18th Century
> 1711 The Workshop of the Jesuits
2018 SOLD for HK$ 240M including premium
The activity is developed in a workshop of the Forbidden City under the direct control of the emperor. A new glassmaker arrived in 1695 brings with him the enamels invented by Glauber to create splendid colors with colloidal gold. The glass pieces colored with the enamel of the foreigners (in Chinese: falangcai) serve as diplomatic gifts.
The potters of Jingdezhen were working with the limited color range of the wucai for a purpose of productivity. It was tempting to apply the new colors to the porcelain for bringing more luxury to the pieces for the personal use (yuzhi) of the emperor. Chinese craftsmen joined the Jesuits of the imperial workshop around 1711 to develop a mixed technology.
Chinese porcelain was unknown in Europe and the Jesuits considered it impossible to affix the enamel over the glaze. They were supplied from Jingdezhen with incompletely glazed pieces to paint the outside wall and the base with the colors unavailable at Jingdezhen. A second heating completed the process.
One of the rarest ground colors of the falangcai is a pink with colloidal gold. Two 14.7 cm diameter bowls, each one decorated with four lobed cartridges showing flowers in front of a blue sky, were probably made side by side. They carry the yuzhi mark of Kangxi. The floral themes are however different, attesting to a close cooperation between Chinese and European artists. The bowl kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei follows the traditional Chinese auspices of the four seasons.
The other bowl is of European decoration, displaying flowers without symbolic meaning and a perspective effect that is not usual in traditional Chinese art. It will be sold by Sotheby's on April 3 in Hong Kong, lot 1. Please watch the short video shared by the auction house.
The yangcai will be the complete mastery of the falangcai process at Jingdezhen around the sixth year of the Yongzheng emperor, 1729 CE. The participation of foreigners will no longer be necessary.
1743 Qianlong reticulated vase
2010 UNPAID at £ 43M plus a buyer's premium of £ 8.6M, at Bainbridges
These first years are experimental, with pieces of all shapes. Qianlong who succeeds Yongzheng in 1735 CE is just as demanding as his father. To please him, they must constantly bring novelties that match his ambitious role as Son of Heaven, accumulating the styles of all dynasties and integrating the new European trends.
In the early 1740s Tang Ying's expertise in Jingdezhen has no limits. The most complicated pieces are technological syntheses that require a long succession of firings at the risk of a low yield.
In a memorandum submitted to Qianlong in 1743 CE, Tang Ying apologizes for the small amount of units produced in the new style of double vase, only nine. The inner part is enclosed in the outer vase with a distance of about 3 to 4 cm between their walls. The outer vase is pierced by large holes of various elegant shapes that allow the peeping to the inner part. The exterior is decorated with the same profusion as more classical imperial pieces.
Qianlong does not request the impossible. He authorizes to complete in pairs those models that had been produced in single pieces before suspending this technique sine die.
A reticulated vase with pairs of fishes surfaced in Middlesex in 2010. 40 cm high, it mixes archaic, Song, Buddhist and rocaille inspirations, juxtaposing the classic celadon and the modern yangcai in a yellow ground with sgraffiato. The inner wall is a blue and white in Ming style. After 30 minutes of bidding, Bainbridges's hammer fell at £ 43M, £ 51.6M including the premium, but the payment failed and the sale was cancelled. Here is the link to the 2012 report by The Telegraph before the sale was cancelled.
In 2010 nobody had considered the catalog of the exhibition in New York in 1905 of a Japanese collection where its pairing piece had been photographed and described. This vase has resurfaced. It was sold for HK $ 150M from a lower estimate of HK $ 50M by Sotheby's on October 3, 2018, lot 3001. It differs from the Middlesex specimen by a rarer variant of the reign mark and so may be the master item produced for that pair.
1752 100 Birds
2021 SOLD for RMB 266M by Poly
The technology of the double vase nevertheless remained appealing for offering the most favorable auspices. Such pieces may be identified as turning heart bottles.
