Antiques Trade Gazette 55
A Flemish portrait outsells Rothschild château busts
THE contents of the Haras d’Estimauville, a grandiose former stud just outside Deauville, produced a surprise for Christie’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) when they auctioned the 416 lots last month in Paris. The contents had largely come from the Rothschild family – in particular from the 19th century Chateau de Ferrières, built by Joseph Paxton for James de Rothschild of the famous banking family – and had passed down by descent to the vendor. Christie’s had expected an ex-Ferrières entry to provide the top price of the October
26-27 Estimauville sale: a set of four 17th century Italian marble busts after the antique of Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Titus and Vitellius from the Grand Hall. These did perform above expectations – selling to an American collector at €500,000 (£438,595) – but they were ousted from prime position by this 17th century three-quarter length portrait of a young girl holding a fan. Christie’s had
described the 3ft 3in x 2ft 8in (99 x 83cm) oil on canvas as “Flemish school, 17th century” and as “probably originally oval format”. The estimate was just €15,000-20,000, but the work plainly (in hindsight) had hidden depths. A bidding battle
took it to €850,000 (£745,615) at which point the hammer fell to a European dealer. A catalogue footnote
staged their own Tintin sale. It ran to 428 lots and raised just over €1m (£800,000) hammer. The highlight was another original
16in x 2ft (40 x 60cm) double-page spread from Le Sceptre d’Ottokar (1939). Worked in indian ink with blue wash and white gouache highlights, it broke Piasa’s double-plate record from May selling on €246,000 (£215,800) – despite slight foxing, a one-inch tear in the right margin, and tiny pinholes in the corners. A single-owner collection of Tintin
books included a handful of first editions, but the top prices went to two Grande Image reprints from 1942. One, Les Cigares du Pharaon (Cigars of the Pharaoh), first published 1934, from a print-run of just 4000, took €28,000 (£24,560). The other, Le Sceptre d’Ottokar from a
5000 print run, made €15,000 (£13,160). An almost complete set of 764 of
the 782 issues of Le Soir, the German- controlled daily in which Tintin was
published from October 17, 1940 to September 3, 1944 during Belgium’s Second World War occupation, sold for €11,000 (£9650). The Tintin market could yet receive a
fresh international boost next year with the release of The Secret of the Unicorn, a 3-D Tintin film directed by Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. But such is the seriousness with which
comic-strips in general, and Tintin in particular, are now taken in Francophone circles that 2009 saw Comic Strip sections introduced to both the Drouot Yearbook and the BRAFA art and antiques fair in Brussels. Two stands will again be devoted
to the field at the next edition of BRAFA, which runs from January 21-30, overlapping with the world’s largest and oldest gathering of comic-strip fans: the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême (January 27-30), launched back in 1972 and now attended by 6000 professionals each year.
perhaps gives a clue to the identity of this particular sleeper. It states that the
painting was formerly ascribed to Anthony Van Dyck and the sitter identified as Henriette de France. With the current top five auction prices for
Above: the portrait that topped Christie’s Haras d’Estimauville sale in Paris on October 27 at €850,000 (£745,615).
Van Dyck paintings ranging from $2.85m (£2.02m) up to £7.4m, and the highest price for one of his named female subjects currently the £1.4m bid this summer in London for his portrait of the Countess of Carnarvon, it would seem that at least two bidders regard this attribution as still carrying some weight. This single result was significantly instrumental in boosting the final hammer total from the predicted €1.6m-2.5m up to €3.84m (£3.36m). At the other end of the price scale, the auctioneers proved spot-on with their
guides of €10,000-15,000 on three watercolours of the Chateau de Ferrieres painted by its architect Joseph Paxton. Paxton’s views of the south/east and the south/west facades, the latter signed and inscribed Design No 1 for Baron James de Rothschild, Mansion Ferrier, each realised €10,000 (£8770). A third, showing the north/west facade signed and similarly inscribed and dated
June 24, 1854 made €20,000 (£17,545). All three works were pre-empted on behalf of the Musee D’Orsay.
Anne Crane
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