The sale at Sotheby’s of the manuscripts, first editions, letters and bindings that make up the legendary Honresfield Library – assembled with passion by self-made Victorian industrialists William and Alfred Law at the turn of the 20th century – has been postponed. The Honresfield library contains a treasury of English and Scottish literature including the most important Bronte material to come to light in a generation.
Working together with the UK charity Friends of the National Library (FNL), Sotheby’s has agreed to postpone the commencement of the auctions to allow for negotiations for the entirety of the library to be acquired by a consortium of institutions for the nation. The FNL has launched an appeal with an additional donation from its own resources and will be working over the next months to fundraise with the public and private philanthropists. Institutions involved include the Bodleian Libraries, the British Library, The National Library of Scotland, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, Brotherton Library (University of Leeds), Abbotsford (The Home Of Sir Walter Scott) and Jane Austen’s House, among others.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 25, 2021)
Walter Scott manuscript of The Lay of the Last Minstrel
Lucian Freud’s 2002 portrait of David Hockney will make its auction debut at Sotheby’s in London on June 29. Painted at the height of Freud’s career, this portrait of David Hockney provides a fascinating window into the narrative of a long episodic friendship that had started forty years earlier. During the spring and summer of 2002 the two titans of British art came together in a private exchange between artist and sitter. After more than a hundred hours of sittings, the result was one of the most masterful peer-to-peer portraits ever committed onto canvas. It will be a highlight at Sotheby’s British Art Evening Sale: Modern/Contemporary when it will be offered with an estimate of £8,000,000-12,000,000.
Lucian Freud – David Hockney, oil on canvas, 2002. (£8-12 million) Copyright Sothebys. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £14,905,200
The source code for the World Wide Web from their creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee are to be auctioned by Sotheby’s as an NFT. Unique on the Ethereum blockchain it is composed of four elements; the original time-stamped files containing the source code written by Sir Tim; an animated visualisation of the code; a letter written by Sir Tim reflecting on the code and the process of creating it ; as well as a digital “poster” of the full code created by Sir Tim from the original files. The British computer scientist invented the world wide web in 1989. The original time stamped files will be offered in a standalone auction titled ‘This Changed Everything’. It is the first historical artefact relating to this landmark moment to be sold. The online sale will run from June 23-30 with bidding starting at $1,000. The sale will benefit initiatives that Sir Tim and Lady Berners-Lee support. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $5.4 MILLION.
Interior by Sir William Orpen comes up as Lot 268 at Sotheby’s Modern and Post War British Art day sale in London from June 23-30. One of a group of exceptional interior paintings begun at 21 Fitzroy St., London in 1899-1901 it is estimated at £40,000-60,000. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An Important Imperial Presentation jewelled gold and guilloché enamel snuffbox, by workmaster Nikolai Chernokov, Bolin, St Petersburg, 1908-1917 comes up at Sotheby’s sale of Russian Works of Art, Fabergé & Icons which runs in London from today until June 9. It was presented to Vice Admiral Count Carl August Ehrensvärd (1858-1944) by Emperor Nicholas II during his state visit to Sweden in 1909 and is estimated at £200,000-300,000. The cypher of Emperor Nicholas II set with rose-cut diamonds is applied to the lid. The sale brings together an unprecedented group of imperial presentation pieces and a rare group of twenty-four Russian Military Orders from an Important Swiss Collection, including a rare Collar of the Order of St Andrew and a seldom seen diamond-set, silver-topped, gold-mounted and enamel Grand Cross set of insignia for the Order of St Catherine, circa 1890.
The most important Brontë material to come to light in a generation and two of the greatest Scottish manuscripts in private hands are to come under the hammer at Sotheby’s. Thought lost for almost a century the Honresfield Library was assembled with passion by self-made Victorian industrialists Alfred and William Law at the turn of the 20th century and has since been maintained with care by generations of the Law family. A unique treasury replete with cornerstones of British culture, its re-emergence after almost 100 years in obscurity marks a defining moment for bibliophiles in what is set to be the one of the great library sales of recent years.
Emily and Anne Brontë autograph manuscripts
Among the library’s holdings is the most important material by the Brontë sisters to come to light in a generation – unrivalled in importance by any other private collection. The rare pieces open a window onto the short but amazing lives of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and even Branwell Brontë.
