Sotheby’s New York Highlights Sotheby’s New York Highlights Release January - March 2010 IMPORTANT AMERICANA Exhibition opens: 16 January 22-23 January 2010
in the Connecticut River valley in the early 19th century. A Rare and Large Hand-Painted and Stenciled Tin Fancy Goods and Toys Wagon, circa 1870, complete with a driver and team of chestnut horses is also featured (est. $10/30,000). Far fewer of this large size of toy survive than the more common small versions.
CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN FROM THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF ELINOR GORDON 23 January 2010 Exhibition opens: 16 January On the afternoon of January 23 Sotheby’s will offer over 280 lots of Chinese Export Porcelain and China Trade paintings from the private collection of esteemed longtime dealer Elinor Gordon. A fixture at the Winter Antiques Show since its inception in
1955, Gordon is largely credited with elevating Chinese Export Porcelain to an independent collecting category. Indeed, she herself began as an avid collector before entering the trade in 1953. Over several decades, Gordon and her husband Horace quietly amassed a comprehensive collection of works made for both the European and American markets – a collection many
knew through her book, Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, published in 1977, but which few knew had survived more or less intact. Highlights of the collection include an ‘Order of the Cincinnati’ Plate from the earliest service decorated with the order owned by George Washington and Henry Lee (est. $30/50,000), along with three pieces from other services decorated with the badge of the Society of the Cincinnati. Other top works include two pieces in the ‘Fitzhugh’ pattern, a dinner plate and a platter (est. $5/7,000 and $12/18,000 respectively), as well as a Pair of Hounds from the late 18th century (est.
$10/15,000).
OLD MASTER DRAWINGS
Exhibition opens: 23 January 27 January 2010
Among the highlights of the upcoming sale of Old Master Drawings is a wonderful group of twenty drawings depicting spectacular gold objects by the master goldsmith Jacopo Strada (1515-1588). Strada was born in Mantua and trained with Giulio Romano, who was then the chief designer for the Gonzaga court. After his training, he went north to Augsburg & Nüremberg, where he worked for Emperor Maximillian II and Duke Albert V of Bavaria, before rising to the position of Court Antiquary to the Emperor Rudolf II. For Rudolf, he not only designed superb metalwork, but also went on many buying trips to
Italy to acquire treasures for the Emperor’s collections. His designs were immensely influential and widely copied. Drawings of this type were made not only as designs for actual works, but also as records, to be collected as objects of beauty in their own right. A group of this size and importance has never before appeared at auction and estimates for the individual works range from $15,000 to $35,000. (Pictured: Jacopo Strada. Design for an Inkstand Surmounted by a Winged Allegorical Figure Writing in a Book, est. $25/35,000)
The January auction will also include two works by Canaletto from the Collection of Gordon Getty - Study of a Merchant Vessel, which is a rare example of a drawing of a boat
