10 février 2017

AMSTERDAM- Hermitage Amsterdam has obtained rare permission to show dozens of intimate historical documents from the Russian State Archive in Moscow during its forthcoming exhibition 1917. Romanovs & Revolution. This is in addition to over 200 objects from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. The materials from the State Archive include letters from the mysterious and disreputable court faith healer Rasputin, as well as family holiday snaps, love letters, the last diaries of Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra,... [Lire la suite]

Art Deco Platinum, Jadeite Jade, Emerald and Diamond Three Piece Ensemble , Circa 1920-1930. Sold for $3,000. Photo Weschler's Auctioneers & Appraisers, LLC Consisting of: a choker length necklace, having a circular reticulated apple-green jade amulet depicting birds in foliage, set with eleven straight and one cut corner baguette-cut diamonds weighing approximately .95 carats, seventy round single-cut diamonds weighing approximately 1.40 carats and two marquise-cut diamonds weighing approximately .20 carats, suspended from a... [Lire la suite]

Art Deco Platinum, Opal Doublet, Diamond, Blue Sapphire and Ruby Clip, Circa 1939. Estimate $1,500-2,000. Sold for $9,500. Photo Weschler's Auctioneers & Appraisers, LLC Set with a barrel shape black opal doublet measuring 25 x 15 mm centered with a fancy colored orangish-brown marquise-cut diamond weighing approximately .50 carats. Surrounded by twenty-one round old European, single-cut and one straight baguette-cut white diamonds weighing approximately .75 carats, thirteen graduated round cabochon sapphires weighing... [Lire la suite]

Water-vessel in form of a conch shell, Yongzheng period (1723-1735), porcelain with grey glaze, crackled; the crackle rubbed with Indian ink, Ge yao [?] type. Height: 2 inches; Length: 5.6 inches. British Museum, Franks.240.+ © The Trustees of the British Museum

Blue glazed stem cup, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735), Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Height: 11 cem; Diameter: 18 cm. Donated by P H D S Wikramaratna in memory of his wife, Nancy Wikramaratna, 2000,0131.22 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Saucer dish, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735), peach-bloom glazed porcelain. Diameter: 7.7 inches. Donated by Hon Mountstuart William Elphinstone, 1927,1212.1 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Vase with handles in form of elephant heads, Yongzheng seal mark and period (1723-1735), tea-dust glazed porcelain. Height: 11.6 inches; Diameter: 6.8 inches. Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, Franks.159.+a © The Trustees of the British Museum

Cup with gold glaze, Yongzheng six-character underglaze blue mark and of the period (1723-1735), Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Height: 3,6 cm; Diameter: 6 cm. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF B598. © The Trustees of the British Museum This finely modelled cup is marked on the base with a six-character underglaze blue reign mark of the Yongzheng period. The Yongzheng emperor ordered many porcelains in experimental colours from the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. However, it is possible that the gold... [Lire la suite]

Pair of porcelain tea-bowls with copper-red glaze, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1765), Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Height: 4 cm; Diameter: 7,3 cm. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF C517 & PDF C518. © The Trustees of the British Museum The skills used to create these extraordinary red glazes were lost in China from the mid-fifteenth century until they were rediscovered in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The glaze has ‘crept’ at the rim of the bowl to reveal the pure... [Lire la suite]

Image courtesy of Daniel Crouch Rare Books. LONDON.- As Great Britain prepares to trigger Article 50 and leave the European Union, Daniel Crouch Rare Books will be displaying a collection at TEFAF Maastricht on the theme of the artificiality of national boundaries and the mythical idea of the nation state. Highlights of the Daniel Crouch Rare Books stand look at how countries expressed ideas through cartography, like Christopher Saxton’s atlas. As surveying techniques improved, it was considered crucial to have... [Lire la suite]