Collection of Antique Weathervanes Blow into Bonhams L.A.

Home & Interiors26 Jan 2021Los AngelesA FINE MOLDED GILT COOPER HORSE JUMPING THROUGHOUT HOOP WEATHERVANEAttributed to A. L. Jewel & Co., Waltham, MA, third quarter 19th century

For equestrian champion Luann Beach, her passion for horses did not stop at riding. She may have successfully competed in a variety of English and Western disciplines – having been trained by several legendary horse champions – but out of the saddle her interest took a more academic turn. Fascinated by the iconography of horses and their representation throughout history, Beach amassed an impressive collection of horse memorabilia. This included a large collection of horse-themed weathervanes, which will be offered in Bonhams’ Home & Interiors sale on January 26 in Los Angeles.

Bonhams Fine & Decorative Arts Specialist, Anna Hicks, commented: “For centuries weathervanes served as a simple means of detecting windspeed and direction, but by the 19th and 20th centuries they took on more of a decorative function – and they have since become a symbol of Americana collecting. Acquired over the past 20 years, Beach’s collection demonstrates not only the talent of the American folk artisans, but also the vital role of the horse in 19th century American life.”

Other sale highlights include:

• An important Chippendale carved cherry and walnut block front slant lid desk attributed to the workshop of John Shearer, Martinsburg, VA, early 19th Century. Estimate: $40,000 – 60,000.

• A fine federal inlaid tall case clock, Simon Willard, early 19th Century. Estimate: $15,000 – 25,000.

• An American carved partial gilt and ebonized walnut and maple extra grade desk, Wooton Desk Manufacturing Company, Indianapolis, IN, second half 19th century. Estimate: $6,000 – 8,000.

• An American sterling silver flatware service by Tiffany & Co., New York, NY, 1907-1947. Estimate: $2,000 – 3,000.

• A molded copper prancing horse and rider weathervane, late 19th/early 20th Century.
Estimate: $4,000-6,000

1. Anna HicksSpecialistLos Angeles, United StatesTel: +1 323 436 5463 [email protected]

CLEARWATER, Fla. – On January 16, Blackwell will be offering the estate Hummel collection of Donald Deeks. Purported to be one of the most important of its kind, the accumulation includes many of the rarest Hummels ever produced, including the “Mamas and the Papas,” two dozen 1940s Internationals, prototypes and Archive pieces, and original artwork by Sister Hummel.

“If you’d told me six months ago that we’d be running a Hummel auction, I’d have laughed,” said Edwin Bailey of Blackwell. “They’ve long been an example of collectibles that have lost their luster.”

Lot 153, International Hummel Bulgarian Girl 810 TMK6; Estimate $500-$5,000

But Blackwell accepted, given the collection’s rarity. A close friend of Bob Miller, widely regarded as the foremost Hummel authority, Deeks was a respected collector in his own right. When Miller passed, his Hummels were all auctioned off in Ohio. Deeks won many of Miller’s rarest pieces.

According to his daughter, Donna Boldt, Deeks’ passion for Hummels was shared by his wife.

“My parents bought their first Hummel in Germany — a pair of bookends — in 1952, as newlyweds,” said Boldt. “Dad was stationed there, and they really didn’t have much money at the time.”

Once their daughter graduated from college in 1983, the Deeks’ collection got serious.

“Their first major piece was Ring Around the Rosie,” she recalls, “then they got one of the Mamas and the Papas, then some internationals. That was also the time they picked up the original sketches by Sister Hummel and original steel engraving plates from early Hummel prints.” (All of these pieces will be offered in the January auction.)

Lot 50, Hummel Merry Wanderer Daience 7 TMK1; Estimate $500-$5,000

“When I’m told by a prospective client that they have ‘grandpa’s collection’ of anything — stamps, baseball cards, coins and so on — I sometimes ask if their grandfather’s hobby made him neglect family, go into debt or lose friends,” Bailey said. “It’s mostly in jest, but it is helpful in determining just how serious of a collector someone might have been.”

