Lot 124. A yellow-ground aubergine and green-enamelled 'dragon' bowl, Xuantong six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1908-1911), 6 1/4 in. (16 cm.) diam., box. Estimate HKD 40,000 - HKD 60,000. Price realised HKD 37,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017
Lot 126. A famille rose‘scholar’ vase, Republic period, dated jiashu year corresponding to 1934, 9. 15/16 in. (25.2 cm.) high, box. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 150,000. Price realised HKD 275,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017
Lot 143. A famille rose'butterfly' bottle vase, Guangxu six-character mark in iron red and of the period (1875-1908), 16 in. (40.5 cm.) high. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 150,000. Price realised HKD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017
Provenance: A private collection, Kyoto, acquired in the 1920s.
Wallace Chan (Hong Kong, 1962), Wonders of Life, 2017. Diamond 2pcs 4.02ct, DIF diamond 2pcs 1.49ct, pink sapphire, emerald, crystal, tsavorite garnet and yellow diamond, 12.3 x 3 x 3 cm. Weight 49.8 g © Wallace Chan
Wallace Chan (Hong Kong, 1962), Ruby Castle. Ring with an hexagonal-shaped ruby 17.58ct, pink sapphire set in titanium © Wallace Chan
Wallace Chan Jewellery is one of the most important high jewellery maisons for the world’s most discerning collectors. Mr. Chan, the founder of Wallace Chan Jewellery, is recognised as a jewellery creator, artist and innovator. International media has provided extensive coverage of Wallace Chan, introducing his creations as well as innovations – the patented jadeite thinning and luminosity enhancing technology as well as his revolutionary gemstone-setting-gemstone technique.
Wallace Chan at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 36. Primary Address: 12/F KAILEY TOWER, 16 STANLEY STREET, 0 Central, Hong Kong SAR. T +85225232788 info@wallace-chan.com - www.wallace-chan.com
Leonhard Kern (Forchtenberg 1588-1662 Schwäbisch Hall), Hercules and Hippolyta, Circa 1615-20. Alabaster. Height 82 cm (32.2 in.) © Blumka Gallery
In this work Kern depicts one of the 'Twelve Labors of Hercules', specifically the stealing of the Amazonian Queen, Hippolyta's belt, which protects her from harm. The struggle between Hercules and Hippolyta results in Amazon Queen's death. The figures' twisting forms are reminiscent of Giambologna's 'Rape of the Sabines' from 1580-81. It is possible Kern's sculpture was commissioned in Heidelberg, where he lived from 1614 until 1617, by Elector Palatine Frederick V as an allegorical figure of a ruler.
Provenance: Probably Elector Friedrich V of the Palatinate; Collection Prof. René Clemencic, Vienna
Literature: René Clemencic (Hg.), Wandlung - Ereignis Skulptur. Die Sammlung Clemencic, exh. cat. Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Hohenems 2003. S. 273, Abb. no. 45
Blumka Gallery at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 6. Primary Address: 209 E 72ND ST, New York, NY 10021, United States. T 2127343222 - info@blumkagallery.com - www.blumkagallery.com
Relief fragment depicting a Nile God, Egyptian, New Kingdom, eighteenth dynasty, Reign of Hatshepsut, circa 1479-1458 BC. Painted limestone. Height 12.5 cm (4.9 in.) © Ariadne Galleries
Provenance: Private collection, USA, acquired 1970s-1980s; on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, October 1986-June 1989 (inv. no TL1986.502); sold, Sotheby’s, New York, 12 December 1991, lot 35; private collection, Europe, 1991-2017
Exhibition: On loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, October 1986-June 1989
Ariadne Galleries was founded by Torkom Demirjian, now President Emeritus, in 1972. He was drawn to antiquities as a young man through his lifelong love for ancient cultures, and, armed with a keen eye for beauty and voracious appetite for knowledge, he became a self-made antiquarian. Starting with ancient coins as early as the 1960s the gallery has grown in to a leading dealer of sculpture and works of art from the ancient world. Together with sons James and Gregory Demirjian, Ariadne Galleries operates on the Upper East Side of New York and, since May 2014, in Mayfair, London. Known throughout the industry for their market expertise, sense of history, and acute aesthetic judgment, Ariadne is a leader in the field of ancient art, always seeking to foster interest in, and increase knowledge of, ancient cultures among collectors and the general public. Committed to providing the highest quality Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Eurasian, Byzantine and Near Eastern works of art, their international clientele includes renowned museums and dedicated private collectors from around the world.
Ariadne Galleries at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 6. Primary Address: 11 East 76th Street, New York, NY 10021, United States. T +12127723388 - info@ariadnegalleries.com - www.ariadnegalleries.com
6 Hill Street, London, W1J 5NF, United Kingdom. T +44 (0)20 3053 9559 - info@ariadnegalleries.com - www.ariadnegalleries.com
‘Maximillian’ breastplate. Etched in the manner of the ‘Danube School’, Italian, circa 1520. Steel, 40 x 40 cm (15.7 x 15.7 in.) © Peter Finer
It is conceivable that this breastplate formed part of the gift of armour from the Austrian Imperial Armoury made in about 1800 by the Emperor to Count Breuner of Vienna which is believed to have formed the nucleus of the Grafenegg collection. Formed of a strongly rounded main plate with bold angular outward turn at its straight neck-opening, movable gussets with matching turns at its arm-openings, waist-lame and skirt of four upward-overlapping lames, the lowest embossed outwards over the crotch, decorated over the greater part of the main plate and at either side of the skirt with bold flutes of V-section, alternately etched with bands of scrolling foliage and strap-work on a stippled and blackened ground, and bands of linear and hatched scrolling foliage and flower-heads, repeated on the gussets, the remaining areas etched with scrolling foliage and strap-work variously terminating in stylised flower-heads, monsters’ heads, wings and legs, and involving beneath the centre of the neck-opening a representation of the Virgin and Child attended by angels.
Provenance: Private collection, Austria; sold at Sotheby’s & Co, 26 May 1933, lot 80, p. 17
Peter Finer at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 6. Primary Address: 38-39 DUKE STREET ST JAMESS, London, SW1Y 6DF, United Kingdom. T +442078395666 - GALLERY@PETERFINER.COM - WWW.PETERFINER.COM
An elephant candelabrum, China, Tang Dynasty (618-907). White-glazed (10.5 x 10 in.) © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
Provenance: Jakob Goldschmidt (1882-1955), Berlin, acquired prior to 1929.
