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    • Posts Tagged ‘sotheby’s’

    DUCHESS OF WINDSOR JEWELS EXCEED ESTIMATES

    Wednesday, December 1st, 2010

    This onyx and diamond panther bracelet with emerald eyes by Cartier established a new record price for any bracelet at auction. (click to enlarge)

    The 20 exceptional jewels and precious objects formerly in the collection of The Duchess of Windsor made £7,975,550 at Sotheby’s in London on November 30.  This figure was well in excess of the pre-sale expectations of £2,906,000.  The sale was 100% sold by lot and value.

    The top-selling lot was an onyx and diamond panther bracelet by Cartier, Paris in 1952.  It was chased by four bidders and made £4,521,250, more than double the pre-sale estimate of £1-1.5 million.  This price establishes a new record for Cartier at auction and for any bracelet at auction.  The second highest price was paid for a ruby, sapphire, emerald, citrine and diamond flamingo clip, mounted by Cartier, Paris, 1940.  It was purchased by Collection Cartier for £1,721,250, a price comfortably over pre-sale expectations of £1-1.5 million.
    The jewellery was mostly bought by Edward VIII for his American wife Wallis Simpson.  He renounced his claim to the British throne in 1936 to marry the American divorcee and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
    The original Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor sale in 1986 made 31 million pounds and still ranks as the most valuable single owner jewellery sale ever.  The 20 pieces in this sale came from a single owner who acquired them at the 1986 auction.

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    DIAMOND AUCTION RECORD SMASHED

    Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

    This rare pink diamond sold for 33.7 million euro at Sotheby's in Geneva. (click on image to enlarge)

    A rare pink diamond broke auction records when it made 33.7 million euro at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 16.  The buyer was London diamond dealer Laurence Graff.

    Sotheby’s had said in advance that the market for coloured diamonds is extremely strong.  They are the most sought after gemstones in the world’s auction rooms today.

    This one is an exceptionally rare 24.78 carat fancy intense pink diamond of the purest hue.  It had been purchased directly from Mr. Harry Winston 60 years ago and has not been on the open market since.

    Sotheby’s had estimated the stone at $27-38 million Swiss Francs or about 20-25 million euro.  Demand for rare gems as wealth that is portable has pushed up prices.

    See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 4



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    George Stubbs’s portrait of Viscount Gormanston’s White Dog

    Friday, November 12th, 2010

    George Stubbs’s portrait of Viscount Gormanston’s White Dog

    George Stubbs Portrait of a white dog, the property of Lord Gormanston and later owned by Lord Beaverbrook. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £361,250

    is a feature lot at Sotheby’s Old Master & British Paintings sale in London on December 8.  The painting was commissioned in 1781 by the 11th Viscount Gormanston of Gormanston Castle, County Meath, one of only two Irish patrons of the artist. Gormanston Castle was the seat of the Preston family – bearers of one of the oldest titles in both Britain and Ireland– until around 1950.

    Stubbs remains arguably the world’s greatest animal portrait painter. His paintings of dogs in particular demonstrate his exceptional ability to portray an owner’s treasured animals, and such portraits rarely appear on the open market. The painting, which was purchased by the 1st Lord Beaverbrook in 1951, is estimated at £300,000-£400,000.
    Sotheby’s will offer important old master paintings, modern British art and other works from the collection of 20th-century press baron and business tycoon Lord Beaverbrook in a series of auctions in both London and New York through January 2011.
    UPDATE:  The Stubbs’ portrait of Viscount Gormanston’s White Dog made a hammer price with buyer’s premium of £361,250. There was a new world record for Stubbs at this sale when his Brood Mares and Foal sold for £10,121,250. This was more than three times the previous record for a Stubbs. The Old Master and British Paintings sale brought in £23,577,600.

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    SOTHEBY’S CONTEMPORARY ART TOTALS $222,454,500

    Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

    Sotheby’s November 9 evening sale of Contemporary Art in New York totaled $222,454,500, well ahead of the high estimate of $214 million. There were five new artist records. Highlights were Coca-Cola [4] Large Coca-Cola by Andy Warhol, which made $35,362,500 (estimate $20/25 million), and Mark Rothko’s Untitled from 1955, which made $22,482,500. Six works sold for more than $10 million and almost half the works sold achieved prices in excess of the high estimate. This was a very strong result for the market.