Deeks’ daughter maintains that her father fell into none of those categories. “His hobbies never overtook his family time,” Boldt said. “Our parents would plan vacations around Hummel-related activities, and they always traveled together. He had good friends, but not many of them — I think he came across to most people as very gruff. [Hummel price guide author] Bob and Ruth Miller were very close friends, and they traveled together frequently.”

Boldt consigned the entire collection to Blackwell, with the exception of the bookends that started it all. For her, those pieces adequately represent 70 years of her parents’ hobby.

“I am not a collector,” Boldt explained. “I want the collection to go to people who will enjoy them as much as my parents did.”

By Blackwell Auctions

---

Featuring the Dick McDonough Collection of Golf Illustration

This sale brightens up January with a collection of golf illustrations formed by the avid collector and esteemed author on the subject, Dick McDonough. Many of the famous illustrators represented here were fans of the sport, including James Montgomery Flagg, Arthur B. Frost, Lealand Gustavson, John Held, Jr., and Arthur Sarnoff. A small group of fine printed graphics and posters completes the section. From the humorous to the picturesque, these depictions tell the visual story of the sport that’s been around for 800 years.Lots 217 to 280

---

---

Children’s Book & Magazine Illustration

The children’s illustration section has Clement Hurd’s first pencil drawing for The Runaway Bunny to come to auction, a colorful Hilary Knight image, and storyboards and artwork for William Pène du Bois’s classics William’s Doll, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Planet of Lost Things.Lots 1 to 46

Related Reading: Illustrator Profile, William Pène du Bois

---

---

General Book, Magazine, Advertising & Design Illustration

Works of narrative art created for books and magazines by twentieth century illustrators include pieces by Rockwell Kent, Maxfield Parrish, Mahlon Blaine, Virgil Finlay, Victor Prezio, and a group of illustrations by N.C. Wyeth for H.W. Longfellow’s The Courtship of Miles Standish. Fresh to the auction block is a small group of intricate pen-and-ink drawings by master of architectural and engineering illustration, David Macaulay, for some of his bestsellers Castle, Cathedral, Treasures from the Motel of the Mysteries, and Underground.Lots 47 to 133

---

---

Theater & Fashion

Compelling performing arts images include Lincoln Center calendar illustrations by Milton Glaser and modernist theater designs by Alexandra Exter.Lots 134 to 157

---

---

Comics, Cartoons & Caricatures

Cartoons and comics showcase classic creators like Charles Addams and Nell Brinkley to current day humorists like Barry Blitt, while the section’s subset of The New Yorker offers fun and bright covers by Constantin Alajalov, Barbara Shermund, and Arthur Getz.Lots 173 to 202

---

---

The New Yorker

Lots 158 to 172

---

---

Sports Illustrations & Cartoons

Not restricted to golf, fans of football, tennis, and baseball will find images relating to those classic games as well, through works by Leslie Thrasher, Gibson Crockett, and the auction debut of an iconic 1932 Saturday Evening Post cover of college football by Joseph Kernan.Lots 203 to 216

---

---

What You Need to Know on Auction Day

This auction will be held live and conducted remotely.

There will not be bidding in the room, though we accept order bids, and interested buyers will be able to participate live via the Swann Galleries App. The app is available in the App Store and on Google Play, which can also be accessed on a desktop at live.swanngalleries.com.

Please note: phone bidding registrations will close the day before the sale at 4pm. 

At this time, our exhibition and auction location at 104 East 25th Street is closed to the public. Private viewings are available by appointment only, and must be arranged in advance. To make an appointment please contact the specialist.

---

Specialist

Christine von der Linn

Director, Illustration Art

[email protected]Contact

Here are some top lots in the categories of fine art, jewelry, watches, Asian art, and Americana from 2020 that gave a jolt of excitement and wildly exceeded expectations in a year that saw major auctions go virtual.

Chinese Blue and White Lotus-mouth
Bottle Vase, sold for: $1,272,500

Elegantly formed, with an elongated pear-shaped body, allover lotus scroll design executed in “heap and pile” style, animal masks applied to the shoulder and six-character Yongzheng mark in underglaze blue in a double ring to the base, the ht. 13 1/2 inch tall vase descended in the current consignor’s family through Ward Thoron (1867-1937), with familial links to shipping and overseas trade.

