Including:

Old Masters Evening Sale, The Exceptional Sale, and two dedicated Collection Sales

EXHIBITION: OPENS 3 - 8 JULY  
LIVE AUCTIONS: 6 JULY - 15 JULY
ONLINE SALES: 18 JUNE - 12 JULY

London - Christie’s announces Classic Week, a marquee series of nine auctions which feature works of art from antiquity to the 20th century. Sales will be held from 18 June – 15 July and include Old Masters Evening Sale, The Exceptional Sale, Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours including a Fine Collection of Old Master Prints; Antiquities; Old Master Paintings and Sculpture online; Valuable Books and Manuscripts; and British and European Art along with two dedicated Collection sales, The B.J. Eastwood Collection: Important Sporting and Irish Pictures and The Collection of Rita Espírito Santo Family and Three Other Collections.

The Classic Week highlights exhibition and view is taking place at Christie’s, King Street from 3 – 7 July.

Highlights include:

Leonardo da Vinci’s, Head of a Bear (estimate £8,000,000-12,000,000); Bernardo Bellotto’s, A View of Verona with the Ponte delle Navi, (estimate £12,000,000-18,000,000); Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s Portrait of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641), (estimate £3,000,000-5,000,000); a Charles I silver inkstand attributed to Christiaen van Vianen (estimate £1,000,000-1,500,000); Isaac Newton (1642-1727) Autograph manuscript, [Cambridge, c. May-July 1694], revisions to the Principia, (estimate: £600,000–900,000); an Egyptian granite head of Sekhmet, New Kingdom, 18^th dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, 1390-1352 B.C. (estimate £2,000,000-3,000,000); a Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Design for a ceremonial barge representing the Triumph of Poland (estimate £400,000-600,000); and a Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Study of Alexa Wilding, her head turned three-quarters to the right, (estimate £300,000-500,000).  

OVERVIEW OF THE CLASSIC WEEK SALES CALENDAR

The Old Masters Evening Sale
8 July 7.00pm Live

Encompassing six centuries of European art and sculpture, the Old Masters Evening Sale is led by a majestic view of Verona by the prodigiously talented nephew of Canaletto, Bernardo Bellotto, which has been on long term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland since 1973. Other notable highlights include: an arresting portrait of the Earl of Strafford by Sir Anthony van Dyck, originally in the collection of King Charles I; a haunting image of Saint Andrew by the enigmatic Georges de La Tour, one of the last pictures by the artist remining in private hands; a lavish banqueting scene by Jan Davidsz. de Heem, recently restituted to the heirs of Jacob Lierens and one of the most widely admired and extensively published Dutch still-lifes in the modern era; and Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ celebrated rendering of The Prince entering the Briar Wood. The theme of music and theatre is picked up in various works in the sale, including an exquisitely rendered cabinet piece by Frans van Mieris of a Music Lesson, a monumental Merry Company by Dirck Hals and Dirck van Delen, a pioneering painting by Marco Ricci of an Opera Rehearsal and an witty and engaging painting of David Garrick in Ben Johnson’s The Alchymist by Johann Zoffany, widely regarded as one of his greatest theatre pictures. The sale has works by three female artists – Artemisia Gentileschi, Michaelina Wautier and Angelica Kauffman, and incorporates important topographical views such as a panoramic view of Venice by Vanvitelli, and a dramatic view of the Neapolitan coast with Vesuvius erupting in the distance by Joseph Wright of Derby.  

Sculpture spans the chronological period from the late mediaeval era to the Rococo, with representation from both traditional sculpture in bronze and marble to works of art such as the 13^th century Limoges enamel processional cross from the Koenigs collection (lot 33).  Among the highlights is the marble group by Bonino da Campione of the Madonna and Child (estimate £200-300,000) which represents the rare iconographic theme of the young Christ reading in his mother’s lap.  Bonino was the most important proponent among a group of 14^th century Italian sculptors in a Swiss enclave close to Lugano.  The marble group is distinguished by its excellent state of preservation. 

The Exceptional Sale
8 July 5.00pm Live

The Exceptional Sale will be led by an exquisite drawing of Head of a bear by Leonardo da Vinci (estimate £8,000,000-12,000,000), one of a very small number of sheets by the artist in private hands. The work is a precious example of Leonardo’s scientific interest, sensitivity to the natural world, exceptional gifts of observation, and unmatched mastery as a draughtsman. The extraordinary and monumental inkstand (illustrated left), until recently on long term loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, is attributed to the Utrecht born silversmith Christiaen van Vianen for its design in the sinuous auricular style and fine virtuoso chasing, which culminates in figural cartouches emblematic of the Seven Liberal Arts (estimate £1,000,000-1,500,000). The Baron de Besenval garniture comprises three pairs of ormolu-mounted Chinese celadon vases, exceptionally reunited for sale, which belonged to the Swiss-born Pierre-Victor, Baron de Besenval (1722-1791), Commander of the Swiss Guards and intimate friend of Queen Marie-Antoinette (offered as consecutive lots estimated at £300,000-500,000; £250,000-400,000; £70,000-100,000). Other highlights include a wonder of horology, an orrery clock designed by Jacques-Thomas Castel, conseiller-secrétaire to the King, and sold from the fabled Rothschild collection at Mentmore Towers (estimate £400,000-600,000); a ‘Gothick’ style library desk to a design by Thomas Chippendale (estimate £250,000-400,000); an extraordinary ‘Japonisme’ corner cabinet by Christofle et Cie rumoured to have been made for the Marquise de Païva (estimate £500,000-800,000); a monolithic slice of the Fukang meteorite, the most beautiful extraterrestrial substance known (estimate £350,000-550,000). 

Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours
6 July 2.00pm Live

The Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours sale will include drawings from the Italian, North European, French and British schools, dating from between circa 1500 and 1850. Led by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s exceptional Design for a ceremonial barge representing the Triumph of Poland, the sale also includes another eighteenth-century masterpiece: an important red-chalk study by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, probably depicting his daughter Rosalie and formerly in the collection of Sir Clifford Curzon, offered at auction for the first time since 1935. Part of a group of drawings from the collection of Franz Koenigs is a rare townscape by one of the great Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, Gerard ter Borch the Younger. A graphite portrait of the daughter of one of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ best friends, the great collector and curator Frédéric Reiset, is the highlight of a group of 19^th Century works, mostly French. The British section is led by 18^th and 19^th century drawings from the collection of Nina Houghton, including a selection of Edward Lear’s watercolours and nonsense drawings, an exceptional Peter De Wint watercolour of Snowdon and a group of John ‘Warwick’ Smith’s sweeping views of the Lake District. The sale will be rounded off with a fine private collection of Old Master Prints, comprising nine prints by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt. This small but exquisite group is led by a superb impression the ‘Three Trees’, Rembrandt’s most famous landscape etching. There are three other rare landscapes by the Dutch master, including ‘The Clump of Trees with a Vista’ from the celebrated collection of the Earl of Aylesford, as well as a brilliant example of ‘Abraham and Isaac’ with the same prestigious provenance, and the wonderful portrait of ‘Ephraim Bonus, Jewish Physician’. Albrecht Dürer’s astonishing printed oeuvre is represented by three of his best-known engravings: ‘Death, Knight and the Devil’ (previously from the collection of Paul Davidsohn), and fine, early impressions of  ‘Nemesis’ and ‘Hercules, or: The Effects of Jealousy’.  

Antiquities
7 July 2.00pm Live

The Antiquities sale includes a selection of artefacts spanning the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean basin from the Paleolithic Period to the great migrations that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.

The sale will include a beautifully preserved polychrome relief fragment with an official and his wife Meritites (lot 10), from the collection of Swiss academic Prof. Dr. Roland Bay. The Egyptian section is led by three Royal shabtis: a shabti for Akhenaten from the Amarna Period (lot 24), an extremely fine bright blue faience shabti for Sety I (lot 27) and a serpentine shabti for Nubian King Senkamenisken (lot 31). The sale also features marble sculptures from the Roman period, including a torso of the mysterious Ephesian Artemis (lot 54) and a large marble satyr previously in the collection of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (lot 67) Another highlight is a rare survival from the Irish Bronze age: a bronze side-blow horn, reputedly found near Derry at the end of the 18th Century (lot 74).

Old Master Paintings and Sculpture Online
18 June – 9 July Online

The Old Master Paintings and Sculpture Online sale offers a broad selection of works across all schools of European painting and sculpture, from the 13^th  to the mid-19^th century, with estimates ranging from £500 - £120,000. The sale features a pair of idyllic scenes by the Neapolitan Carlo Bonavia, whose landscapes betray a strong influence of the rococo palette of Claude-Joseph Vernet. A fine view by Jean-Baptiste Lallemand depicts the Château de Montmusard in Dijon, a masterpiece of the Greek style in France. The Dutch and Flemish schools are well represented, with a  fascinating grand family portrait by Hendrick Martensz, Sorgh, a pupil of David Teniers the Younger and Willem Buytewech, an exquisitely rendered cabinet piece by Pieter Neefs the Elder of the Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady, and a forest scene by Gillis d'Hondecoeter, painted with the realism of early pen landscape drawings. 

The Sculpture & Works of Art section includes a fine group of early northern wood sculptures originally in the collection of Franz Koenigs (lots 121-131 which includes 2 paintings and 9 sculptures and works of art). Early Italian pieces are well represented in the sale with a rare early Renaissance rock crystal bowl and large Embriachi casket. Later works include the monumental bust by Baroque sculptor Giuseppe Rusnati depicting Cesare II Visconti. Also in the sale are several works ‘after the antique’ from a 16th century cameo ring depicting Medusa to a marble and onyx bust after the Venus de’ Medici.

