This set of eight silver-gilt salts by Paul Storr made for Robert Grosvenor is priced at £225,000 on the stand of Koopman Rare Art at The Winter Show.
Celebrating 70 years this month, the fair hosts more than 70 dealers from across the globe, bringing a huge variety of international art and antiques.
It runs from January 19-28 at the Park Avenue Armory and is owned by its beneficiary, the community organisation East Side House, which also founded the event. The Settlement works with community centres, schools and other partners to bring individuals in need education and resources.
Turner watercolour
Among the highlights is a watercolour by JMW Turner, probably completed in the 1830s on one of his visits to the Lake District,brought by Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker. The 11½ x 18 ½in (29 x 47cm) picture is painted directly onto the paper with no preliminary drawing, and the pared-back composition is representative of the shift towards Turner’s later style.
JMW’s Turner’s watercolour Evening - Looking Across a Distant Lake to Mountains is available on the stand of Lowell Libson & Jonny Yarker at The Winter Show in New York for $1.1m.
Though not related to a particular finished painting, the work may have been completed as part of his preparations for the Picturesque Views in England and Wales series, which comprised nearly 400 illustrative engravings. It is offered for $1.1m.
It is one of many distinctly British works to be found around the fair.
This George III mahogany breakfront bookcase attributed to Thomas Chippendale, 1760-65, is offered by Rolleston for a price in the region of £150,000.
Elsewhere at the event, Koopman Rare Art brings a set of eight George III silver-gilt salt cellars, 1810, with Paul Storr’s maker’s mark and the designs attributed to sculptor William Theed (1764-1817). The set was produced for Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster, and is available for £225,000.
Meanwhile, Robert Young Antiques offers English folk art, H Blairman & Sons brings a group of English Arts & Crafts furniture and Ronald Phillips features 18th century English furniture and mirrors.
Other British exhibitors include Rolleston, Wartski and Rountree Tryon Gallery.
Quality pledge
The event’s executive director Helen Allen hailed the early highlights announced for the show, and said: “Collectors, connoisseurs, and the curious alike will find displays ranging time, material, geography, cultures, and makers, but what unifies these diverse highlights is the unique standard of quality we maintain through our partnership with our exhibitors”.
In all, there are seven countries represented. From France come galleries such as Carolle Thibaut- Pomerantz, Galerie Nathalie Motte Massellink and Steinitz Gallery, while Milord Antiqués attends from Canada, Daniel Blaue from Germany and Aronson Antiquairs of the Netherlands.
Many more are from the US itself such as Charles Clark, Thomas Colville Fine Art, Glass Past and Macklowe Gallery. Many feature prime examples of US creations. Hirschl & Adler Galleries bring a Thomas Cole painting as an early example of the Hudson River School. A gilt bronze figure Diana of the Tower (1899) originally designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens as a weathervane for the tower of Madison Square Gardens is offered by Lillian Nassau. And Red Fox Fine Art brings a painting by Ben Marshall once in the collections of Andrew Mellon and Paul Mellon.
Robert Young Antiques brings this English naïve school painting, c.1820, of three sisters (pictured above). The picture, 4ft 1in x 4ft 10in (1.24 x 1.47m), has been shown in the US before. In 1996 it was part of the exhibition Two Hundred Years of English Naïve Art, 1700-1900, organised by Art Services International and shown at five US institutions. It is available for a five-figure sum.
Several of these US dealers will take part in Focus: Americana, a section marking the 70th anniversary which celebrates the country’s design history.
During the fair there are two major fundraising nights, the Opening Night Party and the Young Collectors Night, as well as a programme of curated presentations, panel discussions and other events. Highlights include a discussion panel Americana is Now: Four Perspectives on Collecting, the lecture A Collecting Dynasty: The Rockefeller Family and panel discussion Craft & Craftsmanship Through the Ages.
