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  • A PAIR RE-UNITED FOR THE ARMORY SHOW

    King William III & Queen Mary II Unique Dutch Delftware Bouquetières

    King William III & Queen Mary II
    Unique Dutch Delftware Bouquetières

    This c1690 pair of bouquetieres or flower holders which Aronson of Amstersdam will highlight at New York’s Winter Antiques Show from January 23 to February 1 depict King William III and Queen Mary II, who acceded to the English throne in 1689.  The pair will be exhibited together for the first time at America’s most prestigious antiques show at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan.   The figures are attributed to The Greek A Factory, where Queen Mary ordered many magnificent pieces of Delft for Hampton Court Palace. The figure of William is marked AK for Adrianus Kocx.

    Robert Aronson, who heads the 134 year old family firm specialising in Dutch delftware, acquired the lady figure in February 2014 and brought it to TEFAF at Maastricht. There were several interested parties, but a sale did not materialise. In May the family happened across an auction catalogue of a sale several hours south of Paris and when they requested photographs an image of the male figure arrived. “It rendered me speechless. I was looking at what seemed to be a figure almost identical to Mary – but the male version”.  He instructed his assistant Lisa to take a long weekend with her boyfriend in the middle of France and to return home with the figure at any price. He further instructed her that if anyone asked, she was to say she was interested in the figure because it reminded her of her grandmother.  The mission was successful and provenance has since shown that the figures had been made as a pair, but were separated in the division of a will. Mr. Aronson has described it as the greatest adventure of his first 25 years in the art business.

    (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 6, 2015).

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