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64 12th March 2011 international events Some notable highs of


■ Tastes may have moved on, but there is still demand for serious traditional pieces


Anne Crane reports


£1 = €1.1


HAUTE Epoque is a French term for a traditional area of the art market: those early furnishings and works of art that a couple of generations ago were amassed extensively by connoisseurs forming their own kunstkammer.


These days such enthusiasts are


thinner on the ground and buyers in this field often have a more decorative aim, mixing one or two pieces with a more contemporary decor. However, serious pieces still come up


for sale, either as part of broader general auctions or specialist events. One of the latter, a sale of some 260 lots of Haute Epoque and curiosities mounted by Drouot-based étude Piasa (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) on January 21 produced several notable items. Leading the day at an impressive


quadruple-estimate €202,000 (£183,635) was a 19½in (49.5cm) high early 15th century walnut statuette of an apostle, carved in the round, then polychrome- painted and gilded. The saint holds a large book in his


hands, has deeply folded garments, furrowed brows and a serious expression, all characteristic of Burgundian statuary c.1420-30 when it was at its zenith. A number of stylistically similar


statuettes, all carved from walnut and ranging in size from 17½ to 21in (44.5 to 55cm) in height, have already


Above: an ivory diptych of the first half of the 14th century, 8in (20cm) high, €72,000 (£65,455) at Piasa.


Left: an early 15th century Burgundian statue of an apostle from an altarpiece in a Cistercian Abbey in Haute Saône €202,000 (£183,635) at Piasa.


appeared on the market and the group has engendered much interest amongst art historians. Viviane Huchard, former conservator at the Musée National du Moyen Age discussed them in an article that appeared in 2007. It seems that all the known statuettes


of this type are reckoned to have come from the same altarpiece, thought to have been at the Cistercian Abbey of Theuley in Haute-Saône that was dismembered and dispersed. They include another apostle, a deacon and a figure of St Stephen in the Louvre; a St Claire and St John the Baptist; a bishop saint and a St Francis in the Musée de Cluny; a St Louis in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon and a Coronation of the Virgin group in Haute Saône.


Apart from the examples in French


institutions, three other statuettes, thought to have come from the Theuley altarpiece, have been on the market recently: a St Peter that sold at auction in Dijon in 2007 and was then exhibited at London dealer Sam Fogg, and a St Paul and another apostle that appeared in a Parisian gallery in 2008/9. There is also a Virgin of the Coronation


in a Swiss collection, and three other apostle figures whose whereabouts are unknown. Piasa’s apostle, which was acquired


in 1982 in Paris by the vendor, was not recorded until its reappearance for auction in January, but it adds another to the list of what, before it was dismembered, must have been a truly


Left: another of the Piasa highlights was this 2ft 3in (70cm) wide fountain basin, carved from Nembro marble from Lombardy, dated to the late 12th or early 13th century and carved with four heads – Christ, a horned grimacing mask, an aged warrior and a female warrior. It sold for a lower- estimate €25,000 (£22,730). This type of marble was frequently used in Italian convents and churches in the Middle Ages. This piece was possibly used in a cloister and surmounted on a column, with jets of water issuing from the open mouths of the four heads. Like other known examples, the basin may have originally had a stone cover which would have protected the sides and accounts for their lack of erosion.


Right: a 16th/17th century cast iron plaquette of Bacchus from Southern Germany, €250 (£230) at Piasa.


impressive fixture in the Abbey. The sale also included a small carved


fruitwood group of two children at play, one seated on the other’s back. These were attributed to the German sculptor Leonhard Kern (1588-1662) and dated to c.1635-45. There is a similar carving by Kern showing two naked children, one mounted on the other’s shoulders, in a Weimar foundation. A relatively modest €10,000-20,000


guide was overturned when the bidding rose to €165,000 (£150,000). Earlier than either of these was


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