Literature: Jörg Trübner on memory: results of his last Chinese journeys , Berlin 1930, plate no. 74.
Exhibition: Berlin, Prussian Academy of Arts, exhibition of Chinese art , 12 January to 2 April 1929, cat. no. 364.
François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux (1776-Paris-1848), A censer, 18th century. Parcel-gilt bronze. © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The censer is of compressed bombé section flanked by loop handles and rests on a flared foot. The sides are cast and gilt with flowering peony bushes on a silver ground, while the handles are decorated with a stylised peony leaf design. The base is gilt in silver and decorated with an apocryphical ‘Da Ming Xuande Nianzhi’ mark within a rectangular cartouche on the base. The words ‘ALPH GIROUX PARIS’ are etched upside down above the Xuande mark. The ‘Alph Giroux’ inscription refers to François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux, a Paris-based French art restorer and cabinet maker active in the late 18th to 19th century and was one of the official restorers of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He established Maison Alphonse Giroux in 1799 and aside from selling his cabinetmaking works, he also sold a variety of luxury goods and artwork, which attracted clientele including French royalty and nobility.
Provenance: François-Simon-Alphonse Giroux, Paris (1775/6-1848).
Large Scrollrest, China, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Rootwood. Length 55.3 cm (21.8 in.). © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The scrollrest is of naturally tapered form with the top gently curled forward and to the left forming an overhang resembling the shape of a ruyi sceptre. The surface is well patinated to a glossy russet tone.
Scholar's Rock, China, Qing Dynasty, 18th century. Turquoise. Height (Excluding Stand) 11 cm (4.3 in.). © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The naturally formed vertical turquoise sculpture is enhanced with holes and jagged peaks after a scholar’s rock. The rock is well patinated and covered with veins and a dark grey matrix and rests on an original hardwood base carved with lotuses along a lotus pad design.
Provenance: Collection of Mme Florine Langweil (1861-1958), Paris, no. 266; Galerie Charpentier Auction House, Paris, 5 June 1959; Drouot Auction House, Paris, 17th and 19th November 1959, lot 266.
An iron ox, China, Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) and calligraphic scroll by Tomioka Tessai, circa 1921. © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The piece is cast in the form of an ox, forward facing with its horns gently pulled back and head turned slightly upward revealing a gentle smile. The ox rests on a deeply patinated hongmu stand with an inscription which reads:
Of objects from the Southern Song era, people mostly esteem iron coin cash — but how much more should they esteem this ox calf! When the calf was obtained from a grave mound this very year, it was discovered with one of its front hooves broken off, apparently long ago, but the Ruan family finds it endlessly delightful. Inscription made at the Zhuhu caotang (Pearl Lake Cottage) by Ruan Heng of Yizheng.
Ruan Heng’s note implies that the grave could be dated to the Southern Song era. “Pearl Lake Cottage” was a building on the Ruan clan estate, now within the city of Yangzhou, which served as a study and library. Yizheng is the name of a county district that now lies within greater Yangzhou. An account of the Pearl lake Cottage is contained in Yangzhou fuzhi (Gazeteer of Yangzhou Prefecture) 31:44b.
Ruan Heng (1783-1859) was the younger paternal cousin of the prominent later Qing literatus Ruan Yuan (1764-1849). His extensive literary works in various genres were published as the Chun caotang congshu (Collectanea from the Springtime Cottage), as well as a separate collection of classical verse, the Zhuhu caotang shichao (Draft Collection of Verse from the Pearl Lake Cottage), the Qinyan ji, and the Yingzhou bitan (Brush Talks [miscellaneous jottings] from the Boat to the Fairy Isles), among others. He also edited an enormous work on the study of the Mencius, as well as several anthologies of contemporary regional poets.
The ox is in compendium with a calligraphic scroll by its previous owner, Tomioka Tessai, and consists of a painting of the ox on the stand and a running script calligraphic prose entitled “Draft Record of the Ancient Figure of an Iron Ox.” The record is an account of his relationship with the “Iron Ox”, in which he states that he first saw the object some “fifty years earlier” in Kyoto,that is during the late 1860s, a time that he then goes on to reminisce about. He then says it had various owners before he himself acquired it, but unfortunately does not say when this happened or where. He and its previous owners greatly admired and treasured the “Iron Ox” considering that though rustic, it had a rare elegance. The record is signed at the end “At the age of eighty-six, Old Man Tessai, Hyakuren.” Since Tessai was born in 1836, the record can be dated to 1921. Signature followed by one of Tessai’s seals.
Tomioka Tessai (1836-1924) was born and raised in Kyoto, and spent most of his adult life there. Tessai received an excellent literatus education, which stressed traditional Japanese National Learning, Buddhism, Confucianism, especially the tradition of Wang Yangming. At the transition from the shoganate to imperial rule (the Meiji Restoration) in the 1860s he became an ardent supporter of the new movement. After the restoration in 1868, he traveled extensively throughout Japan, observing customs, studying geography, local history, and served at various places as chief priest of Shinto shrines.
In 1881 he returned to Kyoto, where he devoted himself full-time to painting, and gradually acquired a prominent reputation, making a good living from his art. He had studied painting seriously from the age of nineteen, and was especially influenced by Ming and Qing literati painting, though he also liked painting directly from nature, so developed a real individual style of his own. Tessai is generally considered the last great Japanese Nanga “Southern-style” painter, associated with Southern Song literati painting and its later Ming resurgence. His paintings and calligraphic pieces are treasured in Japan and are held in many museums. An entire museum is dedicated to his works in Takarazuka.
Provenance: Tomioka Tessai (1837-1924); Ruan Heng (1783-1859).
Black 'Ying' Scholar's Rock, China, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Black rock. Height (Including Stand) 18.1 cm © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The black ying limestone is vertically oriented and perforated throughout. The rock is elegantly elevated on a deeply patinated Suzhou-type stand.
Provenance: Private collection, Japan.
Large 'Grandfather-Grandson' sculpture, China, Ming-Qing Dynasty. Burlwood © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
Provenance: Jean-Michel Beurdeley, Paris
Literature: Beurdeley & Cie, Dans la tradition Zen, Paris 1966, cat. no. 3.
'Prunus' Brushpot, China, Qing Dynasty, 18th Century. Bamboo. Height 15.5 cm. © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The brushpot is of slight ovoid form and depicts a section of a prunus tree trunk, naturalistically carved with details of the gnarled bark and knots. Flowering branches issue from the sides and curl along the vessel and the rim of the brushpot. The bamboo is patinated to a deep brown colour.
