NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. John H. Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue, an unparalleled collection of fine and decorative art, jewels and books to be offered across live and online sales in January 2021. John and Susan Gutfreund’s spectacular apartment in the Rosario Candela designed building at 834 Fifth Avenue was a legendary New York interior, as memorable for the captivating way each room was mise en scène as for its superb works of art. Working initially in collaboration with the celebrated French designer Henri Samuel the apartment was transformed by Susan Gutfreund into a dazzling setting for entertaining. The resulting tour de force was a breathtaking enfilade of rooms including the now iconic Winter Garden salon where objects with prolific histories, incomparable provenances and refined and individual taste all intermingled.

The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. John H. Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue will encompass important English and French furniture, Russian works of art, silver, porcelain, Old Master paintings, Chinese ceramics and works of art, carpets, and textiles which will be auctioned in a two-day live auction on 26-27 January. Three online sales from 14–28/29 January will be thematically organized into the Art of Entertainment; Books and bindings; and a collection of runway jewels from the House of Chanel.

Will Strafford, Senior International Specialist, European Furniture & Decorative Arts, comments, “It is one of the most iconic interiors in New York with each room creating its own individual visual statement, form the classical solemnity of the entrance hall to the magnificent sweep of the salon and of course the entrancing and unique Winter Garden, reflecting the inspired creative vision of the Gutfreunds in partnership with Henri Samuel’s legendary eye. It is so rare for interiors like this to have remained intact, giving a unique opportunity for today’s collectors.”

LIVE SALE OVERVIEW

The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. John H. Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue
LIVE SALE | January 26-27
The Gutfreunds came to prominence in the 1980s with John (1929-2016) holding the position of chairman and executive of the investment firm Salomon Brothers. Susan Penn Gutfreund, who married Mr. Gutfreund in 1981 is known for her encyclopedic knowledge of the decorative arts, and of the French art-de vivre.

One of the most famous rooms in America in the last half-century is the much-photographed Winter Garden, decorated in lettuce green it conjured a conservatory and acted as the ante chamber to the dining room, often used for dinners and philanthropic events. The auction is highlighted by works from the Winter Garden which have distinguished provenance such as a Table aux torsades-modèle carré by Diego Giacometti which was acquired directly from Henri Samuel (estimate: $80,000-120,000) and an Austrian ormolu and cut-glass twelve-light chandelier acquired privately from Jayne Wrightsman (estimate: $40,000-60,000).

Lot 21. Diego Giacometti (1902-1985), Table aux torsades-modèle carré, signed five times 'Diego' (on the crossbraces), bronze with brown and green patina. Height: 15 ½ in. (39.3 cm.) Length: 32 ¼ in. (81.8 cm.) Depth: 31 7/8 in. (80.5 cm.). Estimate: USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Unsold. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Lot 19. An Austrian ormolu and cut-glass twelve-light chandelier, Vienna, First quarter 19th century: 44 in. (112 cm.) high, 34 in. (86.5 cm.) wide. Estimate: USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

With plumed corona suspending prisms and chain links above a central baluster issuing S-scroll and candle branches above a twist-reeded vessel issuing prisms, fitted for electricity.

Provenance: With Perrin Antiques, December 1984.
Acquired privately from Mrs. Charles Wrightsman.

Literature: E. Eerdmans, Henri Samuel: Master of the French Interior, New York, 2018, p. 208-9.

Note: A very similar Viennese chandelier with almost identical arms, ormolu galleries, plumes, and bulbous glass lower section, was sold Sotheby's, Zurich, 29-30 November 1999 lot 642 (100,000 CHF).

The Dining Room is highlighted by an exciting discovery, an Adam-inspired neo-classical dining room suite by the Georgian cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew, traced by Christie’s specialist Charlie Cator to its original commission for Sir Cecil Bishopp at Parham Park, for which the original bills survive. The suite stayed in the family until being sold at Christie’s in 1966 and was subsequently also in the collection of Jayne Wrightsman (sold in three lots, estimates $80,000-120,00; $30,000-50,000 and $8,000-12,000)

The Parham Park Suite. Lot 49. A suite of George III cream and blue-painted mahogany dining room furniture by Ince and Mayhew, circa 1775. The sideboard: 34 in. (86.5 cm.) high, 72 in. (183 cm.) wide, 36 ¼ in. (92 cm.) deep The knife boxes: 67 in. (170 cm.) high, 17 in. (43 cm.) wide, 18 ¼ in. (46.5 cm.) deep. Estimate: USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Unsold. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Comprising a serving table with a serpentine crossbanded mahogany top above a fluted frieze carved with urns on fluted square tapering legs, inscribed 326PG and a pair of pedestals, one fitted with bottle coolers, one with plate racks, each with a faux porphyry and painted tôle and wood dining room urn fitted for cutlery, redecorated, with traces of an earlier green and white scheme, the serving table formerly with a brass rail and the back legs replaced, possibly in the early 19th century.

