Lot 17. An old-cut diamond, gold and silver, ring size 7 ¼, circa 1760. Estimate USD 120,000 - USD 180,000. Price realised USD 237,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Provenance: By repute, Major Rasfur Lee Knox of Sligo.

Lot 18. An old European brilliant-cut diamond of 21.67 carats, gold, ring size 5 ¾, circa 1915. Estimate USD 200,000 - USD 400,000. Price realised USD 639,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Lot 37. A diamond brooch, Bhagat. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 212,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Lot 38. A diamond and Colombian emerald bead brooch, Bhagat. Estimate USD 100,000 - USD 150,000. Price realised USD 399,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Pear and circular-shaped rose-cut diamonds, circular-cut diamonds, drop-shaped emerald bead of 20.03 carats, platinum, 1 7/8 ins., 2014, signed Bhagat.

Lot 10. The 'Indore Sapphire' taveez bead pendant necklace of 23.20 carats, 18th century, mounted by Cartier. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 206,250. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

Lot 36. An antique colored diamond, diamond and natural pearl pendant. Estimate USD 300,000 - USD 500,000. Price realised USD 325,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019

Triangular-shaped table-cut pink diamond, half-moon and triangular-shaped table-cut diamonds, rose-cut diamonds, pearls, engraved on the reverse with floral motif, silver, 2 ins., 19th century.

PARIS - Frans Hals (1582/1583-1666) est l’un des plus grands portraitistes du Siècle d’or hollandais et, avec Rembrandt, celui qui a révolutionné ce genre. Surtout réputé pour ses portraits individuels et ses grandes compositions représentant les membres de milices, il a également produit des portraits de famille, dont seuls quatre sont parvenus jusqu’à nous et qui sont aujourd’hui rassemblés à la Fondation Custodia.

À l’origine de cette exposition fut l’acquisition en 2011, par le Toledo Museum of Art, du portrait de Hals de La Famille Van Campen dans un paysage, et l’achèvement en 2016 du traitement de conservation des Enfants de la famille Van Campen, œuvre du même artiste appartenant aux Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Il était connu que ces deux toiles constituaient une seule et même composition. Les restaurations conduites à Bruxelles ont également permis de confirmer qu’une Tête de jeune garçon, actuellement dans une collection privée européenne, était, elle aussi, un fragment de ce tableau dispersé. Pour la première fois depuis deux cents ans, les trois parties conservées du monumental portrait de famille, qui devait mesurer à l’origine près de 3,80 m de long, sont présentées côte à côte à l’occasion de cette exposition unique.

Frans Hals, La Famille Van Campen dans un paysage (fragment), vers 1623-1625. Huile sur toile. – 151 × 163,6 cm, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (Ohio), inv. 2011.80.

Frans Hals, Portrait d'un jeune garçon de la famille Van Campen (fragment), vers 1623-1625, Collection particulière.

Les portraits de famille de Frans Hals font preuve d’une détente sans précédent et montrent l’intimité des relations des parents avec leurs enfants. Ces derniers interagissent joyeusement entre eux. Le rire et le sourire étaient la marque de Hals, dont le génie s’exprime également dans les autres tableaux de l’exposition : le Portrait de famille dans un paysage du Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid), la Famille néerlandaise du Cincinnati Art Museum et le Portrait de famille dans un paysage de la National Gallery de Londres.

Frans Hals, Portrait de famille dans un paysage, vers 1645-1648. Huile sur toile. – 202 × 285 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, inv. 1934.8.

Frans Hals, Portrait d'une famille néerlandaise, milieu des années 1630. © Cincinnati Art Museum, Bequest of Mary M. Emery,

Frans Hals, Portrait de famille dans un paysage, vers 1647-1650. © National Gallery de Londres

Frans Hals naît probablement à Anvers en 1582 ou 1583. Alors qu’il est encore enfant, sa famille fuit les troubles des Flandres et s’installe à Haarlem, dans la jeune et prospère République des Pays-Bas. En 1610, il devient membre de la guilde de Saint-Luc de Haarlem et ouvre son propre atelier. Il eut trois enfants d’un premier mariage et onze d’un second ; quatre d’entre eux devinrent peintres à leur tour. La carrière de Hals traverse une grande partie du Siècle d’or hollandais puisqu’il meurt en 1666 à 84 ans, un âge très avancé pour le XVIIe siècle. 

