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Masterpieces from European Collections

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The 31 October sale, Collections, offers a wonderful opportunity for collectors and connoisseurs to admire and acquire numerous chefs d’oeuvre of European decorative art from the 17th to the 19th century. Highlights include magnificent Neapolitan pietre dure table tops and a jewel-like Boulle casket to name a few. The sale is on view in our London galleries from Saturday 27 October to Tuesday 30 October.

Past Auction
Collections
31 October 2018 | 10:30 AM GMT | London

Masterpieces from European Collections

  • A South Italian mother-of-pearl, rock crystal, aventurine, marble and pietre dure inlaid top late 17th century, Naples, circle of Cosimo Fanzago.
    Estimate £50,000–70,000
    This exquisite work of art cements the positon of Neapolitan lapidarists among the pantheon of Italian pietre dure masters. Its overall composition, choice of materials, bold ornamental details and expressive colour scheme are closely comparable to altar fronts in Neapolitan churches by the sculptor-architect Cosimo Fanzago (1591-1678). The use of iridescent mother-of-pearl can be picked up as ones eye moves across the top, following the sweeping foliate scrolls, whilst the employment of rock crystal lends a naturalistic depth to the bodies of birds, snails and other subjects from the natural world.
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  • A Louis XIV gilt-bronze mounted tortoiseshell, mother-of-pearl, stained horn, copper, brass and pewter inlaid Boulle marquetry casket, early 18th century. Estimate £30,000–50,000
    One of only a dozen surviving examples, most of which are preserved in important museum collections, this jewel-like Boulle marquetry casket would have taken pride of place amongst the possessions of a French aristocratic lady in the early 18th century. The scene depicted derives from Francesco Albani’s (1578-1660) Les Amours Désarmés and illustrates the story of Venus, the goddess of love, whose triumph over her rival Diana, the goddess of the hunt, is in jeopardy. In the hope of defeating her opponent, Venus orders her nymphs to approach Diana’s sleeping cupids and steal their weapons, clip their wings to prevent them from flying.
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  • A matched pair of Neapolitan pietre dure and marble tops, late 17th century, on early Louis XV style carved giltwood console tables.
    Estimate £250,000–350,000
    Although influenced in design by Roman models, this exceptional matched pair of tables assert their individuality through the distinctive bold scrolls, the choice of stones and the stylized cross motifs. Neapolitan pietre dure found in local churches offered highly dramatic, innovative and colourful designs, often covering entire pavements and walls. These impressive table tops transpose this same striking language to a secular function and are of the best examples of their kind. The tables were previously owned by Arthur Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Lord Brocket (1906-1967) and were housed alongside his impressive collection at Bramshill House, Hampshire.
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  • A set of twelve George II carved walnut dining chairs, circa 1735.
    Estimate £70,000–90,000
    This rare set of early Georgian dining chairs bear testament to the emergence of the neo-Palladian aesthetic in the 1730s. Incorporating scallop-shell motifs to the scrolled carved legs – a symbol of the goddess Venus – they herald an obsession with all things Antique that would consume both designers and patrons alike. Beautifully made, the walnut timber has a rich, warm patina whilst their clean lines lend the chairs a timeless modernity.
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  • A pair of Russian gilt-bronze mounted malachite veneered Campana urns, designed by Ivan Ivanovich Galberg, circa 1830. Estimate £20,000–30,000
    Looking at this magnificent pair of gilt-bronze mounted malachite urns, it is easy to see why the material is so prized in Russian decorative arts. The Golden Age of malachite was undeniably the 19th century, when huge deposits of workable and especially decorative malachite were discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia. The stone became Russia’s national treasure, a passion proclaimed most famously in the Malachite Room of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, furnished with massive malachite columns and fireplace in the 1830s. The beauty of Russian malachite was something the country – and in particular Emperor Nicholas I – employed to impress foreigners, commissioning a number of grand malachite-veneered objects from the Imperial Lapidary Works in Peterhof and Ekaterinburg to be sent abroad as presentation gifts.
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  • A Louis-Philippe ormolu mantel clock, Thomire & Cie, Paris, circa 1835. Estimate £25,000–35,000
    This beautifully chased and burnished ormolu mantel clock was produced in Paris in the 1830s and the 3 ½ inch silvered dial is signed Thomire et Cie A Paris. Pierre-Philippe Thomire founded the firm of Thomire et Cie and became one of the most important French bronziers of the late 18th and early 19th century.
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  • An important Victorian ivory and hardstone inlaid ebony cabinet designed Alferd Lorimer for Jackson and Graham, circa 1867. Estimate £50,000–70,000
    When this extraordinary cabinet was first exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, it was described in the accompanying illustrated Art Journal catalogue as ‘beyond doubt a chefd’oeuvre that would do honour to any period’. Designed Alfred Lorimer for Jackson and Graham, it has been suggested it was commissioned by Thomas Earl of Bective (1844-1893) to celebrate his marriage in 1867 at a staggering cost of £4,000 and was subsequently in the collection of Siegfried Sassoon Esq.
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