Provenance: Supplied to Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 8th Bt (later 12th Baron Zouche) 1753-1828 for Parham Park, Sussex.
By descent in the Zouche family at Parham.
The 17th Baroness Zouche of Haryngworth, sold by her executors, Christie’s, London, 21 April 1966, lots 134-136 but sold as one lot with lot 137 (£6825 to Mallett).
George Ansley, 6 rue du Presbourg, Paris (by whom acquired from Mallett, who almost certainly supplied the later copy).
Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, possibly for Blythedunes, Palm Beach.
Acquired privately from the above.

Literature: G. Beard & J. Goodison: English Furniture 1500-1840, London, 1987, p. 192.
E. Eerdmans: Henri Samuel: Master of the French Interior, New York, 2018, pp. 205-207.

Note: This recently identified suite of dining room furniture, part of a newly discovered extensive commission by the Broad Street cabinet makers Ince and Mayhew, is a significant addition to their documented oeuvre. Supplied in 1781 to Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bt. for Parham Park in Sussex, it illustrates their sophisticated use of neoclassical ornament that they had developed through the 1770s and is an eloquent testimony to the firm’s style and output in the years of their greatest success through the 1770s and early 1780s.
Soon after inheriting the ancient baronetcy of his forbears in 1779, Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 8th Bt set about updating his family’s seventeenth century house Parham Park, nestling gently the lee of the South Downs, which had been begun in 1577. That he chose the successful firm of Ince and Mayhew to carry out these refurbishments may have been partly influenced by the fact that Ince and Mayhew had worked in a number of sixteenth and seventeenth-century houses, bringing modern comfort to these ancient seats in a sensitive and sympathetic way- Burghley and Cobham Hall are two notable examples. But despite their ‘antiquarian’ credentials, the furniture and fittings they supplied to Sir Cecil were in the most up-to-date neoclassical idiom.
The first of the two extensive bills, dated July 1781, begins with the Winter Dining Room on the south east corner of the house. The room was fashionably fitted up with two fringed, festooned curtains of green mixed silk damask lined with green tammy, as well as ‘2 Venetian Sun Blinds painted Green’ which set the predominant colour of the room. The elegant suite of dining-room furniture, a large sideboard table with two urns and pedestals, an oval wine cistern and a smaller sideboard table were all ‘neatly painted & pick’d in Green and White’.
The two sideboard tables, both supplied with ‘Damask’d leather Covers’, with their fluted friezes carved with anthemions and patera, ornament echoed on the window cornices, also supplied by Ince & Mayhew and painted green and white, and their tablet centres carved with vases use motifs that appear in different combinations in other dining room furniture the firm supplied in the 1770s, but all in mahogany, which would perhaps have been less appropriate in the early setting of Parham. While the ‘therm’ legs with the idiosyncratic roundel-filled blocks heading the tapering feet are on much favoured device, appearing on the yew-wood and marquetry sideboard table made for the Earl of Kerry, 1769-71 (C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew & Ince, Furniture History, XXVI, 1990, pp27-33) and the mahogany sideboard table made for Edward Bouverie c.1769-1772, sold Christie’s London, 6 July 2017, lot 12. The Ionic capitals are similar to those on the pair of giltwood pier tables supplied to Viscount Palmerston at Broadlands, Hampshire c.1771 (H. Roberts. Furniture at Broadlands, Hampshire’, I, Country Life, 29 January 1981 , pp. 288-290,figs.1 and 8 . The distinctive drapery swags echoing architectural ornament on the pedestals and wine cistern recur in various guises, ebonised as ornament for commodes or on a smaller scale as on the pedestals supplied to Sir Thomas Rumbold for Woodhall Park circa 1780 sold Christie’s London, 6 July 2017, lot 11. The japanned cutlery ‘vases’ on the pedestals ‘finely Jappan’d to imitate Porphyry Marble’ are not found elsewhere in their identified work and were most probably supplied by a specialist supplier. They still retain their fittings for knives and forks while the pedestals are still fitted with a cellaret for nine bottles in one and the other as a plate warmer.
In 1815 Sir Cecil succeeded in his claim through his mother to the ancient barony of Zouche, in abeyance since 1625, becoming the 12th Baron Zouche of Haryngworth and Parham then descended through the Zouche family. His daughter and heir Harriet, and her bibliophile husband the Hon Robert Curzon, made extensive alterations to the house, sweeping away much of her father’s late 18th century modernisation and employing Anthony Salvin to give the house a more ‘ancient’ air.
In 1922 the 17th Baroness Zouche (1875-1965) sold Parham to the Hon. Clive Pearson, who with his wife Alicia returned the house to its house original late 16th/ early 17th century guise with great love and care . Lady Zouche kept some of the furniture, including this suite, which was sold at Christie’s on 21 April 1966 after her death. At the time of the 1966 sale, it still retained its original green and white painted decoration and the large serving table still had the: ‘Brass Rod for Side Board with 4 Plinths and Strong Brass Pillars with nuts and Screws & ornamented with Vases and c’ for which Ince and Mayhew charged an additional £3 3s.
After the 1966 sale the suite was acquired from Mallett’s by the banker George Ansley, whose Paris apartment at 6 rue de Presbourg was decorated by Henri Samuel, when the pair to the smaller table was probably added. Subsequently acquired in the later 1970s by Mr and Mrs Charles Wrightsman, either for Blythedunes their home in Palm Beach or their New York apartment at 820 Fifth Avenue to possibly replace pieces that they had given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The circular dining-table, with its base taking the swagged drapery from the pedestals and the anthemion and flute frieze from the tables, was probably added then. ‘The Oval Cistern neatly painted Carv’d & Ornamented to match the Side Board with Copper lining’, which was lot 137 in the Christie’s 1966 sale, must have become separated from the suite which Susan Gutfreund acquire privately from Mrs Wrightsman, and was sold in the Sotheby’s New York sale of the Wrightsman’s Palm Beach residence, 5 May 1984, lot 176.
The Parham dining-room suite and Ince and Mayhew’s commission for Sir Cecil Bisshopp, Bt. will be included in the forthcoming monograph on their work by Hugh Roberts and Charles Cator, Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew to be published in 2022.

