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This Georgian mahogany chest on chest comes up as lot 7 at Hegarty’s evening fine interiors sale online on January 11. It is estimated at 2,000-2,500. There are 272 lots of design, furnishing, contemporary art and silver in the auction. The catalogue is online.
This set of four torcheres come up as lot 69 at Sotheby’s Royal and Nobel sale, online from today until January 20. To have a set of four mahogany torchères from one source is extremely rare as they are often found as pairs. Originally used to supplement the fixed lighting arrangements in large rooms, torchères played an important role in the 17th and 18th century interior. The refined form of those in the present lot highlights the quality of the mahogany used in construction. According to Sotheby’s it seems that those offered here were bought or commissioned for the Long Gallery at Blickling Hall, Norfolk. They are estimated at £6,000-9,000.
This winter landscape by Markey Robinson comes up as lot 9 in Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online sale, which runs until January 10. The work in gouache is estimated at 2,000-3,000. Morgan O’Driscoll’s auction is on view in Skibbereen by appointment and subject to the current government Covid guidelines. There are 447 lots in the auction and the catalogue is online.
This c1775 English enamel writing casket bears the arms of Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland 1751-55. It comes up at Sotheby’s live sale of American Furniture, Silver and Decorative Arts in New York on January 19 with an estimate of $15,000-25,000. Measuring ten and a half inches long it is thought to be probably Birmingham.
Property from the estate of American actor and producer James Garner – known for iconic roles in Maverick and The Rockford Files – will come up at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood next June. The live and online sale will feature James Garner’s 1950s period Western-style costume on Maverick (ABC Television, 1957-1962), two of hisclassic black felt wool “Maverick” cowboy hats, the 2004 Screen Actors Guild nomination certificate for “Outstanding Performance by A Male Actor in a Supporting Role” for his role in The Notebook in 2004 and Garner’s 1993 Golden Globe award for “Best Performance By An / Actor in a Mini-Series / or Motion Picture / Made for Television” for HBO’s Barbarians at the Gate.
La Bordadora (The Embroiderer), a rediscovered masterpiece by Diego Rivera, comes up at Christie’s in New York on March 11. Painted in 1928 as part of the nation building project that fuelled Rivera’s return to Mexico in the 1920s it pays homage to folk and craft based practices and the role of Indigenous women in preserving these traditions. Known only through black and white photographs taken shortly after it was painted La Bordadora was discovered to have been in the same American family collection since the 1920’s. It is estimated at $700,000-$900,000 (€620,900-€798,535). Last November Frida Kahlo’s Diego y yo (Diego and I) sold in New York for $34.9 million (€30,967,962), a record for a work of Latin American art. The previous record of $9.76 million (€8.65 million) was set by Diego Rivera with whom Kahlo had a decades long tumultuous relationship.
A link between Botticelli and the buses, unknown to art history, has emerged on the art market. You wait for ever and then two come along more or less together. One of the last great masterpieces by the Renaissance master will highlight Sothebys annual Masters Week sale series in New York later this month. The Man of Sorrows is estimated to make in excess of $40 million (€35.4 million). It is a late period work from a time when the artist was greatly influenced by the fanatical preaching of hellfire Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola. The most distinctive features are the frontal presentation of the stunningly modern human portrayal of the resurrected Christ and a halo of angels holding the instruments of the passion.
Works by Botticelli are exceedingly rare. In January 2021 Sotheby’s sold Sandro Botticelli’s Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel for $92.2 million (€81.78 million). It is the most valuable Old Master painting ever sold at auction.
This wooden replica of Peckham Rock by Banksy recreated by the British Museum in 2018 is Lot 43 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until January 10. Unframed it measures 4.9″ x 7.2″ and the framed size if 14.6″ x 13.8″. It is estimated at 500-600. There are 447 lots on offer and the catalogue is online.
This late 17th century Italian table top in the manner of Cosimo Fanzago comes up at Sotheby’s Stone III sale online in London from January 3-19. It is estimated at £50,000-70,000. Exquisite works of art, objects and pieces furniture made of, or incorporating, marbles, hardstones and micromosaics feature in an auction which explores the incredibly rich use of these materials in European Decorative Arts, with an emphasis on their rarity, colour and craftmanship.
The practice of painting on mirrors developed in China after 1715 when the Jesuit missionary Father Giuseppe Castiglione arrived in Beijing. He found favour with the Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong and was entrusted with the decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing. He learned to paint in oil on glass, a technique that was already practiced in Europe but which was unknown in China in 1715. Chinese artists, already expert in painting and calligraphy, took up the practice, tracing the outlines of their designs on the back of the plate and, using a special steel implement, scraping away the mirror backing to reveal glass that could then be painted. Glass paintings were made almost entirely for export, fuelled by the mania in Europe for all things Chinese.
This c1760 mirror in a beautifully drawn giltwood frame following the designs of London’s pre-eminent cabinet-makers such as John Linnell or Thomas Chippendale represents the ingenuity and collaboration between Chinese and British artists of the mid-18th century. From the collection of Pierre Durand it comes up at Christie’s in New York on January 27 with an estimate of $100,000-$200,000. The late philanthropist and collector co-founded The Chinese Porcelain Company. The sale offers a glimpse into a life well lived with objects and art and features the contents of his New York apartment which artistically combined walls of gallery-hung Old Master Drawings with contemporary glass by Yoichi Ohira, and contrasted Chinese paintings by Liu Dan with fine French and English decorative arts.
