Lionel Gosset, Vice-President, Christie's France,
© Christie's Images Limited 2023, Photo: Jean-Philippe HUMBERT

• 886 LOTS SOLD IN 7 SALES
• 62% LOTS SOLD ABOVE HIGH ESTIMATE
• STRONG PARTICIPATION
• 20% OF NEW BUYERS

Paris - Christie's Classic Week, which ended on November 22, focused on art in all its forms, with a series of sales and a deliberately eclectic selection of remarkable pieces. The thread running through the week was the Goût Rothschild, with a selection of remarkable lots from the Rothschild family offered at various sales. Classic Week totals €16,8 million, with bidders and underbidders from 50 countries.

The week kicked off with the Old Masters auction, where paintings, sculptures and drawings captivated collectors indoors on November 15, as well as online from November 2 to 17. These sales totaled €2.4 million. Among the highlights, a previously unseen painting by Charles Antoine Coypel, Renaud abandoning Armide, formerly owned by the Rothschild family, sold for €352,800. This piece was presented alongside a magnificent oil painting by Jacob Levecq, which fetched €151,200. Sculpture was also appreciated during this sale, notably the bronze The Basuto Witness (L'Accusé) by the renowned South African sculptor Anton van Wouw, which fetched €20,240.

The highlight of Classic Week was the Derniers Souvenirs de Ferrières collection from the Rothschilds' eponymous château, presented on November 16 and online from November 7 to 21 under the title Greniers de Ferrières. These sales, totaling €4 million and doubling their high estimate, were the highlights of the week. A miniature by Jean Decourt, depicting Catherine de Médicis and her family, was acquired by the Musée Condé in Chantilly for €22,680. The major lot in the Derniers Souvenirs de Ferrières sale was a gouache enhanced with gold on vellum by Noël Bellemare and Jean Clouet depicting François Ier, entouré de sa cour, reçoit un ouvrage de son auteur, acquired for €453,600, ten times its initial estimate.

The Exceptional sale on November 21 sold an important pair of Louis XVI-period marble pedestals, adorned with sumptuous bronzes by Pierre Gouthière, from the Rothschild collection, for €1.5 million (estimate: €300,000 - €500,000). A royal Louis XIV spruce, exceeded its initial estimate tenfold, fetching a total of €302,400. Delivered for Madame Elisabeth-Charlotte d'Orléans, niece of Louis XIV, signed by Jean-Baptiste Voboam, it had been successively in the collections of Richard Peñard y Fernandez and then in the Rothschild family. The sale concluded with the sale of a Chanel Haute couture wedding dress signed by Karl Lagerfeld, presented at the Autumn-Winter 2014-2015 fashion show, which found a buyer for €94,500. The sale totaled €5.3m.

Christie's also presented the online sale of the Bayreuth Collection: Gold Boxes, following that of the silver collection sold in London in July. The first sale of its kind in Paris, it included such remarkable pieces as a Louis XV period bonbonnière in gold and lacquer by Daniel Gouers and a Swiss snuffbox in gold, enamel and micromosaic by Jean-François Bautte, both sold for €81,900. The sale totalled €1.2m.

The auction week closed on Wednesday with the sale of the Livres rares et manuscrits, incluant une sélection de la bibliothèque de la famille Rothschild, which was a great success, generating sales of €3.8 million, with 91% of lots sold, 68% above their high estimate. 
Two lots were pre-empted by the Bibliothèque Universitaire de la Sorbonne: La Muse limonadière de Charlotte Reynier Bourette (lot 39) at €2,394 and the manuscript Abrégé d'Histoire universelle by Comte Henri de Boulainvilliers at €2,520 (lot 151).
Among the outstanding lots offered for sale, the Code Civil des Français printed on vellum, from the personal library of Emperor Napoleon, in red morocco with his coat of arms and cabinet stamp, sold for €88,200, more than seven times the high estimate. Among the exceptional books presented at the sale, Thomas Daniell's Oriental Scenery, the most famous work on India from the personal collection of Baron James de Rothschild, in a first edition binding from the first half of the 19th century with the Rothschild family coat of arms, sold for €604,800, six times its estimate. The highlight of the sale was Raymond Radiguet's autograph manuscript, echoing the centenary of the writer's death, an extremely rare copy of the very first version of Le Diable au Corps, which sold for €352,800.