The Parham Park Suite. Lot 50. A pair of George III cream and blue-painted mahogany side tables, one by Ince and Mayhew, circa 1775, the other of a later date and almost certaily supplied by Mallet, circa 1970; 34 in. (86.5 cm.) high, 58 ¼ in. (14 cm.) wide, 25 ½ in. (65 cm.) deep. Estimate: USD 30,000 - USD 50,000. Unsold. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Provenance: Supplied to Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 8th Bt (later 12th Baron Zouche) 1753-1828 for Parham Park, Sussex.
By descent in the Zouche family at Parham.
The 17th Baroness Zouche of Haryngworth, sold by her executors, Christie’s, London, 21 April 1966, lots 134-136 but sold as one lot with lot 137 (£6825 to Mallett).
George Ansley, 6 rue du Presbourg, Paris (by whom acquired from Mallett, who almost certainly supplied the later copy).
Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, possibly for Blythedunes, Palm Beach.
Acquired privately from the above.

Literature: G. Beard & J. Goodison: English Furniture 1500-1840, London, 1987, p. 192.
E. Eerdmans: Henri Samuel: Master of the French Interior, New York, 2018, pp. 205-207.

The Parham Park Suite. Lot 51. A George III cream and blue-painted mahogany dining table, circa 1980, almost certaily supplied by Henri Samuel; 29 in. (74 cm.) high, 65 ½ in. (166.5 cm.) diameter. Estimate: USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Circular, on cylindrical support raised on octagonal base. 

From the salon alcove is a massive Louis XVI grey-painted canape by Jean-Baptiste Lelarge, circa 1770, which is another work with a storied provenance having formerly been in the collection of Vicomtesse Dale de Bonchamps, at 42 Avenue Foch, Paris, and then Hubert de Givenchy,.

who was the Gutfreund’s friend and neighbor at their Paris apartment. The sale offers several six works with provenance from Hubert de Givenchy.

Other English neoclassical works in the sale are highlighted by an important George III Moorfields carpet designed by Robert Adam, circa 1770, previously in the collection of the Earls of Shrewsbury at Ingestre Hall (estimate: $100,000-150,000) and a pair of George III silver-gilt two-light candelabra and a pair of matching candlesticks (estimate: $100,000-150,000). Objects that showcase Mrs. Gutfreund’s adventurous style and the influence of her travels include a pair of Italian (Trapani) gilt-copper and coral mounted pricket sticks circa 1720 (estimate: $60,000-100,000), and a set of four Russian parcel-gilt and bronzed mahogany bergeres (estimate: $40,000-60,000), and a pair of Russian hardstone tazze in kalkan jasper and rhodonite (estimate $60,000-90,000).

Lot 99. An important George III Moorfields carpet designed by Robert Adam, circa 1770; Approximately 34 ft. 8 in. x 14 ft. (1057 cm. x 427 cm.). Estimate USD 100,000-USD 150,000. Price Realized USD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020

Having three rectangular panels, the central one with a circular fan rosette medallion flanked by panels of octagonal rosette medallions all on a dark brown to russet brown ground with delicate ribbon-tied honey suckle swags, all within a Greek-key inner border, a minor guilloche border and a delicate scroll and anthemion main border.

Provenance: Possibly commissioned by George Talbot, 14th Earl of Shrewsbury (1719.- 1787), or John Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot (1749 –1793), who inherited Ingestre Hall in 1786.
Possibly thence  by descent at Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire, until sold by John George Chetwynd-Talbot, 21st Earl of Shrewsbury (1914-1980); Sotheby’s, London, 18 February 1972, lot 15.
Acquired from C. John, London, 26 January 1982.

