Bague ornée d’une intaille ovale présentant une vache sous un arbre. Période romaine, Ier siècle av.-Ier siècle ap. pour l’intaille, et monture moderne. Photo Boisgirard et Associés

Jaspe vert et or jaune. Diam. bague : 2,5 cm ; Long. Intaille : 1 cm. Estimation : 2 000 / 2 500 €

Boisgirard et Associés. Jeudi 28 novembre 2013. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 9 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris - http://www.boisgirard.com/

A magnificent diamond single-stone ring, by Harry Winston. Photo Bonhams

The pear-shaped diamond, weighing 9.97 carats, between tapered baguette-cut diamond shoulders,signed Winston for Harry Winston, remaining diamonds approximately 0.70 carat total, mounted in platinum, ring size J. Estimate AU$ 380,000 - 480,000 (€260,000 - 330,000)

Accompanied by a report from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stating that the diamond is G colour, VVS2 clarity. Report number 2155652784, dated September 16th 2013.

Bonhams. FINE JEWELLERY. Sydney. 6 Nov 2013 19:30 EST 

A diamond single-stone ring, by Harry Winston. Photo Bonhams. 

The round brilliant-cut diamond, weighing 4.34 carats, between tapered baguette-cut diamond shoulders, signed Winston for Harry Winston, remaining diamonds approximately 0.40 carat total, mounted in platinum, ring size E 1/2. Estimate AU$ 250,000 - 350,000 (€170,000 - 240,000)

Accompanied by a report from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) stating that the diamond is D colour, VVS1 clarity. Report number 2155652795, dated September 16th 2013.

Bonhams. FINE JEWELLERY. Sydney. 6 Nov 2013 19:30 EST

Platinum, ruby, sapphire, diamond and enamel crest clip-brooch, Cartier, Paris. Photo Sotheby's

The armorial brooch with the arms of Smith of Bristol, County Somerset, set with buff-top rubies and sapphires accented by single-cut diamonds weighing approximately .30 carat, signed Cartier, Paris, partially numbered L636, with French assay mark and workshop mark for Henri Lavabre, one ruby missing. Estimation 5,000 — 7,000 USD

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels. New York | 11 déc. 2013, 10:00 AM -www.sothebys.com

Platinum, citrine, sapphire, ruby, emerald, diamond and enamel crest clip-brooch, Cartier, Paris. Photo Sotheby's

The armorial brooch with the arms of Granville of England impaling the arms of Smith of Bristol, County Somerset, the shield with a lion passant and flags highlighted with red, black and orange enamel, set with buff-top sapphires, citrines, rubies and emeralds, accented by pyramidal-cut citrines, further set with single-cut diamonds weighing approximately 1.15 carats, signed Cartier Paris, Made in France, numbered L469, with French assay and partial workshop marks, one citrine missing. Estimation 5,000 — 7,000 USD

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels. New York | 11 déc. 2013, 10:00 AM - www.sothebys.com

German, 17th century, Pendant with a skull cameo. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

jasper, mounted in gold; 38mm., 1½in. Estimation 4,000 — 6,000 GBP

A similarly conceived, though possibly Roman, skull in amethyst is illustrated in J. Boardman et al., The art of gem engraving from Alexander the Great to Napoleon III, exh. cat. The Hakone Open-Air Museum and Fukuoka City Museum, 2008, pp. 213 and 355, no. 252.

Sotheby's. European Sculpture & Works of Art. London | 04 déc. 2013, 11:00 AM - www.sothebys.com

Plaque de forme rectangulaire en bronze doré et émaux cloisonnés, Epoque Qianlong  (1736 - 1795). Photo Millon et Associés Paris

à décor tchitrec de paradis volant parmi les hibiscus sur fond de svastika et bleu turquoise surmonté d'un médaillon contenant un poème sur les fleurs de l'automne. Signé Yu Minzhong ???, (1714-1779), surnommé Shuzi, ministre lettré sous Qianlong (1766-1773.). Dim. 133,5 x 48,5 cm. Estimation : 60 000 / 80 000 €

Millon et Associés Paris. Mercredi 4 décembre 2013. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 11 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris - www.millon-associes.com

Paire de plaques de forme carrée en bronze doré et émaux cloisonnés,Epoque Jiaqing (1796 - 1820). Photo Millon et Associés Paris

à décor dans un cercle de sujets mobiliers dont une double gourde en cloisonnés posée près d'une jardinière fleurie de narcisses et bronze archaïsant, sur fond bleu turquoise et svastika et rinceaux stylisés formant grecques. Chacune comprenant une marque en chinois 12 et 13 à l'arrière. (Manques d'émail.). Dim. 45 x 45 cm. Estimation : 12 000 / 15 000 €

