Sotheby’s New York Highlights Release September - December 2009 FINE CHINESE FURNITURE, WORKS OF ART AND CARPETS FROM THE ARTHUR M. SACKLER COLLECTIONS Exhibition opens: 11 September 16 September 2009 17
Pair of Sèvres Vases Medicis dated 1844 (est. $70/90,000); A Rare Sèvres Déjeuner, dated 1758/9 (est. $35/45,000); a Rare Meissen Figure of Harlequin Playing Bagpipes, circa 1736-40 (est. $15/25,000); and a German Porcelain Rectangular Box and Cover, probably Meissen, mounted in gold and silver set with rubies, circa 1755-60 (est. $30/50,000).
IMPORTANT JUDAICA Exhibition opens: 18 November 24 November 2009
The November sale of Important Judaica will be highlighted by a fine group of silver and paintings from a Viennese private collection, including two works by Isidor Kaufmann and three examples by the Austrian artist, Franz Xaver Wolfe. Another highlight of the paintings offered will be Max Rabes 1906 painting The Tomb of Absolom (est. $30/40,000, pictured here). Featured in the sale will be twelve original illustrations by Ze'ev Raban for the Book of Job (est. $60/80,000). The sale will include a selection of Silver and Metalwork highlighted by a German Silver Gilt Hanukah Lamp, circa 1750 estimated at $200/300,000.
Other highlights include a German Torah Shield, Johann Alois Siffer, Germany, circa 1800 (est. $20/30,000) and a charming miniature by Arthur Szyk (est. $7/9,000) from the Estate of the late Dr. M. Dubrowy. Dr. Dubrowy, and his wife, Dr. Miriam Schaeffer-Gaertner, began collecting Judaica following World War II, sharing a desire to preserve as much as possible of the remnants of the once-flourishing European Jewish religious and artistic communities. An extremely rare Torah Scroll from Spain, dated to the late thirteenth century, the “Golden Age” of Spanish Jewry, will also be featured (est. $300/500,000). This scroll, written nearly 200 years before the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula, is one of only a handful of complete pre-expulsion Spanish Torah Scrolls in the world. The present lot is the only known exemplar which incorporates, in addition to the usual adornment of certain letters of the text, the more ancient kabbalistic schema of embellishment found in the writings of Rabbi Shem-Tov ibn Gaon.
ISRAELI AND INTERNATIONAL ART Exhibition opens: 18 November 24 November 2009
Sotheby’s Israeli and International Art sale in New York has become a much anticipated annual event on the fall calendar. The sale this year will be held on 24 November and will feature superb examples of classic and contemporary Israeli art spanning 100 years. Among the highlights of a number of works by Reuven Rubin is a painting from the 1920’s, showing goats on a hillside near Safed. Painted in the artist’s typical naïve style of this period, it expresses the artist’s optimism about the future and his delight at exploring the landscape as a new immigrant (est. $200/300,000). Another work by Rubin, Pomegranates, (est. $70/90,000, pictured here) together with an intimate interior by Avigdor Arkiha, (est. $70/90,000) are being sold to benefit the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. In the contemporary section of the sale, collectors will find a rare triptych by Michal Rovner entitled Shift 2 (Pink Birds II), from 2000 as well as works by Adi Nes, another photographer whose works have been exhibited