Literature: G. Nares, ‘Ingestre Hall Part III’, Country Life, 31 October 1957, p. 926, fig. 7 (illustrated in the Yellow Drawing Room).
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, May 1959, General Notes, vol. 107, no. 503, pp. 442-444.
Andrews, Anne; "A Short History of Ingestre", Stafford, England, 2013, p. 24-25.

Note: The Moorfields carpet factory, founded by Thomas Moore (c. 1700-1788) in 1752 was one of the leading English carpet manufactories of the second half of the eighteenth century. Other entrepreneurs who founded workshops during this period are Paul Parisot in London and later Exeter, Claude Passavant in Exeter and Thomas Whitty in Axminster, with Moorfields and Axminster producing the majority of carpets and the only two workshops to survive past the mid-18th century. Prior to weaving hand knotted carpets, Moore produced silk stockings, as well as silk and wool cloth, an experience that made him a skilled weaver.
Moore’s success as a carpet producer was in large part due to his close relationship with Robert Adam (1728-1792), the pre-eminent neo-classical architect and designer of the eighteenth century, who hired him for important commissions and often even provided models for carpet designs.
The pair to this carpet is at Syon House, Middlesex and is considered to be the earliest surviving carpet woven by Moore (see Sarah B. Sherrill, Carpets and Rugs of Europe and America, New York, 1996, pp. 178-179, pls. 180-182). Inspired by Roman mosaic pavements, Adam often used the tripartite plan found on this carpet for both ceilings and carpet designs.
A Robert Adam drawing of the Syon House carpet is in the collection of the Sir John Soane’s Museum in London and is inscribed “Carpet for the Drawing Room at Sion [sic]” and dated 1768 (see Sherrill, ibid., p.180, pl. 183). The carpet itself, still on display at Syon House in the Red Drawing Room, is inscribed “by Thomas Moore 1769” in embroidery on the tapestry woven end-finish at the top. Adam’s carpet designs would often complement the ceilings for the rooms in which they were intended but in this case, the carpet design is more suitable to the tripartite design of the adjacent dining room ceiling at Syon, a design Adam called “compartment ceiling.” Our example is not signed but it may have been at one time as both ends are not original and we can surmise that it was woven shortly thereafter the Syon House example.
This carpet was at one time in the Yellow Drawing Room at Ingestre Hall, a Jacobean mansion near Stafford in Staffordshire and formerly the seat of the Earls of Talbot and Shrewsbury. There are no records that Robert Adam or Moorfields supplied this carpet for Ingestre Hall but when the rooms were opened to the public in the late 1950s, the carpet was in the Yellow Drawing Room, a room that was redecorated at the end of the nineteenth century when the hall was largely rebuilt in 1882 after a damaging fire. Despite the lack of records definitively linking the commission of this magnificent carpet to Ingestre Hall, two members of the Shrewsbury family, one of the oldest earldom’s in the English nobility whose first creation was in 1074, are plausible candidates as the original patron: George Talbot, 14th Earl of Shrewsbury (1719- 1787), who is likely to have been a patron of the cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew (who often worked in Adam houses) and was known to be renovating the main family seat Heythrop House in a neo-classical idiom in the 1770s; or John Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot (1749 –1793), who inherited Ingestre Hall in 1786 and whose ‘antique’ tastes are evidenced in his swagger grand tour portrait by Pompeo Batoni, and whose grandson inherited the Shrewsbury title in 1856, thus reuniting the two families.
Despite his success, the output at Moorfields was not substantial and very few carpets extant today can be unquestionably assigned to Moore. Design vocabulary was fluid between Axminster, Exeter and Moorfields in England and Aubusson and Savonnerie in France. Not only were weavers going back and forth between the different workshops sharing technique and design, but designs were widely copied and shared during this period. Moorfield carpets are distinguished by semi-depressed warps often incorporating colored counting warps placed every ten pairs of warps and the use of a mixture of ivory, brown and blue wool wefts, traits that can be found in this carpet.
Besides the pair to this carpet at Syon House, other surviving Moorfields carpets are the three at Osterley Park in the Drawing Room, Tapestry Room and State Bedroom--all designed by Robert Adam with the original drawings in the Sir John Soane’s Museum. One of Moore’s most illustrious clients was the Prince of Wales for whom he made carpets with one surviving that was made in 1792 for the Gilt Room (in 1811 it became the Throne Room). Like this carpet, it too has a change in field color due to the mordant of the brown dye that faded unevenly.
More recently, a rediscovered Moorfields carpet originally woven for Home House, London and commissioned by Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Home was sold at Christie’s, 19 May 2004, lot 166 (incorrectly ascribed to Aubusson). Another carpet attributed to Moorfields formerly in the collection of Boscobel House, Garrison, New York, was sold in the sale 'Rooms as Portraits: Michael S. Smith; A Tale of Two Cities', New York & Los Angeles, Christie's, New York, 26 September 2018, lot 84.
In this carpet, the outline of the three main medallions is a Vitruvian scroll pattern that is similarly used in the Osterley Tapestry Room carpet where the motif outlines each spandrel decoration. This carpet also shares the anthemion motif in the main border although treated differently. The central circular fan rosette medallion is related to the oval fan rosette in the Osterley Park Drawing Room carpet.

