Bonnard
Collection Paul Lombard
Bibliographie : J. et H. Dauberville, "Bonnard Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre peint **** 1940-1947, supplément 1887-1939", n°02097, reproduit en noir et blanc p. 372
Collection Paul Lombard chez Artcurial, 75008 Paris, le 10 Octobre 2017 à 19h00
Lot 100. Joan Miro (1893 - 1983), Femme entourée par un vol d'oiseaux, 1959. Huile sur carton. Signé en bas à gauche "Miro", ontresigné, daté et titré au dos « MIRÓ 27/10/59 Femme entourée par un vol d’oiseaux », 105 x 75 cm (41,34 x 29,53 in.). Estimation 150 000 € / 250 000 €. Photo Artcurial.
Provenance : Galerie Maeght, Paris (n° inventaire: 07254)
Collection Paule et Adrien Maeght, Paris
Collection Paul Lombard
Expositions : Paris, Galerie Maeght, Miró Cartons,mai-juin 1965, n°1
Japon, exposition itinérante, 1984,n°50, reproduit en couleur p. 64
Chicago, Foire de Chicago, avril-mai 1986
Brétigny, Centre culturel Gérard Philippe, Souvenir d’en France,décembre 1986 - janvier 1987
Cologne, Galerie Linsen, Miró, mars-mai 1987
Bibliographie : J. Dupin, A. Lelong-Mainaud, "Joan Miro - Catalogue raisonné. Paintings Volume IV 1959-1968", Daniel Lelong Succession Miro, Paris, 2002, n°998, reproduit en noir et blanc p. 17
Commentaire : Un certificat d'Isabelle Maeght sera remis à l'acquéreur.
Collection Paul Lombard chez Artcurial, 75008 Paris, le 10 Octobre 2017 à 19h00
Lot 127. Antoni Tàpies (1923 - 2012), 2., 1975. Technique mixte sur toile. Signée et datée au dos "Tàpies, 75", 114 x 146 cm (44,88 x 57,48 in.). Estimation 150 000 € / 200 000 €. Photo Artcurial.
Provenance : Galerie Maeght, Paris
Collection Paul Lombard
Exposition : Nîmes, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, "Aimé Maeght et les siens", 1982, reproduit en noir et blanc
Bibliographie : G. Raillard, "Tàpies", Editions Maeght, Paris, 1976, reproduit en noir et blanc planche 185, p. 204
A. Agusti, "Tàpies, Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 3, 1969-1975", Editions du Cercle d'Art, Paris, 1992, pp. 564, 569, reproduit en couleur sous le n°3011, p. 487
Commentaire : Un certificat de Madame Isabelle Maeght sera remis à l'acquéreur.
Collection Paul Lombard chez Artcurial, 75008 Paris, le 10 Octobre 2017 à 19h00
Footprints of the Buddha, Found at Amavarati, India, c.AD 100–300. Carved limestone, H 67.5 cm © Trustees of the British Museum
The Ashmolean, Oxford, will stage the first major exhibition to explore the visual cultures of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism as these five religions spread across Asia and Europe in the first millennium.
Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions (19 October 2017–18 February 2018), curated by Jaś Elsner and Stefanie Lenk, presents the culmination of new research into the art history of religions undertaken by the Empires of Faith project based at the British Museum and the University of Oxford.
The project explores the different visual cultures of the major world religions and brings to light the processes of constant dialogue between faiths.
The exhibition will consider images and objects not as fixed and inevitable consequences of a religion’s theological point of origin but, rather, as the results of a long history of visual evolution relating to the encounter and exchange with other faiths, rituals, and cultures.
Panel showing Christ enthroned, Eastern Mediterranean, c. AD 500–600. Carved ivory, H.16.2 cm© Private collection, UK
Highlights of the exhibition include: the first known depiction of Christ north of the Alps; some of the oldest surviving Qurans; early Christian sarcophagi from the Ashmolean collection, which will be displayed for the first time; a rare cult - statue of Dionysus; early figurative and pre-figurative images of Buddha; Vishnu avatars; late ancient Jewish artefacts; and a variety of rare maps, scrolls, drawings, coins, manuscripts and amulets.
The exhibition explores how art was not only central to the development of these faiths, beliefs and traditions, but was also shaped by the interaction between them.
Imagining the Divine highlights the coexistence of the emerging major world religions, their artistic environment, and the exchanges of images and ideas that produced some of the most enduring religious images ever created.
Statue of Vishnu, Mathura, India, AD 300–400. Pink sandstone, H 52 cm© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Prof. Jaś Elsner, Co-curator of Imagining the Divine, said: ‘At a time when cultural exchange, migration and globalization are of critical importance, this exhibition confronts an earlier era of religious transformation and turmoil when dialogue, encounter and visual exchange generated so much of the key identities of the world religions.’
Mary Beard, Classicist, said: ‘This is a groundbreaking show exploring the art of religions from India to Ireland. Not just fabulous things to look at (though there are plenty of those) -- but an attempt to raise big questions about how different cultures have made their gods visible to themselves, how the imagery was formed and evolved, and how different traditions of representation interacted with one another. It couldn't be more relevant.’
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue by the members of the Empires of Faith team at the British Museum and Wolfson College, Oxford. Available to purchase from the Ashmolean shop or www.ashmolean.org/shop
Two leaves from the Blue Qur’an, Baghdad, AD 800–900. Gold, silver and ink on blue-dyed parchment, H 28.9 cm © The Sarikhani Collection.
Parochet, North Italy, AD 1676. Linen embroidered with silk and silver-gilt thread and bordered with silver-gilt fringe, H.190.5 cm© Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Hinton Christ, Romano-British, Early 4th century © Trustees of the British Museum
Bowl with Kufic Calligraphy, Iran or Uzbekistan, 10th century. Ceramic; earthenware, painted in brown slip on a white slip ground under a transparent glaze, 5 1/16 x 16 3/4 in., C.47-1964. © Victoria and Albert Museum
Lot 134. An impressive diamond necklace, in the 'Garland Style', early 20th century. Estimate: £240,000-£280,000. Photo: Sotheby's
LONDON.- A remarkable collection of English and continental silver spanning over 500 years, exquisite vintage jewels and objects of vertu from the renowned antiques dealer, S.J. Phillips is to be offered for sale at Sotheby’s on 18 October 2017. Celebrating the rich and distinguished history of London’s oldest family-owned dealership, the sale will comprise some 260 prized lots from this much-loved treasure house.