On connaît de Frans Hals plus de 220 tableaux. Il peint essentiellement des portraits individuels, quelques-uns – mari et femme – se faisant pendants. Il est aussi l’un des grands représentants de ce genre pictural si hollandais qu’est le portrait de groupe. Treize de ces tableaux monumentaux nous sont parvenus, huit conservés au musée Frans Hals à Haarlem. Le peintre, pourtant mal connu en France, a renouvelé le genre en instillant une dynamique et une fraîcheur que ces représentations officielles quelque peu compassées n’avaient pas avant lui.

du 8 juin au 25 août 2019. Heures d’ouverture : tous les jours sauf le lundi, de 12h à 18h 

Hendrick Goltzius (Mulbracht 1558 – 1617 Haarlem), Portrait de Frederik de Vries, 1597. Gravure au burin (premier état). – 357 × 264 mm (rognée au coup de planche). © Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt

PARIS - Protagonistes centraux des portraits de famille, les enfants sont aussi un sujet à part entière pour beaucoup de peintres hollandais et flamands du XVIIe siècle, sujet qui n’a pour notre œil moderne rien perdu de sa séduction. Tour à tour charmants, cabots, attendrissants, sages ou drôles, innocents, insupportables et bruyants, ces gamins du Siècle d’or forment une galerie étonnamment intemporelle.

L’exposition rassemble dessins, gravures et tableaux et offre ainsi aux visiteurs un vaste panorama de la production artistique sur le thème de la représentation des enfants en Hollande et dans les Flandres au XVIIe siècle.

Les portraits individuels d’enfants sont à l’honneur : de la charmante Boucle d’or de Nicolaes Maes à l’iconique effigie de Hugo Grotius qui, du haut de ses seize ans, pose déjà un docte regard sur le monde, de la petite Jeannette (« Jenneken ») en train d’écrire, dessinée à la sanguine par son frère Harmen ter Borch, au délicieux portrait que Hendrick Goltzius grave du fils d’un de ses meilleurs amis. Si ces trois derniers portraits représentent des enfants identifiés grâce aux inscriptions, de nombreuses effigies – comme celle peinte par Nicolaes Maes – demeurent bien souvent sans identification du modèle.

 Nicolaes Maes (Dordrecht 1634 – 1693 Amsterdam), Portrait d’une fillette avec un chevreuil, vers 1680, Huile sur toile, – 58 × 49 cm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 2011-S.3

Jan Antonisz. van Ravesteyn (La Haye vers 1572 – 1657 La Haye), Portrait de Hugo Grotius, à l’âge de 16 ans, 1599. Huile sur panneau. – diamètre 31 cm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 175

Harmen ter Borch (Zwolle 1638 – 1662 Zwolle), Jenneken ter Borch écrivant, 1653. Sanguine sur vélin. – 77 × 74 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 1921

David Bailly (Leyde 1584 – 1657 Leyde), Portrait d’un jeune garçon, 1626. Plume, encres brune et noire, pinceau et encre noire. – 131 × 107 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 6507.

Jan de Braij (Haarlem 1626/1627 – 1697 Amsterdam), Portrait d’une fille de douze ans, 1663. Pierre noire et sanguine. – 139 × 115 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 6013.

Cornelis de Vos (Hulst 1584/1585 – 1651 Anvers), Étude d’une tête de fillette. Pierre noire rehaussée de craie blanche sur papier bleu. – 230 × 204 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 2002-T.7.

Les artistes ont à de nombreuses reprises représenté les enfants endormis. Le sommeil est bien sûr un état très récurrent chez les tout petits et l’on ne s’étonne pas de voir Frans van Mieris dessiner Willem Paets, fils d’un de ses amis, dormant dans son berceau. Lorsque Govert Flinck produit en revanche cette magnifique étude, sans doute exécutée sur le vif, d’un garçonnet assoupi, ce sont l’innocence et la vulnérabilité de l’enfance qui sautent aux yeux.

Frans van Mieris (Leyde 1635 – 1681 Leyde), Willem Paets dans son berceau, 1665. Pierre noire. – 99 × 131 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 1970-T.33.

Govert Flinck (Clèves 1615 – 1660 Amsterdam), Enfant endormi, 1643. Plume et encre brune, lavis brun clair. – 165 × 148 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 7368.

Rembrandt a lui aussi dessiné et gravé des enfants qu’il montre généralement dans leurs interactions avec des femmes (mères, grand-mères, nourrices) ou bien sous les traits des jeunes apprentis de son atelier.

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 Leyde – 1669 Amsterdam), Femme avec un enfant sur ses genoux, vers 1645-1650. Plume et encre brune, lavis brun appliqué avec un pinceau à moitié sec ou au doigt. – 162 × 128 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 2143.

