Auction 1235 and 1236 - From private collections

Attic or barn finds have at times brought sensations to light and written auction history, but it can also be worth taking a closer look at what scrap metal dealers have to offer – if you have a trained eye. A German collector acquired such necessary expertise after many years in India. He made discoveries in boxes and crates, acquiring many important pieces buried within for the kilo price, and exhibitions and publications subsequently confirmed the quality of his selection. Many of these finds in the meantime have thus regained their status as high-value bronzes of Indian folk and tribal art. Many featured in the exhibition ‘The Other Gods’ in Cologne’s Rautenstrauch-Jost Museum in 1993, such as the South Indian Skanda (lot 11, estimate € 600-800), whilst a large, multi-figure Jain altar (lot 7, estimate € 1500/2000), dated 1468, stands out in particular in the collection.

The Michael Müller-Stüler Collection also began with crates full of handicrafts, brought back from Japan by his grandfather at the beginning of the 20th century. Later, the collector’s passion was primarily focussed on Japanese prints and woodcuts from the Edo period, one in which the most famous masters of Japanese art history, such as Hiroshige and Hokusai– also popular in Europe – were active. In addition to sheets by other significant names such as Kitagawa Utamaro, the auction also includes many of the collector’s highlights. Fifty lots from the Müller-Stüler Collection will be auctioned on 8th December, with several more in the online auction ‘Asian Arts Online’ offered until 15th December.

Kurt Meissner spent almost his entire life working in Japan, during which time he compiled a collection of Japanese woodcuts. He specialised in small surimono, originally created as greeting cards, etc, and several examples from his collection feature in his book ‘The Genre of Surimono’. In addition to the 18 lots in the auction on 18th December (lots 251 – 268, estimates between € 500 and € 5000), further sheets from the Kurt Meissner Collection are offered in the online auction ‘Asian Arts Online’ at.

Also originating in Japan are objects that once belonged to the art dealer Ernst Fritzsche in Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse. Fritzsche was one of the earliest dealers to popularise the art of Japan and China in Berlin in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the pinnacle is a Buddha Amida Nyorai (lot 273, estimate € 70/90,000), which was on view in the rooms of the art market pioneer in the 1930s. As an unsaleable element of his inventory, the monumental statue moved with him to the various Berlin addresses of the art dealership, and will now be auctioned in Cologne on 8th December. A pair of bronze lanterns also belonged to the dealer: The two monumental, 152 cm high pieces date from the Edo period and follow the pattern that was maintained for two centuries during the Shogunate period.

Netsuke are the opposite of monumental. A further highlight of the auction’s view of Japan are select pieces from an old German private collection. A small manju with a flying bat around a thin crescent moon, which forms the edge of the object, was made in the late 19th century in Tokyo, and is now offered in Cologne with an estimate of € 2800 – 3200. A boxwood netsuke from the same period depicts a small pear, measuring 4.6 cm in height. Small, moulded holes can be viewed from one side, and when the piece is turned around, the reason is discovered: A wasp is feasting on the pear, which is already largely hollowed out (lot 447, estimate € 4/5000).

As well as the exquisite objects from Japan, the catalogue’s high-quality selection of Chinese porcelain is also impressive. The imperial lotus bowl was made during the Daoguang period (1820-1850) for the imperial Summer Palace, Yuanmingyuan. It was already in the Viennese collection of Walter Exner from 1911 and published by Herbert Fux in 1973 in ‘Ostasiatische Kunst: Sammlung Exner’. One now has the opportunity to purchase this rare piece at auction in Cologne (lot 152, estimate € 12/15,000).

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Jan Bykowski
Press and public relations
info@lempertz.com