Founded in 1869 by Solomon Joel Phillips, S.J. Phillips has long been a London institution known for offering pieces of superlative quality and beauty. Establishing themselves as the largest silver dealers of the mid-19th century, the company attracted the patronage of the great collectors of the 20th century, including generations of the Rothschild family. Today, the business is run by the greatgrandsons of Solomon Joel Phillips – brothers, Nicolas and Jonathan, and their cousin, Francis – and continues to attract a loyal and illustrious clientele, including renowned tastemakers and members of the aristocracy, many of whom have a strong and personal relationship with the revered dealers.
Nicolas Norton, Director of S.J. Phillips and great-grandson of the original founder, said: “Earlier this year, we moved to our new premises on the second floor of 26 Bruton Street, marking a new chapter in our history. Owing to the smaller space we now have available, we are no longer able to display all of our collection successfully and have decided to part with a number of beautiful objects which we hope will bring pleasure to new owners. S.J. Phillips and Sotheby’s have been neighbours on New Bond Street for over a century now and this sale celebrates our fantastic working relationship.”
Commenting on the forthcoming sale, David Bennett, Sotheby’s Worldwide Chairman, International Jewellery Division said: “Spanning over a century of jewellery design, this sale offers collectors an opportunity to acquire timeless pieces, rich with the charm and romance inherent in vintage jewels." Sotheby’s Silver Specialist, James Clare added, “Like many others, I wandered past S.J. Phillips of 139 Bond Street countless times, peering through the windows almost daily too see their latest treasure. It is a great pleasure to offer this collection at Sotheby’s to a worldwide audience, giving our buyers the opportunity to buy a piece of silver epitomising the family ethos of quality and fine taste, as well as taking away a piece of the company’s rich Bond Street history.”
A Loyal and Illustrious Clientele of Renowned Tastemakers
Dame Anna Wintour DBE, journalist, editor and previous editor-in-chief of Vogue - "A visit to S.J. Phillips has always been the highlight of any London trip for me--and, indeed, this is also the case for many of my friends. What I find especially captivating are the estate pieces, those dazzling, romantic reminders of past eras and personal histories. Tortoise-shell hair combs by Cartier from the Twenties sit alongside 19th century rococo charm bracelets by Boucheron. Some pieces date to the 17th century --family heirlooms, lovers' baubles, memento mori. It will be thrilling to see so many of the Nortons’ exceptionally beautiful and highly curated treasures find new homes, and to see my great friends embark on the next chapter of the S. J. Phillips story in their new Bruton Street location.”
Jasper Conran OBE, British designer – “I was first introduced to SJ Phillips one dark, wintery afternoon over thirty years ago by the author Bruce Chatwin. He said to me "Let's go and see Marie Antoinette's hatpins". This was, I thought an extremely odd and incongruous proposition to come out of Bruce's mouth, he of the backpack and muddy boots, totally spare aesthetic and witheringly scornful of the pursuit of possessions by others. However, upon entering the glittering Aladdin's cave of a shop on Bond Street and meeting the extraordinarily friendly and learned members of the Norton family I could quite see how even Bruce might be captivated, I was certainly spellbound. There, nestling in the vitrines with Marie Antoinette's sparklers glittered a myriad of beautiful objects of historical interest and sometimes great value, often invested with tales of romance, connoisseurship, revolution and lost fortunes. Heady stuff.
Since then, like Truman Capote's heroine Holly Golightly, if feeling a bit down I make a beeline for SJ’s not necessarily to purchase Barbara Hutton's perfectly matched canary yellow diamonds but to be soothed and amused by being amongst them.”
The Duke of Bedford – “It is a place? shop? gallery? I have always loved to visit, not only for the friendship of the Norton family but to see such amazing jewellery, silver, and objects. It is certainly true that there is no such thing as a free lunch - the lunch is delicious, but one almost inevitably buys something. My family and I have been involved with Martin, Jonathan, Nicolas and Francis for over 50 years. To use Tina Turner's words, I would say that S J Phillips is 'simply the best.”
Highlights from the Sale
Continental Silver
The Marquess of Abercorn's tray, 1791 A fine George III silver-gilt tray, this is an exceptional example of the work of 18th century London silversmith, James Young, expertly and boldly engraved with the coat of arms of John James Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. Estimate: £150,000 – 200,000.
Lot 149. The Marquess of Abercorn's Tray. A fine George III silver-gilt tray, James Young, London, 1791. Estimate: £150,000 – 200,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
on four leaf-capped scroll bracket feet, the upcurved border chased with a band of quilting, the ground engraved with a broad band of scrolling acanthus tied to Grecian palmattes on a matted ground, the center engraved with a coat-of-arms and the motto SOLA NOBILITAT VIRTUS below a Marquess's coronet, the underside applied with four contemporary carrying handles; 75cm., 29 1/2 in. wide; 9,225gr., 296oz.
LLiterature: Stanley C. Dixon, English Decorated Trays, 1964, ill. p.13
Thomas Lawrence, John James Hamilton, 9th Earl, and 1st Marquess of Abercorn, KG (1756-1818), courtesy of a private collection
Note: The arms are those of Hamilton for John James Hamilton, Marquess of Abercorn (Fig. 1), who was born in July 1756, the posthumous son and heir of Captain John Hamilton R.N. (1714-1755) by his wife Harriet (née Craggs), widow of Richard Eliot of Port Eliot, Cornwall. John James was educated at Harrow before going up to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he was a contemporary of William Pitt the younger (1759-1806) to whom he was related by marriage through the Eliot family. After leaving university, Hamilton was MP for East Looe in 1783/84 and for St. Germans between 1784 and 1789. It was at this period that he became a particular ally of his friend Pitt during the latter's first tenure as Prime Minister.
On 9 October 1789 Hamilton succeeded his uncle James as the 9th Earl of Abercorn, a title bestowed on an ancestor by James I in 1606. In 1790 he was further elevated as the Marquess of Abercorn. His surviving political correspondence from this time shows that he was immersed in local Irish politics and electioneering as well as the problem of Catholic Relief and Catholic Emancipation. Following the enactment of the Militia Act in 1793, Abercorn became honorary commander of the Tyrone Militia with which he continued to be associated until his resignation in 1800.
Although Abercorn, the only nobleman of his day to hold titles in England, Ireland and Scotland, resided when in London at the family mansion, 22 (now 25) Grosvenor Square, his principal residence was at Bentley Priory (Fig. 2), Stanmore, north west London, originally built in 1766. He purchased this property in 1788 and immediately employed Sir John Soane to oversee extensive improvements 'in which convenience is united with magnificence in a manner rarely to be met with' (Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London, 1810, vol. II, p. 375). Soane's scheme included a picture gallery, a grand Portland stone staircase, a dining room measuring 40 by 30 feet, and a saloon and music room each measuring 50 by 30 feet. The Marquess's lavish expenditure also included improvements to the gardens and park. Visitors to Bentley were from Abercorn's wide circle of political, literary and theatrical friends and acquaintances, including Pitt, Wellington, Canning, Liverpool and Sidmouth; the poets Wordsworth, Moore and Thomas Campbell; and the actors Sarah Siddons and John Kemble. Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton were also welcome guests, as was Sir Walter Scott who in 1807 wrote his epic poem Marmion there.