Outre ces feuilles bien connues, l’exposition offre également à voir de nombreuses œuvres jamais encore montrées de la collection et quelques nouvelles acquisitions. Le regard que les artistes hollandais et flamands du XVIIe siècle portèrent sur les enfants et sur l’enfance offre au spectateur d’aujourd’hui à la fois une plongée dans un temps aux mœurs révolues et, en miroir, une réflexion sur notre propre perception des premières années de la vie.

du 8 juin au 25 août 2019. Heures d'ouverture : tous les jours sauf le lundi, de 12h à 18h  

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Leyde 1606 – 1669 Amsterdam), Figures académiques d’hommes (« Het rolwagentje », Le Trotteur), vers 1646. Eau-forte. – 187 × 126 mm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 2468.

Constantijn van Renesse (Maarssen 1626 – 1680 Eindhoven), Garçon debout avec un bonnet. Plume et encre brune sur papier brun clair. – 166 × 109 mm. Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 5992.

Karel du Jardin (Amsterdam 1626 – 1678 Venise), Garçon jouant du violon entouré de chiens (Le Savoyard), 1658. Eau-forte. – 164 × 120 mm,Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 2018-P.63.

Adriaen van der Werff (Kralingen-Ambacht 1659 – 1722 Rotterdam), Un enfant jouant du tambour à friction. Pointe de pinceau et encre grise, lavis gris, sur un tracéà la pierre noire. – 168 × 109 mm,Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 4887.

Jan van Noordt (Schagen 1623/1624 – 1676/1686), Portrait d’Annetje Jans Grotincx, épouse de Jan van de Cappelle, vers 1653. Huile sur toile. – 75,3 × 57,8 cm, Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris, inv. 8335.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (Amsterdam 1621 – 1674 Amsterdam), Portrait du peintre Jan van de Cappelle, 1653. Huile sur toile. – 75,5 × 57,7 cm, Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, inv. SA 40424

Lot 3333. A finely carved and extremely rare celadon and mottled jade figure of a bear, Western Han dynasty (206 BC-26 AD); 9.3 cm, 3 5/8  in. Estimate HK$2,000,000– 3,000,000. Lot sold 2,500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

skilfully depicted recumbent with facial features realistically rendered below a pair of small funnel-form pricked ears, the head framed by a pair of curved ridges detailed with fine incisions repeated along its upper back, interrupted by a collar decorated with three raised studs, the body rendered with curved contours, the substantial pale celadon stone with variegated greyish-russet skin extending along the back and hind of the figure.

Provenance: The Hei-Chi Collection.

Literature: Jiang Tao and Liu Yunhui, Jades from the Hei-Chi Collection, Beijing, 2006, p. 72.

Note: This bear is carved in the round from celadon jade and is partially covered with light brown mottles. Recumbent on its four limbs and staring directly ahead, the bear is finely articulated, with a short nose and short upward-pointing ears. Its delicate collar indicates that it is a domesticated pet.

In form, decoration, and mood, this present work recalls another jade bear excavated from one of the tombs of the Princes of Chu in Beidongshan, Xuzhou. Similarly depicted robust and recumbent, the jade bear is also portrayed with a collar and hair detailed with short incised lines. See Da Han Chuwang: Xuzhou Xihan Chuwang lingmu wenwu jicui [Selected cultural relics excavated at the Western Han dynasty mausoleum of the King of Chu], National Museum of China, Beijing, 2005, pp. 268-275. However, the present piece is carved from jade of a different quality and is half the size of the Beidongshan example. It differs from the latter also in its triangular renditions of the bear’s eyes, nostrils, mouth and ears

.

Sotheby's. Beasts of Antiquity – Important Jade Animals from the Chang Shou Studio, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017

Lot 3326. A yellow jade figure of a rabbit, Qing dynasty, 17th – 18th century; 6.5 cm, 2 1/2  in. Estimate HK$600,000– 800,000. Lot sold 1,500,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

sensitively worked and depicted recumbent with the head turned to its left and resting on its front paws, the figure portrayed grasping in its mouth a gnarled leafy sprig issuing lingzhi blooms, the warm yellow stone accentuated with russet patches and veins.

Sotheby's. Beasts of Antiquity – Important Jade Animals from the Chang Shou Studio, Hong Kong, 05 Apr 2017

Lot 3308. A superbly carved yellow and russet jade figure of a mythical beast, Ming dynasty (1368-1644); 7.7 cm, 3 in. Estimate HK$1,000,000– 1,500,000. Lot sold 1,250,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

skilfully rendered in the round in the form of a crouching mythical beast, the figure portrayed alert with piercing globular eyes above a well-defined snout and finely incised beard falling to its chest, all below stylised floppy ears, the rounded bodily contours highlighted with a defined backbone terminating in a bushy tail sweeping up against the haunches and body, the lustrous warm yellow stone extensively mottled with dark russet patches, wood stand.

Exhibited: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth: Gems of Antiquities Collections in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2002.

Lot 2. A rare pair of Meissen Böttger stoneware octagonal vases and covers, circa 1710-13; 13cm high. Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000. © Bonhams.