Literature: An ivory brushpot dated to the early Qing dynasty carved with a similar design of a prunus tree section in the collection of the Palace Museum is published in Bamboo, Wood, Ivory and Rhinoceros Horn Carvings in the Collection of the Palace Museum: Classics of the Forbidden City 故宮經典 故宮竹木牙角圖典, 2010, p. 205, 清十
Large Head of a Bodhisattva, China, 14th century. Bronze. Height 40 cm (15.7 in.). © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The large bronze head is detached above the chest, revealing parts of a floral hem that would have lined the deity’s robe. The deity wears a ruyi-shaped diadem, surmounting the face with serene, downcast eyes framed by the eyebrows which converge to form the nose. The serene moon-shaped eyes and the rounded features are stylistically related to wooden Guanyin sculptures from the Song Dynasty. The distinctive crown, with its ruyi-shaped elements, closely resembles crowns found on Guanyin and Manjushri figures in porcelain and bronze from the Yuan and Ming dynasties.
Literature: A wooden example of Guanyin with a similar serene expression and downcast eyes dated to the Song Dynasty is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and is published in Hai-Wai Yi-Chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections – Buddhist Sculpture II, Taipei 1990, cat. no. 150, p. 156. An example of a gilt-bronze Bodhisattva Manjushri with a ruyi-shaped crown dated to 13th century Song dynasty was published in The Crucible of Compassion and Wisdom: Special Exhibition Catalogue of the Buddhist Bronzes from the Nitta Group Collection at the National Palace Museum, Taipei 1987, cat. no. 103, p. 199.
Cinnabar Brush and Cover, China, Ming Dynasty, 15th Century. Lacquer. Length (Including Cover) 21.5 cm (8.5 in.). © Maria Kiang Chinese Art
The brush is deeply carved from a single section covered with layers of vermillion lacquer. The lower handle of the brush depicts two scenes within bracketed registers above a diaper ground. One scene shows an elderly bearded scholar meditating against a cliff overlooking a waterfall landscape. The reverse scene shows two attendants, one holding a qin wrapped in cloth followed by a younger attendant carrying a basket.
The upper handle and the brush cap are carved in similar fashion. The brush cap depicts a perched bird and a camellia within a shroud of thick, leafy foliage, extending to the upper handle carved with budding camellia flowers. The tip and neck of the brush are decorated with a guri design carved in high relief.
A cinnabar lacquer brush of similar shape and carving style depicting a scholar and his acolyte is published in Chugoku Bijutsu no Iki: Bunbo Seika 中国美術の粋：文房精華, Tokyo 2007, pp. 16-17.
Maria Kiang established Maria Kiang Chinese Art in 2006. Over the past decade, she has developed an international reputation as one of the leading specialists in Chinese Antiques, notably in the field of Scholar’s Objects, Buddhist art and Song ceramics. Maria Kiang has regularly exhibited at major international fairs in Hong Kong, New York and Beijing.
Maria Kiang Chinese Art at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 44. Primary Address: 35EF Palatial Crest, No. 3 Seymour Road, 0 Mid-Levels, Hong Kong SAR. T +85297614961 - info@mariakiangchineseart.com - http://www.mariakiangchineseart.com
Giulio Cesare Procaccni (1574–1625), Adoration of the Magi. Oil on canvas, 214 x 144 cm. © Agnews
Thomas Agnew & Sons was established by Thomas Agnew in Manchester in 1817, and opened its London gallery in 1860, where the firm soon established itself as one of Mayfair’s leading dealerships. Since then Agnew’s has held a pre-eminent position in the world of Old Master paintings, and was instrumental in promoting contemporary British art in the late 19th century. Over generations, Agnew’s has acted as principal agents and advisors to some of the most important collectors of their time, including Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, Alfred Beit, Alfred and Ferdinand de Rothschild and more recently Paul Mellon, Norton Simon and the Samuel Kress Foundation. Agnew’s also often served as agent for the National Gallery, London in the auction rooms and has been involved in placing masterpieces in major museums around the world. The gallery has handled works by, amongst others, Caravaggio, Van Dyck, El Greco, Frans Hals, Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Titian, Turner and Velázquez.
Agnews at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 25. Primary Address: 6 St.Jamess Place, London, SW1A1NP, United Kingdom. T +44(0)2074919219 - anna.cunningham@agnewsgallery.com - www.agnewsgallery.com
Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot, Pair of Royal Louis XV Pliants, Circa 1755-59. Giltwood, 69 x 71 x 52 cm (27 x 27.9 x 20.5 in.). © BURZIO
Each with a loose cushion upholstered in yellow damask above a turquoise silk damask probably original, on a folding X-form molded and scrolling frame branded with crowned ‘ML’ in a circle, incised respectively with inventory numbers ‘10820’ and ‘10822’, red painted numbers ‘6522’ and '6520', and with black painted inventory number ‘473’, one with an inventory number 'C. 110' and with further inventory marks and labels.
This pair of pliants, or folding stools, is of a specific model which was almost exclusively supplied to the Royal court. The crowned ‘ML’ brands and various inventories numbers, allow us to trace their provenance back to one of the most iconic patrons during the reign of Louis XV, his daughter Madame Louise-Elizabeth, Madame Infante, Duchess of Parma (1727-1759).
Madame Louise-Elizabeth de France was the eldest daughter of Louis XV, who in 1739 married Infant Don Philippe of Spain. In 1748, as a result of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, she became duchess of Parma and she and her husband established their court in the most fashionable French taste. Madame Infante made three visits to Paris - in 1749, from September 1752 until September 1753 and from September 1757 until her death in December 1759 - each time making extraordinary purchases, both in quailty and quantity of bronzes d’ameublement and mobilier to furnish her palaces in Parma. The best known examples being the two chandeliers by Jacques Caffieri delivered to her favourite residence at Colorno, now in the Wallace collection (Num. F83 and F84). On her return from the first two visits she was followed by thirty-four and fourteen wagons respectively. such as the pair stamped by him at Versailles (inv. V4949; V4950) and the pair he probably supplied to the Royal Court of Sweden, subsequently sold Christie's, Paris, 24 June 2002, lot 160. It is also known that numerous French craftsmen were working in Parma for the court.