Later recalling the Marquess of Abercorn in a review of James Boaden's Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Scott wrote that he (Kemble) 'was a frequent and favourite guest at Bentley Priory, which was then the resort of the most distinguished part of the fashionable world. Its noble owner, the late Marquis of Abercorn, has been so long with the dead, that to do justice to his character, much misrepresented in some points during his life, can be ascribed to no motive which interest or adulation could suggest. He was a man highly gifted by nature, and whose talents had been improved by sedulous attention to an excellent education. If he had remained a Commoner, it was the opinion of Mr Pitt, that he must have been one of the most distinguished speakers in the Lower House. The House of Lords does not admit to the same display either of oratory or of capacity for public business; but when the Marquis of Abercorn did speak there, the talents which he showed warranted the prophecy of so skilled an augur as Pitt. Those who saw him at a distance accused him of pride and haughtiness. That he had a sufficient feeling of the dignity of his situation, and maintained it with perhaps an unusual degree of state and expense, may readily be granted. But that expense, however large, was fully supported by an ample fortune wisely administered, and in the management of which the interests of the tenant were always considered as well as those of the landlord. He racked no rents to maintain the expenses of his establishment, nor did he diminish his charities, which were in many cases princely, for the sake of the outward state, the maintenance of which he thought not unjustly, a duty incumbent on his situation. Above all, the stateliness of which the late Marquis of Abercorn was accused, drew no barrier between the Marquis of Abercorn and those who shared his hospitality.' (Article XI, 'Life of Kemble. – Kelly's Reminiscences,' from the Quarterly Review, April 1826, The Miscellaneous Prose Works of Sir Walter Scott, vol. VI, Paris, 1838)
Away from London and its environs, Lord Abercorn spent much time at his Irish seat, Baronscourt, co. Tyrone.
Abercorn was married three times, first on 20 June 1779 to Catharine (died 19 September 1791), first daughter of Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Bt., by whom he had five children; and second on 4 March 1792 to his first cousin, Lady Cecil Hamilton (who may have been his mistress during the lifetime of his first wife), by whom he had a daughter. Following the couple's divorce by Act of Parliament in 1799 (on account of her adultery with Captain Joseph Copley, the brother of her former husband's first wife), Abercorne married on 3 April 1800 Lady Anne Jane Hatton, widow of Henry Hatton of Great Clonard, co. Wexford, and daughter of the 2nd Earl of Arran.
James Young, the 18th Century London manufacturing silversmith who eventually became proprietor of a business described as 'of consequence and respectability,' was the son of Richard Young, Citizen and Carter (Carman) of London, and his wife, Elizabeth. He was baptised at St. Stephen, Coleman Street, on 29 June 1735. Arthur Grimwade (London Goldsmiths, p. 712) gives an outline of his career, from the beginning of his apprenticeship to John Muns of Gold Street, Gutter Lane, on 4 October 1749, to the entry of his first mark as a smallworker on 21 July 1760, and through his various changes of address and brief partnership with Orlando Jackson in 1774 at Aldersgate Street, to the record of his eventual removal to 70 Little Britain in 1788.
Young was made free of the Company of Carmen by patrimony in June 1759 (London Metropolitan Archives, COL/CHD/FR/02/850). The registers at Goldsmiths' Hall record his removal to Clerkenwell on 22 January 1766 shortly after his two sons, James and Thomas, were baptised at St. James's, Clerkenwell, respectively on 5 April 1764 and 25 November 1765.
Young's partnership with Jackson, a chaser and native of Scotland, produced one of the most interesting groups of silver of 1774/75: the actor David Garrick's fluted tea and coffee service (Sotheby's, London, 19 October 1961, lot 95, and Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 20 March 1970, lot 201; now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London). Grimwade's estimation of Young's output – 'of elegant neo-Classical design and fine finish, particularly his epergnes'– is based upon the relatively small number of objects to have been identified bearing his mark, either alone or with Jackson. The most spectacular of these are the two 'marine' centrepieces of 1780 and 1786 (based on the original Paul Crespin example in the Royal Collections), the first made for the Duke of Rutland and the second probably for John Fitzgibbon, created Viscount Fitzgibbon and Earl of Clare in 1795 (Kathryn Jones and Christopher Garibaldi, 'Crespin or Sprimont? A question revisited,' Silver Studies, The Journal of The Silver Society, no. 21, London, 2006, pp. 25-38). Another exceptional example of Young's work is this present tray; fine by any standards of salver and tray making it is also expertly and boldly engraved within a border of excellently rendered rosettes and scrolled foliage in bright-cut.
Although the engraver responsible for that decoration is not known, it is tempting to attribute it to the studio of John Thompson (d. 1801) of 44 Gutter Lane, which was a few minutes' walk from Young's workshops at 70 Little Britain. Charles Oman was of the opinion that Thompson had 'worked up a considerable business' by the end of the 18th Century.' He also notes that Thompson's last and best-known apprentice was Walter Jackson (1780?-1834) whose style of engraving, recorded in an album of pulls of crests and coats-of-arms acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1976, is familiar from the heraldry on many trays and salvers produced for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell during the first two decades of the 19th Century (Charles Oman, English Engraved Silver, 1150-1900, London, 1978, pp. 113-123). It is also worth comparing the engraving on the tray in this lot with that on a James Young soup tureen and cover of 1790, which may also have been undertaken at Thompson's (Sotheby's, New York, 26 April 2008, lot 282).
James Young retired in 1793. His Little Britain premises, described as 'A VALUABLE LEASHOLD ESTATE, consisting of a spacious dwelling-house, in perfect repair, with numerous fixtures, extensive warehouses and workshops, eligibly situate . . ., with an established Trade, of consequence and respectability,' were announced for auction on 14 May 1793. 'On the same and following day will be sold,' according to the advertisement, 'the neat Household Furniture, valuable implements, utensils, and remaining Stock in Trade of Messrs Young's working goldsmiths, retiring from business. The utensils comprise a very valuable piercing press, a complete set of swages and piercing punches, anvils, dies, stakes, a complete set of casting utensils, and a capital assortment of beautiful modern patterns in lead and brass. The furniture consists of bedsteads, beds, and bedding, carpets, chairs, tables, glasses, kitchen utensils, &c. &c. . . . Mr. Smith [the auctioneer] is authorized to receive proposals for the purchase of the Lease, fixtures and utensils by private contract' (The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, London, Wednesday, 1 May 1793, p. 4d).
