Successful opener for Lempertz’ autumn season

Two special auctions launched the autumn season at Lempertz

Almost all of the selected pieces of ‘Four Centuries of Reverse Glass Painting’ from the collection of Gisela and Professor Wolfgang Steiner sold, with the expectation of 156,000 far exceeded. Amongst others, bidders raised a work by the Spanish reverse glass painter Pedro Onofre Cotto Ferrer considerably over its estimate. Starting at 12,000, his ‘Travellers in a Southern Landscape’ (lot 25) rose to 21,420 euro, whilst the result for the ‘Condemnation of Susanna’ (lot 31) by Johann Peter Abesch also achieved more than its upper expectation of 15,000 to sell for 16,380.

The special auction of ‘150 Years of Modern Glass – a German Private Collection’ also saw high increases as numerous bidders lifted the bowl with praying mantis (lot 103) by Emile Gallé to around 570 % of its expected price, up to 11,340 euro. Other lots that rose several times above the expected price included the Phänomen Gre (lot 107) by the Loetz Witwe manufactory which sold for 9450 euro, four and a half times the 2000 euro estimate.

Jewellery and watches in the afternoon auction of 16th November saw a good million in total. Leading the results was a three-stone ring with diamond solitaire (lot 676) with an outstanding sale of 113,400 euro. An important Art Deco diamond necklace (lot 567) shone at 75,600 euro (estimate 20,000 to 30,000 euro), whilst the Arts & Crafts necklace featuring moonstones by James Frederick Partridge (lot 550) achieved 40,320 euro, a considerable rise above its lower estimate of 12,000 euro.

The second auction day belonged to two catalogues of arts and crafts. ‘Silver, Porcelain, Faience’ in the morning included a Renaissance pomander (lot 1107), which the bidders raised to 25,200 euro. Two significant lidded jugs from Riga and Libau found their way back to the Baltic states with 30,000 and 34,000, whist the highest result was seen by a museum-quality goblet from the market court of Pyrbaum (lot 1010), which moved to a German private collection for 50,400 euro. Even small objects deserved great attention, as an agate spoon (lot 1023) demonstrated with a result of 10,800 euro.

In the afternoon, an important Italian collection offered everything needed to furnish one’s own chamber. The Mainz cabinet (lot 1693) proved that high-quality furniture is in demand on the market with a result of 32,760 euro, whilst a Kazak Karachoph (lot 1769), realised almost 12,000 euro, far beyond its expectations. Also fitting into this trend were a museum-quality Augsburg column clock (lot 1670) which reached 65,520 euro, and a large bezoar stone (lot 1625) which changed hands for 7560 euro. The name of these objects is derived from the Persian word for ‘antidote’, the effects of which Harry Potter discovered in the novels.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 0221/92 57 29–57.

Jan Bykowski
Press and public relations
info@lempertz.com