The B.J. Eastwood Collection: Important Sporting and Irish Pictures
9 July 1.00pm Live

The B.J. Eastwood Collection - Important Sporting and Irish Pictures, comprising 30 lots, represents the full array of B.J. Eastwood’s personal interests and a lifelong devotion to sport, in particular to horse racing. Works range from 19^th century sporting pictures, to defining representations of Munnings’ oeuvre, to an extraordinary group of Yeats illustrating key periods of his work. Other leading examples of Irish Art are included in the sale featuring works by Walter Frederick Osborne, Sir William Orpen, Roderic O’Connor, Paul Henry, Sir John Lavery, and Gerard Dillon.

Highlights from the Collection include John Frederick Herring, Sen. (1795-1865) Preparing for the Doncaster Gold Cup, 1825, with Mr. Whittaker's 'Lottery', Mr. Craven's 'Longwaist', Mr. Lampton's 'Cedric', and Mr. Farquharson's 'Figaro',  painted in 1827, (estimate £150,000-200,000), plus an extraordinary collection of Sir Alfred Munnings, demonstrating the artist’s full range of subject matter including; Sir Alfred James Munnings, P.R.A., R.W.S. (1878-1959) Silks and Satins of the Turf, under Starter's Orders signed 'A.J Munnings’, (estimate £300,000-500,000);  Eph Smith in the Royal Colours, and Going out at Kempton, (estimate £30,000–50,000) through to the impressive hunting portraits of the early 1920s, John J. Moubray, Master of Foxhounds (estimate £400,000- 600,000) and Major Mead on his favourite Hunter (estimate £70,000- 100,000),  and the two great large scale early works, The Vagabonds of 1902 (estimate £700,000–1,000,000) and The Coming Storm of 1910 (estimate £600,000- 800,000).  

The Collection of Rita Espírito Santo and Three Private European Collections 21 June – 12 July Online

The Collection of Rita Espírito Santo and Three Private European Collections, an online auction comprising 170 lots of European furniture and objets d’art, Old Master Paintings, Chinese and European Porcelain and silver with estimates ranging from £500 to £100,000. Highlights include: Jacques de Lajoȕe,  (Paris 1686 – 1761) The Rest after the Hunt (estimate £70,000-100,000), Francois Boucher (Paris 1703-1770) The Rest on the Hunt (estimate £50,000-80,000), a suite of Empire giltwood seat furniture by Imperial court cabinet-maker Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (estimate £10,000-15,000) and a large Louis XVI style mahogany commode after a model by Jean Henri Riesener (estimate £15,000-25,000).

Complementing The Collection of Rita Espírito Santo is a selection of lots from the Roman Palazzo of the late Robert de Balkany, led by a large Baroque style pietra dura and ebony cabinet-on-stand (estimate £40,000-60,000), as well as property from a Maison Jansen interior on London’s prestigious Eaton Square, and a further group from an apartment on Wilton Crescent in London’s Belgravia.

Valuable Books & Manuscripts
14 July 10.30am and 2.30pm Live  

The star of the Valuable Books & Manuscripts sale is a newly-discovered copy of William Caxton’s 1481 translation of Cicero’s De Amicitia and De Senectute, the first work of classical antiquity printed in English; it is one of a selection of important early English books from the Kenyon Library at Gredington. Alongside this landmark of the birth of printing in England, we will offer the first Latin Bible printed in Paris, as well as a set of almost 900 printing blocks used by the Propaganda Fide printing press in Rome between the 17th and 19th century, chronicling the propagation of the Christian faith in languages as diverse as Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Tibetan and Syriac. 

Highlights from the medieval and Renaissance manuscripts include a series of high-quality Books of Hours painted in 15th-century France and the Low Countries, one painted in 1420s Paris by a follower of the Master of the Gingins Last Judgment, another a lively example of Hainaut illumination from the 1460s. Elsewhere, the sale is strong in music, including a single-owner collection of autograph musical quotations and composers’ letters; science, including a first edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species and Einstein letters; and book illustration, including a rare edition of A Happy Pair, Beatrix Potter’s first published work, plus original illustrations by Quentin Blake.

British & European Art
15 July 1pm Live 

British & European Art is a live auction that features a curated range of pictures from the heart of 19th-century Europe. The auction spans Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite, Orientalist and 19th-century European and British Impressionist art, all at opportune price points. A variety of mediums – from sculpture to paintings and works-on-paper – show a tremendous variety of creative output that resonate today.  Highlights include a tour-de-force selection of enchanting Symbolist works brought together from top collections, including pictures by the Symbolist artists Gustave Moreau, Carlos Schwabe and Fernand Khnopff.  Pre-Raphaelite works are led by a portrait of Alexa Wilding by Dante Rossetti, alongside captivating depictions by Spencer Stanhope and Edward Burne-Jones. East meets West in a selection of works from one of the most important private collections of Orientalist paintings to appear at auction in recent years, including outstanding works by Charles Robertson, Rudolf Ernst and Rudolf Gustav Müller.  Mildred Eldridge’s detailed studies from British gardens offer a contrast to fascinating topographic records of the West Indies by Albert Goodwin and Henry Scott Tuke. Images of summer abound in the Impressionist works by Alfred Munnings, George Clausen, Thomas Dugdale, Dorothea Sharp and Mark Senior.

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