Alfons Walde (Austrian, 1891-1958), Aufstieg
der Schifahrer, sold for: $612,500

An avid skier, Stephan Paul Laufer (Austrian/American, 1903-1970), commissioned this painting from Alfons Walde after seeing a similar work by the artist on a trip to the Austrian ski town Kitzbühel in the winter of 1937/38. Laufer fled Austria two days after the Anschluss, before Walde had begun the painting. After World War II, Laufer contacted Walde and arranged for the work to be sent to him in the United States.

Andrew Clemens Patriotic Presentation
Sand Art Bottle, sold for: $275,000

Setting a record, the meticulously crafted sand art bottle, one of a small group that survives today, was made by Andrew Clemens (1857-1894) circa 1885-90. The 7 1/4 inch tall bottle, decorated with an eagle, flag, mortar and pestle, and outstretched arms, was dedicated to Hot Springs, Arkansas physician, Dr. Prosper Harvey Ellsworth. The bottle descended in the family and “the fact that the owner is known and the subject matter is occupational adds to the rarity of the piece,” says LaGina Austin, Director of Appraisal & Auction Services, and Arkansas native.

Antique Sapphire and Diamond Ring,
Black, Starr, & Frost, sold: $262,500

The Kashmir sapphire measuring approx. 10.44 x 10.25 x 5.68 mm, and weighing 5.93 cts., framed by old European-cut diamonds, is a classic example of the famed cornflower-blue stones sources Kashmir mines before the sapphires were depleted and the mines closed in the 1880s.

Single-owner Rolex Daytona Reference 6239 “Exotic”
Dial Wristwatch, c. 1968, sold: $200,000

Consigned to auction by a confessed “car guy,” who purchased the chronograph in the early 1970s to use for timing lap speeds. For a few years, the original owner enjoyed it, then stashed away, out of sight and mostly out of mind, for decades. Skinner specialists opened the watch for the first time since its manufacture date to authenticate and install a new case gasket.

MODERN BRITISH ART EVENING SALE, 1 MARCH 2021

London – Sir Winston Churchill’s Scene at Marrakech (circa 1935, estimate: £300,000-500,000) will highlight the Modern British Art Evening Sale, which takes place on 1 March 2021. The painting was a gift from Churchill to Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, one of the most distinguished generals of the Second World War who played a vital role in the retreat from the battle of Dunkirk, which saved many allied lives. Montgomery was instrumental in the tactics that delivered an eventual victory for the allied forces in 1945. The painting has remained with the Montgomery family since it was gifted by Churchill and is being offered at auction for the first time. Sir John Lavery, Churchill’s tutor in painting, was one of many friends who encouraged Churchill to visit Morocco and his first trip to the country was during 1935 where he was inspired by the warmth and quality of light that the environment offered. Scene at Marrakech is one of Churchill’s more accomplished works of this subject matter, harvesting the chromatic intensity of the warm desert sand, which harmoniously contrasts with the blue stream in the foreground. The vivid greens of the vegetation in the background also bring colour, life and energy to the otherwise typically sparse landscape of this scene in Morocco.

Nick Orchard, Head of Department, Modern British Art, Christie’s: “Sir Winston Churchill’s gift of his painting, Scene at Marrakech, to Field Marshal Montgomery symbolises the deep respect and friendship the Prime Minister held for his general; a man who led the British army and was key to the victory for the allied forces in the Second World War. An accomplished artist as well as a celebrated political figure, the work stands among the best paintings executed by Churchill in the 1930s. It is an honour for Christie’s to offer Scene at Marrakech as a highlight in our Modern British Art Evening Sale and we look forward to exhibiting the work publicly for the first time in its history in February and March 2021.”

