12 19th June 2010 london selection
Left: fashions are as important in antique porcelain as any commodity.
Kakiemon-style decoration is a hot ticket and this was demonstrated at both Meissen sales last month when these near-identical dishes, both with the bonus of Japanese Palace inventory marks, No 69 dramatically outstripped estimates to take near- identical sums. The 81
/2 in (22.5cm) diameter version
on the left trebled its £8000-12000 estimate at the Hoffmeister sale when Errol Manners secured it against a lady collector in the room for £29,000. The slightly larger version shown below left similarly eclipsed its lower £4000-6000 estimate in Christie’s Byrnes sale to take £30,000 from a dealer.
Above: two more illustrations of the popularity of Kakiemon-decorated Japanese Palace pieces from Bonhams’ Hoffmeister sale. The10in (25cm) diameter dish, above left, painted with three sparse Indianische blumen sprigs, sold for £13,000 to a German dealer in the room against telephone competition, while the larger 12in (28cm) wide octagonal dish, above right, painted with the so-called Hob in the Well Kakiemon pattern was carried off by a Japanese dealer in the room against a telephone for £28,000.
The Italian armorial Meissen porcelain that had struggled to sell in the first Hoffmeister sale fared rather better this time around thanks partly to some increased Italian interest.
“Even in the Byrnes sale there were some things that just refused to sell, however realistically pitched”
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£15,000-25,000 and, while the Hoffmeister version didn’t sell, his got away at £17,000. He also had a 10in (25cm) quatrefoil bowl which Christie’s had guided at just £6000-8000 because of its condition (repaired and restored rim and a repainted restored side and base crack). This ended up going for £14,000. While not all the pieces in the Byrnes collection were in mint condition, it just so happened that the potential highlights, the blue and white Augustus Rex vase and his two Swan Service pieces, were very well preserved. The latter, again not burdened by punchy estimates, were keenly pursued, with a large 133
/4 in (35cm) high oval dish making £45,000 and an unusual 93 /4 in
(23cm) wide bottle holder shown on page 11 taking no less than £54,000. Three opening lots of his sale, pieces of academically interesting Böttger stoneware with the benefit of very modest estimates, all sailed away, especially the Kangxi-inspired teapot of unusual shape shown on page 11, which stormed to £48,000. Still, even in the Byrnes sale there were some things that just refused to sell, however realistically pitched. His small tablewares with Teniers-style decoration, mostly coffee cups and saucers, were plainly not flavour of the month, for example. Despite relatively low estimates, they remained unsold.
Left: this documentary tea bowl and saucer decorated with the arms of the Capello family of Venice and bearing the date 1743 to a wooden sign painted to the bowl is thought to have been a gift from Augustus the Strong to Piero Andrea Capello, the Venetian Ambassador to London, who passed through Dresden en route to Hanover in January 1744. It was the object of a two-way contest between a German dealer in the room and a telephone, with the dealer winning at £15,000, more than double the estimate.
Left: two telephones did battle for this part-gilt tea bowl and saucer decorated with a continuous hunting scene and riverscape, taking it to a double-estimate £13,000. It bears the arms of Pisani and Corner and is thought to have been created for the marriage of Vincenzo Pisani and Lucrezia Corner in 1745.
THE second sale of the mammoth collection of Meissen formed by the Hoffmeister brothers took place at Bonhams (20/12% buyer’s premium) on May 26. It contributed a further
£897,050, bringing the ongoing tally to £2m. So with one more part to go, it looks as though the auctioneers’ £3m projection for the entire series will be met.
Left: this impressive covered sugar box from the Sulkowski service combines a rare shape with amorials, oriental flower sprigs and baroque female mask feet. It easily outstripped a cautious £4000-6000 estimate to sell for £22,000 in the Byrnes collection sale at Christie’s.
Interestingly, the statistics for both sales tally pretty closely. Hoffmeister Part One, held in November 2009, offered 116 lots and recorded selling rates of 74 per cent by volume and 78 by value. Part two, with 103 lots, saw 78 per cent sold by volume and 76 by value. But if you were standing in the room the second sale felt a little more buzzy. True, neither sale was packed to the gunwales in the way of a Bonhams’ British ceramics sale or the recent Sampson and Horne auction, but Meissen is an international market, so a fair slice of the action came via the phones. Of those who were there in person (a mix of London, Continental and Japanese trade and private buyers), many had also turned out last November. London’s Errol Manners, Munich’s Dr Kohlmann, Frau
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