Paris
A second tranche from a single-owner collection of French and English portrait miniatures will go under the hammer at Drouot on March 29 – part of a classic mixed-discipline sale held by Binoche et Giquello.
The collection was assembled over a 40-year period under the guidance of Leo R Schidlof, author of the four-volume publication The Miniature in Europe. The first part of the collection was sold in 2012.
This time some 40 portraits will be offered, spanning the 17th to 19th centuries. Among them is this double-sided miniature on ivory by the English painter Andrew Plimer (1763-1837).
One side depicts a gentleman catalogued as ‘Sir A Floyd’ while the other depicts his twin daughters. Set in a case bordered by a plaited tress of hair, the estimate is €3000-4000.
Pennsylvania
Pata are a type of edged weapon used in the 17th and 18th centuries in India. Also known as gauntlet swords, they comprise an integrated blade and gauntlet and were effective when employed against heavily armoured cavalry.
Two 18th century examples will feature in Cordier’s arms, armour and militaria sale in Harrisburg on March 25.
The example shown above, right, measures almost 4ft (1.2m) in overall length while the other (far right) with a gauntlet cast with a feline head measures 4ft 7in (1.4m).
Each is estimated at $1000-1200.
Paris
A suite of bedroom furniture by Emile Gallé features in a sale at Drouot held by Daguerre on April 5 – a commission by the magistrate Henri Gaston de Bousquet de Florian (1866- 1944).
He asked Gallé to furnish a bedroom for him and his future wife, having seen the designer’s Ombelle range of furniture on show in a Paris exhibition at the Pavillon de Marsan in 1903.
The bedroom suite – bed, armoire, small table and étagère all decorated with umbelliferous motifs – have remained with the family ever since. Pictured above is an étagère which is guided at €9000-12,000.
The Gaston de Bousquet consignment in this mixed-discipline sale includes additional Gallé furniture, a number of Gallé glass lamps and vases plus a handful of paintings and sculpture.
Zurich
The still-life was a speciality of the Flemish artist Clara Peeters (c.1590-c.1659). One of her last examples of the genre still on the market is to feature in the March 23 sale of Old Master paintings to be held in Zurich by Koller as part of its spring series.
The 13 x 19in (34 x 48cm) oil on panel, signed lower left and dated to the 1620s, features a cat with a large fish and various crustacea and is similar to examples by Peeters in the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp, the city where Peeters was born.
It carries an estimate of SFr100,000-150,000.