Each decorated in gilding with a central lambrequin border and double-line borders on the various edges, the slightly differing covers centering a gilt flowerhead, and one lacquered on the interior.

Exhibited: Karlsruhe, Zähringer Museum, Grand Ducal Residence, from 1879; Baden-Baden, Zähringer Museum, Neues Schloss, ca. 1960-93.

Note: These flasks belonged to an extensive group of polished Böttger stoneware embellished in gilding that was inherited by the Margravine Karoline Luise of Baden-Durlach (1723-83) in the second half of the 18th century. She displayed most of the historic porcelain that she inherited from various members of her and her husband's families as part of a scientific display in the Naturalia Cabinet in the Karlsruhe Residence.

The Böttger stoneware, along with much of the porcelain collection, is listed in her posthumous inventory, which is repeated in that of her son, Karl Ludwig von Baden-Durlach (1755-1801). In the inventory, and probably also in the display of the Naturalia Cabinet, these vases were grouped together with other similar, but apparently unrelated, polished Böttger stoneware with gilt rims, including three teapots, five tea bowls and six saucers, three octagonal teapots and two oval flasks (Verlassenschaft des Erbprinzen Karl Ludwig von Baden-Durlach, 1805-09, Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe (GLA) FA 6 Person 12 II: 'das Naturalien Cabinett: Fein irdenes Geschirr [p. 102, no. 597] Eine Garnitur von feiner brauner Erde, glasirt mit Vergoldung, bestehend in: [...] 2 achteckichten Caraffen mit Deckeln [...]' [the Naturalia Cabinet: fine earthenware: a garniture of fine brown earth, glazed with gilding, consisting of (...) 2 octagonal carafes and covers (...)].

The Böttger stoneware may originally have been in the collection of the Margravine Sibylla Augusta of Baden-Baden (1675-1733), who assembled an important collection of Chinese and European ceramics, including early Meissen stoneware and porcelain, in Schloss Favorite, that was inherited by Karoline Luise in 1771. However, Karoline Luise also inherited early Meissen stoneware and porcelain from other members of her husband's family, as well as from her own grandparents.

These flasks, together with the rest of the 'garniture', were exhibited from 1879 in the same rooms in the Grand Ducal Residence in Karlsruhe that had contained the Naturalia Cabinet and they are listed in the inventory of 1883 by Karl Koelitz. When the last Grand Duke of Baden abdicated in 1918, this collection was considered the family's private property and, in 1919, it was moved to the Neues Schloss, Baden-Baden, where - from around 1960 it was on public display as part of the Zähringer Museum.

Other parts of the same group, now in the collection of the Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg, Schloss Favorite (inv. nos. G7573, 7577, 7580-81) are published by U. Grimm / U. Wiese, Was Bleibt (1996), pp. 52ff.

A teabowl and saucer is in the Arnhold Collection, New York, published by M. Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710-50 (2008), no. 63.

Bonhams. Important Meissen Porcelain from a Private Collection, Part II, London, 2 July 2019 

Lot 7. A rare Meissen Böttger stoneware black-glazed Kendi, circa 1710-13; 16.3cm high, black cold-painted Japanese Palace inventory number 64./ P. Estimate: £40,000 - £60,000. © Bonhams.

After a Chinese Yixing stoneware original, the globular body with a quilin head spout and tall cylindrical neck with flared rim, decorated in the workshop of Martin Schnell, Dresden, in imitation of lacquer with a black glaze, the body moulded with flowering plants issuing from rockwork cold-painted in gilding heightened in pale-brown and red, the spout embellished in gilding, the neck with two dragons flanking a flaming pearl above clouds and border of lappet panels, the rim with a moulded lappet border embellished in gilding (some wear to gilding and enamels overall, cover lacking).

Literature: Anette Loesch et al, "Sächsisch schwartz lacquirtes Porcelain" (2013), p. 166.

Note: The 1719 inventories of the Dresden and Leipzig warehouses, Böttger's rooms and the stock room in Meissen, list several black-lacquered examples of this shape in the Dresden warehouse (Claus Boltz, Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode, in Keramos 167/168 (2000), p. 129). 

According to the delivery specification of 15 March 1733 of porcelain and stoneware from the Dresden and Leipzig warehouses (the so-called 'Böttgerische Credit Wesen', ie. the administration of Böttger's bankrupt estate), the four kendis (including the present lot) decorated in imitation of lacquer that were subsequently listed in the Japanese Palace inventories under no. 64 were delivered from the Leipzig warehouse (the delivery specification of 1733 refers to '4 St.Thee Boy Kannen'(published by Claus Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in Keramos 153 (1996), p. 114)).