One of them, 63 cm high, is among the most massive in that category. The outer belly features a flying phoenix in a scenery. The open work matches the details of the landscape in irregular shapes, which is an additional feat with a higher risk of deformation during the firing. The rotation of the inner cylinder reveals the flock of ten species of auspicious birds in their flight facing the phoenix as a symbol of the harmonious balance of yin and yang.
The Divine Mother Empress Dowager Chongqing was held in very high regard by her son the Qianlong emperor and her 60th birthday in 1752 CE was one of the most lavish events of his reign.
The Imperial archives record that, on the fifth month of Qianlong's 18th year, the emperor commissioned Jingdezhen to fire a turning heart bottle with fighting dragons which was delivered by Tang Ying in the 11th month of the next year after 18 months of labor.
The yangcai vase with the phoenix was not documented. It was certainly prepared in the same period for a filial presenting to the empress dowager who was known to enjoy the story of the '100 birds'. It was sold for £ 330K by Christie's on June 15, 1999, lot 99, and for RMB 266M by Poly on June 7, 2021, lot 5153.
Undated Qianlong Double Gourd Vase
2010 SOLD for HK$ 253M by Sotheby's
This 40 cm high double gourd vase without handles bears the Qianlong imperial mark. By its design and execution, it is a magnificent example of the yangcai in the techniques and styles of Jingdezhen with its pale yellow background, a long cylindrical slender neck above the upper bulb and sgraffiato incisions.
This piece is enamel painted with flowers including lotus, peonies and hibiscus and with foliate scrolls. The large lower bulb is centered at both sides with a pink double lotus bloom in the style of Giuseppe Castiglione. Symbols of longevity are displayed in two gold medallions. The interior is glazed in bright turquoise.
Designed in Beijing around 1741 CE, the sgraffiato becomes in Jingdezhen a dense pattern of scrollwork deeply applied on the monochrome background for reminding a rich brocade.
1760 Le Melon entamé by Chardin
2024 SOLD for € 26.7M by Christie's
Busy with these official functions and financially secure, Chardin executes still lifes in a new style started in 1748, very different from his earlier depictions of dead games, and closer to classical Dutch arrangements. He is more attentive to reflections, to light. The colors are less impastoed. The artist is more interested in volumes and composition than in details. The subjects are varied : game, fruits, bouquets, pots, jars, glasses.
Le Bocal d'abricots, painted and dated by Chardin in 1758, is an oval oil on canvas 57 x 51 cm. This marble table top is featuring glasses, pieces of bread, a knife, cups, a tambourine and a tied package placed around a jar containing apricots.
Le Bocal d'abricots was owned by the Parisian goldsmith and silversmith Jacques Roettiers. In 1760 Chardin executed and dated a pendant still life for this patron, in the same oval format.
On the same table top, two bottles and a pitcher surround a sliced melon, some peaches, plums and two pears. The freshly cut slice balanced precariously on top of the melon predated by 120 years the precarious arrangements of Cézanne's tabletops. The warm palette has been described by Rosenberg as a "mysterious half light". The image is shared by Wikimedia.
Both works were exhibited at the Salon de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1761 and illustrated by Saint-Aubin in the catalogue.
Coming from the former Marcille collection and a Rothschild provenance, Le Melon entamé was sold for € 26.7M from a lower estimate of € 8M by Christie's on June 12, 2024, lot 5.
An identical replica executed by the workshop in 1763 is owned by the Musée du Louvre.
