EXHIBITION BY APPOINTMENT: OPENS 10 OCTOBER

LIVE AUCTIONS: 13-15 OCTOBER

ONLINE SALES: 1-20 OCTOBER

New York – Christie’s announces that Classic Week, a marquee series of ten sales featuring 19^th-century European Art, Old Master paintings and sculpture, Antiquities, and Books and Manuscripts, will be offered across six live sales from 13-15 October and four online auctions beginning 1 October. The exhibition at Christie’s Rockefeller Center will be by appointment only starting 10 October.

The auctions feature an array of extraordinary works, from old master paintings, a strong collection of Dutch landscapes and Roman marbles to unique books and distinctive artifacts such as a rare edition of Shakespeare’s ‘First Folio’ and Louis Armstrong’s trumpet. During the week of sales, the anticipated online and live auctions of The Collection of Jayne Wrightsman will present one of the most enviable collections of decorative arts.

LIVE SALES OVERVIEW:

Antiquities

13 October | 10am (Lots 1 - 88)

The Antiquities sale offers a strong selection of works of art from across the ancient Mediterranean world. The objects represent ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Near Eastern cultures and range in date from the 3rd millennium B.C. to the 6th century A.D. We are delighted to include an important Attic Red-figured Kylix attributed to Makron as painter and signed by Hieron as potter, sold to benefit the Cleveland Museum of Art; a Cycladic Marble Reclining Female Figure formerly in the collection of the artist Wolfgang Paalen; and a stunning Roman Marble Togatus from the collection of Nina Griscom. Other highlights include a splendid Middle Elamite Variegated Jasper Cylinder Seal for King Humbanumena I, a spectacular Egyptian Indurated Limestone Head of a Man, and a charming Egyptian Mottled Limestone Frog Vessel from the Pre-Dynastic Period.

The Exceptional Sale

14 October | 10am (Lots 1 - 28)

The Exceptional Sale is led by an important “First Folio” of William Shakespeare, the first complete copy of this masterwork of world literature to come to auction in nearly 20 years. The auction will offer a select and diverse group of decorative arts masterpieces, ranging from French ormolu-mounted porcelain and royal furniture to classic English and French silver by important makers. English furniture is represented by a scarlet japanned bureau cabinet by Giles Grendey and a pair of commodes supplied by the royal cabinet-makers Vile and Cobb to Ashburnham Place. A Roman marble sculpture from antiquity and a Neoclassical bust of Flora are complemented by European and Chinese porcelain, while Chinese works of art include a large, outstanding reverse painting on mirror, a very rare Ming Imperial carpet and a late Qing zitan throne from a direct descendant of the Chinese Imperial family.  Illustrious American provenances in the sale include Louis Comfort Tiffany, Doris Duke, Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Anna Thompson Dodge and Abby O’Neill, the eldest grandchild of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  Representing icons of popular culture is a 1948 Louis Armstrong trumpet.

The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman

14 October | 11am (Lots 1 - 210)

The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman - patron, connoisseur, and paragon of erudition and style who unequivocally revived the field of French decorative arts in the public sphere. Mrs. Wrightsman and her husband, Charles B. Wrightsman, built an exceptional collection of furniture and works of art and served as Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, making transformative gifts to the Museum and establishing The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts.

The auction includes Old Master paintings and sculpture, European furniture and ceramics, Chinese ceramics and works of art, silver and carpets, and other works. These items graced and decorated Mrs. Wrightman’s elegant home at 820 Fifth Avenue in New York, and were designated for sale to benefit philanthropy. Among the superb paintings featured are an Odalisque by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) and a grand-scale portrait, Charles IX (1550-1574), King of France by François Clouet.  Other sale highlights include a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted porphyry urn and cover; a Royal Louis XVI bois satiné table de café by Martin Carlin, supplied to Mesdames, the aunts of Louis XVI, for the château de Bellevue, and a set of four late Louis XV giltwood bergères by Claude II Sené, circa 1770.

European Art Part I

15 October | 10am (Lots 1 - 25) 

European Art Part I is a carefully curated sale offering 25 lots of masterpiece-level quality from the most well-known artists of 19th century Europe. The sale is led by William Adolphe Bouguereau’s Rêverie, unseen on the market for more than 50 years. Highlights of the British selection include The Tale by James Jacques Joseph Tissot, depicting his muse Kathleen Newton in the garden of his London home and a magnificent oil painting of harvesters by Sir George Clausen. An impressive group of pictures with institutional provenance is led by Gustave Courbet’s Bords de la Loue avec rochers à gauche from the Brooklyn Museum and Jean Baptiste-Camille Corot’s Italiens d’Albano from Grove City College, among others. Carl Spitzweg’s Der Hexenmeister, a recently restituted work, is among the most striking compositions in the artist’s oeuvre and features as the sale’s cover lot. Other highlights include exceptional works by Vittorio Matteo Corcos, Jean-Louis-André-Théodore Géricault, Jean Béraud and Julio Romero de Torres, among others.

The Martin Feldstein Collection

15 October | 11am (Lots 1 - 33)

Christie’s is delighted to present The Martin Feldstein Collection, a remarkable assemblage of Dutch paintings, drawings and prints which was built with great diligence and care over the course of four decades. The core of the collection focuses on the rise of naturalistic landscape painting in the newly sovereign Dutch Republic in the second and third quarters of the seventeenth century. Among the highlights are a rare winter landscape by Esaias van de Velde, an early genre painting by Jan Steen, a beach scene by Simon de Vlieger, a striking moonlit landscape by Aert van der Neer and two early landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael. In addition to nearly two dozen paintings, the collection includes nearly a dozen works on paper, the highlight of which is a particularly fine early impression of Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Cow.