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    RENOWNED STAMP COLLECTION AT SOTHEBY’S

    Monday, November 8th, 2010

    ONE of the finest postage stamp collections to appear on the market in the last quarter of a century comes up at Sotheby’s in London over three days from November 24-26.

    The sale of the Great Britain Philatelic Collections of Lady Mairi Bury will afford serious collectors the opportunity to acquire sought-after stamps from a renowned collection. Associated throughout her life with Mount Stewart, her ancestral home in Country Down, Northern Ireland, she was the doyenne of female collectors in the Royal Philatelic Society. Lady Mairi Bury died in 2009 aged 88. Comprising 2185 lots, the auction is estimated to bring in excess of £2.6 million.

    UPDATE: THE sale brought in £3,045,924. The top lot was ‘The Balance of Lady Mairi’s collection of King Edward VII’ stamps, mounted on 91 pages to the highest exhibition standard and housed in two exhibition boxes. Comprising an exceptional comprehensive collection arranged by order of value from ½d. to £1, this lot more than tripled the pre-sale low estimate to sell for £66,000. An exceptional unused 1840 Two Pence Blue, Plate 1, sold for £43,200.  A complete sheet of 120 2d. blue stamps, unique in this configuration made £30,000. The Penny Black which achieved the highest price was an Imprimatur from the Second Registration Sheet, known as the ‘VR’ Official Penny Black; it made £36,000. This stamp was prepared for Official use in April 1840 but remained unissued. A Plate 1 Two Shillings Brown, the very finest of the few known pairs, and exceptionally rare, brought £36,000.


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    SOTHEBY’S MODIGLIANI MAKES RECORD $68.9 MILLION

    Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

    Modigliani's La Belle Romaine made 68.9 million dollars at Sotheby's, a new record for the artist. (click on image to enlarge)

    Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romaine)  made $68,962,500 at Sotheby’s.  This is a new world record.  It was achieved at the sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on November 2. The sale brought in  $227.6 million (€162 million).  This was within the pre-sale estimate of $195/266 million.

    The sale was led by Modigliani’s Nu assis sur un divan. This new record for Modigliani was over over four times the price realized when it was sold at Sotheby’s in 1999 for a then record $16.8 million. There was bidding from all over the world, including Asia, Europe, Russia and the United States.  It was chased by five different bidders and there were multiple bidders on most of the major lots.

    Four works were sold for more than $15 million and 38 sold for over $1 million.

    Le Bassin aux Nymphéa from Claude Monet’s water lilies series made $24,722,500 and Jeanne Hébuterne, one of the first portraits Amedeo Modigliani painted of his great love, sold for $19,122,500.  Both paintings were sold to benefit YoungArts, the Core Program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

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    TITIAN MASTERWORK AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

    Titian, A Sacra Conversazione to be sold at Sotheby's in New York in January 2011. (click on image to enlarge)

    A monumental Titian features at Sotheby’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings in New York on January 27, 2011.  A Sacra Conversazione:  The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria is one of only a handful of multi-figured compositions by the Venetian Renaissance master in private hands. Painted circa 1560 this is a mature work from a time when Titian was being courted by monarchs and emperors.

    Historically referred to as ‘The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine’, the present canvas’s subject lies within the more traditional representation of a ‘sacra conversazione’, a holy conversation between the Madonna and Child and the saints.  There is a remarkable provenance.  In nearly 500 years it has only changed hands five times moving from one illustrious private European collection to another and rarely appearing in public at exhibition or at auction. It has not been seen in public since the late 1970’s and Sotheby’s say it is the most important Titian to appear at auction since 1991.
    It is estimated to sell for  $15/20 million.
    UPDATE:  IT sold for $16,882,500

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    RARE FIRST EDITION LITERATURE ATTRACTS WORLDWIDE BIDS

    Friday, October 29th, 2010

    An 1843 edition of A Christmas Carol inscribed by Charles Dickens. (click to enlarge)

    Competition for rare first edition works of literature was fierce at Sotheby’s in London on October 28.

    Poems inscribed by T.S. Eliot for Virginia Woolf. (click to enlarge)

    It was the first of a series of sales from “The Library of an English Bibliophile”.  Many of the works on offer were inscribed by the authors to people who played a major part in their lives and their oeuvre. The sale realised £3,160,257, comfortably above the top estimate of £2,185,500-2,943,500.

