Antiques Trade Gazette 11


the price must be right


bill in March 1991, it came in at $120,000 (then around £67,000). The second, and a piece which


engendered a real bidding battle, was the 71


/2


Above: the unusual unrecorded shape, probably based on a Kangxi original, and slightly ill-fitting trimmed cover, prompted Christie’s Dominic Simpson to err on the side of caution when setting his £4000-6000 estimate on this 43


/4 in


(12cm) high, c.1801-12, Böttger stoneware teapot in the Byrnes collection. But though academic in taste, these rarities from the earliest days of Meissen production can sometimes soar. This one did, with the bidding going to £48,000.


“Even though Dr Byrnes’ collection was an above- estimate near sellout, the half-sold French assemblage still made substantially more at £1.27m”


as Rod Woolley, London’s departmental head, put it: “You have to have a collecting mentality”. That said, Christie’s got the major pieces in the collection away, pushing the sold percentage in money up to 79 per cent, so that probably justified the event in financial terms. Significantly, even though Dr Byrnes’ collection was an above-estimate near sellout, the half-sold French assemblage still made substantially more at £1.27m. Providing almost 40 per cent of that last figure at £500,000 were two substantial pieces of Vincennes with a grand provenance.


A blue lapis and gilt caillouté ground


covered baluster vase marked for 1755-56, which was a gift on behalf of Louis XV to Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress of Russia, just got away at £200,000 against a £230,000-280,000 estimate. If that sounds disappointing, it’s worth pointing out that when it last went under the hammer as part of the Elizabeth Parke Firestone collection at Christie’s New York rooms where it topped the


in (19cm) high flowerstand and vase decorated in a distinctive form described as enfants camaïeu chaire colorées. This featured landscape vingettes in blue camaïeu highlighted in gilding, as well as small children whose faces and limbs are picked out in flesh tones. The piece was formerly part of the H. de Rothschild Collection before it was sold at Drouot by Ferri in 1994. There was a moment of bidding drama when Jody Wilkie temporarily lost her phone bidder and the room had to wait for reconnection, but afterward she and another phone battled it on to £300,000, double the £120,000- 150,000 estimate. There was less success for another aristocratic Vincennes offering, a pair of c.1750, 71


/2 in (18cm) high bottle coolers


decorated in puce camaïeu with landscapes that were recorded in the archives as having been almost certainly supplied to Madame de Pompadour. They were guided at £75,000-85,000 but bidding halted at £42,000. Also generally struggling were the white figures. Whether in Vincennes glazed porcelain or the later Sèvres biscuit, demand was muted and the majority failed to get away. This is probably a combination of sensitivity to condition and fashion, as the relatively common pastoral/putti groups are not as popular as they were at the time of the Firestone sale. There were, however, two notable exceptions at the end of the sale. As pictured and discussed above right, two scarcer Sèvres biscuit historical figures of the Prince de Condé and Marechel de Turenne from the Sèvres “Grands Hommes” series, estimated at £10,000-15,000 apiece, engendered a small skirmish and both ended up selling


Above: white biscuit and glazed white sculptural figures are not as fashionable these days and prices are lower than they were 20 years ago, so many of the examples on offer in Christie’s on May 12 proved hard to shift. But two notable exceptions are shown here. Both are hard-paste biscuit models from the Sèvres Grand Hommes (Prominent Men) series. First to sell was the 193


/4


of Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, above left, incised LR, a model produced by the sculptor Rolland from a life-size sculpture by Coysevox at Versailles. Despite various small losses and some restoration, this proved rare enough to interest a commission and three telephones before it sold to Jody Wilkie’s phone bidder for £32,000, double the estimate and eight times what it made when it last went under the hammer in 1996 in the same rooms. The second group, above right, depicting Maréchal de Turenne, was modelled by Antoine Pajou and dated to c.1783. In 1999 at Christie’s it made £6500. This time it sold for £30,000 to the same English-speaking phone bidder against two underbidders on phones manned by Christie’s Hervé de la Verrie and Pedro Girao.


to paddle 814 for double-estimate prices at £32,000 and £30,000. Dr Byrnes’ collection was well balanced in terms of variety, mixing some big-ticket elements, like an Augustus Rex vase and Swan Service pieces, with more academic rarities such as Böttger stoneware and more affordable 1760s tea and coffee cups. Thus, there was some crossover with the second installment of the Meissen collection formed by the Hoffmeister brothers offered two weeks later at Bonhams, even down to the armorial wares that were such a Hoffmeister focus.


Inevitably the two events invite comparison. Not surprisingly, when it came down to pieces dominated by


current fashionable taste, there was similar demand at both sales. Pieces with decoration inspired by Oriental ceramics and with the bonus of provenance to the Japanese Palace, were the toast at both sales, as the two Augustus Rex vases on page 10 and the near-identical Kakiemon dishes shown on page 12 both illustrate. But in other less obviously fashion-


driven areas there was more variance. Dr Byrnes, for example, had more success with his lower-estimated Christie- Miller service pieces than the Hoffmeisters. Like them he owned a 91


/2


in (50cm) high figure


in


(24cm) diameter octagonal plate, but his was guided at £10,000-15,000 instead of


continued on page 12


Left: the star turn in the anonymously consigned collection of Vincennes and early Sèvres on offer at Christie’s on May 12 was this rare flower vase and stand with bleu camaïeu and flesh-toned decoration. It was taken to a double-estimate £300,000.


Right: a rare bottle holder from the Swan Service which was taken to £54,000 in the Byrnes sale.


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