James and Thomas Young, described as working goldsmiths of Little Britain, subsequently dissolved their partnership on 21 June 1793 (The London Gazette, London, 22 June 1793, p. 534a). Afterwards James Young went to live at West Hill, Battersea Rise, Surrey, where he died in his 86th year on 9 September 1820 (The Gentleman's Magazine, London, October 1820, p. 376b). As if to emphasis his former connection with the City of London (and Aldersgate Street, where he was in residence between about 1774 and 1788), Young was buried at St. Boldolph, Aldersgate Street, on 15 September 1820.
A French parcel-gilt silver vase, cover and stand, circa 1815 Created by leading Strasbourg goldsmith, Jacques-Frederic Kirstein in the early 19th century, this exceptional silver vase is finely cast and chased in high relief with a lion hunt. A very similar vase is in the Musée Des Arts Decoratifs, Strasbourg. Estimate: £70,000 – 100,000.
Lot 85. A French parcel-gilt silver vase, cover and stand, Jacques-Frédéric Kirstein, Strasbourg, circa 1815. Estimate: £70,000 – 100,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
Exhibited: Hans Haug, Le Siècle d'or de l'orfèvrerie de Strasbourg, Chez Jacques Kugel, Paris, 10-31 October, 1964, no. 160
Note: A very similar vase is in the Musée Des Arts Decoratifs, Strasbourg (ref. MAD 5502). A gift in 1897 from Mgr. Paul Muller-Simonis, who inherited a fortune from both his parents, it is described as `témoigne de l'extraordinaire talent de modeleur de Kirstein et de sa maîtrise de la technique de la fonte à la cire perdue'1(testimony to the extraordinary talent of Kirstein as a sculptor and his complete mastery of lost wax casting).
Jacques-Frédérick (1765-1838, also known as Joachim Frédérick) Kirstein, thought to have studied under Robert-Joseph Auguste in Paris,2 came from the third generation of a family of leading Strasbourg goldsmiths. As 'artiste célèbre pour ses vases, tableaux et dessus de tabatières ciselès en haut et en bas relief,’ he became renowned for his skill in highly detailed chased and cast vases and plaquettes in gold and silver, winning gold medals at the Exhibitions of 1810 and 1834 (ex. catalogue, Alte und Neue Strassburger Goldschmidtarbeiten und uhren, Strasburg-Els, 7-11 August, 1915, p. 60). As his reputation travelled abroad, Kirstein’s 'pictures’ in precious metal, often of hunting scenes, a love of which he inherited from his forester grandfather, were added to boxes made up by goldsmiths in other countries.
Another example of a lion hunt by Kirstein, 'one of the treasures which go to make up the Queen’s collection’…`a sumptuous relic of the Regency of George IV,' set under a piece of rock crystal, was mounted by the London goldsmith John Northam, 1813-14 (Charles Truman, Eighteenth Century Gold Boxes of Europe, Woodbridge Suffolk, 1990, p. 288 and 394 and 441).
1`témoigne de l'extraordinaire talent de modeleur de Kirstein et de sa maîtrise de la technique de la fonte à la cire perdue', from Deux Siècles d’Orfèvrerie a Strasbourg, XVIIIe-XIX Siècles dans les collections du musée des Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg, 2004, p. 72.
2 Hans Haug, Inventaire des collections publiques françaises L’orfèvrerie de Strasbourg dans les collections publiques Françaises, Palais du Louvre 1978, p. 157
A pair of Romanian silver-gilt octagonal dishes, circa 1640 Made by Andreas Eckhardt, these striking dishes are thought to have been engraved with the arms, coronet and motto of Achatius Barcsai, Prime Minister of Transylvania in 1658, almost 20 years after their creation. Estimate: £20,000 – 30,000.
Lot 69. A pair of Romanian silver-gilt octagonal dishes, Andreas Eckhardt, Sibiu (Hermannstadt), circa 1640. Estimate: £20,000 – 30,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
Provenance: Dr. Heller's Lexicon, Sotheby's, London, 4 December 2012, lot 215
Note: The inscriptions on the bosses read: ‘ACHA : BAR : D : G : PRI : TRAN : PAR : RE : HVN : DOTE : SIC : COMES:’ (Achativs Barcsai Dei Gratia Princeps Transsilvaniae Partium Regni Hungariae Dominus Siculorum Comes.)
It is possible that the Barcsai arms which were engraved around 1659, coinciding with Achatius Barcsai becoming prime minister of Transylvania in 1658, are slightly later than the dish itself. The goldsmith is first recorded working in 1602 and to have made an item 57 years later would have been unusual for those times. Another silver-gilt example, engraved with the Barcsai arms, was sold Sotheby's Geneva, 12 November 1990, lot 137.
The later inscription that reads: ‘ESTERHÁZY MORICZ KÁROLYI MARGIT 1918 MÁRCZIUS 23.’ refers to the marriage (23 March 1918) of Moritz Graf Esterházy (otherwise Móric Esterházy de Galantha), 1881-1960, and Margit Karolyi, 1896-1975.
Esterházy, the son of Miklós Esterházy (1855-1925) and his wife Franziska (née von Schwarzenberg), 1861-1951, was briefly Prime Minister of Hungary towards the end of the First World War. He afterwards remained in politics but was ultimately arrested in 1944 by the Gestapo for failing to support the German occupation. He was deported to Mauthausen concentration camp, from which he was liberated in 1945, but upon his return to Hungary was arrested by the Communists. He was able to leave his native country for Austria in 1956.
Vintage Jewels
An impressive coloured diamond necklace, circa 1910 Designed as a line of bows millegrain-set with circular-cut diamonds, this exquisite necklace features front suspending swags and pendent floral motifs set with cushion-shaped diamonds of yellow tint. Estimate: £240,000-£280,000.
Lot 134. An impressive diamond necklace, in the 'Garland Style', early 20th century. Estimate: £240,000-£280,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
Designed as a line of bows millegrain-set with circular-cut diamonds, the front suspending swags and pendent floral motifs set with cushion-shaped diamonds of yellow tint, length approximately 395mm, composite.