In 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed Bernard Montgomery as commander of the 8th Army in the Western Desert. The troops had been losing the war against German General Erwin Rommel, and they had been pushed back to Egypt. Although morale was wavering, Montgomery inspired his troops to subsequent victories, driving Rommel out of Egypt after the battle of Alamein in November 1942. Churchill honoured this victory by ringing the bells of Westminster Abbey on the 15th of November 1942, the first time the bells were rung since the start of the war as their intended use was to signal an invasion. Montgomery then pursued the German forces across North Africa to their eventual surrender in Tunisia in 1943. Montgomery then returned to England to command the 21st Army Group, the ground forces for the invasion of Normandy. The invasions commenced on D Day, 6 June 1944, and Montgomery led his forces across Northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany, finally receiving the surrender of the German forces on 4 May 1945, on Lüneburg Heath.

The December 10, 2020, sale of African American Art was met with enthusiasm from collectors. The sale saw nine auction records set, as well as an auction debut from contemporary artist Tyrone Geter. The auction total reached $2.8 million bringing the house’s African American Art sale totals for the year to $9.2 million.

Charles Alston

Leading the December sale was Charles Alston’s Black and White #8, oil on canvas, 1961. The largest of the artist’s works yet to come to auction, the stunning abstraction came from an important series of eight works painted between 1959 and 1961. Black and White #8, earned a record for the artist at $197,000.

---

Abstract Works

Additional abstract works included Sir Frank Bowling’s Repose for SO, acrylic on canvas, 1976, an example of Bowling’s trailblazing mid-1970s series of “poured paintings,” which brought $93,750. Kenneth Victor Young and Thomas Sills returned to the Swann auction block after stellar outings in the January white-glove sale of the Johnson Publishing Company’s art collection. Young was present with a circa-2000 acrylic-on-canvas abstraction in fuchsia and blue, which sold for $81,250, and Sills was featured with New Born, oil on canvas, 1958, at $50,000. A 1972 acrylic-on-paper in dark blue-black and deep pink by Alma Thomas earned $62,500; and a 1978 color pastel, dry pigment and pencil work from Ed Clark’s Louisiana Series realized $60,000.

---

Augusta Savage & Sculpture

Augusta Savage earned a new auction record with the sale of her iconic 1929 sculpture Gamin. The work was acquired directly from the artist before it made its way across the auction block, selling for $112,500. Also representing sculptural works was Simone Leigh with Head, a 2004 glazed and painted fired stoneware work that brought $93,750.

Related Reading: Fine Sculpture by African-American Artists

---

Figurative Works

Figurative works included Wadsworth Jarrell’s Subway, acrylic on canvas, 1970, which brought a record for the artist at $125,000. Another record was earned with John N. Robinson’s 1952 oil-on-canvas portrait of his wife Gladys at $81,250. Romare Bearden was present with two collage works: Woman and Child, 1968, which sold for $173,000, and The Last of the Blue Devils, 1979, which sold for $100,000. Also of note was Emma Amos’s Water Baby, a 1987 acrylic and fabric collage with Kente cloth borders of from Amos’s body of work depicting women bathers, crossing the block at $100,000, the second-highest price at auction behind Let Me Off Uptown, which sold at Swann in 2019 for $125,000.

Related Reading: A Brief History of AfriCOBRA

“Despite the turbulent year, I am thrilled to see the continued growth of our sales, and the rising recognition of the great artists featured: from Harlem Renaissance masters Augusta Savage and Charles Alston to prized postwar painters Wadsworth Jarrell and John N. Robinson. We had a tremendous level of interest in the sale overall with an increasing diverse audience of individual collectors and institutions from around the world.”

Nigel Freeman, Director, African American Art

Strength in Asia, New Digital Tools, and Luxury Categories Drive Rapid Expansion of Client Base

With several auctions still to go before the close of 2020, Sotheby’s consolidated sales thus far this year now stand at over $5 billion. As a result of client focus, adaptation and innovation, Sotheby’s finishes 2020 as the industry leader in this transformative year.

