Three distinct private collections will be offered in dedicated sales: The Dr. Anton Pestalozzi Collection of important Greek and Roman portraiture; The Lewis and Ali Sanders Collection of superb French furniture and clocks; it's a private collection of 17th century Dutch paintings and Flemish by the Old Master.
Le sales they will take place from 25 to 29 October with exhibitions from 18 to 28 October. To add to the multidimensional viewing experience in the Rockefeller Center galleries, i creators of perfume branding agency 12.29 will introduce a bespoke perfume that evokes works of art, adding an olfactory adventure to the Classic Week.
Appointment with fine print books and manuscripts including Americana, on October 25 at 11
The sale of books and manuscripts marks the inaugural Christie's Classic Week: the biennial auctions will now be held in October and April. The first October auction includes many auspicious books for the season: a first edition of Dracula, Frankenstein with a letter from Mary Shelley, horror works by RL Stevenson, Oscar Wilde and others, plus a previously unknown unknown side naming Edgar A. Poe as editor of Graham Magazine. Some of the far-reaching highlights include the Scott Greenbaum Collection of Literary First Editions, including an exceptionally fine copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, and many first editions by Dashiell Hammett, including The Glass Key in its rare dust jacket; a section dedicated to game theory, including a small selection of manuscripts by John Forbes Nash, Jr. and the 1994 Nobel Prize medal, awarded to the mathematician; Brinley's copy of America's first banned book, Thomas Morton's New English Canaan of 1637; the important works of the XNUMXth-century naturalist artist Maria Sibylla Merian; the Louisiana Purchase Collection of Alonzo J. Tullock; it's a handwritten document signed by Willem Kieft, granting land near Coney Island to the first person of Muslim origin to settle in America.
European art Part I: 28 October at 10
This carefully curated sale offers 24 masterpiece-level quality lots by XNUMXth century Europe's most renowned artists. Highlights include The Soul of the Rose, a magnificent and rare work by John William Waterhouse, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's portrayal of his lover Jane Morris as Prosperpina, a stunning example of the heyday of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Franz von Stuck's haunting bacchanal, painted in the year the artist was knighted, is strikingly modern and illustrates the link between this era and 20th-century art. Other highlights include outstanding works by Eugène Delacroix, Vilhelm Hammershøi, John William Godward, William Adolphe Bouguereau, Gustave Courbet and Jean-Léon Gérôme, among others.
“Faces of the Pasut: Ancient Sculpture” from the collection of Dr. Anton Pestalozzi, 28 October at 11 am
It is a selection of 29 lots of Greek, Roman and Etruscan works of art formed by the late lawyer and collector based in Zurich. Highlights include a recently rediscovered monumental Roman marble portrait, Head of Alexander the Great, formerly part of the famous collection of ancient sculpture at Marbury Hall, Cheshire, assembled by James Hugh Smith Barry (1746-1801); an imposing portrait bust of the emperor Tiberius; and an attractive XNUMXrd-century female portrait head, possibly Julia Soemias, mother of Emperor Elagabalus. A large part of the collection has been researched and published by the famous Swiss archaeologist Ines Jucker. Faces of the Past represents an important moment to acquire ancient works of art that have not been seen for decades on the international market.
Works of Antiquity on 28 October at 24
The sale is led by two major works sold for the benefit of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art: an Egyptian painted wooden anthropoid coffin for Pa-Di-Tu-Amun dating from the Third Intermediate Period (945-889 BC) and a “Blue” Egyptian “Cosmetic jar from Bes, dating to the Late Period (about 664-404 BC). Other highlights include the Wald Dioscuri, a Roman marble relief featuring the Dioscuri, dating from the XNUMXnd century AD, depicting the divine twins Castor and Pollux. Other large lots include a powerful Roman marble bust of the Diadumenos of Polykleitos from the collection of Roger Thomas and a large Greek golden oak wreath.