This pair of stools are branded ML, a mark placed on all furniture in the Royal palaces of the Duchy of Parma during the governorship of Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria between 1816 and 1847, who inherited the palaces and their contents previously furnished by Madame Elizabeth. Another group of pliants of this model, part of a set of six and almost certainly originally from the same suite, is now in the Palazzina di Stupinigi near Turin, and is illustrated in A. González-Palacios, Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, p.56. This set also bears the brand of Marie-Louise of Austria as well as the brand CR separated by a crown. This latter brand was applied in 1855 on the orders of the duchesse Louise Marie Thérèse d’Artois, widow of Carlo III, to the furniture in the ducal palaces in the duchy of Parma. When not followed by a further letter, such as a C for Colorno, the pieces in question were probably either located in the Ducal Palace in Parma or in the Garde-Meuble. In all likelihood the present pair of stools was originally part of this suite, remaining in Parma throughout the reign of Marie-Louise but presumably having left before the 1855 inventory was carried out which would explain the presence of the ML brand and the absence of the CR brand. Another pair of related pliants, of similar shape but carved with entwined floral garlands, probably from the same workshop, also bear the ML brand. This pair is marked ‘C. 1313’ indicating they were originally placed at Colorno and was part in the 20th century of the collection of Arturo López Willshaw, sold at Sotheby’s, Monaco, 23-24 June 1976, lot 107. The ‘C. 110’ mark visible on the present stools, could possibly indicate they were originally placed at the Palace Colorno.
Provenance: Almost certainly delivered circa 1755-59 to Madame Louise-Elizabeth (1727-1759), Madame Infante, Duchess of Parma and daughter of Louis XV, for one of her palaces in the Duchy of Parma; Marie-Louise of Austria (1791-1847), wife of the Emperor Napoleon I, Duchess of Parma; Acquired from Giuseppe Rossi, Turin, 1968.
Venitian Barque table top. Ebony mother of pearl and metal inlaid. © BURZIO
Burzio family has been dealing in fine art for the last three generations, with a specialisation in european decorative arts, Laura and Luca desire is to share their expertise and passion for the subject with both major institutions and private collectors. As last year we are very proud to partecipate at Tefaf Fall second edition.
BURZIO at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 47. Primary Address: 38, Dover Street. At R+V. London, W1S4NL, United Kingdom. T +447502571587 - info@lucaburzio.com - www.lucaburzio.com
Pair of blue and white bowl and cover flower vases, Delft, circa 1695. Delftware, 29.2 x 29.5 cm (11.5 x 11.6 in.). Each marked 'AK' in blue for Adrianus Kocx, who was the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1686 to 1701. © Aronson Antiquairs
Provenance: A Dutch Noble collection
Pair of Polychrome Figures of Seated Dogs, Delft, circa 1770. Delftware. Heights 20.1 and 20.4 cm (7.9 and 8 in.). © Aronson Antiquairs
Provenance: Private collection, Belgium
Pair of Polychrome Figural Candlesticks, Delft, circa 1780. Delftware. Each marked 'A / i vd B / 106' in blue for Jan van den Briel, the owner of De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory from 1768 to 1783, or his widow Petronella van der Laan from 1783 to 1796. © Aronson Antiquairs
Provenance: Collection Nijstad, Lochem
Literature: Meesterwerken uit Delft, exh. cat., Delft 1962, p. 79, no. 219
Exhibition: Delft, Museum Het Prinsenhof, Meesterwerken uit Delft, June 2 - August 15, 1962
Attributed to Frederik van Frijtom (1632-1702), Two Blue and White Plates, Delft, circa 1680. Delftware. © Aronson Antiquairs
Frederik van Frijtom is Holland's most renowned painter of seventeenth century Delftware. These two plates display characteristic details of Frederik van Frijtom’s painting style. With broad white borders, a result of the double white method, the attention is drawn towards the depth and light of the blue and white landscape scene. In a manner unique to Van Frijtom, he painted landscapes with various shades of blue, using fine outlines and thousands of minuscule dots. His precise landscapes were strongly inspired by the etchings and drawings of artists who undertook the Italian Grand Tour. They show, rather symbolically, the traces of mankind amongst the grandeur of nature. Van Frijtom’s landscapes are composed from several different planes and scenery to create the suggestion of space. Often, the foreground is painted with a tree or shrubbery using small pointillist touches, with ancient ruins or buildings on a hill in the distance. In between these scenes, small and graciously draped figures are passing through the landscape by foot or horse. By painting the hills on the horizon in a very light, almost vanishing blue, Van Frijtom achieved the unusual sense of depth in this panoramic hill landscape. These two plates fit so well within his oeuvre that they can be attributed to Frederik van Frijtom with certainty.
Provenance: One in an anonymous sale; Sotheby's London, 26 December 1983, Lot 29; the other in an anonymous sale; Sotheby's London, 8 December 1981, Lot 133.
Since 1881 and over five generations Aronson Antiquairs has shared the passion for Dutch Delftware with private collectors and museum and corporate curators around the world. The Aronson family members have strived to gain and maintain the confidence of its clientele to collect the finest Delftware available.
Aronson Antiquairs at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 57. Primary Address: Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 45-b, P.O.Box 15556, AMSTERDAM, Netherlands. T +31206233103 - mail@aronson.com - www.aronson.com
Lot 140. A pair of large red-glazed bell-shaped bowls, Qing dynasty, 18th century, 9 3/4 in. (24.8 cm.) diam., box. Estimate HKD 60,000 - HKD 80,000. Price realised HKD 75,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017
Lot 1: Giovanni Grubacs (Venice 1829 - 1919), Venice, a view of Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, oil on panel, signed lower right: ' G. G'; panel: 6 by 9 5/8 in.; 15 by 24.5 cm; framed: 11 1/8 by 15 in.; 28.1 by 38.2 cm. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000. © Sotheby's
Property of a Private Collector
Note: We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Grubacs.
Lot 2: Giovanni Grubacs (Venice 1829 - 1919), Venice, a view of the Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Salute and the Campanile of San Marco, looking east, oil on panel, signed lower right: '( G?) . Grubacs'; panel: 5 3/4 by 9 3/4 in.; 14.5 by 25 cm; framed: 11 by 15 in.; 27.7 by 38.1 cm. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000. © Sotheby's
Provenance: With Galleria Menaguale, Verona.
Note: We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Grubacs.
Lot 3: Giovanni Grubacs (Venice 1829 - 1919), Venice, a view of the Doge’s Palace, looking West, oil on panel, signed lower left: ' C. Grubacs'; panel: 5 3/4 by 10 in.; 14.4 by 25.5 cm; framed: 11 by 15 in.; 27.7 by 38.3 cm. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000. © Sotheby's
Property of a Private Collector
Note: We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Grubacs.