“We are very grateful for the support of our clients and employees in navigating all the changes presented this year. The beauty and important role of art and rare objects seems particularly relevant in this period of pandemic and anxiety. In a matter of months, our global team united to implement a sweeping set of transformative changes to our business, many of which will continue long after the pandemic is behind us. As a result of these innovations and the unresting focus of our employees, we are pleased to end the year as global market leaders. That market leadership extends across a host of different categories across fine arts and luxury, and key regions across the globe including our fifth consecutive year of market leadership in Asia. Most importantly, we have invested in a series of enhancements to our customer experience and other growth initiatives to serve our customers better.We look forward to continuing to innovate and expanding our community in 2021, combining the best of this year’s advances with a welcome return to in-person experiences.”

CHARLES F. STEWART, SOTHEBY’S CEO

Innovation and Change in 2020

Adaptation to Digital-first Formats Brings New Participants
Ease of access to a broader range of offerings brings record influx of new buyers: this year Sotheby’s attracted the largest number of first-time buyers in 15 years with a 27% increase over 2019.

Digital tools enabled an exponentially higher audience reach: New digital catalogue format; Industry-leading social following of over 3.8m followers across social media channels; Reimagined digital-hybrid marquee live auctions

Over 70% of auctions were held online in 2020 (up from 30% last year) and new web and mobile experiences removed friction from registering and bidding, resulting in 80% of all bids placed online

Over 40% of bidders and buyers in online auctions are new to Sotheby’s, and number of buyers under the age of 40 doubled this year

Newly launched digital-first channels enabled new ways to engage with Sotheby’s, including the Sotheby’s Gallery Network and BuyNow marketplace at sothebys.com.

Standout Year for Asia
Asian collectors have proven especially resilient in 2020, with strong results that cemented the company’s market leading position in Asia for the fifth consecutive year with auction sales alone of $932 million

Asian clients account for over 30% of Sotheby’s worldwide auction sales

Of the top 20 lots auctioned by Sotheby’s worldwide, Asian clients bid on 10 and bought 9.

Number of Asian clients bidding online is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, more than doubling in 2020

Please click here to view full round up of 2020 results in Asia

Collectors Adapt To the New Normal
Limitations on travel and in-person viewings in 2020 did not deter clients’ enthusiasm for bidding on works they were unable to view in person. Artworks by the following artists in Sotheby’s marquee auctions attracted bids over $1 million after remote viewing only: Vincent van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat, René Magritte, Mark Rothko, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Alexander Calder and Canaletto. Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus received the highest value online bid ever recorded, with a $73.1 million underbid.

Servicing the unabated demand for Fine Art, Design and Luxury goods available for immediate purchase, Sotheby’s brought a curated cross-category selection closer to our clients with pop up galleries in East Hampton and Palm Beach.

Sotheby’s Emerges as a Market Leader

Industry-Leading Global Auction Sales of Over $3.5 billion (with online sales accounting for over $575 million)
Sotheby’s leads Asia for the fifth consecutive year in addition to leadership of North America and Europe

Sotheby’s sells most valuable works in Hong Kong, North America and Europe this year: Ren Renfa’s Five Drunken Princes Returning on Horseback, sold for $39.6 million; Francis Bacon, Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, sold for $84.6 million, New York; David Hockney, The Splash, sold for $29.8 million

Record for an online auction total smashed twice in one year, with $13.7 million for the Contemporary Art Day Sale in May, and $30.5 million for the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale in November

Record for any artwork sold online: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Head) sold for $15.2 million in New York in June, ten times the highest price for a work bought in an online sale pre-Covid

Highest value bids placed through Sotheby’s mobile app: $12 million for Alberto Giacometti’s Femme Debout, sold in London in July, and mobile bids of over $5 million for Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait of the Artist, and over $3.5 million for Claude Monet’s Les Îles à Port-Villez and An Exquisite Fancy Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring

Record Year for Private Sales
Private Sales this year at Sotheby’s so far total over $1.5 billion, representing more than a 50% increase on 2019, and marking an all-time record any auction house.

New Luxury Formats Capture Growing Demand
Passion-based purchases during the pandemic, new sale formats and digital experiences including the launch of the BuyNow platform in the US, drive Sotheby’s worldwide Luxury sales in 2020. Buy Now meets the demand of our clients to buy and sell beyond the traditional auction calendar, offering a 24/7, 365 access to an exceptional property mix of over 3,000 items across fine jewels, contemporary art, collectible sneakers, watches, designer handbags, decorative objects, interiors and more.

