121st Auction

Post-Auction Report on the 121st Auction on July 11 and 12, 2014

With nearly 3,000 items, the 121st auction offered a diverse range of pieces for art lovers and collectors. An exceptional cabinet from the 17th/18th century, with a richly decorated and glazed spruce wood body featuring numerous metal-clad drawers, was increased from a starting limit of €1,000 to €5,000, despite its need for restoration.

Among the porcelains, figurine groups from Meissen, KPM, and Nymphenburg, as well as objects from Thuringian workshops, sold well. An allegory of summer, Meissen circa 1740, from the series of the four seasons with polychrome painting, found its buyer at €1,700. The flower seller by KPM Berlin, executed based on a design by Prof. Paul Schley from 1913, was sold for €1,200.

A surprising result was achieved by the Jugendstil vase from Kronach with its curved form and luster glaze, featuring a nymph standing at the neck, which was bid up from the speculative limit of €80 to €1,500.

In the Asian art department, the offered Buddha figures were very well received. For example, a presumably Chinese Buddha made of solid bronze and gilding from the 19th century sold for €1,300 (limit €300), while a six-armed Mahakala, crafted in Tibet or Mongolia in the 19th century from bronze with gilding and paint, sold for €2,500 (limit €1,200).

The abstract female nude on a red armchair by German painter and sculptor Christian Peschke (*1946) sold for €2,200 (limit €1,800). A troop of Russian soldiers, depicted riding through a river in a Cyrillic-inscribed painting, found a new owner for €1,000. A Biedermeier children's portrait, German circa 1840, shows a girl sitting on a sofa with her doll, with her little sister placed beside her in a high chair. The very fine small-format watercolor on paper was increased from €800 to €1,100.

Russian buyers were particularly interested in the offered Eastern European and Russian icons, and due to the ensuing bidding wars, mostly very good results were achieved. A mid-19th-century Russian icon depicting St. Nicholas with border saints and fitted with a cut and chased brass oklad was increased from €150 to €1,600.