European art, part II on 28 October at 14pm
The European Art Part II sale includes a strong selection of paintings and sculptures that reflect the extraordinary diversity of this pivotal period in the history of art. Leading the sale are stunning examples of the artists' styles of Eugen von Blaas and Louis Marie de Schryver. Further highlights include Émile Munier's Un Sauvetage, a selection of three works by Orientalist painter Frederick Arthur Bridgman (American 1847-1928) and My Lady Passeth By by Edmund Blair Leighton. The sale also features works by Barbizon painters including Leon Lhermitte and Henri Joseph Harpignies, and a strong selection of Scandinavian paintings led by three works by Frits Thaulow. A fascinating, impressionistic view of Paris by Jean-François Raffaëlli and an impressive symbolist canvas by Henri Le Sidander complete the sale.
Old Masters: Property of a Private Collection, 29 October at 10am
A unique collection of 40 outstanding Dutch and Flemish paintings, this sale offers a broad overview of XNUMXth-century Lowland art. Marked by their exceptional quality and condition, this group features striking examples by many of the leading artists of the period, including David Teniers II, Jan Steen, Hendrick Goltzius and Jan Lievens. Every genre is represented, with particular emphasis on landscape paintings by such luminaries as Jan van Goyen, Simon de Vlieger and Salomon van Ruysdael.
Ancient Masters, on 29 October at 11 and 14
The Old Masters sale features a curated selection of paintings and sculptures from the Early Renaissance to the Baroque, the Dutch Golden Age and the French Revolution. Highlights include Titian's Agony in the Garden and his studio, an Annunciation by Jan de Beer, a beautiful apartment building by Lorenzo di Credi, and a striking portrait of Lucien Bonaparte and his mistress by Guillaume Guillon-Lethière . A rare and significant rediscovery is Girodet's Les Adieux de Coriolan à sa famille. Examples from the XNUMXth century include works by Neri di Bicci and the Workshop of Dieric Bouts. Highlights of the sculpture include a group of elegant busts – ranging from a powerful XNUMXth-century Spanish gentleman in marble – to an incredibly rare survival of a pair of early XNUMXth century classical plaster busts of Paris and Helen from the studio of Antonio Canova.
The Outstanding Sale | October 29th at 11am
“The Outstanding Sale” in New York is a rigorously curated selection of 25 masterpieces led this year by Cobham Hall Hadrian, a 7-foot-tall Roman marble statue of the Emperor Hadrian, sold to benefit the Mougins Museum of Classical Art. European decorative highlights include a royal Victorian silver centerpiece and a fine Neoclassical plat 'à la grecque' ebony bureau by Etienne Levasseur of circa 1770. Finely sourced pieces include a remarkable pair of dressers decorated with trompe l'oeil supplied by the famous decoration firm Maison Jansen to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor for their retreat in the south of France at the Château de La Cröe; a pair of XNUMXth-century bronze entrance halls from the famous Rothschild Château de Ferrières; a rare Russian carpet with the crowned monogram of Empress Maria Feodorovna almost certainly supplied for her use at the Pavlovsk Palace and probably ordered by Count Grigorii Grigorievich Kushelev, whose wife was the Empress's lady-in-waiting; and an extraordinary and exotic Spanish royal commode supplied to King Carlos III for the “Gabinetes de Maderas Finas de Indias” in the Royal Palace of Madrid. The sale also includes the Miles Davis' "Moon and Stars" trumpet and the Hasselblad camera used by famed Hollywood photojournalist Douglas Kirkland to take his iconic photos of Marilyn Monroe.
Fifth Avenue Grandeur: important French furniture from the collection of Lewis and Ali Sanders, October 29 at 24
And finally, the Fifth Avenue Grandeur, an exquisitely curated group of XNUMXth-century French furniture and decorative arts from The Collection of Lewis and Ali Sanders. This private collection features a superb variety of furniture and cases, carpets, clocks and mirrors that embody the best of XNUMXth century craftsmanship. Highlights of the sale include all key periods: a Savonnerie carpet and director by André-Charles Boulle of Louis XIV's king; beautiful lacquer and marquetry pieces by Bernard II Van Risenburgh (“BVRB”), Jacques Dubois, Joseph Baumhauer and Jean-François Oeben from the Rococo era of Louis XV; and fine neoclassical works from the Louis XVI period including a notable group of watches and cabinet pieces from makers such as Adam Weisweiler and Martin Carlin.