Lot 4: Giovanni Grubacs (Venice 1829 - 1919), Venice, a view of the Grand Canal looking East, with Santa Maria della Salute and the Punta della Dogana, oil on panel, signed lower left: ' C. Grubacs'; panel: 5 7/8 by 9 3/4 in.; 14.8 by 24.7 cm; framed: 11 1/8 by 15 in.; 28.1 by 38.2 cm. Estimate $8,000 - $12,000. © Sotheby's
Property of a Private Collector
Note: We are grateful to Charles Beddington for confirming the attribution to Giovanni Grubacs.
Sotheby's. Old Masters Online: Venice. October 30, 2017, 2:00 PM EST, New York, NY, US
NEW YORK - After a successful debut show last year TEFAF returns to New York this fall. The Fair provides a vital, transatlantic meeting ground for a global community of dealers, collectors, curators, interior designers and art-and-antique enthusiasts.
Lewis Smith, Director of Koopman Rare Art said: “As a long-standing exhibitor at TEFAF Maastricht, we were extremely pleased to have been selected as one of the 94 world class art dealers to take part in TEFAF’s first ever Fair outside Europe. New York responded enthusiastically to this illustrious new Art fair, with its immaculate European pedigree. The result was exciting, interesting and definitely positive drawing new clientele from around the world.
“Interestingly very few of the visitors to the new TEFAF New York had ever been to TEFAF Maastricht so it proved to be an excellent shop window into this major European art event. With no exception, the breadth, variety and above all superlative museum quality of the works of art on display surprised and delighted the appreciative audience.
“From our own perspective the combination of sales, interest and important access to potential new clients at all levels made exhibiting at the debut TEFAF NY Fair an extremely positive, encouraging experience and we are looking forward to exhibiting again thisyear.”
Highlights to be shown at TEFAF New York Fall on the Koopman Rare Art stand include:
An outstanding pair of fabulous George II silver soup-tureens, each with a cover, stand and ladle. Dated London, 1755 the tureens bear the maker’s mark of Edward Wakelin and were supplied by George Wickes & Samuel Netherton, who were among the leading goldsmiths and retailers of the day. They were commissioned by the 9th Earl of Exeter for Burghley House. Asking price in the region of £575,000. © Koopman Rare Art
They were commissioned by the 9th Earl of Exeter, who is recorded as having ordered more than 5,000 ounces of silver and silver-gilt in the mid 1750s for his country seat, Burghley House. Some of the silver still remains at Burghley to this day.
The tureens are oval in shape and are chased overall with a strikingly original wave and scroll pattern with foliage-capped scroll handles. The stands of the tureens are engraved with a coat-of-arms, the ladles engraved with a crest.
A highly important pair of Royal George III silver-gilt wine coolers bearing the maker’s mark of Joseph Preedy. The bases are engraved with the Royal garter below a Royal Ducal coronet for Ernest Augustus the Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851), who became the King of Hanover in 1838. Asking price in the region of £135,000. © Koopman Rare Art
Each of the heavily cast wine coolers is elaborately chased with fluted and laurel bases and the bodies are decorated with acanthus leaves, friezes of bacchanals, together with openwork grapevine garlands and the rim linking rams' head handles.
The bases are engraved with the Royal garter below a Royal Ducal coronet for Ernest Augustus the Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851), who became the King of Hanover in 1838. He was the fifth son of George III and Queen Charlotte, and like many of his brothers, including the Prince of Wales, was an avid patron and collector of fine silver.
A magnificent six-piece silver tea & coffee service together with a tray by the famous French silversmith Gustave Odiot, made in Paris circa 1870. Asking price in the region of £125,000. © Koopman Rare Art
Each of the six pieces (tea urn, coffee pot, teapot, covered sugar bowl, cream jug and waste bowl) is decorated with fantastical scenes of Poseidon, Amphitrite, and their children abreast of dolphins. The looping handles terminating in cornucopia, while the finials are formed as a floral spray.
An exceptional pair of George II figural silver candlesticks made in London in 1747 by Charles Frederick Kandler. Asking price in the region of £58,000. © Koopman Rare Art
Not much is known about the silversmith Kandler, but there is a suggestion that he was related to the Meissen porcelain sculptor Johann Joachim Kandler, which would explain the fabulous sculptural quality of these candlesticks.
The candlesticks sit on square cast bases with rocaille shell and floral decoration together with four masks depicting the seasons, while the stems are formed of figural maidens looking skyward towards the flames and holding a cartouche engraved with crest and motto of Wemyss Charteris Douglas (1772–1853), the 8th Earl of Wemyss and the 4th Earl of March.
A pair of Victorian figural vases by Paul Storr (1771-London-1844) and John Samuel Hunt, London, 1838-1849. Silver. Height 38.8 cm (15.3 in.). Weight 11,983 g (385oz 5dwt). Maker's mark of Paul Storr & Hunt and Roskell, stamped with the retailer’s mark of 'HUNT & ROSKELL, LATE STORR & MORTIMER'. © Koopman Rare Art
The cast rocky triangular bases each with four tritons, the bowls formed as overlapping water lily pads embellished with buds and blooms, the figures Paul Storr, London, circa 1838, each figure engraved on the right arm: 'Published as the Act directs by Storr & Mortimer 156 New Bond Street London Octr. 17 1838' and each right hand engraved: 'No. 130,' the bases stamped: 'HUNT & ROSKELL LATE STORR, MORTIMER & HUNT 4158'
The bowls of these vases are of the same lily pad design as those of a pair of wine coolers made at Hunt & Roskell in 1848 for presentation to Edward, 1st Earl of Ellenborough (1790-1871). Instead of tritons, their bases supported figures illustrative of life in India in commemoration of the Earl’s tenure as Governor-General there between 1842 and 1844. The coolers were part of a service which Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were shown at Hunt & Roskell in February 1848, for which they ‘were graciously pleased to express their high admiration.’ (The Morning Chronicle, London, 16 February 1848, p. 6d)
Although Hunt & Roskell employed the services of several artists at this time, including Frank Howard (1805-1866) and Alfred Brown, both of whom began their association with the firm in the mid-1840s, they worked under the superintendence of the sculptor Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867). It is he to whom the design of these and the Ellenborough coolers has been attributed. The concept was not new, however; a book of miscellaneous prints of designs for vases inscribed ‘No. 202 Storr & Mortimer 13 New Bond Street,’ which must have been known to Baily, includes an engraving after Jacques-François Saly (1717-1776) in which a shell-like vase is supported by tritons. In 1841 Mortimer & Hunt , Hunt & Roskell’s predecessors, produced a very similar caviar pail for the Russian Prince Worontsov-Dashkov (Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 1969, lot 249; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Joan B. Lappe-Bowman Bequest). These naturalistic forms, so brilliantly adapted for silver at Hunt & Roskell during the 1840s, probably found their most extreme expression in the shell and coral pattern tea and coffee set, London, 1849, which they showed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 (John Culme, Nineteenth-Century Silver, London, 1977, pp. 158 and 159)
E.H. Baily began working under John Flaxman for Rundell, Bridge & Rundell while still a student and when Flaxman died in 1826 he became Rundell’s chief designer and modeller. In this post he inevitably worked most closely with Paul Storr, who until February 1819 was in charge of the firm’s silver manufactory in Dean Street, Soho. Storr subsequently set up his own factory in addition to going into partnership two years later with John Mortimer to form the retail business of Storr & Mortimer, goldsmiths and jewellers, in Bond Street. Baily joined the new firm and continued to work with Storr and his successors until 1857.