Old Masters

15 October | 12pm (Lots 1-70)

The Old Masters sale is highlighted by the playful and engaging Portrait of a Man in a Gorget by Rembrandt’s pupil, Govaert Flinck, a portrait by El Greco and a deeply emotive Deposition by Lucas Cranach the Elder. A dramatic Lucretia, also by Lucas Cranach the Elder, leads a selection of works offered by the Brooklyn Museum which includes a portrait attributed to Lorenzo Costa and a Saint Jerome by Donato de’ Bardi. Hendrick ter Bruggen’s theatrical Ill-Matched Lovers underpins a Legacy of Caravaggio section and the sale includes works by two groundbreaking female artists, Artemisia Gentileschi and Lavinia Fontana. The 18th century is well represented, with a Venus and Adonis by Francois Boucher, view paintings by Hubert Robert and a capriccio by Francesco Guardi. Also included is a large group of Medieval and Renaissance sculpture and works of art from the estate of J. Paul Doll, Jr., with many pieces originally part of the famed collection of Baron Cassel van Doorn.  Almost all of these pieces were acquired by Mr. Doll decades ago and have not been seen publicly since the 1950s and 1960s. These range from a ‘unicorn’ mille fleur tapestry and a Medici workshop tapestry to smaller medieval metalwork and sculpture with estimates under $5,000.                     

The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman: Online

Online 1 - 15 October

Christie’s is honored to present The Private Collection of Jayne Wrightsman: Online, running concurrently to the live auction on October 14. The online auction includes the categories of fine art, accessories and books, as well as entertaining wares comprising linens, porcelain, silver and wine, and decorating wares, with further furniture, lighting, sculpture and fabrics. These items decorated Mrs. Wrightman’s elegant home at 820 Fifth Avenue in New York, and were designated for sale to benefit philanthropy. The assortment of highlights include a set of three gilt-metal and glass two-tiered side tables probably supplied by Henri Samuel, a Louis XV silver-mounted Japanese Imari bowl and cover, an assembled Sèvres (outside-decorated) and Sèvres style porcelain part dinner service, and a multi-strand cultured pearl and gold necklace by Verdura.

Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts Including Americana

Online 1 - 16 October

The Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts Including Americana sale embraces five centuries of the written word, from Aldus Manutius's first edition of the works of Aristotle (Venice, 1495-98)—the most important Greek-printing project in the 15th century—to a very rare set plans for the building of the Twin Towers/World Trade Center (1968-72). Other sale highlights include: the rare broadside announcing the first National Thanksgiving in 1777, the first appearance of this broadside at auction in nearly a century; an attractive, richly decorated double portolan chart of the Mediterranean (Messina, Sicily, 1617), and the original floorplan of the first U.S. Treasury Building, designed by George Hadfield and signed and approved by George Washington, 1 March 1797, both from the collection of Nina R. and Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.; Chréstien Le Clercq's Histoire des Colonies Françoises (Paris & Lyon, 1691-92), the first edition, with the suppressed dedication to Count Frontenac, of this controversial history of the Great Lakes and Niagara region; John Mitchell's 1755 map of the British and French dominions in North America, widely regarded as the most important map in American history; Henry Pelham’s magnificent 1777 map of Boston under siege commissioned by British intelligence, the first complete copy to appear at auction in 25 years; and John F. Kennedy’s notes taken during the Kennedy-Nixon debates on 20 September, 1960, the first televised presidential debate in American history.             

European Art Part II

Online | 1 - 16 October

The European Art department’s Part II online sale features a vibrant and diverse selection of 64 lots of paintings and sculpture with a range of attractive estimates from $8,000-180,000. A strong selection of Barbizon school works is headlined by works by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Léon Lhermitte and Julien Dupré. A particularly notable selection of British art includes Tom Mostyn’s elegant Vanity and a charming image of childhood by Arthur John Elsley, Safe Quarters. A large landscape by the Danish painter Peder Mørk Mønsted and an interior by Carl Vilhelm Holsøe are highlights of the Scandinavian selection. A work by Hendrik Reekers of exceptional quality, Still Life with Summer Flowers and an Orientalist work by the American painter Julius LeBlanc Stewart are also included. The sale’s cover lot is Deux italiennes by François-Joseph Navez, a recent discovery.  The sale also includes a beautiful group of marble and bronze sculptures, led by A French Patinated Bronze Figural Group of Aurora Rising from the Sea by after a model attributed to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Institutional property from the Brooklyn Museum and Grove City College is also included in the sale.

Old Master Paintings and Sculpture

Online | 1 - 20 October

Among the highlights of Old Master Paintings and Sculpture are museum-quality Renaissance and Baroque paintings, including works by Neri di Bicci, Giovanni Larciani and an intriguing portrait attributed to the Caravaggesque master Valentin de Boulogne. English painting is equally well-represented with portraits by several of the leading artists in the period – Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Henry Raeburn, Thomas Hudson and a pair of charming early children’s portraits by John Constable. Further highlights include a single-owner section of paintings from the descendants of W.C.H.M. Georgi, which are appearing on the market for the first time in nearly a century. The estate of J. Paul Doll, Jr. will include a large group of Medieval and Renaissance sculpture and works of art, many from the famed collection of Baron Cassel van Doorn.  Works from institutional collections include property from the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Brooklyn Museum and Grove City College.