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Moran’s Announces Major November 13, 2012 Antiques & Decorative Arts Auction
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• Moran’s Announces Major November 13, 2012 Antiques & Decorative Arts Auction
• Important silver makes a grand showing with impressive pieces by Tiffany and other top makers
• Select Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modern design also featured in 200-lot sale
Pasadena, CA—Opulent Continental furnishings, clocks and decorative objects will shed their brilliant light on John Moran Auctioneers’ autumn season. The house is pleased to announce their November 13, 2012 Antiques Auction, a major sale showcasing the luxury and fine craftsmanship of 19th and early 10th centuries in truly exceptional items from private collections and estates. Magnificent silver will also cast a gleam, making a large and impressive showing with pieces of great craftsmanship and rarity.
Leading the many pieces of furniture in the Louis XVI style is an elegant rosewood vitrine by famed Belle Epoque cabinet maker Francois Linke (1855 – 1946 Paris), exquisitely crafted of rosewood features finely chased ormolu mounts and Wedgwood jasperware plaques (estimate $50,000 – 70,000). It was consigned from a Beverly Hills, CA private collection where it has been held since 1971. The same collection yields a number of other items of similarly refined taste, including a striking pair of Louis Philippe gilt bronze five-light candelabra, each modeled as a winged female herm holding in each hand two cornucopia-form branches (estimate $4000 – 6000).
A Régence style ormolu-mounted kingwood parquetry regulator, made in Paris in the last quarter of the 19th century, makes a spectacular visual statement while communicating an interesting combination of allegorical motifs. The case, designed in the manner of Charles Cressent, is an interpretation of the early 18th century style, a transition from the rectilinear Louis XIV style to the buoyant Rococo style of the reign of Louis XV. The mounts, which bear the stamp of the bronzier 'H. Kahn', consist of the crest of an eagle atop an orb with a scythe and a snake, symbolizing victory over time, the cherubs flanking the case emblematic of sculpture and of architecture, and the trophy on the trunk symbolizing science and the arts. The regulator is nearly identical to one reputed to have belonged to the President of Mexico Jose de la Cruz Porfirio Diaz Mori (1830 – 1915), and is expected to realize $70,000 – 90,000.
An important, and delightfully exuberant, Italian Rococo style console & mirror, dating from the early 19th century, are of carved and gilt wood inset with pietra dura (colored stone inlay) plaques depicting flowers, birds and shells, the table with an inset pietra dura top depicting fluttering doves suspending ribbon-tied swags of flowers and opalescent pearls. The two pieces, which are to be sold together with an estimate of $70,000 – 90,000, are made for a room of grand proportions, the mirror measuring seven and a half feet in height.
The sale’s many other 19th century Continental highlights include: a lovely Louis XV style vitrine of kingwood with very fine, delicate ormolu mounts, dating from the late 19th century (estimate: $2000 -3000); another Louis XVI style ormolu-mounted vitrine, of kingwood with a vernis martin panel depicting a fete galante (estimate: $8000 – 10,000); a pair of Emp
Bronze items are strong, among them a rouge griotte marble mantle clock inset with relief-cast patinated bronze friezes and topped by a bust of a woman by sculptor Eugene Aizelin, from the Barbedienne foundry (estimate: $5000 – 7000); a pair of patinated bronze urns, also by Barbedienne (estimate: $2000 – 3000); and a massive French patinated bronze tazza centering a relief of Dionysos (estimate: $2000 – 3000).
The sale’s very large silver selection is breathtaking. Showing great depth and quality, it ranges from 18th century to modern, from a delicate Georgian tea caddy to grand Tiffany centerpieces fit for a Gilded Age banquet, and a rare example of Art Nouveau-inspired American design, to cite just a few examples.
Of the several items by Tiffany & Co., one of the most impressive is a massive .950-standard silver centerpiece bowl, made by the firm’s Paris branch circa 1900. Weighing in at 409 oz troy, it is Renaissance Revival in style with an architectural structure, the oval bowl resting on an upswept base, each with bold acanthus and strapwork ornamentation. It lightly carries its pre-sale estimate of $50,000 – 60,000. Another large Tiffany centerpiece bowl to make a grand statement, dating from circa 1895 - 1902, presents a downswept rim decorated with foliate sprays and cherubs over a spiral-fluted interior band, on a foliate scroll-decorated circular foot. This lovely example of the firm’s superb work at the turn of the century is estimated to realize $25,000 – 35,000. Dating slightly earlier, to 1881 - 1891, is a coffee/tea service decorated in repoussé with flowers and ferns (estimate: $8000 – 10,000), while a 180-piece flatware service in the desirable 'St. James' pattern is offered for $10,000 – 15,000.
Rivaling Tiffany & Co. in the early 19th century was Gorham, based in Providence Rhode Island and renowned for their Art Nouveau Martele line. Less well known than Martele, but much sought-after by collectors, is their similar and complementary line made contemporaneously from about 1901 – 1920, christened ‘Athenic’ for its ancient Greek inspiration. Moran’s is delighted to offer a rare Athenic punch bowl decorated with applied trefoils and scrolls entwined by sinuous engraved and repoussé flowers and foliage. It is conservatively estimated at $5000 – 7000.
British and Continental silver is led by a delicate pair of candelabra made around 1900 by Wolfers Freres of Belgium, offered for $4000 – 6000, and a pair of English sterling wine coolers meticulously modeled as woven baskets with detachable collars fully modeled grape clusters and leaves. Each was made in London: one in 1830 by Benjamin Smith, the other in 1834 by Joseph and John Angell. The two are a perfect match, and together weigh more than 360 ounces troy (estimate: $20,000 – 30,000).
Moran’s sale is also featuring select Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modern design, along with estate items from the 16th – 18th centuries. Notable twentieth century designs include a gilt bronze figure of a schoolgirl by Art Deco master Demetre Chiparus (estimate: $2000 – 3000) and a gilt bronze Art Nouveau lamp by Raoul Larche-- his iconic depiction of modern dance pioneer Loie Fuller enrobed in billowing veils as Salome (estimate: $10,000 – 15,000). A lovely Newcomb College pottery vase decorated by Henrietta Bailey Davidson with stylized flowers on a soft matte blue-green ground (estimate: $800 – 1200) will appeal to Arts and Crafts collectors, as will a large Steuben gold Aurene bowl (estimate: $1000 – 1500). A large collection of Dale Chihuly art glass sculptures of all shades and sizes arrives from a private collector. The seven lots range in estimate from $1000 – 15,000.
Important estate items from earlier eras include a late 15th – late 16th century North Italian carved wood processional figure, an 18th century engraving from ‘The Tapestry Hangings of the House of Lords’ by John Pine, and a fascinating 18th century Dutch floral marquetry long-case clock enclosing an automaton of ships re-enacting the Battle of Dogger Bank during the American War of Independence. Signed J. P. Kroese, it is expected to sell for $3000 – 5000.
Moran’s sales are typically conducted at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, CA. Updated highlights are viewable at www.johnmoran.com. Full sale catalogues are posted at www.johnmoran.com 2 -3 weeks prior to each sale. Bidding is available from the floor and via absentee, telephone or online through Artfact.com.
Consignments are accepted throughout the year for Moran’s Antiques and Decorative Arts Auctions, held seven – eight times a year, their tri-annual jewelry sales, and for their European and American Fine Art Auction, held bi-annually. Please contact Moran’s offices at 626-793-1833 or
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for more information about this sale or any of their other upcoming events.
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