Provenance: Sotheby's, New York, 27 April 1992, lot 256; private collection, UK.
A pair of George III Four-Light Candelabra by Paul Storr (1771-London-1844), London, 1811. Silver. Height 69.8 cm (27.5 in.). Weight 11,480 g (369oz 2dwt). Maker's mark of Paul Storr. © Koopman Rare Art
Each candelabra on circular base with tongue-and-dart border and foliate diaperwork with shells at intervals, the fluted base supporting a tapering square stem with lappet band and shell and acanthus shoulder, the fluted campana-form socket with conforming foliate diaperwork, the detachable three-arm branch with reeded, acanthus-clad stems with paterae, supporting three tongue-and-dart waxpans, leaf-clad sockets and gadrooned nozzles, the central baluster-form standard supporting a conforming socket, with detachable ivy and berry bud finial, each drip pan, sconce and base engraved with the crest of a bee. The bases also stamped with the inscription 'RUNDELL BRIDGE ET RUNDELL AURIFICES REGIS ET PRINCIPIS WALLIAE LONDINI FECERUNT', fully marked. The bases and branches with model no. 724.
These candelabra represent one of Paul Storr's most successful models. The earliest surviving pair of Storr candelabra with bases of this design was made for the 9th Duke of Bedford in 1807, the year that Storr became the director of the workshops of Rundell, Bridge & Rundell (illustrated in N.M. Penzer, Paul Storr, 1954, p. 126, and sold Christie's, London, 14 June 1950, lot 117). Other examples, all dating to 1808, include a silver-gilt pair, sold at Christies 22 May 2008, lot 145, and those in the collections of Morrie Moss, the 1st Earl Beauchamp, Koopman Rare Art, the 5th Earl of Chesterfield, and the Estate of Charles and Yvette Bluhdorn (illustrated, respectively, in The Lillian and Morrie Moss Collection of Paul Storr Silver, 1972, p. 97; Sotheby's, London, 11 February 1971, lot 243; Koopman Rare Art, Silver from a Gilded Age, 2005, p. 35; Sotheby's, London, 15 February 1988, lot 118, with branches by Garrard; and Sotheby's, New York, 13 October 2007, lot 27). Another pair of 1808 was sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 10 December 1958, lot 70.
Award-winning Koopman Rare Art, founded by Jacques and Eddy Koopman in 1952, are the pre-eminent dealers in antique silver. They have traded from their luxurious premises in the City of London since 1969. Over the years they have helped form some of the most celebrated collections of silver in the world, including those of His Excellency Mahdi Mohammed Altajir, the Whiteley Trust and the private collection of Australian businessman Kerry Packer. They have also sold important silver to major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Koopman Rare Art stock a wide range of antique silver for all requirements from tea and coffee services, trays, salvers and coasters, through to important centrepieces, candelabra and garnitures. Smaller items such as sweetmeat baskets, punch strainers, babies rattles and amusing Victorian novelty salts
are also represented, in addition there is a choice selection of gold boxes and objets de vertu. All the great names in the history of European silversmithing are featured and the silver can be viewed in Koopman’s galleries situated at the entrance to the famous London silver vaults on Chancery Lane.
Koopman Rare Art at TEFAF New York Fall 2017, Stand 89. 53-64 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1QS. Tel: 0207 242 7624 -
info@koopmanrareart.com - www.koopman.art
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerpen), Self portrait, about 1638, oil on canvas, 110 × 85.5 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 527 © KHM-Museum Association
VIENNA.- Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was a star during his lifetime, and he remains a star today. His name is synonymous with an entire period, the Baroque. But his novel pictorial inventions continue to influence and appeal to artists. Now two leading museums, the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, are hosting a major exhibition entitled “Rubens. The Power of Transformation”.
The exhibition focuses on some little-studied aspects of Rubens’ creative process, illustrating the profound dialogue he entered into with works produced by other great masters, both precursors and contemporaries, and how this impacted his work over half a century. His use or referencing of works by various artists from different periods is generally not immediately apparent, and the exhibition invites visitors to discover these sometimes surprising correlations and connections by directly comparing the works in question.
Comprising artworks in various media, the exhibition brings together paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and objets d’art. Exemplary groups of works will demonstrate Rubens’ methods, which allowed him to dramatize well-known and popular as well as novel subject matters. This offers a fascinating glimpse into the genesis of his compositions and his surprising changes of motifs, but also how he struggled to find the perfect format and the ideal form. Rubens’ extensive œuvre reflects both the influence of classical sculpture and of paintings produced by artists - both in Italy and north of the Alps - from the late fifteenth century to the Baroque. Selected examples will help to illustrate the powerful creative effort that underpins Rubens’ compositions, and the reaction-chains they, in turn, set off in his artistic dialogue with his contemporaries.
