DECORATIVE ARTS

AT CHRISTIE'S LONDON THIS AUTUMN

1: Christie’s Interiors Including The Hone Collection 

26 October 2016, South Kensington

This October the Interiors sale at Christie’s South Kensington will offer over 130 objects from the personal collection of the celebrated plaster caster Peter Hone. With estimates ranging from £600 up to £20,000, the varied and enchanting collection provides an eclectic mix of marble busts, architectural fragments, antiquities, early Coade stone sculptures, pictures, photography and porcelain to the sale. Christie’s South Kensington holds an Interiors auction every month, each sale filled with an array of works of art, decorative objects and furniture in virtually every style from antique to contemporary. Peter Hone’s career has been a varied one: chef, barman, museum guard, antiques dealer and celebrated plaster caster. He has also enjoyed a parallel life as a connoisseur collector, primarily of sculpture and antiquities. Hone’s collection includes marble busts, urns, architectural fragments, Roman and Greek statuettes and 19th-century Coade stone sculptures.  

2: Noble & Private Collections Part I & II

2 & 3 November, King Street/ South Kensington

Christie’s Noble & Private Collections sales at King Street and South Kensington bring together an impressive range of European works of art with distinguished and private provenance. The auctions will include paintings, furniture, clocks, sculpture, tapestries, carpets, silver and European and Asian porcelain and works of art from the medieval period to the early 20th century – an eclectic selection that reflects the broad and evolving tastes of Europe’s aristocracy.

3: The English Collector, English Furniture, Clocks & Portrait Miniatures

17 November 2016, King Street

The bi-annual English Collector sale offers a wide range of furniture, lighting and decorative objects, clocks and portrait miniatures from the British Isles and the wider empire, from the 17th to the 19th century. Highlights include a marvellous Irish George III mahogany side table from a private collection which typifies the very distinctive character of the carver’s art in mid-18th century Ireland, a previously undocumented pair of George III ormolu-mounted blue john and simulated malachite candle vases by the manufacturer/entrepreneur Matthew Boulton, and a pair of fine cut–crystal chandeliers that were supplied around 1870 to  engineer/businessman Joseph Shuttleworth for Old Warden Park, Bedfordshire. Among the clocks is a good Charles II olivewood striking table clock by Joseph Knibb. A group of drawings by the noted miniaturist John Smart demonstrate his consummate skill as a portrait artist, alongside further works on copper, ivory and vellum, and in addition there is a small group of collectable European ceramics from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The sale of some 150 lots includes pieces at a wide range of estimates and will appeal to decorators, collectors and connoisseurs alike. 

4: Seward Kennedy’s Cabinet of Curiosities and the Tony Robinson Collection of Treen Drinking Vessels

22 November 2016, South Kensington

This unusual sale comprises fascinating curiosities and works of art, from the eclectic and curious to the refined and academic. The first part of the sale presents a selection of the antiquities, the Chinese, Indian, European, African, Tribal and Oceanic works of art and the modern British picture that adorned Kennedy's residences on Park Avenue in New York City and Norland Square in London’s Notting Hill. Kennedy acquired and guarded objects for their inherent beauty, invention and purpose, creating veritable Aladdin’s caves in his homes. The second part of the sale comprises Robinson’s erudite collection of Treen drinking vessels, which he amassed over years of selective acquisitions. Robinson became fascinated with the history of these drinking vessels early in life, immersing himself in the research of their individual uses and marvelling over their designs, thus leading to one of the world’s most specialised collections of Treen.

5: Opulence |Silver | Gold Boxes | 19th Century Furniture & Works of Art

29 November 2016, King Street

The Opulence sale hosts a broad range of luxurious works of art, expertly crafted from precious materials. An exquisite gold-mounted hardstone ‘Stein-Cabinet’ bonbonnière by Johann-Christian Neuber leads the sale, alongside gold boxes, objects de vertu, 19th-century furniture, sculpture and silver. Further highlights include a set of four George III silver candlesticks and a candelabrum commissioned by Thomas Dawson, 1^st Viscount Cremorne and an outstanding micromosaic of the Roman Forum, as well as exquisite marble sculptures and furniture by François Linke.

6: Valuable Books and Manuscripts

1 December 2016, King Street

The sale leads with a veritable medieval library of early printed books, including a core formed by a European collector in the 1950s-70s and closely guarded by his heirs ever since. A highlight is the monumental 14th-century French Bible, once in the collection of the 7^th Duke of Newcastle at Clumber House. The rich section of early printing ranges from secular world chronicles to imposing law tomes and classical literature, many in their first appearance in print, and all in their original 15th-century bindings. Artistic manuscript production of the period is also gloriously represented by an exceptional long-lost miniature by the greatest master in the art of illumination in all of Europe, Simon Bening.The sale also offers a rich selection of some of the favourite works of children’s literature ranging from drawings by Beatrix Potter, a Hobbit first edition, and the collection of original printing plates for Tenniel’s celebrated illustrations to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Key scientific advances are reflected in autograph letters by Albert Einstein and two beautiful copperplate stipple engravings of the full moon by the artist John Russell, compiled from 40 years of telescopic observations and drawings from 1764-1806.

Christie’s Coffee Bar

Open daily, King Street

After you’ve explored what’s on view in our King Street Galleries, sit down and recharge with a cup of tea or coffee served just as you like it by one of our baristas. Our free coffee bar remains open throughout the day.