Christies announces sale of Property from The Collection of the Late John Appleby A CHANNEL ISLAND TREASURE HOUSE
Single-Owner Collection Built Up Over A Lifetime Offered Over Several Sales at Christie’s
News-Antique.com - Jul 05,2010 - (News-antique.com)London – Christie’s is proud to announce the sale of Property from The Collection of the Late John Appleby, which will be offered from July to November 2010, throughout several specialist sales at Christie’s, as well as a single-owner collection sale to be held in South Kensington on 4 November 2010. The collection, consisting of approximately 2,000 lots, includes an important selection of Old Master paintings, British drawings, watercolours, marine paintings and a large unrivalled group of topographical views; it is expected to realise £2-3 million.
An affable connoisseur, John Appleby’s passionate enthusiasm was infectious. He moved to Jersey, in the Channel Islands during the 1970s and traded as a dealer, primarily in watercolours and topographical views of Jersey and the Channel Islands. In 1973, Appleby’s enthusiasm to secure a portrait of the Jersey born actress Lillie Langtry by Sir John Everett Millais, led him to considerably overrun his commission bid from The States of Jersey in order to secure it. Luckily they honoured his bid and it is now one of the jewels of the museum collection. He became an expert in the field keen on sharing his extensive knowledge, and published several books on his specialist subject ranging from 'The Dictionary of Painters of the Channel Islands' to a biography of 'Paul Jacob Naftel', and 'Edmund Blampied - A Catalogue Raisonne'.
John Appleby’s collection comprises both personally collected works as well as dealer stock dating from the 17th to the 20th century, most of which have not been seen on the market in a generation. Combining his work and his private passion, Appleby inherited a large number of paintings on his father’s death, but was not actively dealing towards the end of his life. John Appleby came from a long line of dealers once neighbouring Christie’s King Street headquarters, residing on the prestigious Ryder Street, London. There has always been a close connection between Christie’s and the Appleby family.
6&7 July 2010
Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings and Watercolours Evening and Day Sales (Sales 7862&7863)
King Street
Christie’s first sale to offer Property from The Collection of the Late John Appleby is in early July. The highly anticipated Old Masters Evening sale will see ten works from Appleby’s collection being sold alongside highly important Old Master paintings from Althorp – the ancestral home of the Spencer Family. A particularly exciting feature of the sale that is testament to the perceptive eye of John Appleby is Portrait of a gentleman, half-length, in a fur mantle, holding gloves, his arm resting on a ledge, attributed to Titian (c.1488/90-1576) (estimate: £200,000-300,000) illustrated right. Published for the first time in 2006 and widely accepted as autograph, this handsome portrait is an exciting addition to the corpus of the great Venetian master. Further highlights include the beautiful A sleeping legionary in a helmet by Ubaldo Gandolfi (1728-1781) (estimate: £40,000-60,000) and the highly finished pencil and wash drawing of Reading from the River from 1821 by John Constable, R.A. (East Bergholt 1776-1837