Note: The closing years of the 19th century to the beginning of World War I were years of largely peaceful affluence, characterised by the elegance and extravagance of its cosmopolitan elite and known as 'La Belle Epoque'. During this era, jewellery developed a distinctly elegant style under the guidance of tastemakers such as Louis Cartier. This so-called 'Garland Style' drew from the rich visual vocabulary of 18th century French ornament, adapting motifs such as laurel wreaths, floral swags, ribbon bows and tassels to create jewels of opulent, yet delicate and refined beauty, perfectly suited to the pageantry on display at court and the many glamorous balls and events that populated the social calendar. Jewels in the Garland style owe their lightness of touch to the introduction of platinum, the strength and rigidity of which allowed jewellers to create highly intricate and attenuated forms without sacrificing structural integrity. The whiteness of platinum, particularly paired with diamonds and pearls, matched this jewellery perfectly to the pastel colour schemes favoured by the fashionable couturiers of the day.
The design of the present necklace, distributing its wealth of diamonds within an intricate arrangement of swags, bows and floral motifs, achieves an elegance and refinement that perfectly embodies this seminal style.
Cf:. David Bennett, Daniela Mascetti, Understanding Jewellery, Suffolk, 1989, page 245, plate 379 and pages 262-287 for illustrations of jewels in the Garland style.
Gem set and diamond bracelet, 1950s Designed as an articulated flowering branch and set with carved emerald flowers and carved sapphire and ruby leaves, this bracelet is further accented with onyx, sapphire and ruby cabochons and set throughout with single-cut, marquise-shaped and baguette diamonds. Estimate: £120,000-£150,000.
Lot 251. Gem set and diamond bracelet, 1950s. Estimate: £120,000-£150,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
Designed as an articulated flowering branch, set with carved emerald flowers and carved sapphire and ruby leaves, further accented with onyx, sapphire and ruby cabochons and set throughout with single-cut, marquise-shaped and baguette diamonds, length approximately 182mm, French assay marks.
Note: Though dating from the 1950's, the design of this bracelet draws its inspiration from a series of jewels produced by Cartier in the 1920's known as ‘Tutti Frutti’. Throughout a series of trips to India starting in 1911 Jacques Cartier was awarded commissions from figures such as the Maharajas of Patiala and Kapurthala to remount their jewellery collections in the contemporary Parisian style. The carved stones found in these Indian jewels captured the imagination of Cartier and his gifted designer Charles Jacqueau, who framed them within the fashionable art deco aesthetic. Setting them in bracelets designed as meandering vines, and clustering them into giardinetto brooches, these new designs created a vogue for Indian-style jewels and fashions that spread throughout Europe and America, and had an enduring influence on the designs of a number of other jewellery houses throughout the twentieth century.
Cf:. Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier, Thames & Hudson, London, 2007, pages 155-175, for more information on this style of jewellery.
Gem set and diamond necklace, late 19th century Composed of links set with cushion-shaped and oval stones including hessonite garnet, pink and white sapphire, aquamarine, pink and yellow topaz, yellow zircon, green tourmaline and alexandrite, this necklace features a pendant set with an octagonal hessonite garnet within a floral open work border with rose diamonds and spaced with similar smaller clusters set with circular-cut spinels. Estimate: £35,000-£45,000.
Lot 74. Gem set and diamond necklace, late 19th century. Estimate: £35,000-£45,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
Composed of links set with cushion-shaped and oval stones including hessonite garnet, pink and white sapphire, aquamarine, pink and yellow topaz, yellow zircon, green tourmaline and alexandrite, the pendant with an octagonal hessonite garnet, each within a floral open work border set with rose diamonds and spaced with similar smaller clusters set with circular-cut spinels, length approximately 390mm, pendant detachable, two diamonds deficient.
Fabergé
A gold and enamel timepiece, 1908 - 1913 Created by Henrik Wigström, this red enamel clock is embellished with gold floral motifs and ribbons. Estimate: £120,000 – 180,000.
Lot 138. A Fabergé gold and enamel timepiece, workmaster Henrik Wigström, St Petersburg, 1908-1913. Estimate: £120,000 – 180,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
of shaped rectangular form, the surface of translucent red enamel over sunburst engine-turning within an acanthus leaf border, the projecting corners applied with rosettes, the tied ribbon surmount suspending four-colour gold floral festoons, the bezel of opaque white enamel reeds bound with gold ribbon, the face enamelled in translucent opalescent white, painted with Roman numerals and entwining laurel and inscribed 'Fabergé', ivory back, silver-gilt scroll strut, struck with workmaster's initials and Fabergé, 56 and 88 standards, scratched inventory number 3?0949, 1913 London import marks for Fabergé; height 11.7cm, 4 5/8 in.
Note: The House of Fabergé remains justly famous for the exquisite enamels created by its master craftsmen a century after the closure of the workshops during the Russian Revolution. This timepiece and the preceding three lots partly illustrate the vast array of rich colours of Fabergé objects; of the 145 colours produced, dark red was the most technically difficult to achieve. Having been mounted in gold, rather than the much more common silver, makes these four objects especially luxurious.
Émile Gilliéron, fils, Blue Monkey and Papyrus. Watercolor on paper. H. 45 cm; W. 66 cm. After a fresco from the House of the Frescoes, Knossos. Sir Arthur Evans Archive, Evans Fresco Drawing A/8, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.
NEW YORK, NY.- The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World continues its efforts to illuminate ancient cultures and their interpretation through the lens of contemporary art with Restoring the Minoans: Elizabeth Price and Sir Arthur Evans. The exhibition presents A Restoration, an immersive video by artist Elizabeth Price in which images drawn largely from Evans’s excavation, on Crete, of the Bronze Age culture of the Minoans are transformed into a work of art for the digital age. The video, made in response to a commission by the London-based Contemporary Art Society to create an artwork based on the collection of the University’s Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers Museums, has been contextualized and complemented by some 60 objects. These comprise select original artifacts unearthed during Evans’s excavation and later restored by Evans and his team, as well as related watercolors, drawings, photographs, and archival materials. Many of these objects have never been publicly exhibited prior to this exhibition.
In A Restoration, Price explores critical questions about how archaeologists, artists, curators, and others make long-silent civilizations speak to contemporary audiences, how reliable those interpretations are, and how contemporary conditions influence the way we understand the ancient past. These are all questions that go to the heart of ISAW’s work and mission.
Terracotta jar with three handles, Late Minoan I, ca. 1600–1500 B.C. Terracotta, 13 9/16 × 10 3/4 in. (34.4 × 27.3 cm) Diam. of foot: 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm) Diam. of rim: 5 13/16 in. (14.8 cm), Rogers Fund, 1922, 22.139.76 © 2000–2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
ISAW Exhibitions Director Jennifer Chi states, “Once discovered, archaeological artifacts have an active life, as they are unearthed, recorded, reconstructed, and today—as illuminated in Elizabeth Price’s brilliant and compelling A Restoration—digitized. It is, in fact, a journey that takes the material evidence of ancient cultures from excavation to dematerialization. It is an important transformation, and one that reflects contemporary culture, much as various ways of presenting these objects in the past reflected cultures before ours. ISAW is thrilled to be presenting an exhibition that explores so many fascinating issues. We are grateful to Elizabeth Price for her invaluable input and assistance in shaping both the exhibition as a whole and the presentation of her brilliant work, and to Alexander Sturgis, director of the Ashmolean Museum, for introducing me to Elizabeth’s work and loaning us the material that helps illuminate Evans and his methodology.”