Lot 60. A pair of George III silver-gilt two-light candelabra and a pair of matching candlesticks,Mark of Daniel Smith and Robert Sharp, the Branches Mark of Thomas Heming, London, 1775; 17 ½ in. (44.5 cm.) high, the candelabra; 12 1/8 in. (30.8 cm.) high, the candlesticks 160 oz. 18 dwt. (5,004 gr.). Estimate USD 100,000-USD 150,000. Price realised USD 150,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020

On stepped circular bases cast and chased with bands of beading and stiff foliage, rising to banded baluster stems chased with stiff foliage, with conforming campana-form sconces and removable nozzles, the detachable tops with two leaf-capped scroll branches flanking a drapery wrapped rosette, and terminating in openwork acanthus, fixed drip pans bordered in berried laurels with detachable nozzles, engraved on stems, sconces, and nozzles with a crest, marked throughout and notch numbered.

Provenance:  Possibly made for General Joseph Yorke, 1st Lord Dover (1724-1792), then by decent to,
Charles Philip Yorke, 5th Earl of Hardwicke (1836-1897),
Trustees of Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire, the Seat of the Right Honorable The Earl of Hardwicke; Christie’s, London, 4 April 1895, lots 107 and 108.
Acquired from S. J. Phillips, Ltd., London, September 1984.

Note: The engraved crest is that of Yorke, presumably for General Joseph Yorke, born June 1724, who was made the 1st, and only, Lord Dover, Baron of the Town and Port of Dover, County Kent, on 18 September 1788.

These candlesticks and candelabra are in the style of Robert Adam (1728-1792), one of the greatest proponents of the neoclassical style in England in the second half of the 18th century. Though largely known today for his architecture and interiors, Robert Adam and his brother James’ contribution to the design of silver is known through a series of 114 designs among the nine thousand Adam drawings at the Sir John Soane's Museum, London, which are discussed in depth by Michael Snodin (M. Snodin, "Adam Silver Reassessed", Burlington Magazine, January 1997, pp. 17-25). The design for the candlesticks offered here can be seen as derived from a drawing from this collection for a candlestick possibly designed for the Philips family of Picton Castle. The drawing shows a similar baluster form with stiff foliage decoration to the foot, stem, and sconce with beaded borders. Snodin explains that Adam’s design for this candlestick was revolutionary given that Adam’s earlier designs for silver drew more directly from ancient forms and motifs. He states that, “The ancients did not, of course, have candlesticks, so Robert Adam, who made the sketch design, was in effect obliged to invent a new type. For the stem he reunited the bulbous baluster of the renaissance with its ancestor, the great stone candelabrum of the Romans. The spool-shaped base has no precedent in classical candelabra or renaissance candlesticks, but is directly derived from the forms of the lids and bases of cups… Also innovatory is the relief ornament which covers the whole candlestick, recalling in its scale and density that on renaissance bronzes.” (p. 23)

For two pairs of candlesticks with similar design elements owned by celebrated collector William Beckford, see D.Ostergard ed., William Beckford 1760-1844 An Eye for the Magnificent, 2001, cat.9 and 31. A near identical set of four candlesticks to those offered here was sold Sotheby’s, London, 23 May 1985, lot 108. A pair of similar three-light candelabra, mark of Sebastian and James Crespell, sold Christie’s, London, 7 June 2011, lot 312. A further similar pair of two-light candelabra, mark of John Scofield, sold Christie’s, London, 29 November 2016, lot 161.

Lot 25. A pair of Italian (Trapani) gilt-copper and coral mounted pricket sticks, circa 1720; 22 ¼ in. (56.5 cm.) high. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 100,000. Price realised USD 243,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Each with baluster shaft on tripartite support.

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Semenzato, Rome, 7 October 1988, lot 519.

Literature: . Daneu, L'arte trapanese del corallo, Palermo, 1964, Tavola XIVb.
G. C. Ascione, Storia del coralli a Napoli dal XVI al XIX secolo, Naples, 1991, pp. 61-5, fig.45.
Catania, Palazzo Valle, Fondation Puglisi Cosentino, Trapani, Museo Interdisciplinare Regionale 'Agostino Pepoli', I grandi capolavori del corallo - I coralli di Trapani del XVII e XVIII secolo, 3 mars 2013 - 5 mai 2013, 18 mai 2013 - 30 juin 2013, V. P. Li Vigni et al., Milano, 2013, p. 120, fig. 54.

