“This spectacular collection will represent a high point of this year’s auction calendar. It is unique not only as one of the world’s greatest collections, but also because it reminds us that such collections continue to be built today with huge tenacity and curatorial passion for the best objects.”
“This is truly a collection like no other, bringing together an innate instinct for beauty with a profound and exhaustive knowledge of art history. Stepping through the doors of the Hôtel Lambert, the few lucky witnesses would have been transported to another world that pays homage to the glory of the past, where the very best of each category of decorative arts exists in harmony. Sotheby’s has been lucky enough to help tell the story of many of the key chapters of the Hôtel Lambert’s illustrious story, from a landmark sale in 1975 in Monaco, to the 2005 offering of the Baron de Redé collection. With the sale of this extraordinary ensemble, the Hôtel Lambert will once again make its mark, not only on the international market, but also on the history of collecting at the highest level.”
The Hôtel Lambert, located in the very heart of Paris on Ile Saint-Louis – the magical island known as the pearl of Paris – is renowned as one of the most beautiful private residences in the city. The house was built and decorated in the early 1640s by the giants of arts and architecture who were the masterminds behind Versailles, Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Eustache Le Sueur. It was listed as a historical monument in 1862 and has long been regarded as a jewel in Paris’ crown. Once home to Voltaire and the Rothschilds, host to Chopin and Delacroix, Princess Grace of Monaco and Elizabeth Taylor, its rich history dates back centuries.
More recently, following a landmark restoration, its intricately decorated walls and gilded ceilings have housed one of the finest private collections of decorative arts ever assembled. Acquired to furnish the Hôtel Lambert, works were chosen with a particular emphasis on provenance, craftsmanship, academic significance and relevance to the heritage of the house.
The selection to be offered at Sotheby’s is rich in several extremely important and coherent collections within the ensemble. At the core of the offering is French furniture, with important examples by André-Charles Boulle and Adam Weisweiler. Alongside these sit a magnificent group of French gilt-bronze mounted porcelain vases and a staggering group of porphyry vases, rivalling each other in splendour. The taste for Kunstkammer at its finest is a further significant element of the collection, boasting within it the best of the best of three areas: rock crystal works of art, silverware and vermeil. Hailing from the dedicated room of treasures is a rare collection of Limoges enamels, as well as a sumptuous group of antique jewels and objects of vertu.
The collection boasts objects with illustrious history from the 17th to the 20th centuries; from princes and kings and their consorts, including Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry and Queen Marie-Antoinette, to aristocrats and celebrated collectors of the 18th and 19th-century, through to aesthetes of the modern day, such as Hubert de Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld, Baron de Redé, Count Stroganoff, Richard Wallace, Misia Sert and Antenor Patiño.
Some 1,300 lots will be offered in a series of auctions at Sotheby’s, starting in Paris this autumn. Prior to the sales, the public in Paris, London, Hong Kong and New York will be able to experience the magnificence of the interiors of the Hôtel Lambert for the first time, in a series of specially-created immersive digital spaces in Sotheby’s galleries.
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