Millon et Associés Paris. Mercredi 4 décembre 2013. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 11 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris - www.millon-associes.com

Italian or French, Circa 1700, Cameo with the bath of Venus. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

monogrammed: I.R.F.;agate, mounted in a gold brooch; 53 by 37mm., 2 1/16  by 1½in. overall. Estimation 20,000 — 30,000 USD

This exquisitely carved cameo represents Venus bathing, aided by an attendant Cupid. The calm of this idealised scene is, however, broken by the voyeuristic presence of a lascivious satyr and another Bacchic figure. Such a juxtaposition is typical of late 17th- and early 18th-century taste, and, together with the Arcadian setting, places the present carving firmly in the Rococo style. The quality of the carving is particularly refined. The treatment of the trees and the fluid classicising figures find relevant comparisons in the work of the celebrated Florentine hardstone carver to the Medici Grand Ducal Court, Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli (1659-1719). Compare, for example, with his masterful chalcedony cameo with Cosimo III and Tuscany before the Temple of Peace, circa 1710, in the Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence (inv. no. OA 1911:580). The monogram remains unidentified, but is likely to be for a carver with the initials J/G. R., with the F standing for fecit. 

RELATED LITERATURE: W. Koeppe, Art of the Royal Court. Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe, exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2008, p. 192, no. 50

Sotheby's. European Sculpture & Works of Art. London | 04 déc. 2013, 11:00 AM - www.sothebys.com

German, 17th-18th century, Cameo with a helmeted warrior carrying a snake on his shield. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

banded agate; 37mm., 1 7/16 in. Estimation 4,000 — 6,000 GBP

RELATED LITERATURE: I.S. Weber, Kostbare Steine. Die Gemmensammlung des Kurfürsten Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz, Munich, 1992, p. 183, no. 228

Sotheby's. European Sculpture & Works of Art. London | 04 déc. 2013, 11:00 AM - www.sothebys.com

Bernardo Polo (active Zaragoza circa 1650 - circa 1675), Still life with a blue bowl of pomegranates and peaches, a plate of white cheese with a honeycomb and a rose, and flowers in a glass vase. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

oil on canvas, unlined, on its original stretcher:76.8 by 115.5 cm.; 30 1/8  by 41 1/2  in. Estimation 80,000 — 120,000 GBP

Provenance: Private collection, Spain, since at least the 19th Century;
Until sold ('Property from a Spanish Private Collection'), London, Sotheby's, 11 December 2003, lot 29, for £84,000;
With Rob Smeets, Milan:
From whom acquired by the present owner.

He was distinguished for painting flowers and fruit from life: his canvases are high prized in that city (Zaragoza) and Madrid, where they hang in the galleries of private collectors.5

Bernardo Polo is recorded as working in Zaragoza, the capital of Aragón, during the third quarter of the 17thcentury. According to the contemporary biographer Antonio Palomino, he had a ‘very special skill’ for painting florerosand in his Diccionario histórico de los mas ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes de España (published in Madrid in 1800), the Spanish writer Juan Agustín Céan Bermúdez observes that Polo’s work was held in high esteem and was collected by connoisseurs both in Zaragoza and Madrid.1

Despite these early accounts of Bernardo Polo, it was not until 2009 that the first securely attributable still life by the artist came to light – a painting of a Still Life with Melons, Grapes, Apricots and Plums on a Pewter Dish, which is signed by the artist in exquisite calligraphy scratched directly into the wet paint (see fig. 1). Its emergence unlocked the mystery of the authorship of a corpus of over forty still lifes by the same hand which had hitherto been grouped under the pseudonym the Pseudo-Hiepes, coined by Dr. William Jordan and Dr. Peter Cherry at the time of the ground-breaking exhibition on Spanish still life painting held at the National Gallery in 1995, on account of the paintings’ stylistic affinities with the work of the Valencian still life painter Tomás Hiepes.2

The recently emerged signed work by Polo not only shares the same handling as the still lifes formerly ascribed to the Pseudo-Hiepes, but furthermore the composition (which may have been reduced at the sides) is incorporated within two larger still lifes by the artist, in which the plate of melons, grapes, figs and vines in the signed picture are flanked by a vase of flowers and a wine cooler, adhering to the artist’s standard and highly symmetrical compositional format.3 The tendency to repeat certain objects or motifs within his own works is common within Polo’s oeuvre and indeed the distinctive combination of the ceramic dish with a cheese, honeycomb and rose atop in the present still life recurs in a painting by Polo which forms part of a surviving set of six pictures of the artist’s best quality, today in a private collection, Madrid.4

As pointed out by Dr. William Jordan, the present works share numerous affinities with the aforementioned group of six and indeed may originally have formed part of the same set. The paintings are of almost identical dimensions and two of the works within the set share a similar overall mise-en-page to the present work, constructed around three principal objects arranged in a symmetrical format on a stone ledge, set close to the front of the picture plane. Common to each of the pictures is the expansive arrangement of the still life elements that fill the majority of the picture surface, creating a sense of horror vaccui, as well as the dramatic fall of light from left to right, casting long shadows to the right of the still life elements and defining their strong geometric forms. Whilst the style is ultimately Caravaggesque, the paintings are characterised by a naivety both in the formal, highly symmetrical compositional designs and the limited sense of spatial awareness, and yet the overall decorative effect  is nothing short of spectacular.