The exhibition has been curated by Jennifer Chi, Exhibitions Director and Chief Curator, ISAW, Rachel Herschman, Curatorial Assistant, ISAW, and Kenneth Lapatin, Associate Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
Ornamental frieze.
A RESTORATION
Price’s brilliantly imaginative 18-minute video, shown in a gallery of its own, is at once serious and humorous, conceptual and visual, and powerfully engaging as it raises questions about our views of the past, including how we arrive at them, what they tell us about our own era, and how—and if—we can distinguish the known from the unknown. The video is narrated by a digital chorus of unseen female “museum administrators” who describe the process through which they organize and re-imagine ancient objects, including but not limited to those from Evans’s work at Knossos. Their very first words summon the complex layering of meanings and questions in the work: “We are cultivating a garden,” they say, at once eliciting Evans’s idyllic view of Knossos and using it as a point of departure for what they themselves will be creating within the confines of their museum’s computer server.
As the administrators examine Evans’s work, they describe how he frequently re-imagined, rather than restored, archaeological artifacts. They note that “it is unusual…for restoration to be quite so indiscreet,” but add that “we have resolved to extort its ribald energy for our own ends, and cultivate a further germination.” This they do. With percussive, driving, music; images that may tumble across the screen, or morph into new forms with a stroke of gouache, or be layered one on top of another; and with their ever-present narrative voice, Price’s administrators use Evans’s practice as a point of departure to build, bit by bit, a contemporary digital paradise that contains within it a reconstruction of the Knossos labyrinth.
In doing this, A Restoration also looks at how Evans organized knowledge, categorizing by form, and the way that knowledge is organized today, into digital folders living on museum servers. They acknowledge that the act of organizing these folders is repetitive and so they tell us how, like Evans, they take liberties, copying files into different locations, “roll[ing] their thumbs” and “extend[ing their] “middle fingers a little further than is necessary.”
Throughout A Restoration, the images, music, and voices inhere to one another, creating a multi-layered, resonant whole with tremendous narrative drive, simultaneously questioning what we know, or think we know, and how we know it. It is a story without an ending.
Unidentified Artist, Saffron Gatherer Restoration. Watercolor on paper, H. 27 cm; W. 47.5 cm. After a fresco from Area of Early Keep, Knossos, ca. 1921, The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Bequeathed by Sir Arthur Evans: Evans Fresco Drawing L/3.
Giovanni Bellini, Sacred Allegory, about 1500-1504. Tempera (?) and oil on wood panel. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY.
LOS ANGELES, CA.- One of the most beloved and influential religious painters of the Italian Renaissance, Giovanni Bellini (Venice, about 1435-1516) was also a master in depicting landscape. His paintings of religious scenes often featured evocative natural settings that were as important and affecting as their human subjects.
On view October 10, 2017, through January 14, 2018, Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice presents 12 paintings and one drawing that explore the poetic role played by the natural world in the artist’s religious compositions. The exhibition includes several masterpieces that rarely travel, making this an exceptional opportunity to experience the artistic beauty and iconographic complexity of Bellini’s art.
“Giovanni Bellini skillfully employed natural and built features in his imagery to complement religious subjects and enhance the contemplative, meditative potential of his paintings,” said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Thanks to the loan of a number of masterpieces from generous institutions in Europe and the United States, our visitors will be able to experience directly the poetic beauty that made Bellini one of the greatest masters of the Renaissance, and has kept him on the list of the most admired and coveted artists ever since. The exquisite beauty and delicate charm of these paintings have an aesthetic and spiritual power way beyond their modest scale. As a focused experience of sublime beauty in the service of devotion, this exhibition is as good as it gets. Not to be missed is a gross understatement.”
Giovanni Bellini was one of the most illustrious artists of the Italian Renaissance, admired for his accomplishments in all genres of painting practiced in 15th-century Venice, including religious subjects, mythological scenes, and portraits. He began his career painting small pictures intended for private devotion, later creating emotionally intense portraits as well as innovative altarpieces. Toward the end of his long life he added mythological and secular allegory to his repertoire. He was also one of the artists who championed the shift from painting in egg tempera, traditional in Italy, to painting in oil, a technique pioneered in the Netherlands. He operated a busy studio in Venice and trained many younger artists, including Giorgione and Titian. A standout among great artists both in his family and in his community, Bellini was one of the key figures who elevated the Venetian school to international repute.
“The devotional components of Giovanni Bellini’s pictures, such as a sole crucifix in a landscape or an image of Saint Jerome reading in the wilderness, are always infused with a refined sensitivity to the natural world,” said Davide Gasparotto, senior curator of paintings at the Getty Museum and curator of the exhibition. “Bellini’s paintings feature expressively charged interpretations of sacred characters and symbols immersed in a realm of lived experiences in a way that was entirely unprecedented in Italian painting. Through this poetic use of landscape, Bellini elevated the devotional work of art to an object of worthy aesthetic admiration, thus ushering in a new chapter in the history of European painting.”
In some works, it is the figure that dominates the picture, with the landscape as a secondary but important element. For example, Christ Blessing, about 1500, depicts Christ after having risen from the tomb, strikingly close-up and gazing straight at the viewer. In the background, the sun is rising in the hills, the sky is tinged with tones of orange, yellow and blue, and the three Marys hurry toward the tomb that they will find empty. The icon is fused with a narrative which evokes the landscape of the Venetian mainland, familiar to the contemporary viewer.
Sacred Allegory, about 1500-04, shows a mysterious cast of characters in an unusual landscape. The composition is divided by a marble terrace in the foreground and a resplendent landscape in the background. A clothed boy that may be the Christ child sits on a cushion shaking a tree that may be the Tree of Life. The Virgin Mary sits enthroned with her hands in prayer. Other figures in the picture include unidentified male and female saints. The picture was likely made for a sophisticated art lover who was able to understand the complex meaning of the scene and at the same time to appreciate the supreme skill of the artist, possibly the Marchioness of Mantua Isabella d’Este, one of the most celebrated collectors of the Italian Renaissance.