In addition to original marble and bronze sculptures from classical antiquity and the Renaissance, the show presents paintings and prints by Rubens’ precursors, among them key works by Titian and Tintoretto, by Goltzius, Rottenhammer and Elsheimer as well as by Giambologna, Van Tetrode and Van der Schardt. Around 120 works in total will be displayed in Vienna and Frankfurt, including no less than forty-eight paintings and thirty-three drawings by Rubens. Many of the artworks on show here are among the main attractions in their home museums; the exhibition features loans from numerous internationally renowned museums including the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the National Gallery in London, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Prado and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Vatican Museums and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
In the show visitors encounter well-known mythological subjects such as Venus and Adonis, the Judgement of Paris, or Prometheus chained to a rock, but also seminal stories from the Old and the New Testament such as the beheading of Holofernes or the Deposition. Rubens’ Ecce Homo from the State Hermitage Museum brilliantly illustrates his creative work process: three works by Rubens document his metamorphic evolution of the classical sculpture of a centaur. He first produced a drawing of the ancient work, which he then evolved into his exceptional depiction of the Saviour. A complete iconographic reinvention, he turned a classical depiction of a wild, feral centaur into a picture of the suffering Christ appealing to the spectator’s compassion. This recourse to classical antiquity allows the body of Jesus to be counter-intuitively posed, his athletic torso ostentatiously displayed. Just as he does here, the artist repeatedly altered his compositions. The often amazingly modern, dynamic impression of Rubens’ pictures is frequently the result of the artist’s conscious recourse to easily identifiable models, which he simultaneously tries to surpass. This process of transformation culminates in works that continue to appeal directly to the modern spectator. It is thus not surprising that Rubens continues to be regarded as the epitome of baroque painting.
The exhibition is curated by Gerlinde Gruber, curator, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Stefan Weppelmann, Director of the Picture Gallery, Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien and Jochen Sander, Adjunct director and curator, Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
17 october 2017 - 21 january 2018
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Ecce Homo, not later than 1612, oil on wood, 125.7 × 96 cm, St. Petersburg, State Hermitage, Inv. GE 3778 © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg 2017.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Venus Frigida, 1614, oil on wood, 145,1 × 185,6 cm, Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Inv. 709 © www.lukasweb.be - Art in Flanders vzw, photo Hugo Maertens.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Frans Snyders (eagle), Prometheus, 1611 / 12-1618, oil on canvas, 242.6 × 209.6 cm, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, purchased with the WP Wilstach Fund, 1950, Acc. No. W1950-3-1 © Credit: Photo Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), The four paradise rivers (detail), circa 1615, oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, picture gallery, Inv. GG 526 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), The four paradise rivers, around 1615, oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Inv. GG 526 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Study of the Torso Belvedere, circa 1601/02, Rötel, on paper, 395 × 260 mm, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 2001 Benefit Fund, 2002, Acc , No. 2002.12a / b © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Apollonius of Athens (attributed), Torso Belvedere (plaster cast), 1st cent. Marble, 159 × 84 cm, Rome, Vatican, Musei Vaticani, Inv. MV 1191. Issued in Vienna: the plaster cast from the museum of casts of classical sculptures, Munich, Inv. 224 © Roy Hessing, Museum of Castings of Classical Sculptures, Munich
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), The Lamentation of Christ, 1614, Oil on Oak, 40.5 × 52.5 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 515 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Miracle of St. Ignatius of Loyola, about 1617/18, oil on canvas, 535 × 395 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 517 © KHM-Museum Association
Tizian (circa 1488 Pieve di Cadore - 1576 Venice), Girl in fur, around 1535, oil on canvas, 95,5 × 63,7 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 89 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerpen), Helena Fourment (The Fur), 1636/38, oil on oak wood, 178,7 × 86,2 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. 688 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerpen) Venusfest (Feast of the Venus Verticordia), 1636/37, oil on canvas, 217 × 350 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 684 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp) Venusfest after Tizian, around 1635, oil on canvas, 196 × 209.9 cm, Stockholm, National Museum, Inv. NM599 © Stockholm, National Museum
Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen 1577 - 1640 Antwerpen), The Annunciation, around 1609, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. 685 © KHM-Museum Association.
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), The judgment of Paris, around 1639, oil on canvas, 199 × 381 cm, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, Inv. P1669 © Museo Nacional del Prado
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerpen), Head of Medusa, 1617/18, oil on canvas, 68,5 × 118 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 3834 © KHM-Museum Association
Natter (natural spruce), Padua, 16th century, bronze, L. 18.6 cm, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunstkammer Wien © KHM-Museumverband
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerpen), A group of spectators from the "Ecce Homo" to Tizian, late 1620s, black chalk and red with feather and lavender on paper, 324 x 410 mm, Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mrs. Alice Kaplan, Acc. No. 2001.121.1 © National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Tizian (circa 1488 Pieve di Cadore - 1576 Venice), Ecce Homo, 1543, oil on canvas, 242 × 361 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 73 © KHM-Museum Association
Peter Paul Rubens (1577 Siegen - 1640 Antwerp), Thunderstorm landscape with Jupiter, Mercury, Philemon and Baucis, 1620 / 25-1636, oil on oak wood, 146 × 208,5 cm, Vienna, Museum of Fine Arts, Picture Gallery, Inv. GG 690 © KHM-Museum Association
Sunrise with Theseusgruppe and Rubens-Sujet © KHM-Museumverband
View of the Rubens exhibition© KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
View of the Rubens exhibition © KHM-Museumsverband
Lot 145. A Kashan pottery bottle vase with spouted neck, Persia, 13th century. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. © Sotheby's.
the fritware body of globular form, tall thin neck and splayed mouth, decorated with three paired cobalt blue trails under a transparent glaze; 29.5cm.
Provenance: Ex-collection Harvey B. Plotnick.
Sotheby's London, 3 October 2012, lot 148.
Note: The use of fritware in Persia from the twelfth century onwards equipped craftsmen with the means to create finer ceramic wares without the need for an opaque white glaze (Pancaroğlu 2007, p.90). The cobalt blue trails form a striking, almost luminous, detail under the transparent glaze on this ewer, establishing a cohesive design across its body. Yet it is a notably more minimalist design when compared to later wares. According to Pancaroğlu, similar dashes found on ceramics “may have been intended as an apotropaic ‘imperfection’ to protect the alluring, yet delicate, vessel from the harms of the “evil eye”” (Pancaroğlu 2007, pp.90-91, no.48). A vase with a similar paired stripe design is currently in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C. (inv.no.S1997.116).
Vase, Iran, Kashan, late 12th-early 13th century. Stone-paste painted under glaze. H x W x D: 17.8 x 11.1 x 11.1 cm (7 x 4 3/8 x 4 3/8 in). Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1997.116 © 2017 Smithsonian Institution
Sotheby's. Arts of the Islamic World, London, 25 oct. 2017, 10:30 AM
Lot 146. A large and rare Kashan lustre sweetmeat pottery dish, Persia, circa 1200. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 GBP. © Sotheby's.
the fritware body with seven circular compartments to centre, lustre painted with figures in monumental style interspersed with leafy fronds, exterior with cobalt blue alkaline glaze, two holes on either side through shallow bowl; 8.8cm. height; 31.4cm. diam.