Polo’s commercial working practise remains the subject of some conjecture. Within the artist’s identified oeuvre of well over forty works there exists a clear variation in quality that suggests that he ran a highly commercial and active workshop. His use of set formulaic types must also have lent itself well to the use of studio assistants in the production of large series of still lifes to adorn the interiors of his patrons’ palaces and grand houses both in Zaragoza and Madrid. Within Bernardo Polo’s known corpus of work however, the present painting can be considered of his best quality and may well have formed part of the artist’s most important set of still lifes known today.

We are grateful to Dr. William Jordan and Dr. Peter Cherry for endorsing the attribution to Bernardo Polo. 

1. J.A. Céan Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los mas ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, Madrid 1800, vol. IV, p. 105.

2. See W.B. Jordan and P. Cherry, Spanish Still Life from Velázquez to Goya, exhibition catalogue, London 1995, pp. 124-28.

3. See W. B. Jordan, ‘El Pseudo- Hiepes es Bernardo Polo’, inArchivo Español de Arte, vol. LXXXII, no. 328, October – December 2009, pp. 397, reproduced figs. 4 & 5.

4. See op. cit., pp. 399-401, reproduced figs. 6-10.

5. Quote by Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario historico de los mas ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes de Espana, Madrid, 1800, 6 vols.

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 - www.sothebys.com

Balthasar Van Der Ast (Middelburg 1593/94 - 1657 Delft), Still life of irises, columbines, tulips, roses and lily of the valley. Photo courtesy Sotheby's

signed lower left, on the ledge:  . B . vander . ast .; oil on oak panel; 48.5 by 36.6 cm.; 19 1/8  by 14 3/8  in. Estimation  150,000 — 200,000 GBP

Provenance: Alexander Wheelock Thayer (South Natick, Massachusetts 1817 - 1897 Trieste);
Alice Thayer (according to a label on the reverse);
With Eugene Slatter Gallery, London, 1956;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Sotheby's, 2 December 1964, lot 29, for £5,200 to Leggatt;
With Leggatt Brothers, London, until 1965;
Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, 10 January 1980, lot 115;
Private Collection, Germany, from 1981 (on loan to the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover from 1999 to 2006);
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 5 July 2007, lot 53, estimate £250,000-350,000, unsold.

Exposition: Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, on loan 1999-2006.

Litterature: L. J. Bol, The Bosschaert Dynasty, Leigh-on-Sea 1960, p. 72, cat. no. 20.

Van der Ast infrequently set his flower pieces within, or here just in front of a stone niche framed with architectural mouldings. This device probably stems from the work of his brother-in-law Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder after the latter settled in Utrecht in 1616, where he no doubt adopted it from Roelandt Savery. As Savery and Bosschaert set their flower pieces within niches, so occasionally did Van der Ast, but in the present work he has adapted this idea by placing his glass vase of flowers on a stone ledge in front of the concave space, which in consequence can be made shallower, requiring less deep shadow and a more even overall lighting.

As Laurens Bol observed, the sinuous lopped tail of the lizard mirrors the curlicue handle of the jug.

PROVENANCE: This painting was formerly in the collection of Alexander Wheelock Thayer (South Natick, Massachusetts 1817 - 1897 Trieste). Thayer was interested in music. He was also a meticulous historian. Whilst working as a librarian at Harvard Law School, he resolved to compile a completely unbiased biography of Ludwig van Beethoven. In his own words: "My sole point of view is the truth.” Thayer left for Europe and spent the next two and half years traveling around collecting information about the composer and mastering the German language, all the while barely supporting himself as a journalist. In 1862 he entered the diplomatic service with the help of a fellow Harvard alumnus, and in 1864 was appointed American consul in Trieste (then part of Austria), where he spent the rest of his life completing Beethoven's biography. The result of this labour of love still counts as the standard work on the composer today.

Sotheby's. Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale including Three Victorian Masterpieces from the Leverhulme Collection. London | 04 déc. 2013 - www.sothebys.com

Kunzang Ahkor. Nepal, 13th Century. Gilt Bronze. Height: 18.4 inches (46.7 cm). Photo courtesy Walter Arader Himalayan Art.