The exhibition also includes one of Bellini’s earliest surviving works, Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, about 1455, which depicts the saint as a penitent hermit blessing a lion. He reads in a cave that dominates the picture’s foreground, while a broad, deep landscape opens out into the background. Rather than evoking the Syrian desert of the fable, the scenery recalls the gentle slope of the Venetian mainland, a feature of many of Bellini’s paintings.
Giovanni Bellini, Sacred Allegory (detail), about 1500-1504. Tempera (?) and oil on wood panel. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. Photo: Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Christ Blessing, about 1500, tempera and oil on wood panel. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
Giovanni Bellini, Christ Blessing (detail), about 1500, tempera and oil on wood panel. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Wilderness, 1505, oil on wood panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.217. Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Wilderness (detail), 1505, oil on wood panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.217. Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Wilderness (detail), 1505, oil on wood panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.217. Image courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Wilderness (detail), about 1485, tempera and oil on wood panel. National Gallery, London. Bought, 1855. © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Saint Jerome Reading in the Wilderness (detail), about 1485, tempera and oil on wood panel. National Gallery, London. Bought, 1855. © National Gallery, London / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and a Female Saint in a Landscape), about 1501, tempera and oil on wood panel. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Photo credit: Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and a Female Saint in a Landscape (detail), about 1501, tempera and oil on wood panel. Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Photo credit: Scala/Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, about 1458-59, oil and tempera on wood panel. Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Museo Correr, Venice. Photo credit: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist (detail), about 1458-59, oil and tempera on wood panel. Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Museo Correr, Venice. Photo credit: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY.
Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion, about 1495-1500, Giovanni Bellini, tempera (?) and oil on wood panel. Collezione Banca Popolare di Vicenza.
Giovanni Bellini, Crucifixion (detail), about 1495-1500, Giovanni Bellini, tempera (?) and oil on wood panel. Collezione Banca Popolare di Vicenza.
Lot 3601. A large and rare doucai'Dragon and Phoenix'meiping, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735), 46.3 cm, 18 1/4 in. Estimate 1,000,000 — 1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 2,740,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
sturdily potted with a well-proportioned rounded shoulder tapering to a countersunk base and surmounted by a short waisted neck, the baluster body vibrantly enamelled with a five-clawed dragon and a phoenix soaring against a ground of scrolling foliage bearing multi-coloured peony blooms, all below an upright lappet border and keyfret band encircling the neck.
Provenance: Lysberg, Hansen & Therp, Copenhagen, 25th September 1986.
Sotheby's London, 2nd December 1997, lot 271.
Note: Painted with a bold design of a dragon and phoenix amongst a dense scroll of blooming peonies, the motif on this piece is reminiscent of designs on fourteenth century blue and white porcelain, as evident in the rendering of the serrated leaves and the large proportions of the animals and the flowers. The craftsman has created a harmonious sense of luxury and dynamism through the carefully composed design by echoing the form of the head of the dragon in the blooms and its sinuous body in the branches. A closely related vase, from the collection of Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, was included in TheInternational Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2177; another was sold in these rooms, 24th November 1979, lot 266; and a third was sold at Christie's London, 5th April 1976, lot 96. Compare also a slightly smaller example sold in these rooms, 31st October 1995, lot 512; another sold in our London rooms, 17th December 1996, lot 153; and a much larger one sold in our London rooms, 12th July 2006, lot 128.
A large doucai 'Dragon' meiping, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period (1723-1735), 62cm., 24 3/8 in. Sold for 84,000 GBP at Sotheby's London, 12th July 2006, lot 128. Photo: Sotheby's.
the slender baluster body decorated in characteristic technique in underglaze-blue and bright enamel colours with a large scaly five-clawed dragon amidst large peony blooms borne on leafy scrolling stems, surmounted by a narrow waisted neck encircled by classic scroll and stiff leaf bands. Estimate 5,000 — 7,000 GBP.
Note: Another vase of this powerfully painted and exquisitely coloured design, from the collection of Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, was included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat.no. 2177. Compare also a closely related meiping sold in these rooms, 2nd December 1997, lot 271; and another sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 31st October 1995, lot 512.
Doucai meiping painted with dragon and phoenix are also known with a lappet border near the foot, such as one from the Qing court collection, preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 237; one from the Hirota collection in the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, illustrated in Hirota Collection, Tokyo, 1973, pl. 274; and a third sold in our London rooms, 5th December 1995, lot 323.
Compare the design of the present vase with a Yuan dynasty ewer similarly rendered with a phoenix among flowers, illustrated in Zhu Yuping, Yuandai qinghua ci [Yuan blue and white wares], Shanghai, 2000, pl. 22.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2017
Lot 3628. A pair of gilt-decorated blue-ground famille-rose miniature jars and covers, seal marks and period of Qianlong (1736-1795), 10.5 cm, 4 1/8 in. Estimate 2,500,000 — 3,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 5,500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
each of quatrelobed section, the compressed globular body rising from a countersunk base to a waisted neck, flanked by a pair of lion mask handles suspending loose rings, the front and back face moulded and painted with rectangular panels variously enclosing riverside landscapes, reserved against a rich dark blue ground gilded with stylised lotus and floral sprays, the neck encircled by a further band of floral sprays, inscribed to the base with a six-character seal mark in gilt, the domed quatrelobed cover similarly decorated and surmounted by a finial, glazed turquoise on the interior.
Note: These exquisite miniature jars belong to a small group of vases of various forms that were all decorated with famille-rose panels on a gilt-enamelled blue ground. In their search for ever new designs and styles for the Qianlong Emperor, the craftsmen of the imperial kilns sometimes took the unusual step to reduce rather than to enlarge their object of creation, and to embellish these pieces with particularly ornate designs. Every element of these jars has been carefully selected, derived from European motifs, as seen in the scrolling acanthus leaves, as well as Chinese landscape paintings. The lobed form and mask-head handles accentuate their luxurious nature. No comparable piece appears to be recorded and these jars are admirable testimony to the potters’ unending imagination and attention to individual items, in spite of the vast industrial-style production of porcelains at the Qing imperial kilns.
Other vases belonging to this group of gilt-embellished blue ground vessels are much larger in size; see an ovoid vase with landscape panels, flanked with archaistic phoenix-head handles, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 130, together with an octagonal vase with bird and flower panels and no handles, pl. 131, and two cylindrical vases with a continuous design of children at play and panels of the Three Abundances, pls 132 and 133 respectively. Further vases without handles include a rectangular vase with alternating panels of flowers and inscription, from the H.M. Knight collection, sold in these rooms, 28th November 1979, lot 254; and a pair of baluster vases also with panels of the Three Abundances, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st/3rd May 1994, lot 678.
