Auctioneer Charles Hanson has described the discovery of two rare Fabergé flowers as his “most significant find ever”.
The precious metal and hardstone botanical studies, made c.1907-10, are expected to fetch up to £250,000 each when offered on June 11 at Hansons’ London saleroom (the Normansfield Theatre in Teddington, where auctions were launched this year by the Derbyshire firm).
“It was totally unexpected – as the best finds always are,” Hanson told ATG. “A client came along to our office in East Molesey carrying a cardboard box. Inside, wrapped in an old tea towel, was not one, but two, Fabergé flowers.”
Only about 80 Fabergé botanical studies are known.
This duo, the property of a distinguished lady, depict a barberry bush with purpurine berries and jade leaves in a carved rock crystal vase, and a morning glory blossom of enamel gold and diamond flowers in a jade jardinière with aventurine quartz stand.
New coin recruits join DNW team
Coins, medals and jewellery auction house Dix Noonan Webb has recruited two more experts to join its expanding coins department.
Chris Rumney has become the London company’s roving agent in the UK and continental Europe, while Jon Mann has joined as DNW’s agent in the north of England. Their recruitment comes shortly after Islamic coins expert Tim Wilkes became a member of the department.
Rumney previously worked with Numisor SA in 2009 and remained with them as a company director until he joined DNW.
After several years as a coin dealer, Mann joined Spink & Son as a specialist in 2014. From December 2015 he went back to independent coin dealing.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week May 10-16 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Criminals who targeted antique dealers jailed after 16-year crime spree
2 Recreate seminal chatshow moment with Rod Hull and Emu puppet coming up at auction
3 Napoleon’s Sèvres dessert service sells at $1.8m at Rockefeller auction in New York
4 Derbyshire family and police call on antiques trade to help locate stolen artefacts from private chapel
5 Hedge fund owner of Savile Row tailor plans online-only auction at Sotheby’s
A signed Soul
Beatlemania continues in the saleroom. Estimated at £2500-3500, a copy of Rubber Soul signed by all four members of the band sold for £28,000 (plus premium) at the Special Auction Services memorabilia sale in Newbury on May 15.
A copy of ‘Rubber Soul’ signed by all four members of The Beatles that sold for£28,000 at Special Auction Services.
The LP was believed to have been signed in Birmingham at a concert at the Odeon on December 9, 1965, with both the sleeve, signatures and the vinyl surviving in excellent condition.
Modigliani posts Sotheby’s record
The largest painting by Amedeo Modigliani (1884- 1920) became the fourth most expensive work of art ever sold at auction, but it still went below estimate.
Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), a 4ft 10in (1.47m) wide oil on canvas from 1917, was knocked down for $139m (£102.2m) at Sotheby’s New York.
Modigliani’s 'Nu couché (sur le côté gauche)' sold at $139m (£102.2m), the highest price in Sotheby’s history.
The vendor, Irish bloodstock billionaire John Magnier, acquired it for $26.9m at Christie’s in 2003.
Offered at the evening sale of Impressionist & Modern art with an estimate ‘in excess of $150m’, the auctioneers had arranged an ‘irrevocable bid’ in advance of the sale.
At the auction, only one bidder was in contention to purchase the lot. The sum was the highest auction price in Sotheby’s history, however.
The record for Modigliani is the $152m paid for another nude at Christie’s in 2015.
Gold from the Veld
A 1902 gold Veld Pond coin, an emergency issue dating from the Anglo-Boer War and part of a private collection sold by Fellows on May 14, fetched £5200 (plus 23% buyer’s premium) in the firm’s sale of silver, coins and medals.
A 1902 gold Veld Pond coin, an emergency issue dating from the Anglo-Boer War that sold at Fellows for £5200.
In our preview of the collection on page 27 in ATG No 2341, we featured the incorrect web address for Fellows, which should have read ‘fellows.co.uk’.
Our apologies to Fellows.
In Numbers
$1.88bn
The running total including premium from the latest series of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art auctions in New York.
One day sale was still to run at the time of going to press and this figure does not included the $832.6m generated by Christie’s sale of the Rockefeller collection. The equivalent sales last year raised $1.61bn.
