Enfilade

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Dans les blés
(estimate: £700,000–1 million)

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From the press release (via Art Daily) . . .

Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection (Sale 17726)
Christie’s, London, 4 July 2019

Telling the remarkable story of objects collected across centuries and treasured for generations, Christie’s will offer a landmark collection sale Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection in London on 4 of July (Sale 17726). Comprising approximately 57 lots—each with exceptional provenance—this sale includes important European furniture and works of art collected by members of the prominent Rothschild banking family, particularly by Baron Gustave de Rothschild (1829–1911), and housed in some of the family’s magnificent residences.

The sale captures the spirit of le goût Rothschild—the celebrated aesthetic that has influenced many European and American interiors since the 19th century, following the collecting traditions of European royal courts during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Enlightenment periods. With estimates ranging from £10,000 to £2.5 million, select highlights will be on view in New York between 25 and 30 April and in Hong Kong from 24 to 27 May, followed by the London preview which opens to the public on 29 June.

Charles Cator, Deputy Chairman, Christie’s International: “The Rothschild name is synonymous with collecting at the very highest level, with many of the world’s greatest works of art having a Rothschild provenance. Their fabled name is added to the extraordinary roll call of illustrious owners of these masterpieces—many of them royal—from Louis XV and Marie Antoinette to William Beckford and Prince Demidoff. This sale is a celebration of connoisseurship and passionate collecting, and we are very proud to have been entrusted with these masterpieces. With the great resonance of the Rothschild provenance among collectors and institutions this is an unparalleled opportunity, which marks a very special high point in my long career at Christie’s. It is thrilling to have the privilege of handling these supreme works.”

Highlights include

Furniture with Royal Provenance

One of a pair of royal Flemish tortoiseshell, brass, pewter, inlaid ‘boulle’ marquetry, and giltwood cabinets attributed to Hendrick van Soest, Antwerp, ca. 1713 (estimate: £1.5–2.5million).

The top lot of the sale, a pair of royal Flemish tortoiseshell, brass, and pewter inlaid marquetry and giltwood cabinets, was commissioned in Antwerp around 1713 for Philip V King of Spain, the second son of the Grand Dauphin and grandson of Louis XIV (estimate: £1.5–2.5 million). This highly important pair of cabinets on stand, inlaid with superb and precious marquetry panels in tortoiseshell and engraved metals, belongs to a group of four cabinets originally commissioned for Philip V King of Spain from the workshop of the celebrated Antwerp furniture-maker and dealer Henrick Van Soest (1659–after 1726), one of the most prestigious cabinetmakers of Flanders who worked in the great tradition of Netherlandish marquetry furniture.

Commissioned by Queen Marie Antoinette of France, almost certainly for her Petit Trianon, a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany table à écrire, circa 1780, is by Jean-Henri Riesener, the Queen’s favoured cabinetmaker (estimate: £600,000–1,000,000). Notably, the table is marked with Marie Antoinette’s garde-meuble brand, which was applied to her personal furniture after 1784.

Further lots with royal provenance include a sundial by Julien Le Roy (1686–1759), which is thought to have been commissioned by King Louis XV (1710–1774) (estimate: £60,000–80,000).

Traditionally from the Spanish royal family and part of a very small group of luxurious 18th-century furniture incorporating Sèvres porcelain plaques is a Louis XVI ormolu, Sèvres porcelain and marquetry guéridon, circa 1782–83, by one of the most famous ébénistes of the late 18th century, Martin Carlin (estimate: £400,000–600,000). Acquired by Baron Gustave de Rothschild, this lot is closely related to a guéridon in The Frick Collection. Other lots with notable links to leading institutions include a magnificent late Louis XV ormolu-mounted ebony and Japanese lacquer ensemble consisting of two commodes and a pair of encoignures by Bernard III van Risenburgh, son of the celebrated master known as BVRB. Conceived in a bold avant-gardist neo-classical style, the commodes from this group are closely related to the masterpiece by the same ébéniste now at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The group comprises three lots with a combined estimate of £1,500,000 to £2,500,000.

Kunstkammer Objects

A set of ten parcel-gilt polychrome square enamel plaques by Leonard Limousin, circa 1550, each depicting an apostle in a circular wreath and with an identifying banner, have an estimate of £200,000 to £300,000. Also acquired by Baron Gustave de Rothschild, ‘The Rothschild Apostles’ exemplify Limousin’s finest creations in his clear sense of colour and the lively and original compositions. Two of the plaques, of Saint Andrew and Saint Bartholomew, are signed ‘LL’. These plaques formed part of a larger set of sibyls, prophets, and saints that adorned the antependium of an altar in the now-lost church of Santa Maria della Celestia in Venice. A number of the other plaques from the antependium, and also a liturgical lamp that hung above the altar, remained in the Rothschild family until recently; one is in the Correr Museum in Venice.

An important German silver-gilt double-cup, mark of Hans Beutmuller, Nuremberg, 1594–1602, was in the collections of both Baron Mayer Carl von Rothschild and Baroness James de Rothschild (estimate: £200,000–300,000). It is in the Gothic style revived in Nuremberg by Hans Petzold (1551–1633) at the end of the 16th century. Hans Beutmüller (1588–1622) worked with Petzold and ranked, in his own right, among the most reputable Nuremberg goldsmiths. A Venetian rectangular parcel-gilt, gilt-bronze, and rock crystal casket, circa 1600, belonged to the renowned collector and author William Beckford in the early 19th century (estimate: £100,000–150,000). With the precious use of rock crystal and Islamic-inspired lacquer decoration, it is obvious why it would have appealed to Beckford. When this casket was sold in the celebrated Fonthill Abbey sale of 1823, it was said to have come from the collection of Pope Paul V Borghese, who could have commissioned it himself. The casket was purchased at the Fonthill sale by an agent on behalf of the 2nd Earl Grosvenor.

Old Master Paintings

David Teniers’ lively and brilliantly observed The Ham Dinner was painted in 1648, when the artist was at the height of his powers (estimate: £800,000–1.2 million). Executed on an impressively large copper plate, allowing for a high degree of finish, it is an excellent example of the tavern scene genre that Teniers developed and excelled in. The painting has exceptional provenance, having been in the collection of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry (1778–1820), son of the future King Charles X of France, and later belonging to Count Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato (1813–1870), a Russian industrialist and one of the most significant collectors of his day. A further highlight is Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s dynamically designed, vibrantly coloured, and masterfully executed Dans les blés (estimate: £700,000–1 million), a masterpiece of the artist’s full maturity and an outstanding example of the artist’s intimate, small-scale ‘boudoir’ pictures, which are recognised as his most original and lasting contribution to the history of art.