    The top lot was Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, 1843, inscribed to W.C. Macready.  It made £181,250.  An 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights made £163,250 and an 1813 edition of Pride and Prejudice sold for £139,250.

    A 1922 version of Ulysses inscribed to Raymonde Linoissier made £121,250 and Poems 1920 inscribed by T.S. Eliot to Virginia Woolf made £91,250.

    The quality of the works on offer drew bids from around the world.  Prices include the buyer’s premium. Sotheby’s buyer’s premium is 25% of the hammer price on the first £25·000, 20% of the hammer price up to and including £500·000, and 12% thereafter on each lot.

    Sotheby’s will include two offerings intimately connected with Jane Austen – Britain’s most beloved authoress – in its sale of English Literature, History and Children’s Books & Illustrations in London, on December 16: an extremely rare first edition of Emma – arguably the author’s finest work – given by Austen to her  fellow novelist Maria Edgeworth, and the family’s Wedgwood dinner set, which Jane Austen helped to choose and would have used on countless occasions.
    Signed by Maria Edgeworth this is the only known copy for Emma given by Jane Austen to a fellow writer.  It is estimated at £70,000-£100,000.  The dinner service is estimated at 50,000-70,000.
    EMMA made a hammer price with buyer’s premium of £79,250.  The Wedgwood dinner service failed to find a buyer.

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    DELFT PYRAMID VASES MAKE £132,250 AT ASHDOWN HOUSE

    Thursday, October 28th, 2010

    This pair of pyramid Dutch Delft vases made £132,250 at Sotheby's sale in Ashdown House. (click to enlarge)

    A pair of Deflt pyramid flower vases dating from the late 17th/early 18th century made £132,250 over an estimate of 60,000-80,000 to become the top lot at a stately home contents sale in Berkshire on October 27.

    A FARAGHAN CARPET, WEST PERSIA made £97,250 over a top estimate of £18,000 at the Ashdown House sale. (click to enlarge)

    Sotheby’s achieved £2.7 million, far above the pre-sale estimate of £1.3-1.9 million, for the contents of Ashdown House, built by William, first Earl of Craven for King Charles I’s sister, Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia in the early 1660s. She was born Elizabeth of Scotland, eldest daughter of James I and married Frederick V, Elector Palatine of the Rhine in 1612 at the age of 16.
    They became King and Queen of Bohemia and she was known as The Winter Queen because Frederick’s reign was so short. They were forced into exile in The Hague by the end of their first winter on the throne. Frederick died in 1632 and Lord Craven acted as her representative at Charles II’s court when she returned to England in 1661.
    Samuel Pepys testified that during the final six months of her life she was almost constantly accompanied by her “faithful friend”. All British monarchs from George I are descended from Elizabeth. Lord Craven survived her by 35 years and used Ashdown as a hunting lodge.
    Dutch in spirit pyramid flower vases were mostly made for English clients in a brief period of fashionability following Queen Mary’s order to Daniel Marot for a series of imposing designs for large vases to be made in Delft for the Water Gallery at Hampton Court. Vases of this type survive at Chatsworth, Durham, Castle Howard and Hampton Court. Vases made for Bohemian and Moravian families in the late 17th century are now in Prague Museum.

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    BOND ASTON MARTIN MAKES £2.912 MILLION

    Thursday, October 28th, 2010

    The Bond Aston Martin which sold for £2.916 million. (click to enlarge)

    THE James Bond silver Aston Martin first driven by Sean Connery in “Goldfinger”  was sold by RM Auctions in association with Sotheby’s in London on October 27 for £2.6 million (£2.912 million with fees). It was bought by American businessman Harry Yeaggy. He plans to display it as it is in his private car museum in Ohio.

    The 1964 Aston Martin DB5 comes complete with an ejector seat, machine guns, rotating license plates, rear bulletproof shield and other spy essentials such as an ejector button. It was used by Connery in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball”.
    The seller was Philadelphia based broadcaster Jerry Lee.  He bought it directly from the Aston Martin Lagonda factory for $12,000 in 1969. Mr. Lee plans to use the proceeds from the sale to further the charitable work of The Jerry Lee Foundation, a multi-national initiative dedicated to solving social problems associated with poverty, with an emphasis on crime prevention.

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