CLEVELAND, OH.- Gray’s Auctioneers will offer more than 400 lots of fine art, estate jewelry and decorative art at an auction planned for Wednesday, December 5th, online and in the firm’s Cleveland gallery at 10717 Detroit Avenue in Cleveland, starting at 11 am Eastern time. “This is a huge auction full of striking works of art and superb craftsmanship,” said Serena Harragin of Gray’s Auctioneers.
The catalog is up now, at GraysAuctioneers.com. Bidding is also available on Liveauctioneers.com and Invaluable.com. Telephone and absentee bids will also be accepted. In-person previews will be held Monday thru Friday, November 26th thru 30th, from 10-5; and Saturday, December 1st, from noon-4 pm.
Lot 5 is Le Pont Suspendu by Bernard Buffet (1928-1999), the French Expressionist painter and a leading figure of the Anti-Abstract art group “L’homme Tremoin (or “The Witness Man”). The creator of over 8,000 original artworks, Buffet enjoyed tremendous success and acclaim in the 1950s and ‘60s and is well known worldwide for his evocative landscapes. Bridges were a particular favorite of his.
Lot 119 is a rare Famille Rose ‘Boy and Chicken’ cup from the Qianlong period with Imperial poem, the Qianlong six-character seal mark and blue underglaze all of the period. Cups of this type derive from Chenghua doucai prototypes, and the poem here inscribed acknowledges that the design is an adaptation of the earlier chicken cups.
“This cup came to Gray’s Auctioneers by way of a private collector, and was displayed and purchased in the 1971 Art for Collectors exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art,” Ms. Harragin remarked. “A bill of sale indicates before being displayed at the CMA, the cup was in the possession of Frank Caro who, at that time, was one of the foremost collectors and dealers of Asian art in the entire Western world.”
Lot 87 is a colored lithograph titled Babylon d’Allemagne par Victor Joze, by the famous French post-Impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). The piece was commissioned to promote the release of the novel Babylon d’Allemagne by the French author Victor Joze. Toulouse-Lautrec is best known for his depictions of Parisian night life, but he also did promotional posters for book releases.
Lot 6 is an absolutely gorgeous painting by Korean-born artist Rimi Yang, titled Queen of Philosophy. Yang was raised mostly in Japan, but also studied art in the United States and Italy. Coming to painting later in life, the artist has developed a unique style, bringing acclaim for her vibrantly colorful fusion of Old Masters style portraiture with post-modern abstraction. The work being sold is an example of that.
Lot 3 is a colorful and almost hallucinatory piece by Persian émigré Yasharel Manzy (b. 1947). Based in Atlanta, Manzy is exhibited regularly throughout the Southeastern U.S. and his paintings are sold worldwide. His vibrant watercolors depict subjects in Day-Glo sunset hues. Manzy produced art as a hobby until 1990, when he decided to dedicate his studies and passion to art full-time, as a vocation.
Lot 9 is a large triptych by Harold Gregor (American, 1929-2018), known for his wide, picturesque vistas of the Illinois countryside (and the moniker the “Dean of the Midwest Landscape”). Gregor’s style is photorealistic when taken as one big sweeping image, but his Expressionist training comes through in the details with his subtle brushwork and highly saturated, almost psychedelic use of color.
Exquisite jewelry pieces in the sale will be led by lot 176 a white gold and diamond drop pendant necklace, set with one 3.42-carat old European cut diamond, 149 smaller old European cut diamonds (122 of them set in the necklace), one emerald cut diamond weighing 0.35 carat and four baguette cut diamonds; and lots 174 7 175 two matching white gold and diamond bracelets, one inlaid with sapphires, the other inlaid with rubies.
