The highest price of the sale belonged to this Art Nouveau display cabinet by Hector Michaut (French, 1874-1923). Standing 96 inches high, the cabinet was made of fruitwood and shut its doors for $53,300.
Review by Kiersten Busch, Assistant Editor
KINGSTON, N.Y. — On May 4, Collective Hudson hosted Exceptionnelle, a 555-lot sale consisting of property from the Basagic Collection of French Art Nouveau furniture and décor.
Standing tall at $53,300, the highest price of the sale, was a circa 1903 signed French Art Nouveau carved and inlaid fruitwood display cabinet by Hector Michaut. Measuring 96 inches high, the cabinet featured finely carved floral and botanical inlays, curvilinear carved motifs, marquetry panels and glass-front display doors. It was also the highest price of 33 lots of furniture offered in the sale, the rest of which ranged in price from $46 for an early Twentieth Century Arts and Crafts oak slat planter stand to $4,550 for a French Art Nouveau walnut desk by Majorelle.
This oil on canvas painting may be the “lost Raphael,” another or preliminary version of Raffaello Sanzio’s (Italian, 1483-1520) “La Belle Jardiniere (The Beautiful Gardener),” attributed to either the artist or one of his students. It piqued bidders’ interest and was won for $32,500 ($20,000-$2,000,000).
One of the most intriguing top selling lots was the “lost Raphael,” catalogued as a historically important oil on canvas attributed to Raphael, which was very close in composition to the artist’s work “La Belle Jardiniere (The Beautiful Gardener),” which currently hangs in the Louvre. An auctioneer’s note in the catalog explained, “We believe that this work is either another version or a preliminary version of the work known as ‘The Beautiful Gardener,’ created either by Raphael himself or possibly by or with one of his students… In comparison with the known authenticated and accepted version, there are several significant and some more nominal differences in the form and structure of this painting.” Bidders pushed the painting to $32,500.
Oil paintings continued to perform well, with the remaining 86 lots ranging in price from $130 for “The Two Mercuries” by Pierre Georgeot, to $15,600 for Andrew B. Karoly and Louis P. Szanto’s depiction of the procession of Queen Sheba. The latter was signed and dated “A.Karoly – L.Szanto, 1935” on its lower left corner and measured approximately 64-3/8 by 48 inches framed. Other oil paintings of note included the Sixteenth Century “The Feast of the Gods at the Wedding of Peleus and Thetis,” attributed to Crispin van den Broeck ($15,600) and Jean-Gabriel Domergue’s painting of a seated woman holding an umbrella with a borzoi beside her ($14,300), which had provenance to the artist’s family.
Marked “Devonshire. 1828. All by J.M.W. Turner,” this hand-bound and hand-tooled leather album featured 51 original watercolors attributed to Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), a British Romanticist landscape artist, which flipped to $46,800 ($10/100,000).
Watercolors were also well represented, especially volumes of certain artists’ works, such as a hand-bound and hand-tooled leather album which featured a collection of 51 original watercolor sketches that were attributed to British painter J.M.W. Turner, which led the category at $46,800. Inscribed “Devonshire. 1828. All by J.M.W. Turner,” and watermarked 1827, the album “was inherited by the daughter of a known collector over 60 years ago. There were originally more watercolors in the collection, but over the course of years many were consigned to major galleries, catalogued as attributed to JMW Turner and sold off to supplement income as needed,” explained an auctioneer’s note in the catalog.
Another volume of watercolor works that attracted bidders’ attention was volumes three and six of American landscape and abstract painter Emmet Edwards’ (1906-1981) abstract sketchbooks, which were signed and had provenance to the Sid Deutsch Gallery archives in New York City. There were 18 watercolors in volume three, but only 17 in volume six, which contained a note that “number 10 was removed in the year 2000 to give as a gift to Boca Museum,” according to catalog notes. The pair made a colorful $1,235, the second-highest price in the watercolor category.
Designed by Arno Malinowski circa 1950s for Georg Jensen, this 18K gold Onion bracelet made a delicious $16,900 ($20/30,000).
Turning away from art and leaning into jewelry, bidders went home with 18 lots of all sorts of decorative pieces for prices ranging from $228 for a Victorian Louis IV-style gilt gold bracelet with cherubs or putti on each of its three medallions, to $16,900 for an “extremely rare” 18K gold Onion bracelet designed by Arno Malinowski for Georg Jensen. The latter, which weighed approximately 116.5 grams, was cataloged as rare because it was a wider model of the well-known Jensen bracelet. It came with its original “Georg Jensen Fifth Avenue, NYC,” box and was made circa 1950s in Denmark.
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For further information, www.collectivehudson.com or 845-514-2218.