Le Panier de fraises des bois, oil on canvas 38 x 46 cm, was also released for the Salon de 1761 and illustrated by Saint-Aubin in the livret of that exhibition. It displays a stack of wild strawberries as a spectacular conical tabletop in a basket. That vivid red fruit had been Coorte's preferred pictorial theme. It was sold for € 24.4M by Artcurial on March 23, 2022, lot 15. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Jean Siméon Chardin’s The Cut Melon — a spellbinding work by the ‘great magician’. This masterpiece from the Rothschild family collection is offered in Paris on 12 June. Find out more here: https://t.co/wLwUyPUG6L pic.twitter.com/LM9fw6wcET
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 30, 2024
1764 Pacification of the Western Regions by Xu Yang
2021 SOLD for RMB 410M by Poly
Xu Yang was a court artist. A handscroll 43 x 1860 cm in bright colors on paper is titled Picture of the Presentation of the Captives for the Pacification of the Western Regions. Commissioned by the emperor, it depicts scenes in Beijing during a military ceremony in the Qing palace after the victories. His sense of perspective and figuration were influenced by European art.
This detailed topographic picture leads the viewer from Zhengyang gate to the Forbidden City through Tiananmen Square. Crowds are displayed alongside lines of guards and flag bearers.
According to the archives Xu Yang should have completed this painting before the 29th year of Qianlong's reign, 1764 CE.
This piece was originally displayed with brocade wrapping in the imperial palace and bears several seals of Qianlong. It was sold for RMB 134M by Sungari in 2009 and for RMB 410M by Poly on June 6, 2021, lot 1935 and is illustrated in the post sale report shared by CNN. Two details are illustrated in the tweet below.
Maybe the most expensive item in the coming Beijing Spring Auction:
— China in Pictures (@tongbingxue) May 17, 2021
Settling Down the Western Regions and Presenting Prisoners,
hand scroll by court artist Xu Yang, Qianlong Period (1736-1796), 1,800 cm wide, Poly Auction, POR. pic.twitter.com/SJqs7nM4DR
1765 Portrait of a Champion by Stubbs
2011 SOLD 22.4 M£ including premium
Made around 1765, the oil on canvas for sale by Christie's in London on July 5 is certainly more outstanding. It is estimated £ 20M. This is the portrait of a horse named Gi mcrack, who was winning most of the races where he was engaged.
This broad composition, 102 x 196 cm, simple and effective, is divided into two parts. On the left, Gimcrack shows his beautiful profile, surrounded by a coach, a stable boy and a jockey.
A race is held on the horizon, on the right. A horse is far ahead of his three followers. He is also Gimcrack, of course. He is therefore shown twice on that image that had everything to flatter the sponsor of the work, Lord Bolingbroke, owner of the champion.
Stubbs is very accurate in anatomical detail, but still shows horses galloping with their four legs flying above the ground. This feature, which can be excused one century before the studies of Muybridge, applies here only in the background and provides this work with an undeniable poetic dimension.
POST SALE COMMENT
Sold £ 22.4 million including premium, Gimcrack has once again won his race.
#GeorgeStubbs was born #OTD in 1724. We sold Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath in 2011 for £22,441,250 #WorldAuctionRecord #artistbirthday pic.twitter.com/B7fCB2eivD
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) August 25, 2017
1768 The Rialto by GUARDI
Intro
A pair of oils on canvases is unique in the history of the vedutas by the conjunction of their monumental dimension, 120 x 204 cm each, with the maturity of Guardi. The canvases are wider than the looms in use at that time and a nearly invisible seam had been needed in the lower part of the image.
They show the commercial district of Venice, the Rialto, on the Grand Canal on both sides of its spectacular single arched covered bridge which housed shops. The dense and gentle animation is typical of Guardi but the cloudy atmosphere and contrasting sunlight are worthy of Canaletto.
The sequence of monuments is correct but these panoramas are too wide to respect a unique perspective. The large format brings an abundance of details and an exceptional vision of the Venetian atmosphere.
The first owner was a young British aristocrat who had his tour in 1768, arriving in August in Venice. Guardi worked from the collection of his autograph drawings and the configuration of the monuments does not provide a terminus post quem.
