The scene at Christie’s during the auction.
There was a world record price for the Leinster dinner service at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London on July 6. The grandest and most complete surviving aristocratic dinner service made £1,721,250, the highest price at auction for any antique English silver dinner service. The Rococo style service was the top lot in a sale of 48 lots which brought in a total of £18,065,650.
The Brand Cabinet, a George II ivory-mounted padouk medal-cabinet, circa 1743 made £1,217,250.
The Brand Cabinet, a c1743 George II ivory-mounted padouk medal-cabinet with ivory plaques purchased in Rome by Robert Brand while on the Grand Tour, sold for £1,217,250. The plaques depict figures from Classical mythology like Leda and the Swan. A Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese clair-de-lune celadon porcelain vase, the porcelain Qianlong (1736-95), the Ormolu mid-18th century, realised £1,161,250.
The fourth lot in the sale to sell for over £1 million was the Ogden Mills ‘Armoires à Six Medailles’ which made £1,049,250. They are lavishly decorated with gilt-bronze mounts and scrolling foliate pattern with brass and tortoiseshell ground of première and contre-partie marquetry. The Louis XIV armoire in contre-partie is attributed to André-Charles Boulle, while the late Louis XV in première partie is by Delorme.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for July 2, 2012).