Treasures include an extremely rare handwritten copy of Emily’s poems, with revisions from Charlotte (£800,000-1,200,000) and the well-loved Brontë family copy of Bewick’s History of British Birds, the book made famous in the opening pages of Jane Eyre (£30,000-50,000), brimming with entertaining annotations from their father Patrick. Little-seen letters to and from fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell, Hartley Coleridge (son of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge), George Smith, publisher and vital champion of ‘The Bells’ (The Brontës’ secretive pseudonym), and many more, abound.
Sir Walter Scott autograph manuscript
Scottish literature is also at the heart of the collection, which includes the most important manuscript by Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns, in private hands. A compendium of poems, notes and ideas put together by Burns as an unknown twenty-four year old, First Commonplace Book offers a unique insight into the bard’s mind. It was last sold at Sotheby’s in 1879, for £10. The collection includes individual handwritten manuscripts of Burns’s poems and original letters to friends, family, patrons and lovers which build a picture of his colourful life.
Robert Burns First Commonplace Book
Romantic writer Sir Walter Scott – the second-most quoted writer in the Oxford English Dictionary after Shakespeare – is also represented, most notably by the complete manuscript for Rob Roy, one of the last remaining manuscripts of a great 19th century novel that is not now in an institution. There are Jane Austen first editions, including Emma, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, a copy of Don Quixote printed in 1620 for Edward Blounte, the publisher for the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, and an annotated copy of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poems with pages showing author’s changes from proof printing in his hand. Homer, Ovid, the Grimm Brothers, Montaigne, Ann Radcliffe, Horace Walpole, Charles Dickens and Mary Wollstonecraft are among those making an appearance.More than 500 historic manuscripts, exceptional first editions, intimate letters and beautiful bindings will be offered across three auctions at Sotheby’s. The first auctions open for bidding from July 2-13 next. Exhibitions of highlights are to take place in London, Edinburgh and New York.
UPDATE: Sotheby’s has postponed this auction to allow for negotiations for the entirety of the library to be acquired by a consortium of institutions for the nation.
UNTITLED BY HELEN FRANKENTHALER (1928-2011). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £176,400
THIS work by the American Abstract Expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler features at Sotheby’s online sale of Women Artists which runs until May 27. The artist was a major contributed to American painting in the post war years. It is estimated at £90,000-£120,000. The sale, dedicated to female artists across the centuries, spans 400 years. Among the artists represented, many of whom have been marginalised over time, are Lavinia Fontana, Rachel Ruysch, Dame Laura Knight, Berthe Morisot, Dorothea Tanning, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Cindy Sherman, Dame Magdalene Odundo and Helen Frankenthaler.
An epic three-auction evening auction of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Art realised a total of $596.8 million at Sotheby’s overnight. The live-streamed event featured in-room bidders in New York, telephone bidders in London, Hong Kong and New York, and online bidders from around the world, who all vied for remarkable artworks by exceptional artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Art by Warhol, Still, Richter and Diebenkorn lead the Marion Collection which brought in $157.2 million. Diebenkorn’s luminous Ocean Park #40, 1971 sold for $27,265,500, a new auction record for the California artist.
The Contemporary art sale made $218.3 million and was 100% sold. Basquiat’s Versus Medici 1982 made $50,820,000 and Twombly’s Untitled (Rome) 1970 made $41,628,000.
Lead by Monet’s Water Lillies the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale brought a total $221.3 million. The Monet made $70,353,000 and was the top lot of the evening.
Here is a video on Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park No. 40 from 1971. From the collection of Anne Marion it comes up at Sotheby’s in New York this month. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $27,265,500
Good Luck by Gilbert & George is among Russell Tovey’s picks at Sotheby’s ‘Contemporary Curated’ auction in London open for bidding until April 13 April. The British actor-turned-collector, curator, podcast host and “art geek”, has teamed up with Sotheby’s for the online sale. With estimates ranging from £2,000 to £200,000 and beyond, ‘Contemporary Curated’ provides an opportunity for not only established buyers, but burgeoning collectors on the hunt to acquire art at accessible prices. Russell purchased his first artwork aged 25, acquiring a Mono-print etching by Tracey Emin – who he now counts among his closest friends and whose neon work, My Favourite Little Bird, is included in his edit – using his pay cheque from The History Boys. Good Luck (2005) is from the series “SonofaGodPictures” by Gilbert & George. Tovey remembers the show at the White Cube in London causing great controversy with pickets and protests at the gallery. “I love the way you can always see Gilbert and George in their works” he said.
Good Luck by Gilbert & George. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £56,700