1
Northward
2011 SOLD for £ 26.7M by Sotheby's
2
with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi
2017 SOLD for £ 26M by Christie's
Une toile monumentale (122x200cm) de Francesco Guardi fait partie de la vente Old Master à Londres le 6/07 https://t.co/99ODYfvEzn pic.twitter.com/hHqqm8dzHo
— Christie's Paris (@christiesparis) June 12, 2017
1787 US Constitution
2021 SOLD for $ 43M by Sotheby's
The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia from May 25, 1787 with George Washington as president. The final version of the US Constitution established by the committee was signed on September 17 by 39 of the 55 delegates.
The text was immediately edited in 500 copies for the use of delegates and congressmen. No public release was suitable at that time as it still had to be ratified by the federal Congress and the states. The 6-page 41 x 26 cm document printed by John Dunlap in partnership with David Claypoole includes in appendix the list of delegates who voted for it and a copy of Washington's letter urging the ratification by the Congress.
This original US Constitution is still in force today without fundamental changes. Such an unprecedented longevity is due to the remarkable political insight of the delegates who prepared it under the leadership of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and to the foreseen capability to amend it as necessary.
Thirteen copies are surviving. One of them was sold for $ 43M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2021, lot 1787. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
This piece is the top highlight from the collection of S. Howard Goldman and his widow Dorothy. It is sold for the benefit of the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation whose aim is to advance the principles of America’s founding documents through educational programs. Mrs Goldman introduces her collection and educational purpose in the video shared by Sotheby's.
From the same collection, a copy of the first separate printing of the so called Bill of Rights was sold for $ 1.53M from a lower estimate of $ 700K by Sotheby's on November 23, 2021, lot 71.
This 3-page 34 x 21 cm document is dated August 24, 1789. It was prepared for proposing to the Congress a resolution of amendments to the US Constitution. Such articles had been desired by US citizens for preventing the government to infringe the basic individual rights. They were approved on September 26, 1789 and constitute the Third to Twelfth Amendments.
The underbidder for the US Constitution had been an organization just created for the express purpose of raising money to acquire it. They gathered more than 17,000 contributors who, in a matter of only weeks, raised more than $ 40 million, not enough against the winning bidder, the fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin.
1791 The Pearls of Queen Marie-Antoinette
2018 SOLD for CHF 36.4M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
During early phase of the Revolution, Marie-Antoinette who is still the Queen plans to flee to Austria. In January 1791, helped by her chambermaid, she prepares a cassette with her favorite jewelry. The jewels reach Vienna but the king and queen are arrested in Varennes in June 1791.
In 1795 Madame Royale, the only survivor of the children of the royal couple, is freed from the revolutionary prisons and goes into exile in Vienna. The emperor Franz II returns the jewels to her while keeping the rubies in compensation for a pension granted to the princess. In Madame Royale's legacy in 1851, one third of the jewelry is attributed to her niece Louise, Duchess of Parma.
Around 1930 Marie-Anne of Austria, wife of the acting Duke of Parma, describes in an inventory four jewels in pearls and diamonds of which she attests that they come from Marie-Antoinette. These pieces, which had never been published or exhibited, were included in the auction of the royal jewelry from the Bourbon-Parma collection by Sotheby's on November 14, 2018.
Lot 97, a three-row pearl necklace with a diamond clasp, was sold for CHF 2.3M including premium over a lower estimate of CHF 200K. The next two lots, a necklace and a pair of earrings, were sold for CHF 450K each including premium.
Lot 100 was a 15.90 x 18.35 x 25.85mm drop shaped pearl assembled in a pendant with a large diamond clasp and a bow of small diamonds. This interesting souvenir of a queen who had desired to live in the utmost luxury was sold for CHF 36.4M including premium over an estimate of CHF 1M to 2M.
Marie Antoinette’s pendant sets auction record for a natural pearl at @Sothebys in Geneva:https://t.co/1glDvfpi3w pic.twitter.com/5z2iNTmd8a
— AntiquesTradeGazette (@ATG_Editorial) November 15, 2018