Note: Trapani, in Sicily, where the present pricket sticks were made, was a famous center of coral-work production between the 16th and the 18th centuries. Famously expensive and collected or exchanged as diplomatic gifts between European nobility, coral-work form Trapani generally combines a gilt-copper ground with enamel embellishments and was fashioned into a variety of religious and secular items.
The present pair demonstrates many characteristics of workmanship from this region. The gilded copper and coral surface of the pricket sticks is achieved by setting the pieces of carved coral into the metal using a technique called 'retroincastro'. This consists of inserting small pieces of polished coral into pre-punched holes in the metal, which conform exactly to the pieces of coral. The coral is then fixed using a mixture of pitch and wax, sealed with strips of cloth.
A related set of four Trapani candlesticks, but of larger size, was sold from the collection of Manolo March, Christie’s, Paris, 16 June 2015, lot 28 (€ 805,500).

Lot 41. A pair of Russian hardstone tazze in kalkan jasper and rhodonite, Attributed to the Imperial Lapidary Workshops, Ekaterinburg, circa 1860-70; 14 ½ in. (37 cm.) high, 11 ½ in. (29.5 cm.) diameter. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 100,000. Price realised USD 243,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Each with dished top and reeded socle on stepped plinth above a swelling canted baluster on stepped canted square base.

Provenance:  Acquired from Kugel, Paris.

Note: Similarly to lots 47 and 48 in this sale, the present tazze were manufactured during the golden age of the Ekaterinburg Lapidary Factory in the second half of the nineteenth century. Unlike the vase offered in this sale that is made exclusively of Kalkan jasper, this lot also incorporates Orletz rhodonite, a superior grade of rhodonite with particularly saturated hues that was discovered in the Urals in the firsty half of the 1780s. The precious materials used, the superb quality of the craftsmanship, and a design for an almost identical tazza on stand retained in the Imperial State Archives suggest that this lot was produced at the Imperial Lapidary Factory. A pair of such tazze were sold Sotheby's, London, 4 December 2019, lot 20 and another one is illustrated J. Kugel, Trésors des Tzars, exh. cat., Paris, 1998, cat. 294.
Christie’s is grateful to Paul Dyson, scholar of Russian hardstones, for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

Lot 12. A set of four Russian parcel-gilt and bronzed mahogany bergeres, first half 19t century; 34 ½ in. (87.5 cm.) high, overall. Estimate: USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price Realized USD 52,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Each with overscrolled upholstered back, with upholstered sides carved with plumes, the plain rectangular seat rail on winged animal legs ending in ball-and-claw feet, upholstered in emerald close-nailed silk.

Provenance: Acquired from Kugel, Paris.

Literature: E. Eerdmans, Henri Samuel: Master of the French Interior, New York, 2018, p. 205.

Note: A related chair with similar winged arm supports by the designer Andrei Voronikhin is illustrated in A. Chenevière, Russian Furniture: The Golden Age 1780-1840, New York, 1988, p. 157. Another Russian armchair with identical wing-form armrests attributed to Voronikhin based on a similar chair in the Pavlovsk Palace Museum (illustrated in H. Molesworth, Three Centuries of Furniture in Color, Milan, 1969, p. 236, fig. 389) was sold Christie’s, New York, 27 September 2000, lot 281.
Voronikhin, who was first discovered by Count A. S. Stroganov, was one of the most important neoclassical designers during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I in the early nineteenth century. Born a serf to Count Stroganov and thought to be his illegitimate son, his artistic talent was recognized by Stroganov who sent him to study in Moscow. Liberated in 1785, Voronikhin was soon under Stroganov’s patronage and was sent by him for further study through to Paris. There, Voronikhin gained firsthand knowledge of the work of the most popular bronziers, silversmiths and sculptors. On his return to St. Petersburg in 1790, Stroganov commissioned him to design the interior schemes for his palace on the Nevsky Prospect in the center of Saint Petersburg not far from the Imperial Winter Palace, testifying to the prominence of the Stroganov family. Voronikhin's work within the newly-decorated building included the interiors of the mineral study, the library, and Count Stroganov's physics cabinet, among others. Voronikhin also worked extensively with the architect Vincenzo Brenna for Tsar Paul I at the Palace of Pavlovsk, and created designs for furniture, bronzes d'ameublement and mounted hardstones to provide a distinctively Russian interpretation of the prevailing neoclassical style of the Empire period.

Additional top lots include Jan Massys’ Mary Magdalene, 1571 (estimate: $120,000-180,000), an extensive Royal Copenhagen porcelain 'Flora Danica' part dinner service (estimate: $150,000-200,000), and a late Louis XV ormolu-mounted amaranth and tulipwood bureau plat 'a la Grecque' by Philippe-Claude Montigny, circa 1770 (estimate: $70,000-100,000).