The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace records 'Vier Stück runde Theé Känngen, ohne Deckel, am Bauche mit kurzen Schnäuzgen, 8. Zoll hoch, 4 1/2. Zoll in Diam: No. 64' [four round teapots, without covers, short snout on the bodies...] (published by Boltz 1996, p. 110.

Eight black-glazed kendis were listed in the Japanese Palace inventory of 1721 under nos. 35-37; none remain in Dresden and their whereabouts is uncertain, though they could include the two examples with covers now in the Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha (M. Eberle, Das rote Gold (n.d.), no. 16), and in the Grassi Museum, Leipzig (D. Gielke, Meissener Porzellan des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts (2003), no. 9), and the example without a cover in Serves Cité de la céramique (MNC 2244/8, purchased in Dresden in 1836 by Alexandre Brongniart).

Of the four delivered in 1733 and listed under no. 64, two (including the present lot) were sold from the Dresden collection in 1920 and were subsequently in the collection of Siegfried Salz, Berlin.

Two others with covers had been sold from the Dresden collections in 1919 with no mention of the Japanese Palace inventory number, so it is not certain whether they were among the eight kendis listed in the inventory under nos. 35-37, or the two others delivered in 1733 and listed under no. 64 (Lepke's, 7-8 October 1919, lots 54 and 55).

One is in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (inv. no. G83.1.573), another in the Los Angeles County Museum (inv. no. 87.5.1, formerly in the Nyffeler Collection). A third is in a New York private collection.

Lot 4. A rare Meissen Böttger stoneware teapot and cover, circa 1710-13;9.5cm high. Estimate: £30,000 - £50,000 (€ 34,000 - 56,000). © Bonhams

The bell-shaped body with an ear-shaped handle and curved spout, engraved, cut and polished with foliate motifs and dots scroll- and strapwork below a border of swags around the shoulder and dots below the rim, the spout, handle and flat cover similarly decorated (tiny chip to tip of spout).

Note: For a detailed discussion of the cutting and faceting of Böttger stoneware, see Rainer Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts (1990), pp. 90-92. Böttger engaged artists in Dresden as well as from Bohemia, and the work - after Böttger's own designs - was carried out in Dresden as well as in the Albrechtsburg in Meissen. The shape is based on a Chinese, Kangxi (1662-1722) teapot with underglaze-blue decoration from the collection of Augustus the Strong with the Japanese Palace inventory number N:549 (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung, inv. no. PO 2684). Numerous examples of the shape (called 'Glocken Thee Krügel' are listed in the 1711 inventory of the manufactory (C. Boltz, Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711, in Mitteilungsblatt der Keramikfreunde der Schweiz 96 (1982), p. 23), and three are listed in the inventory of the Japanese Palace under no. 149: 'Drey Stück [Thee Potgen] runde geschliffene, different, mit Deckel, Henckel und Schnauze, wovon eins mit einem silbernen Kettel versehen, 4 1/2. Zoll och, 3 1/2. Zoll in Diam: No. 149 [three (tea pots) round, polished, different, with cover, handle and spout, of which one is decorated with a silver chain] (quoted by C. Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in Keramos 153 (1996), p. 106). Two similar teapots remain in the Dresden collection (inv. nos. P.E. 783 and P.E. 5756, the first is published by I. Menzhausen, Alt-Meißner Porzellan in Dresden (1988), no. 6). Another was sold by Sotheby's Zürich, 21 November 1990, lot 39.

Court Renaissance Casket from Newbattle Abbey by the Nuremberg Master of Perspective, dated 1565. Various woods, engraved bone, mother of pearl, alabaster, etched and fire-gilt iron, 35 cm x 53 cm x 36 cm, Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd and Trinity Fine Art. © 2019 London Art Week 

LONDON.- At London Art Week Summer 2019, Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd and Trinity Fine Art will unveil a major Renaissance artwork: a magnificent Court Casket with trompe l’oeil marquetry and engraving made in Nuremberg in 1565 by The Master of Perspective. For centuries the Casket was in the famed collection of the marquesses of Lothian at Newbattle Abbey, and has not been seen in public since 1883. The cabinet will be exhibited at Trinity Fine Art, 15 Old Bond Street, from 25th June until 25th July 2019. 

Research on this Casket by Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd has established it as one of the earliest examples of Kunstkammer (cabinet of curiosities) furniture. More importantly, it connects Wenzel Jamnitzer's newly-invented perspective machine and eleven important works of South German marquetry, including the present Casket, that feature polyhedra in a three-dimensional manner, firmly establishing that they were all made in the same Nuremberg workshop. 