Worldwide Luxury auction sales reach almost $640 million this year

Online luxury sales have quadrupled in volume (255 sales year-to-date) and their worldwide total ($177 million) has grown 600% compared to the same period last year

Sotheby’s emerges as market leader in Jewelry: $310.5 million. (Read full report here)

Records and firsts, including the most valuable jewel auctioned in 2020 and a record for a watch sold online

44% of bidders in luxury sales this year were new to Sotheby’s, up 13% the same period last year

Digital transformation spurs strong sales of wines and spirits, with Asia driving the market. (Read full report here)

*Luxury categories include: Jewellery, Watches, Wine & Spirits, Books & Manuscripts, 20th-Century Design, Handbags & Accessories Sneakers sales and unique themed auctions.

PRESS OFFICE CONTACTS | +44 (0)207 293 6000
Mitzi Mina | [email protected]
Derek Parsons | [email protected]

Freeman’s is delighted to announce the landmark sale of a major, recently rediscovered painting by Carl Moll as part of its February 23 European Art & Old Masters sale.

Executed in 1905, Weißes Interieur (White Interior) has never appeared on the market before. The canvas is presented with a $300,000 – $500,000 pre-sale estimate, the highest price range ever given to a work by the artist at auction.

Acquired in Germany in the early 1920s, Weißes Interieur by Carl Moll has since remained within the same family. It depicts writer and art critic Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps in her first apartment in Döbling, Vienna, which she commissioned architect Josef Hoffmann to design. There, she held an influential Salon attended by intellectuals of the time including Gustav Mahler and Stefan Zweig. A similar work showing Zuckerkandl-Szeps in her second apartment in 1908 currently remains in private hands. 

Moll was one of the founding members of the Viennese Secession along with Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. He became famous for his serene, elegant, often-bare interior scenes as exemplified by Weißes Interieur, which is marked by a sense of domestic tranquility through its careful balance of color and diffuse light.

Weißes Interieur was exhibited in Berlin in early 1905 and again at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen in 1906. Its last public appearance was at Vienna’s celebrated Kunstschau in 1908, where it was featured alongside Gustav Klimt’s iconic The Kiss (now in Belvedere Museum). 

On February 23, Weißes Interieur will be offered alongside a drawing study for the portrait of Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein by Gustav Klimt. The auction will also feature a late still-life with roses by French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, as well as a rare nocturne landscape by Czech tonalist painter Jakub Schikaneder. 

European Art & Old Masters 

February 23, 2021

London – Christie’s announces results for Classic Week, a marquee series of ten online and live sales celebrating craftsmanship and the story of creativity across time, from antiquity to the 21st century, realising £42,227,750 / $56,396,126 / €46,409,732, and reflecting a very positive end of year in the Classic Art Group calendar.

Karl Hermanns, Global Managing Director, Classic Art Group comments, Karl Hermanns, Global Managing Director, Classic Art Group comments, ‘Christie’s Classic group of business finished on a high note in what has been a strong year given the extraordinary circumstances. We saw competitive bidding both for leading artists and for rare connoisseurial works, as well as for the curated taste of excellent private collections. Bidding was global, and the Classic sales have shifted just as much as modern markets to a balance of live and online-only sale formats, as well as dual-site streamed bidding as we held for the Old Master Evening sale which clearly achieved positive results.’

Karl continues, ‘This Classic Week achieved a very impressive total of £42,227,750 against a low estimate of  £32,876,900 across ten auctions. The Old Masters Evening sale outperformed the previous year in terms of percentage sold by lot and by value, as had July’s Old Masters sale. All this is encouraging for the Classic market as we head into 2021, and hopefully when travel restrictions ease our consignment-getting can ramp up to meet the clear demand from buyers.’

Selected results highlights include:

The Joe Setton Collection: Pre-Raphaelites to Last Romantics achieved a total of £5,635,000, selling 80% by lot and 86% by value, and with 71% of lots sold above their high estimate. The sale set ten new world records most notably a new world record for artist Marie Stillman and for a work by a female Pre-Raphaelite artist, The Enchanted Garden, which realised £874,500, and a world record for the artist John Byam Shaw, The Queen of Hearts achieved £790,500.