Lot 107. Jan Massys (Atwerp c. 1509 - 1575), Mary Magdalene, signed and dated ' .1571 . / OES MASSIS PINCEBAT ' (center left, on the ledge), oil on panel, unframed, 37 ¼ x 28 in. (95 x 71.3 cm.). Estimate: USD 120,000-USD 180,000. Price Realized USD 537,500.  © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

Provenance: Acquired from Belgian private collection through Axel Vervoordt.

Note: While retaining the meticulous technique developed by his Netherlandish forbearers, Jan Massys moved throughout his career toward a refined mannerist style that paid tribute to Italian art. Jan Massys was born the talented son of Quentin Massys, the leading painter in Antwerp in the early decades of the 16th century. Despite this prestigious ancestry, little is securely known of Jan’s seemingly peripatetic career. Along with his brother Cornelis, Jan most probably took over his father’s workshop upon the latter’s death in 1530. He was admitted as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp two years later. Scant documentation in Antwerp until 1555 has led scholars to believe that Jan travelled extensively during his early years of activity. Based on stylistic affinities, it is possible that he sojourned in Fontainebleau, at the court of Francis I who fostered a vibrant school of painting. The artist is known to have visited Italy around 1549. On his return to Antwerp circa 1555, Jan embarked on a period of sustained activity, possibly triggered by a series of financial hurdles. His work appears to have been held in high esteem by his contemporaries, as he was employed by the city council and his name frequently features in local inventories. Although Jan’s style is much indebted to his father’s, his predilection for alluring depictions of the female nude became a feature unique to his art. Using the biblical narrative as a pretext for his iconic renditions of the female form, Jan turned time and again to biblical heroines such as Lot’s daughters (Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), Judith (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts), and Bathsheba (Paris, Musée du Louvre).
A particularly popular biblical heroine in the Netherlands, Mary Magdalene is the focus of the present painting. Behind the saint, a luxurious velvet curtain has been pulled back to reveal fanciful, classicizing architecture amidst verdant hills. The color of the landscape and drapery echo the emerald tonality of the Magdalene’s embroidered, gem-studded bodice, the delicacy of which is enhanced by the gossamer texture of her chemise, its transparency conveyed with remarkable skill. Enveloped in a sumptuous red cloak, her cheeks flushed and blond hair carefully coiffed and bejeweled, the Magdalene is a seductive vision of feminine ideals of beauty as they were defined in the age of Jan Massys. Cradled in her arms, her attribute, an ointment jar, serves as a marker of her virtue, recalling the moment she humbly anoints Christ’s feet.
Jan Massys prominently signed and dated the painting 1571 beneath the ledge at left. The painting appears to have been unknown to Max J. Friedländer and Leontine Buijnsters-Smets, who respectively published a remarkably similar Magdalene that was formerly in the Guimbail collection as an autograph work by Massys (see M. J. Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, XIII, New York and Washington, 1975, p. 76, no. 34, pl. 18; and L. Buijnsters-Smets, Jan Massys. Een Antwerps schilder uit de zestiende eeuw, Zwolle, 1995, p. 205, no. 42). The dimensions of that painting and the present lot are nearly identical, but compositions differ in several respects, including the arrangement of the drapery folds and the rendition of the saint’s face. Indeed, the ex-Guimbail Magdalene’s features are more wooden and overall the execution is far less refined than that of the present painting. Accordingly, the ex-Guimbail painting must surely now be considered to be at best a secondary, workshop version of the present lot, which should be regarded as the prime version of Jan Massys’s composition.
We are grateful to Maria Clelia Galassi for endorsing the attribution to Massys on the basis of a photograph (private communication, 17 November 2020), who notes the painting’s excellent quality. Dr. Galassi will include the painting, which is one of the last dated works by the artist, in her forthcoming monograph, JAN MASSYS (c.1510 - 1573). A Renaissance Painter of the Flemish Beauty.

Lot 147. A Late Louis XV Ormolu-mounted Amaranth and Tulipwood Bureau Plat 'A La Grecque' by Philippe-Claude Montigny, circa 1770;29 ¾ in. (75.5 cm.) high, 44 ½ in. (113 cm.) wide, 22 1/8 in. (56.2 cm.) deep. Estimate: USD 70,000 - USD 100,000. Price Realized USD 100,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

With rectangular crossbanded inset gilt-tooled leather writing panel above a frieze fitted with two short drawers inlaid with Greek-key, the sides and back similarly veneered, on square tapering legs headed by swags and paterae ending in block sabots, stamped once MONTIGNY...JME to underside, the rosette mounts probably 18th century aftercasts, one of differing design but apparently original.

Provenance: Acquired from Michel Meyer, Paris, June 1982.

Note: Philippe-Claude Montigny, maître in 1766.

A selection of important books are included in the live sale including the famous treatise on the insects of Surinam by the naturalist-artist Maria Sibylla Merian, interleaved with a manuscript translation by writing master William Chinnery (estimate: $80,000-120,000). Many books in the sale have distinguished royal and aristocratic provenance, including a group from the library of Madame de Pompadour, while Susan Gutfreund’s deep interest in the decorative arts is reflected by the fact that the collection includes all the classic 18th century furniture pattern books, notably Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman’s and Cabinet-Maker’s Director of 1762 and Thomas Sheraton’s The Cabinet-Maker’s and Upholsterer’s Drawing-Book of 1793.