These jars also reveal the multifaceted predilections of the Qianlong Emperor. The use of handles in the form of mythical animals was first introduced in the Zhou period (c. 1046-221 BC) which experienced a renaissance under the Yongzheng and Qianlong Emperors due to their strong interest in archaism. The Qianlong Emperor was also an enthusiastic collector of curios and miniature artifacts which were contained either in specially crafted treasure boxes or kept in his private studio. While large vessels were striking for their size and embodiment of the splendour of the Qing dynasty, the beauty of miniature pieces lies in the extraordinary level of craftsmanship achieved by the artist who has refined his skills into miniature proportions as seen in this piece. Another example of an exquisite miniature vase with animal-head handles, decorated with a lotus scroll against a sgraffiato yellow-ground, with Qianlong mark and of the period, was sold twice in these rooms, 8th April 2009, lot 1601, and 9th April 2013, lot 15.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2017
Lot 3718. A fine pair of famille-rose'Hundred Boys' bowls, seal marks and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820), 11.7 cm, 4 5/8 in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
each with rounded sides rising from a straight foot to a slightly flared rim, the exterior delicately painted in bright enamels with a continuous scene of boys in a fenced garden with a small bridge spanning a stream, playing with fire crackers, lanterns and presenting peaches in a procession, with further boys watching from windows above, the recessed base inscribed with a seal mark in iron red.
Provenance: Sotheby's London, 4th November 2009, lot 201.
Note: This pair of bowls is impressive for its lively and fine depiction of boys engaged in different games. The ‘hundred boys at play’ was a popular theme in the decorative arts of the Ming and Qing dynasty, which refers to King Wen of the Zhou dynasty who had ninety-nine sons and adopted one more to make one hundred. The boys are illustrated engaged in activities potent with symbolism: for example the first character of ‘lantern’ is a pun for bumper harvest (fengdeng), which equates with peace, while boys carrying peaches and playing with bats are representative of longevity.
A Jiaqing mark and period bowl painted with this motif, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in IllustratedCatalogue of Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, Tokyo, 1981, vol. II, pl. 101; another was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26th April 2004, lot 1077; a slightly smaller one was sold in these rooms, 24th November 1987, lot 179; and a fourth example was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st May 1995, lot 680. See also a slightly larger example sold in these rooms, 9th November 1982, lo 292. Bowls painted with this theme appear to have been modelled after Qianlong period originals, such as a bowl with Qianlong mark and of the period, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot 552.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2017
Lot 3715. A yellow-ground famille-rose tripod incense burner, seal mark and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820), 23.5 cm, 9 1/4 in. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 HKD. Lot sold 375,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
each with rounded sides rising from a straight foot to a slightly flared rim, the exterior delicately painted in bright enamels with a continuous scene of boys in a fenced garden with a small bridge spanning a stream, playing with fire crackers, lanterns and presenting peaches in a procession, with further boys watching from windows above, the recessed base inscribed with a seal mark in iron red.
Provenance: Christie's London, 5th June 1995, lot 171A.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2017
Lot 9204. Thirteen Unmounted Colombian Cushion-shaped Emeralds. Estimate 900,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
The cushion-shaped emeralds weighing 118.52 carats in total.
Note: Accompanied by Gübelin report numbered 17071060, dated 31 July 2017, stating that the emeralds ranging from 16.99 to 2.81 carats are natural, of Colombian origin, with indications of minor clarity enhanced.
Lot 9195. Pair of 3.81 and 3.49 carats Diamond Pendent Ear Clips. Estimate 880,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
Each suspending a modified pear-shaped diamond weighing 3.81 and 3.49 carats respectively, to the circular-cut and baguette diamond line surmount, mounted in platinum, screwback fittings.
Note: Accompanied by two GIA reports numbered 6177228403 and 2171228418, dated 8 July 2015 and 9 July 2015 respectively, stating that the 3.81 and 3.49 carat diamonds are both D Colour, VS2 and SI2 Clarity.
Lot 9113. Ruby Bead and Diamond Necklace, Michele della Valle. Estimate 880,000 — 1,200,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
Designed as five rows of graduated ruby beads, spaced by diamond-set rondelles, embellished with circular-cut diamond lozenge-shaped frames, the rubies and diamonds weighing approximately 2,100.00 and 12.00 carats in total respectively, mounted in 18 karat white gold, signed MdV, with Italian assay mark, length approximately 880mm.
Provenance: Formerly owned by Ornella Vanoni.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels and Jadeite, Hong Kong, 12 Oct 2017, 02:00 PM
Set with a carved jadeite peapod of very good translucency and bright green colour, to the surround and surmount decorated with circular-cut, pear- and marquise-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 2.70 carats in total, suspended from a black cord, mounted in 18 karat white gold. Peapod approximately 43.48 x 18.08 x 7.35mm.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels and Jadeite, Hong Kong, 12 Oct 2017, 02:00 PM
Lot 9192. 2.02 carats Fancy Intense Yellow-Green Diamond and Diamond Ring. Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.
Set with a cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut fancy intense yellow-green diamond weighing 2.02 carats, framed by diamonds of pink tint, embellished with marquise- and pear-shaped diamond two-tiered surround, to the circular-cut diamond-set shoulders, the diamonds stated to weigh approximately 6.29 carats in total, mounted in 18 karat white and pink gold. Ring size: 6.
Sotheby's. Important Jewels and Jadeite, Hong Kong, 12 Oct 2017, 02:00 PM
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[Kizlar] aga, c'est le grand eunuque noir qui a la garde directe des femmes et des plaisirs. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Secrétaire particulier du [Grand Seigneur]. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Defterdar] Effendi, grand trésorier du [Grand Seigneur]. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Capitan pacha ou grand amiral. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Galiongee], officier de marine. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Sclictar aga, porte-sabre du [Grand-Seigneur], grand chambellan, capitaine de ses gardes et [premier] officier du Sérail. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Tchoadar aga, [premier] valet de pied du [Grand Seigneur], officier de distinction qui remplace le Sclictar. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Zulufli]-baltadgi, serviteur du Sclictar aga. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Porte-tabouret du [Grand Seigneur]. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Capidgi bachi, grand huissier du [Grand] Seigneur. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
Reis Effendi, [grand] chancelier et ministre des affaires étrangères. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Istambol] Effendi, lieutenant [général] de police et gouverneur de Constantinople. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Nakib al Achraf], chef des [chérifs, descendants] de Mahomet. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
[Teskeregi] Effendi, maître des requêtes. [Recueil. Dessins originaux de costumes turcs : un recueil de dessins aquarelles], XVIIIe s. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Fonds du service reproduction, 4-OD-23.