Note: A very similar dish is in the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, inv. no. 2002.50.59. The Harvard museum website features a video demonstrating the interior of their dish as well as how it would have been constructed: http://www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/165023.
Sweetmeat Dish, Seljuk-Atabeg period, c. 1200, Middle East, Iran, Kashan. Fritware painted with luster (copper and silver) over blue (cobalt) transparent alkali glaze and white lead alkali glaze opacified with tin, 29.8 x 7.2 cm. Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, 2002.50.59
This style of construction, which includes seven circular compartments, must have been reserved for the celebration of 'Haft Sin' associated with the Persian New Year (Nowruz). Traditionally, seven items beginning with the letter 'sin' would be placed in each section, notably: sabzeh (wheat or barley, samanu (sweet pudding), senjed (dried olive), seer (garlic), seeb(apple), somaq (sumac) and serkeh (vinegar).
Lot 147. A rare Safavid blue and white bowl, signed by Ramadan, Persia, probably Mashhad, dated 1121 AH/1709 AD. Estimate 10,000 — 15,000 GBP. © Sotheby's.
white fritware body with deep central bowl and tall vertical edges on short foot ring, underglaze cobalt blue decoration with central inscription and floral stems, exterior also with inscriptive band; 8.8cm. height; 20.1cm. max diam.
Provenance: K. R. Malcolm, C.B.E (1908-84), thence by descent.
Bibliography: G. Fehérvári, 'An early eighteenth-century Persian blue and white', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1970, Hertford, pp.137-141.
An offprint of this article, which is devoted to this bowl, is included with this lot.
inscriptions
Inside:
‘Enjoy it with right good cheer. May God keep you from the fire [of hell] unaffected!
In the month of Safar the year [1]121 (April-May 1709), the servant [of God],
Ramadan’
The above is given as: ‘In, the servant [of God], Ramadan, the month of Safar [1]121
(April-May 1709)’
Around the exterior wall, in Persian:
‘It is a dark night, path narrow, and me drunk
The cup fell from my hand and did not break’ (a couplet of Baba Tahir)
The crosscurrents of Persian and Chinese ceramic wares can be traced back to as early as the ninth century, both through trade and artistic motifs. This bowl, while referencing the Chinese blue-and-white wares from which it is derived, also provides an impressive and unique model of developments in Persian design, highlighted by its rarity as it is one of only three known examples of this style to be signed and dated.
The exterior Persian inscription is offset by the central Arabic inscription which reads “Enjoy it with right good cheer. May God keep you from the fire [of hell] unaffected!” This is followed by a signature of the artist “The slave Ramadan” and the date “Safar 121.” It is likely that the first digit has been omitted rendering the date of the bowl Safar 1121 AH/April 1709 AD. Dated examples of Persian blue-and-white ceramics are extremely rare, and those dated and signed even more so. According to Fehérvári’s survey of dated Persian blue-and-white wares, this bowl is one of only three that are both signed and dated. The other two examples comprise a teapot in the British Museum, London (inv. no.1902,0521.1) and a bowl in the same collection published in R. L. Hobson, A guide to the Islamic pottery of the Near East, London, 1932, fig.86 (Fehérvári 1970, p.140-1.) While little is known about the artist, the stylistic elements of this bowl speak volumes of the decorative repertoire of Persian craftsmen in the Safavid era.
Pouring vessel, 1616-1617 (AH 1027), SE Iran, perhaps Kirman, Mashhad, filled from the top of the handle, decorated in underglaze blue after contemporary Chinese export wares (Kraak porcelain). Inscribed at the top 'The work of Mahmud Mi'mar-i Yazdi, decorated by the craftsman Zari' with the date 1025/1616-17. The metal spout is a 19th century addition. Height: 24.8 cm, Diameter: 18 cm; inv. no.1902,0521.1 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum.
The finely potted white body under a brilliant white glaze sets off the striking floral and foliage design in cobalt blue which is defined by a darker blue outline. The free-flowing, luscious flower forms are distinctly Persian in style and contrast with the precision characteristic of Chinese Kraak wares. The result is a dynamic variant of its Chinese counterpart, which is heightened by the fine balance of the overall composition of the bowl. A similar floral design adorns a bottle and a jug currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum collection (Crowe 2002, p.270, no.490 and p.273, no.497). Vertical blue and white lines divide the inside shoulder of the bowl into fourteen panels of square and rectangular form, containing alternating elongated medallions and oval forms. Such panels evoke a simplified form of the Kraak “petal panels” discussed in Crowe 2002, pp.61-66. The hatching that shades these panels recalls a common motif in earlier Timurid ceramics and resembles the pattern on a bowl sold in these rooms on 5 April 2006, lot 97. Furthermore, its deep conical shape on a slightly flaring foot echoes the lustre-wares of Kashan as early as the late twelfth or early thirteenth century (Fehérvári 1970, p.139), illustrating the pervading influence of earlier Persian works.
A small Timurid blue and white bowl, Persia, 15th century, 14cm. diam. Sold for 6,000 GBP at Sotheby's London, 5 April 2006, lot 97. © Sotheby's.
Forming an intermediary between Chinese and Persian design is the scale-like pattern decorating the underside of the vessel. One such example in Chinese ware is currently in the Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul (Carswell 1995 p.67, fig.66), yet there are many Persian examples that highlight the various forms of the motif (see Crowe 2002, p.219, no.380: Lane 1957, pl.78A). This design hints at the potential production site of the bowl, since it adorns certain works created in seventeenth century Mashhad (see Lane 1957, pls.77A & 78A) and Fehérvári attributes, therefore, this vessel to the same centre (1970, p.139).
Lot 197. An Iznik blue and turquoise hexagonal tile, Turkey, circa 1525. Estimate 5,000 — 8,000 GBP. © Sotheby's.
fritware, decorated in underglaze blues and turquoise on a white ground, mounted in frame; 20.2cm. max.
Note: Similar tiles, most probably from the same group, are in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. no. 7456) and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (inv. nos.1019-1892; 507-1900). Further examples were sold in these rooms, 17 October 1997, lot 30; 24 April 1991, lots 1144-47; 15 October 2003, lot 48.