Lot 157. Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717). Dissertatio de generatione et metamorphosibus insectorum Surinamensium. Amsterdam: J. Oosterwyk, 1719. Estimate: USD 80,000 - USD 120,000. Price Realized USD 137,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020.

The famous treatise on the insects of Surinam by the naturalist-artist Maria Sibylla Merian, interleaved with a manuscript translation by writing master William Chinnery. Born in Frankfurt in 1647, Merian was the daughter of the engraver Matthäus Merian and step-daughter of the flower painter Jacob Marrel. She studied miniature painting under her step-father’s pupil, Abraham Mignon, and became interested in insects from an early age, capturing and drawing specimens from life. Merian’s scientific work is notable for its accurate observation of insect life and transformation in an age when spontaneous generation was still widely accepted. After divorcing her husband, Merian and her two daughters spent a period of time living with the Labadist religious community at Castle Waltha, which contained a fine collection of tropical insects brought back from Surinam (then Dutch Guiana) by Cornelius van Sommerdijk. Inspired, she traveled to Surinam with her daughter Dorothea in 1699. The women spent two years recording insects and plants, often aided by enslaved Africans and Indigenous people who brought them specimens and contributed traditional knowledge about their properties. The resulting book is “easily the most magnificent work on insects so far produced ... her portrayals of living insects and other animals were imbued with a charm, a minuteness of observation and an artistic sensibility that had not previously been seen in a natural history book” (Dance). First published in 1705, this expanded second edition was printed after her death in 1719, with the addition of 12 plates after her elder daughter Johanna. J. Landwehr, Dutch Books with Coloured Plates, 131; Nissen BBI 1341; Sitwell, p. 119. See Peter Dance, The Art of Natural History, pp. 50-51. Folio (482 x 337mm). Engraved frontispiece and 72 engraved illustrations, all hand-colored; engraved vignettes (slight worming at lower gutter, occasional spots and stains, some light toning). Text interleaved with calligraphic manuscript translation by William Chinnery, dated 1734. Eighteenth-century reversed calf (rebacked, corners repaired).

Provenance: sold by Thomas Osbourne (sale 29 May 1749, lot 164) – Lord Wenman (probably Philip, 7th Viscount, 1742-1800; armorial bookplate).

ONLINE SALES OVERVIEW | 14-28/29 JANUARY

The Art of Entertaining: The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. John H. Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue
ONLINE | January 14-28
Reflecting the Gutfreund’s exceptional gifts as hosts The Art of Entertaining: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue, which will run concurrently to the live auctions from 14-28 January, is dedicated the concept of art de vivre. The extensive domestic offices at 834 included a large butler’s pantry and silver vault brimming with porcelain, silver and table decorations. The sale also emphasizes the concentration on the comfort of guests with the contents of the guest’s quarters including furniture and lighting.

Selections from The Library of Mr. And Mrs. John H. Gutfreund 834 Fifth Avenue
ONLINE | January 14-29
Selections from the Library of Mr. & Mrs. John H. Gutfreund from 834 Fifth Avenue celebrates the beauty of the book arts, featuring many fine French, Russian, and English bindings; notable presentation copies; and noble associations. The collection is dominated by festival books documenting the luxury of Versailles; herbals and botanicals whose fine engravings and lithographs capture the riches of the natural world; and copious curiosities of ornament, architecture, art, and design. Highlights include the monumental Description du Sacre et du Couronnement de leurs Majestes Imperiales l'Empereur Alexandre II et l'Imperatrice Marie Alexandrovna, depicting the sumptuous coronation of Czar Alexander II; Fontana's Templum Vaticanum in a green morocco presentation binding for Czar Paul I; and a host of other treasures. 

Susan and Karl: Important Chanel Fashion Jewelry from The Collection of Mrs. John H. Gutfreund
ONLINE | January 14-29
Mrs. Gutfreund’s deep appreciation of French culture extended to a love of couture and in particular designs from the house of Chanel. Susan Gutfreund was a friend to many of the most celebrated couturiers. She shared a close friendship with renowned designer Karl Lagerfeld from whom came an incredible selection of costume jewelry made for the Chanel runway. Intricately designed and incredibly rare, these unique jewels are pieces of fashion history created as part of a vision for Lagerfeld’s iconic years at the helm of Chanel. Many of these pieces are prototypes, never before offered for sale or seen by the public. The striking, storied jewels of Mrs. Gutfreund reflect her cultured taste and trained eye.

French Heritage Society, in collaboration with Christie’s Education, will offer a complimentary online conversation discussing the interiors of the Gutfreund apartment on the decorative arts entitled HAUTE HOMES on 21 January 2021.