London – On 29 April 2015, Christie’s London is proud to be offering The Collection of Ana Maria Espírito Santo Bustorff Silva. This private collection comprises approximately 150 lots of French, Chinese, Italian and English pieces, including Old Master Pictures and Drawings, European Furniture and Works of Art, Silver and Chinese porcelain. Highlights include a very rare Chinese famille rose armorial punch bowl, circa 1750-55, from the Qianlong period (1736-1795), decorated after the famous 1748 painting ‘O the Roast Beef of Old England’ (‘The Gate of Calais’) by William Hogarth, which is in Tate Britain, London (estimate: £60,000-100,000). Only one other bowl, possibly the pair to the present lot, is known to exist. This sale is a wonderful opportunity for new and established collectors to acquire great works of art from one of Portugal’s most sophisticated family collections, with estimates ranging from £300 to £100,000.

The grand-daughter of José Maria Espírito Santo Silva (1850-1915), who founded the Portuguese banking house of that name in 1884, Ana Maria Espírito Santo Bustorff Silva (1928-2014) was the youngest daughter of Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva (1900-1955). A true connoisseur, he was one of the major collectors of his time and one of the most significant patrons of the arts in Portugal. Ana Maria’s private collection is the last consistent nucleus of Ricardo’s original collection of French, Chinese, Italian and English pieces, which she cherished and kept until she passed away in April 2014.

Born in Lisbon and brought up in a most refined and impressive domestic environment, Ana Maria always followed her parents’ example and advice when it came to artistic choices. The loss of her father when she was only twenty-six galvanised her ambition to perpetuate Ricardo’s achievements and legacy - both through the pieces she inherited from her father’s private collection and also through the collection of almost 2,000 pieces of Portuguese furniture, silver, textiles, paintings, ceramics and other decorative arts that he presented to the Portuguese state in 1953 along with the Azurara Palace, where the collection is still housed, establishing the Foundation which is a Museum-School for Portuguese Decorative Arts.

An important group of pictures and drawings by the influential Chinoiserie artist Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808) include two exceptionally large pastels: A rocky river landscape at sunset with shepherds and shepherdesses with their flock; and A view of the river Tagus with fisherfolk on the shore, and a tower beyond (estimate: £40,000-60,000). They were executed in 1782 during Pillement’s second stay in Portugal, a period that is generally regarded as the peak of his career. It was during this stay that Pillement successfully added maritime pastels and paintings to his repertoire. Pillement declined the offer from King Joseph I of Portugal to become his First Court Painter before he left for England. The artist had an unusually cosmopolitan career and worked, amongst others, for the Imperial Court of Maria Theresa & Francis I in Vienna and in the Petit Trianon for Queen Marie-Antoinette of France and Navarre.

A pair of capricci with figures in classical gardens surrounded by a decorative border by Vincenzo Brenna (1745-1820) is executed in black chalk, pen and grey and brown ink, watercolour (estimate: £8,000-12,000). Charming works with attractive estimates include a German School, mid-18^th century painting of A pug with a red collar (estimate: £4,000-6,000).   

Highlights include an elegant set of four Louis XVI giltwood fauteuils à la reine by Louis-Madelaine Pluvinet, circa 1780-1783 (estimate: £30,000 - £60,000) and a Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany bureau à cylindre by Jean-Francois Leleu, circa 1770-80 (estimate: £25,000-40,000). The bureau’s inventive locking mechanism, operated with a single key, bears witness to Leleu’s training in Jean-François Oeben’s (1721-1763) workshop. After the early death of his master, Leleu hoped to be entrusted with the running of the workshop, but was superseded by Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806), another of Oeben’s assistants. Leleu left the workshop, became maître-ébéniste in 1764 and set up on his own. He attracted a grand and fastidious clientele, notably the duc d'Uzès, baron d'Ivry, Ange-Laurent Lalive de Jully and the prince de Condé to whom he delivered several sumptuous and celebrated pieces of furniture for the Palais de Bourbon and the Château at Chantilly in 1772 and 1773.

Amongst the highlights in the collection of Chinese porcelain is a very rare Chinese famille rose armorial punch bowl, circa 1750-55, from the Qianlong period (1736-1795), decorated after the famous 1748 painting ‘O the Roast Beef of Old England’ (‘The Gate of Calais’) by William Hogarth (estimate: £60,000-100,000). Very finely and delicately enamelled and gilt on each side, only one other bowl, possibly the pair to this one, is known to exist. William Hogarth painted ‘O the Roast Beef of Old England’ (‘The Gate of Calais’) after his visit to France in the summer of 1748, following the armistice. An engraved version of his painting would have been sent to China for the Chinese artists to copy, which they did with great accuracy, leaving out only minor details. A pair of punch bowls copying the same scene was ordered by Thomas Rumbold of the British East India Company, although he substituted the arms of France and England with his own coat-of-arms; one of these is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

The silver in the collection includes a playful group of four silver and metal-ware cow cream jugs from various dates and makers (estimate: £800-1,200). Each jug is realistically modelled.