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
1728 (est. $200/300,000) will also be featured, as well as a Very Rare Elizabeth I Enameled Gold-Mounted Book of Morning Prayers, circa 1590 (est. $50/100,000, pictured here). The mounts on front and back depict the arms and crests of the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, married 1568. She was the daughter of the famous Bess of Hardwick; he was ambassador to France in 1596.
IMPORTANT ENGLISH FURNITURE AND DECORATIONS, INCLUDING PROPERTY FROM HAYFIELD HOUSE: A JULIA MORGAN VILLA Exhibition opens: 24 October 28 October 2009
Highlighting the sale of Important English Furniture and Decorations is a Highly Important Pair of George IV Mahogany Armchairs from Hamilton Palace, circa 1827, possibly designed by Charles Percier (est. $80/120,000, pictured here). The chairs were originally part of a suite of ten armchairs and four couches that was supplied to Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, for Hamilton Palace, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Also included in the sale is an Important Jamaican Engraved Tortoiseshell Case and Pair of Combs, dated 1688 (est. $5/7,000). The case and combs belong to a small group of other similar sets produced in Jamaica during the last quarter of the 17th century, one of which is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.
PRINTS Exhibition opens: 24 October 29-30 October 2009
Among the modern highlights of the October Prints sale is Pablo Picasso’s 1938-9 etching and aquatint Femme au Tambourin (est. $500/600,000), which depicts Picasso’s lover Dora Maar. One of the best utilizations of aquatint within Picasso’s body of work, Femme au Tambourin is also amongst the finest examples of Cubist and Modernist printmaking. Also featured in the modern offerings is a woodcut by Max Beckmann from 1923, Group Portrait, Eden Bar (est. $200/300,000). This very rare work depicts a trio at the Eden Bar at the Berlin hotel of the same name. As with many of Beckmann’s works, the image caries a political weight as this hotel was the site of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, the leader of the Sparticist movement. The contemporary portion of the auction is led by Jasper Johns’ 1973 screenprint in colors Flags I (est. $350/550,000). The Flag is an icon of Jasper Johns’ imagery in all media and this richly layered screenprint represents the most elaborate example of the Flag within his printmaking oeuvre. The sale will also include an extraordinary set of nine engravings by Louise Bourgeois executed in 1947 and titled He Disappeared into Complete Silence (est. $120/180,000, pictured here). Described by the artist as an exploration of the spiral into and recovery from depression, the proposed edition was 44, however only a small number of complete sets are known to exist and even fewer were assembled and issued at the time they were made.
RUSSIAN ART Exhibition opens: 28 October 2 November 2009
Sotheby’s fall auction of Russian Art in New York, comprising fine and applied works of art, will include At the Window by Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin (est. $600,000/800,000, pictured here), an extraordinary double portrait from Korovin’s brief
