Picasso Photographs, Yellow Gold Reed and Barton Jockey Club Cup Lead Important Fine Art & Design Auction

Auctions at Showplace will showcase just over 100 carefully selected lots in its upcoming sale. The Important Fine Art & Design Auction offers fine art, decorative art, furniture, jewelry, watches and clocks, couture and textiles, and collectibles this October. Highlights include pictures of Pablo Picasso, as well as artworks by Emily Mason, Wolf Kahn, Louise Bourgeois, and Louise Nevelson. Lighting by Quezal, Gino Sarfatti, Le Verre Francais, and Arredoluce enhance the sale. The event will be held live on October 22, 2023. Collectors can view the complete catalog and place online bids by visiting Bidsquare.  

Leading the Important Fine Art & Design Auction is a Reed and Barton Jockey Club gold cup in 14-karat yellow gold (lot #50; estimate: USD 60,000 – $80,000). It is a lidded trophy with two handles in the Neoclassical Revival manner. The gold trophy was awarded to Prove Out of Hobeau Farms in 1973. Prove Out was a racehorse, born in 1969, who was bred in Kentucky by owner Jack Dreyfus (American, 1913 – 2009). Prove Out was trained by H. Allen Jerkens (American, 1929 – 2015) for the Aqueduct Racetrack 1973 race. Prove Out won this trophy for Hobeau Farm when jockey Jorge Velasquez (American, b. 1946) was the rider. 

Among jewelry lots, the auction will offer a rare, 3.80-carat Ceylon blue sapphire ring (lot #21; estimate: $8,000 – $12,000). This platinum ring, brightly polished, features a centered prong-set cushion-cut blue sapphire. The sapphire comes with an AGL report indicating the sapphire is natural from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). A total of 16 bead-set round brilliant-cut diamonds surround the center sapphire. The total weight of the diamonds is approximately 0.48 carats. This piece belonged to Indrani Yogasundram, who lived in many different countries with her husband, Yogaraj, during his decades-long career as a Sri Lankan diplomat. In addition to the heirloom jewelry she possessed, Indrani acquired jewelry, art, and ornaments while stationed in China (1960 – 63), Sri Lanka (1963 – 65), and Iraq (1965 – 1967). 

In the art section, Femme au Collier (circa 1968) by Joseph Henri Baptiste Lebasque (French, 1865 – 1937) is noteworthy (lot #72; estimate: $30,000 – $50,000). It is a Post-Impressionist oil painting on canvas. The portrait depicts a fashionable young Black woman, likely in Bohemian Paris in the 1920s.The vibrant mix of colors exudes Post-Impressionism, a movement that rejected objective recording of light and nature in favor of more ambitious expression using brilliant colors. It is signed to the lower right and presented in a gilt wood frame. 

Other key lots in the Important Fine Art & Design Auction include: 

• Running Fence drawing collage by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 1976 (lot #100; estimate: $40,000 – $60,000)
• Michael Coffey’s “Menage a Trois” vanity & stool designed in 1992 of carved Mozambique wood (lot #25; estimate: $10,000 – $20,000)
• After Pablo Picasso La Ronde de la Jeunesse lithograph (lot #15; estimate: $4,000 – $6,000)
• Photographs of Pablo Picasso by André Villers (French, 1930 – 2016) (lot #36; estimate: $1,000 – $2,000)

The Important Fine Art & Design Auction by Auctions at Showplace will be held live on October 22, 2023. Live bidding will start at 12:00 PM EDT. Interested collectors may attend live in New York or online via Bidsquare.

About Auctions at Showplace

Based in Manhattan since 1993, Auctions at Showplace has long supplied clients with a distinctive experience. The auction house works with over 200 antique dealers to offer a variety of antique and vintage furniture, collectibles, fine art, and fashion items. Its collection includes 19th and 20th-century designs with a variety of styles, including Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, and Post-Modern. Two monthly live property auctions feature a broad variety of fine and ornamental artworks, as well as vintage and modern furniture.