This Eighteenth Century French School painting of ships loading cargo in a Mediterranean harbor, oil on canvas, 28 by 50¼ inches, traded at $38,400 ($2,5/5,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
NEW YORK CITY — Following its mid April auction of American paintings, furniture, decorative arts and silver, Doyle put those categories’ European counterparts in focus, with just shy of 625 lots of Nineteenth Century and Old Master paintings and drawings, English and Continental silver, furniture and decorative arts crossing the block May 20-21.
Old Master & Nineteenth Century Fine Art
The first session, on May 20, offered nearly 100 lots of Old Master and Nineteenth Century paintings and drawings, a sale that showcased a wide range of landscapes, still life pictures, portraits and religious and mythological subjects. Capping the sale at $38,400 — and realizing the highest result of the two-day event — was a detailed Eighteenth Century French oil on canvas harborscape that showed ships loading cargo in a Mediterranean harbor. The painting came to auction from the collection of a “distinguished European collector” with an estimate of $2,5/5,000.
The female form was celebrated among the sessions second- and third-highest sellers. Ranking second at $24,320 was a portrait of a noble lady with her lap dog that was attributed to the studio of Jan Anthonisz van Revesteyn. A history in New York City — first at Knoedler Galleries and then a private collection — was denoted in its provenance. It was followed at $23,040 by Janis Rozentals’ (Latvian, 1866-1916) “Seated Nude.” Both significantly exceeded expectations.
This study of a juvenile spoonbill, greenfinch and butterfly by Vincenzo Leonardi flew to the front of the drawings category with a $20,480 price realized. The 8½-by-11½-inch watercolor on cream laid paper had provenance to kings and popes, as well as New York City’s L’Antiquire & The Connoisseur and the estate of Joanne duPont Foster ($3/5,000).
A watercolor study of a juvenile spoonbill, greenfinch and butterfly by Vincenzo Leonardi (Italian, 1589-1657) led the drawings category and sold to a private collector for $20,460, quadrupling its high estimate. Consigned by the estate of Joanne duPont Foster, the watercolor had a distinguished and lengthy provenance dating back to the prominent Roman collector Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657). It was later sold to Pope Clement XI in 1703, and eventually to King George III of England in 1762, leaving the royal collection during the reign of King Edward VII (r 1901-1910).
English & Continental Silver
About 75 lots of silver followed Old Master fine art on May 20. Topping the auction at $35,200 was a Victorian sterling silver punch bowl made in London in 1877 by Hunt & Roskell. Granted the Royal Warrant by Queen Victoria, the London firm traced its roots to silversmith Paul Storr, who opened his workshop in 1819, eventually becoming Hunt & Roskell in 1843. Their display at the historic 1851 Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace drew widespread acclaim, followed by successful exhibitions in New York in 1853 and Paris in 1867. Doyle noted the 16-inch-tall campana-form vessel, which had rampant lion handles, received trans-Atlantic competition.
A silver-gilt centerpiece bowl, made in Germany in 1882, was engraved with the arms of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife Princess Auguste Viktoria, later Emperor Wilhelm II and Empress Auguste Viktoria of Germany. The 22¾-inch-tall piece was made by Wilhelm Rentrop in Altena and had crossed the block in 2006, at an auction at Christie’s, London. It sold for $7,040.
Many trophies are engraved or otherwise denote the name of the winner, but not this 9K gold covered Mappin & Webb cup, which was made in 1963. It came to auction from a Philadelphia family with a $5/7,000 estimate and realized $24,320.
A 9K gold covered horse racing cup, made by Mappin & Webb nearly 100 years later, came from a Philadelphia family and sold for $24,320. The 10¼-inch-tall cup celebrated the Canadian Championship Stakes, a one-mile-five-furlong race that took place at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on October 24, 1964. The cup was engraved with spaces for the winner’s owner to engrave the name of the rider, trainer, name of the winner and both the winner’s sire, dam and breeder but none of those fields had been filled in.
Rounding out bright and shiny highlights was a 105-piece sterling silver flatware service for 12 of similar vintage, made mostly in the 1970s by James Robinson in London, in the Fiddle, Thread & Shell pattern; it nearly doubled the high estimate with a $8,960 finish.
English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts
The remaining lots — 423 of them — featured English and Continental furniture and decorative arts. A private collector won the sale’s top lot for $25,600: a pair of late George III terrestrial and celestial table globes dated 1809 and 1810 that were made by Dudley Adams. The sale’s catalog noted their provenance to the estate of Alexander Mellon Laughlin, an investment adviser and former chairman of the board of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
George III-era design was apparent in the session’s second-highest selling lot: a pair of carved mahogany library armchairs, circa 1760, that came from the collection of a distinguished lady. Estimated at $10/15,000, the pair made $24,320.
These George III armchairs appealed to bidders, who did not sit on their paddles when these crossed the block: the pair sold for $24,320 ($10/15,000).
An exotic aesthetic was demonstrated two similar Egyptian enameled glass oil lamps that the catalog said “evoked the design or earlier Mamluk mosque lamps…[reflecting] the Islamic revivalist style popular in late Ottoman and colonial-era-Cairo workshops.” Coming to auction from a Palm Beach private collector and dated to the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century, interest lit them up to $19,200, nearly 10 times the lot’s high estimate.
Continental furniture was led at $15,360 by a Charles X gilt bronze mounted gueridon from the collection of William L. Bernhard and Catherine Cahill. A conservative $1,5/2,500 estimate generated interest among bidders, who did not seem to mind that the table had a later circular red marble top.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
Doyle will have a Doyle at Home auction on June 18 and it’s Doyle + Design sale on June 24.
For information, 212-427-2730 or www.doyle.com.
