Property from the collections of Antonio and Liliane Mariani, owners of the well-respected San Francisco firm Antonio’s Antiques, were offered to bidders on March 2 during a single-owner auction at Bonhams & Butterfields. More than $1.7 million was paid for a selection of highly desirable Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century pieces, with strong international interest.
The Marianis’ firm boasted a “Who’s Who” of clients and was one of the driving forces that established San Francisco’s Jackson Square as a destination for antiques collectors and interior designers from across the country and the globe.
According to Bonhams & Butterfields vice president and furniture and decorative arts department director Jeffrey Smith, all areas of the Antonio’s Antiques collection sold well †from the English to the French to the Italian. “This is a strong indicator in the overall interest in the Marianis’ property,” he said. “A large number of private buyers stood as top bidders for multiple lots and many longtime clients of Antonio’s came out in support of the family and the firm.”
The auctioneer’s previews opened with a well-attended reception in the San Francisco showrooms, and despite heavy rains, the exhibition saw large crowds over the preview weekend. Monday’s sale was standing-room-only at the auction’s start.
Among the top ten lots sold were several Italian mirrors and a pair of elaborate chandeliers. Bringing $36,600 was a Louis XVI-style gilt bronze and rock crystal 18-light chandelier, the late Nineteenth Century piece featuring eagle head finials and a central column of facet-cut glass. The lot had been acquired by the Marianis at a Bonhams auction in 2005. Another bidder paid $28,670 for a 5-foot-high Italian neoclassical giltwood, iron, tole and glass 12-light chandelier, which doubled its presale estimate.
An Italian rococo-style mirror was described as “superb” by the auctioneers. The 8-foot-high giltwood work displaying mirror slips etched with scenes of deer pursued by hounds, the central mirrored pane surrounded with etched stags and fanciful arabesques, sold for $30,500. This example was made in Naples, while another lot offered and sold stemmed from Sicily. An Italian baroque parcel-gilt and painted etched mirror from the first half of the Eighteenth Century was designed in a cartouche form, with a central etched caped bal masque figure within the exuberantly carved frame of scroll work. More than 6 feet high, the lot brought $27,450. More than doubling its estimate was a Regence giltwood mirror, the reflective pane positioned below an overarching crest carved with plumed feathers, floral scrolls and flower-filled baskets. It brought $24,400.
The sale opened with English furniture and decorative arts and paintings. A Gothic Revival carved mahogany bookcase attracted attention †the 8-foot-high bookcase, surmounted by a plumed finial flanked by crocketed spires over glazed doors, sold for $20,700.
Lots of silver were offered next. A Portuguese silver neoclassical pitcher and basin set, circa 1790, inspired competitive bids and pushed its $2/3,000 estimate to $12,200. Asian lots were next offered; two Chinese carved ivory immortals offered together doubled their estimate to bring $10,980. The figures depict a female in tasseled garments carrying peonies and a bearded figure grasping a peach tree branch, each just over 30 inches high.
A pair of paintings offered together took top spot for the many oils on canvas offered to bidders. Attributed to Pietro Maurizio Bolckman (1640‱710) was a market scene and a harbor view with numerous figures and dramatic mountains in the background, which realized $26,840.
A pair of Italian rococo kingwood and walnut parquetry cassetoni, Naples, mid-Eighteenth Century, stand on saber legs with bronze chutes, their serpentine tops with trelliswork parquetry centering floral reserves, brought $33,550. Another pair attracting bidders’ attention comprised early Eighteenth Century Italian baroque walnut credenzas with rectangular tops over paneled doors with brass pulls. These brought $21,960.
An Italian Renaissance carved walnut chest of drawers made $30,500, its highly decorated drawers displaying carved figural stiles supported by wonderful lion-form feet. A single rectangular 8-foot-long plank of walnut tops the square baluster columns of an Italian Renaissance refectory table stemming from the late Sixteenth/early Seventeenth Century. It sold for $23,180.
Decorative arts, seating, dinnerware and porcelains rounded out the sale. An impressive pair of Empire-style gilt bronze and cut glass urn-form vases with masks of classical maidens and scrolled animal paw feet exceeded its estimate, bringing $17,690; while a handsome Dutch walnut tall case clock featuring gilt bronze winged figures and topped by a figure of Atlas supporting the globe on his shoulders sold within estimate for $12,200.
Prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, www.bonhams.com/us or 415-861-7500.