Vajradhara. Tibet, 16th Century. 10.5 inches (26.7 cm). Photo courtesy Walter Arader Himalayan Art.

Guhyasamaja Akshobhyavajra. Tibet, 18th Century. Gilt Bronze. 13.6 Inches (35.5 cm). Photo courtesy Walter Arader Himalayan Art.

Walter Arader Himalayan Art. 1016 Madison Avenue, New York 10075. T (212) 628 7625 - walter.arader@gmail.com -www.walterarader.com

Asia Week in New York. A Celebration of Asian Art. MARCH 14–22, 2014.

A PAIR OF DIAMOND AND GEM-SET 'SOLEIL' EAR CLIPS, BY JAR Paris

Krishna Watches Radha Perform Linga Puja. Rajasthan, Kishangarh, India, ca. 1760. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. 8.5 x 5.5 inches (21.5 x 14 cm). Photo courtesy Art Passages.

Krishna Dancing with Gopis. Vasanta ragini from a Ragamala series. Ascribed to Ruknuddin’s son Ibrahim. Rajasthan, Bikaner, India, ca. 1690. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. 6 x 5 inches (15 x 12.5 cm). Photo courtesy Art Passages.

Krishna Spies on Radha from the Rooftop. Punjab Hills, Nurpur, India, ca. 1710. Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper. 7.5 x 11 inches (19 x 28 cm). Photo courtesy Art Passages.

Art Passages. Isselbacher Gallery,4 1 East 78th Street, New York 10075.T/M (415) 690 9077- info@artpassages.com - www.artpassages.com

Asia Week in New York. A Celebration of Asian Art. MARCH 14–22, 2014.

A bronze belt hook with coral bordered by malachite, carved with two dragons above waves, in scrolling clouds in pursuit of the flaming pearl. Imperial. 18th Century. Length: 5.37 inches (13.5 cm). Photo courtesy Asian Art Studio.

A white jade snuff bottle, of double gourd form, carved with a monkey clambering up the bottle. 18th Century. Height: 2.5 inches (6.3 cm). Photo courtesy Asian Art Studio. 

Asian Art Studio. Fuller Building, 7th Floor, 41 East 57th Street, New York 10022. M (310) 477 8316 - asianartstudio@msn.com - www.asianartstudio.com

Asia Week in New York. A Celebration of Asian Art. MARCH 14–22, 2014.

Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944). Hanging Scroll. Japan, Showa Period. Ink and color on silk. 14.75 x 13.25 inches (37.7 x 33.9 cm). Photo courtesy BachmannEckensteinJapanaseArt

Raku IX Ryonyu (1756-1834). Tea bowl. Japan, Edo Period, between 1811-1834. Glazed ceramic. Height: 3.25 inches (8 cm); Diameter: 5 inches (12.5 cm). Photo courtesy BachmannEckensteinJapanaseArt. 

Fukuda Kodojin (1865-1944). Hanging Scroll. Japan, Showa Period. Ink and color on silk. 14.75 x 13.25 inches (37.7 x 33.9 cm). Photo courtesy BachmannEckensteinJapanaseArt. 

BachmannEckensteinJapanaseArt. Gallery Schlesinger.24 East 73rd Street, 2nd Floor, New York 10021. T (212) 734 3600 - M +41 61 373 0624 - email@bachmanneckenstein.com - www.bachmanneckenstein.com

JAR Paris.

JAR olive branch brooch in green sapphires, chrysoberyls and tourmalines; bronze-patina silver and gold. 2002 by JAR Paris.

JAR Orecchini Fountain con acquemarine e diamanti, 2011

JAR lighting necklace in platinum, silver and alluminum with diamonds

JAR Paris.

JAR Paris.

JAR Paris.

JAR Paris.

A pair of diamond and gem-set 'soleil' ear clips, by JAR Paris.

Joel Arthur Rosenthal Rock Crystal and Diamond Earrings, JAR Paris

Dancing Dakini. China, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period. Bronze with lacquer, silver and copper inlaid. Height: 35.4 inches (90 cm). Photo courtesy Jacques Barrère

Blue and white rouleau vase. China, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period. Height: 17.7 inches (45 cm). Photo courtesy Jacques Barrère

Green Tara. Tibet, 14th Century. Gilt bronze. Height: 10.6 inches (27cm). Photo courtesy Jacques Barrère

Gallery M & M, 34 East 67th Street, New York 10065. T (212) 288 0043 - M +33 66 165 1000 ) antoine@barreresa.com

Asia Week in New York. A Celebration of Asian Art. MARCH 14–22, 2014.