The Lothian Provenance 
A prestigious provenance makes the Renaissance Court Casket from Newbattle Abbey, near Edinburgh, an outstanding masterpiece in British collecting history. When in 1735 the 4th Marquess of Lothian married the granddaughter of the 3rd Duke of Schomberg 1st Duke of Leinster, the casket most probably came into the possession of this important Scottish family. The 3rd Duke of Schomberg had moved to the British Isles in the late 17th century and was married to the daughter of Karl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine (whose mother was the sister of Charles I of England). The casket seems to have been passed on through the female line as a wedding gift from its first traceable owner, Karl I Ludwig, until it entered the Lothian collection. 

The Casket (35 cm x 53 cm x 36 cm) sits on a fine stand, commissioned in England around 1720, most probably from James Moore, indicating that it was definitely in Britain by then and held in high esteem, almost 200 years after it had been made. The Court Renaissance Casket was once displayed at Newbattle Abbey next to other Renaissance treasures such as The Madonna with the Siskin by Albrecht Dürer (now in the Painting Gallery of Berlin), and The Coronation of the Virgin by Filippino Lippi (today at the National Gallery, Washington DC). Henry Schomberg Kerr, 9th Marquess of Lothian (1833-1900) was instrumental in building the famous collection with a strong Renaissance focus. The Casket was listed in inventories of the house compiled in 1901 and 1930, and King Edward VII summed up the importance of Newbattle Abbey after a visit in 1907: “there are more literary and artistic treasures in Newbattle than probably in any other house in Scotland.” 

Court Renaissance Casket from Newbattle Abbey by the Nuremberg Master of Perspective, dated 1565. Various woods, engraved bone, mother of pearl, alabaster, etched and fire-gilt iron, 35 cm x 53 cm x 36 cm, Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd and Trinity Fine Art. © 2019 London Art Week 

The Master of Perspective and Wenzel Jamnitzer 
The fact that the casket is dated was a pivotal aid to identify the Master of Perspective as a Nuremberg 'kistler' (cabinet maker). Although his name is unknown, research by Dr Virginie Spenlé has identified eleven surviving pieces of furniture in public and private collections which are clearly from this same workshop – all unusually featuring the trompe-l’œil marquetry of stereometric solids, combined with engravings of allegorical content, and made around 1560-1570. 

Its cultural importance has a European dimension as well, as the casket testifies to the interaction between art and science that was discussed in the 16th century in Italy, in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as in England. Marquetry featuring polyhedra in a threedimensional manner appears for the first time in Florence in the 15th century along with the first treatise dealing with mathematical rules for drawing three-dimensional objects. It is not entirely a coincidence that the casket from Newbattle Abbey has long been regarded as Italian artwork and that the 9th Marquess lent it to the Italian Art Loan Exhibition in Glasgow in 1882. 

Since then, art historians have stressed the importance of South German artists like Albrecht Dürer or Wenzel Jamnitzer who absorbed and adapted the Italian precepts, leading eventually to new artistic creations. The Renaissance casket is an especially significant example of this intertwining of art and science. Nuremberg, well-known for its scientific and aesthetic achievements, was the only place at the time where the preliminary sketches for such complex polyhedral figurations, such as those featured in the present Casket, could be machine-generated. A newly-invented perspective machine, mentioned in Wenzel Jamnitzer's Perspectiva corporum regularium (published in 1568) certifies this. And a 1564 drawing by Lorenz Stoer, a painter and cabinet maker who published Geometria et perspectiva (1567) to be ‘useful to carpenters in inlaid work’, has striking similarities to the figurations that unites this group of furniture. Put emphatically, the Casket from Newbattle Abbey is on a level with artworks like Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors (1533) that discusses mathematical achievements with pictorial means. 

The creation of Kunstkammer furniture 
Cabinets of Curiosities, often known as Wunder- or Kunstkammer, emerged during the 16th century. Dated 1565, this makes the casket one of the earliest known pieces of Kunstkammer furniture and can, in view of its cultural importance, be compared to the socalled Wrangelschrank, the famous Augsburg cabinet, dated 1566, that is on display at the Wesphalian State Museum in Münster. The Renaissance Casket from Newbattle Abbey can therefore be labelled as one of the most important pieces of South German furniture. 

Cabinet cabinet, so-called "Wrangelschrank", Augsburg, 1566. Softwood , maplewood , plumwood , pearwood , walnut , poplar , boxwood , planewood , barberry , yew , fir , birch , ebony , apple , linden , cherry , padouk , ash , alabaster , brass , iron. Height: 70.0 cm. Width: 100.0 cm. Depth: 47.0 cm, Inv K-605 LM, © Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL)Research & Publication 

Dr. Virginie Spenlé says: “It was fascinating to research the Casket in such detail. It stands out with its unusual iconography: the polyhedra represented as three-dimensional solids are symbols of the universe, while the engravings show allegories and scenes referring to the four human temperaments and thus also to the place of mankind in God’s creation. Made of precious materials with the most refined techniques of cabinet-making, marquetry and engraving, there is no doubt that the Renaissance Casket from Newbattle Abbey was regarded as an artwork of highest aesthetic value in the 16th century - worthy of a king, a distinguished collector who would place it at the centre of his Kunstkammer, his cabinet of curiosities.” 