Italian Drawings from the Robert Landolt Collection realised a total of £1,597,625 with a sell through rate of 77% by lot and 89% by value.  The sale was led by a double-sided drawing by Taddeo Zuccaro showing Two studies of Diana with her hounds (recto) and A partially draped woman holding a vessel on her head (verso) by his friend and fellow artist Bartolomeo Passarotti which realised £350,000.  Early and rare drawings performed particularly strongly and exceptional prices were realised for a drawing from the workshop of Francesco Squarcione £106,250 and a double-sided drawing from the Sienese School, circa 1400, £68,750.  There were records for works on paper by Giorgio Gandini del Grano, Antonio d’Enrico, called Tanzio da Varallo, Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, Il Morazzone and Ciro Ferri.

The Valuable Books & Manuscripts sale totalled £2,854,750 / $3,825,365 / €3,151,644, and was led by Civitates orbis terrarium (1612-18), by Georg Braun and Frans Hogenberg, the first comprehensive atlas of town plans and is one of the great cartographical achievements of the 17^th century, achieving £275,000 / $368,500 / €303,600, (over three times its high estimate of £60,000 – 80,000). Oriental Scenery (1847), the influential series of aquatints depicting India by Thomas and William Daniell realised £187,500 / $251,250 / €207,000, outperforming the estimate of £70,000 – 100,000. A further highlight of the sale included Joanna Lumley O.B.E. presiding over the rostrum to auction a selection of one-of-a-kind works in aid of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, of which Joanna is a Patron. The seven lots achieved a total of £33,000 / $44,220 / €36,432, with proceeds of auction benefiting the charity, which provides specialist nurses and support to seriously ill children across the UK.

Christie’s online sale of Quentin Blake: 200 Drawings totalled £229,750 / $306,946 / €254,333, with proceeds of the auction benefiting House of Illustration, the UK’s only gallery and education space dedicated to illustration and graphics. The sale was 100% sold, and the top lot was Stop smearing yogurt on your brother (estimate: £800 – 1200), which achieved £8,125 / $10,855 / €8,994.

The Old Masters Evening Sale totalled £22,916,750 / $30,391,911 / €25,007,158, selling 97% by value and 86% by lot, and with interest from 20 countries across 3 continents.  There was lively bidding on several lots, including the top lot, a masterpiece and re-discovery of a monumental pronkstilleven by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, constituting one of the finest still lifes to come to market this generation. The Old Masters Evening Sale also achieved six world records, most notably Jan Davidsz. de Heem, (Utrecht 1606-1684 Antwerp), A banquet still life, price realised: £5,766,000 / $7,547,112 / €6,209,936 and Domenico Ghirlandaio, (Florence 1448/9 – 1494), Salvator Mundi, price realised: £2,182,500 / $2,907,090 / €2,392,020. 

The Antiquities auction totalled £4,337,125 / $5,837,770 / €4,792,523, achieving a sell-through rate of 75% by lot and 84% by value.  The top lot of the sale was a Roman Marble Terminal Figure of Dionysus, circa 2^nd Century A.D, which realised £862,500 / $1,160,925 / €953,062.

The Old Masters and Sculpture online sale offered a broad selection of works across all schools of European painting and sculpture, from the 12^th century to the mid-19^th century, and totalled £2,604,125.  Works consigned from the collection of Sir Roy Strong performed very well and overall exceeded their estimates including, Francesco Francia, (circa 1447-1517) and Giacomo Francia (1484 – 1557) Madonna and Child, which realised £75,000.   Further highlights included Dirck Dircksz. van Santvoort, (Amsterdam circa 1610 – 1680), Portrait of a girl, full-length, in a black dress, holding a glove and some buttercups, with a dog, realising  £137,500. The Nottingham alabaster relief of Christ on the Road to Calvary, realized £112,500, representing a very strong price for an alabaster of this type and more than triple its low estimate.

The Classic Week series of sales were the last to be held in London this year.