A richly illustrated book dedicated to the Renaissance Casket from Newbattle Abbey retraces the history and importance of this unique artwork coming from one of the most important British private collections. Published by Georg Laue, Kunstkammer Ltd and Trinity Fine Art, this book contains essays by Dr. Virginie Spenlé and Mariell F. Mettmann dealing with the artistic context in which the Renaissance Casket was made in 16th-century Nuremberg and about its later history in connection to the Lothian collections. On June 27 & 28, visitors will have the opportunity to meet one of the book’s authors, Dr. Virginie Spenlé. Dr. Spenlé will give an introduction into the exhibition at Trinity Fine Art, explain the original Casket and present the newly-published book.

Weight in the form of a Duck, Mesopatamian, Second millennium BC. Calcite, 26 cm, Ariadne Galleries © 2019 London Art Week

 ARIADNE GALLERIES, 6 Hill Street, London, W1J 5NF - ariadnegalleries.cominfo@ariadnegalleries.com - +44 (0) 20 3053 9559

Sir Thomas Lawrence , P.R.A.(1769-1830), Portrait of Samuel Rose (1767-1804). Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 inches (76.25 x 63.5 cm), Bagshawe Fine Art. © 2019 London Art Week

This superb portrait of the young lawyer Samuel Rose must rate as one of Sir Thomas Lawrence's most engaging male half-lengths from the early part of his career.

Lawrence undoubtedly ranks as one of England's very greatest portrait painters. Coming of age in the 1790s as the eighteenth-century masters of the genre - Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney - began to fade, Lawrence found no equal in this country in the ensuing generation. The painter of choice of royalty, the aristocracy, the military and politicians, he progressed unrivalled through the Regency, the Waterloo years and the reign of George IV until his sudden death in 1830. From his very earliest years as a child he showed a precocious ability to draw. Indeed, he developed this into a commercial venture in his father's coaching inn in Devizes before he was even 12 years old. Coming to London in 1787 at the age of eighteen, he set up in practice as a professional portrait painter in the capital. Three years later, after some early successes at the Royal Academy, he received a commission to paint Queen Charlotte. This now famous portrait - with its clever suggestion of movement, its unusually free and beautiful landscape backdrop, and its firework-like display of highlights in the Queen's hair - cemented Lawrence's reputation as the new exciting force in portraiture. He would never look back. Through associate membership of the Royal Academy to full membership, and finally to the presidency in 1820, his path had something of the inevitable about it. Further, after his commission from the Prince Regent in 1815 to paint the series of full-length portraits of the allied victors for the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, Lawrence's reputation began to spread to the rest of Europe. By the end of his life he had not only outshone any other English portrait painter, but was holding his own with any portraitist on the European stage as well. And if we look for his worthy successors, it is not until the arrival of John Singer Sargent in England some 50 years later that Lawrence's dazzling exercises with the human figure would be rivalled seriously again.

Samuel Rose (1767-1804) was a fascinating figure whose life was cut short by illness while he was still in his thirties. Of Scottish descent, he was educated at his father's school in Kew and later at Glasgow University. He determined to follow a career in law. So he was entered as a student at Lincoln's Inn in 1786, and called to the bar in 1796. His most famous case as a practising lawyer was the defence of the poet William Blake against a charge of high treason in January of 1804. Rose won this case after a vigorous cross-questioning of Blake's accusers, two soldiers who claimed to have heard the poet blaspheming against the King. Rose was taken ill with a severe cold during the course of the trial, but he nevertheless managed to see it through to a successful conclusion. He never recovered from his illness, however, and he died of consumption at the end of 1804. Outside of the law, Rose struck up a firm friendship with the poet William Cowper (1731-1800), eventually acting as trustee for the royal pension of which the poet was in receipt. Importantly also it was Rose who made a point of bringing Thomas Lawrence to Cowper's home in 1793, where the artist made his much engraved drawing of the poet (Private Collection). This action suggests a personal connection to Lawrence and it may also explain why Lawrence would paint Rose's portrait some two years later. Rose's promotion of Lawrence and the intimate nature of Rose's portrait seem to hint at a genuine friendship between the two, rather than the usual artist/client relationship. 

Whatever the nature of their relationship, Thomas Lawrence clearly found in Samuel Rose a sympathetic sitter. The artist poses his subject in a thoroughly original way, positioning Rose to the side of the canvas (at his desk) and directing Rose's gaze from the centre of the canvas straight to the viewer. Through this device of close engagement, we in turn are drawn in to the picture. We feel as though we were ourselves present at a legal consultation; one where our case is being heard not just professionally, but quietly and even optimistically as well. If we examine Rose's head close to, we can see Lawrence's remarkable skills at first hand. Revealingly, we can see the artist's pencil at work outlining the main bone-structure of the face. This is most noticeable in the area of Rose's right eye, but also under his chin and in the edge of the collar of his coat. On close inspection this seems to confuse the eye and one wonders what Lawrence's intention might have been in leaving the lines visible. But when we step back, much as one might step back from an impressionist painting, the whole picture comes into focus; this is clearly the distance at which the painter intended us to see the work. Lawrence's treatment of the hair is also of the highest order. A skilful confection of differing shades and highlights gives Rose's grey-powdered hair an extraordinarily life-like appearance. And even in the painting of the black coat - a notoriously difficult subject for artists - Lawrence excels. Rose's coat is composed of not just a solid black swathe of paint, but a highlighted collar, subtle dark creases in the sleeve, and shadows from the lapel. The coat has luxurious form, such as few painters would be able to give it. Lawrence's portrait of Samuel Rose is a quiet little masterpiece; an intriguing young sitter treated by one of England's very great painters. 

Note: Lawrence painted two versions of the Portrait of Samuel Rose. Both would appear to be of high quality and autograph works by Lawrence himself. Some confusion has arisen about which one was which. Kenneth Garlick in his catalogue raisonne assumed there was only one and rather understandably conflated the provenances. On careful inspection of old images this can now be rectified. 

In one version, Rose appears with wispier hair, a slightly fuller face and a slightly differing treatment to his cravat. The early provenance of this picture is unknown, but it appeared with Sotheby's in 1961, where it was catalogued and sold as Hoppner. It was bought there by Agnews, re-attributed to Lawrence, lent to the Royal Academy's 1961 exhibition Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. and subsequently sold. It re-appeared on the market and sold at Christie's in 2010, consigned by the executors of the late Lady King of Wartnaby. Garlick illustrated Rose's entry in his catalogue raisonne with the image of this painting - an image presumably supplied by Agnews. However, his suppositions about its provenance prior to the Sotheby sale are incorrect.

By contrast this present version offered here is identical to an older photograph in the Witt Library, which shows it to have been the one sold at Christie's in 1925 and bought by the dealer Nicholson. Christie's in-house catalogue for that sale further shows it to have been consigned by the dealer Leggatt on behalf of a Miss Burney (Samuel Rose's sister married Charles Burney). There is also a photograph - identical again to this present version - in the Heinz archive (National Portrait Gallery). This is annotated on the back by the same dealer Nicholson and has an accompanying letter from him to the art-historian William Roberts in 1926, in which he discusses it and another painting. Thus the 'Burney Family - Christie's - Nicholson' part of Garlick's provenance belongs properly to this version and not as Garlick states to the Agnew version. This current version then found its way to the United States.

Bagshawe Fine Art. First Floor, 3 Georgian House, 10 Bury Street, St. James's, London, SW1Y 6AA - bagshawes.cominfo@bagshawes.com - +44 (0) 20 7930 3800

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto (Venice 1697-1768), Westminster Bridge from the North with the Lord Mayor's Procession, 25 May 1750. Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 76.8 cm, Charles Beddington Ltd. © 2019 London Art Week

Lorenzo Bartolini Savignano di Prato (1777-1850), Portrait of Beatrice (Portrait of Juliette Récamier as Beatrice), Rome, circa 1823. Marble bust, carved fully in the round. Height: 47 cm. Benappi Fine Art. © 2019 London Art Week

Benappi Fine Art. 27 Dover Street, Mayfair, London, W1A 4LZ - benappi.comlondon@benappi.com - +44 (0) 20 3865 2900

Hendrick de Clerk (c.1560-1630), The Judgement of Paris. Oil on panel, 103 x 136 cm, Colnaghi. © 2019 London Art Week

Attributed to Pietro Facchetti (1539-1613), Portrait of a Collector in the Colosseum. Oil on canvas, 106 x 88 cm, Colnaghi. © 2019 London Art Week 

Gioacchino Assereto (1600-1650), The Punishment of Prometheus. Oil on canvas, 119 x 155 cm, Colnaghi. © 2019 London Art Week

Samno-Attic Helmet, Late 5th to early 4th century BC. Bronze, 27.7cm, Colnaghi. © 2019 London Art Week

Colnaghi. 26 Bury Street, St. James's, London, SW1Y 6AL - colnaghi.com - will@colnaghi.com - +44 (0) 20 7491 7408