NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s unveiled highlights from A Collecting Legacy: Property from the Collection of Nelson & Happy Rockefeller on 18 January, as part of their 2019 Americana Week auctions in New York. This special offering follows the success of the November and December 2018 auctions of works from the couple’s collection. Jewels from Happy’s personal collection were sold in the 4 December auction of Magnificent Jewels, while a dedicated sale on 13 November offered important 20th century design, impressionist & modern and contemporary art. Titled A Modernist Vision, this exceptional group was in part the result of Nelson Rockefeller’s commission of an original interior from designer Jean-Michel Frank, who filled Nelson’s distinguished 810 5th Avenue apartment with his unique designs, as well as those of celebrated artist-designers Alberto Giacometti and Christian Bérard.
Led by 16 pieces from the celebrated Meissen ‘Swan’ service and important Chinese export ceramics, the January sale will offer a remarkable array of the couple’s furniture and decorative objects, including silver, Americana, books & manuscripts, Chinese and Japanese works of art and prints, and modern and contemporary art, showcasing in its entirety Nelson and Happy Rockefeller’s worldly vision and eclectic spirit, while providing an intimate glimpse into how the couple lived with these timeless objects.
Works from the sale will be on view in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries beginning 11 January, alongside the 2019 Americana Week auctions.
Passionately assembled with wide-ranging interests and an unwavering eye for quality, the collection of Nelson and Happy Rockefeller is not only tied to one of America’s most storied families, but is also a significant and pioneering collection in and of itself, expressing, as Nelson himself once stated, “the spirit of the time” in which they lived.
AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
The January sale is anchored by a remarkable suite of 16 pieces from the renowned Meissen ‘Swan’ service, led by a Pair of Meissen Monteiths circa 1740-41 (estimate $150/250,000).
The Meissen ‘Swan’ service has gained its highly covetable status amongst collectors, academicians and enthusiasts with its timeless beauty, masterful modeling and distinguished provenance. Equally importantly, the service originally comprising over 2,200 pieces also attests to the prestigious use of porcelain on aristocratic tables by the second quarter of the 18th century, replacing silver services.
The service, with its numerous dinner and dessert service shapes, was commissioned in 1736 by German statesman Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-63), who later became the Director of the Royal Porcelain Factory at Meissen. Bearing the coat of arms of von Brühl and his wife, Maria Anna Franziska Kolowrath-Krakowski, the lavish set was completed in 1742 and was presumably the ultimate status symbol for von Brühl, who was known for his extravagant official festivities while also promoting the abilities of the factory under his direction. While the service remained in the family’s possession until the late 19th century, from 1880 pieces were lent to museums in Dresden and Berlin or passed to collectors, so that by 1900 only 1,400 pieces remained. These works were dispersed or possibly destroyed at the end of the Second World War, presenting collectors today with a rare opportunity to acquire numerous pieces from the renowned service, including a Wärmeglocke (estimate $50/70,000), Wine-Bottle Holder (estimate $30/50,000) and a trio of Large Circular Dishes (estimates from $25/50,000).
Two Extremely Rare and Important Chinese Export Armorial Goose-Form Tureens and Covers for the Spanish Market, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, circa 1775 lead the wide range of Chinese export ceramics on offer. The Negrete goose tureen is distinguished by the initials JCN, for Juan del Castillo Negrete, which are unusually marked on the base of pieces from this particular service (estimate $150/250,000). The arms that adorn the Gálvez tureen are those of José de Gálvez y Gallardo, the first Marquis of Sonora (estimate $120/180,000). The inscription on the work reads ARMAS DELEX MOSE NORGALVEZ, but it instead should read ARMAS DEL EXMO SENOR GALVEZ, or “The Arms of his Excellency Senor Gálvez” – an error by the Chinese artist in copying the handwritten instructions that accompanied the commission.
Further highlights include an Extremely Rare and Important Pair of Large Chinese Export Figures of a Jewish Man and Lady, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (estimate $100/150,000). The present pair has historically been known as ‘Dutchman and Dutch Lady’, or ‘Mr. and Mrs. Duff’, however, this attribution has been repositioned recently following the discovery of two European prints entitled ‘Franckfurther Jud und Jüdin’ and ‘Ein Polnischer Jud’. The two prints were etched by the Dutch artist Caspar Luyken (1672-1708) and illustrated in the Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria (The Newly Opened World Gallery) in 1703, which consists of 101 costume plates ranging in the depiction of nobility to everyday people of various nations. The figures depicted are wearing typical Ashkenazi Jewish garments, including the collar ruffs, the bonnet with cone-shaped ears worn by the woman, and the long robe, large broad brimmed hat and draped sash worn by the man. There appear to be two other pairs of a Jewish man and lady published: the first is from the Copeland Collection at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, and the second from the Hodroff Collection at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Winterthur, Delaware.
A Rare Crab-Form Tureen and Cover, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period, rounds out the exceptional Chinese export ceramics on offer and further showcases the couple’s love of these storied objects (estimate $100/200,000). The delicately and realistically modeled tureen is one of only four published examples, with one remaining in private hands, and the other two each residing in the Peabody Essex Museum and the Royal Academy Collection.
Additional highlights from the collection include John Richards’ The Battle of Fredericksburg – a remarkable oil on canvas from circa 1870 and likely the only extant example of a Civil War battle scene painted by an enlisted soldier serving in the battle (estimate $100/200,000) – and a Royal George III Silver-Gilt Figural Centerpiece by Paul Storr (estimate $30/50,000).
NELSON AND HAPPY ROCKEFELLER
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (1908-79) and Margaretta Large Fitler Murphy "Happy" Rockefeller (1926-2015) were widely known for their civic and philanthropic achievements. Throughout their lives together, they surrounded themselves with a collection that was in part inherited and in part deliberate, blended together in elegant refinement and exhibiting the consummate tastes of their time.
Nelson and Happy both had rarified upbringings. Nelson in particular grew up among beautiful objects from a multitude of cultures, and inherited from his mother, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, a fervent appreciation of craftsmanship and connoisseurship. Instilled with this unwavering fascination with art in all forms, Nelson revered the creative spirit that artists brought to their work – a sentiment that he and Happy shared throughout their lives together, no matter the artist’s anonymity or prominence.
Nelson’s distinguished political career reached its pinnacle during his service as the 49th Governor of New York from 1959–73 and as the 41st Vice President of the United States under Gerald Ford. His experience in business included top positions at a number of his family’s companies, most notably as president and chairman of Rockefeller Inc. As president of the board of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Nelson had access to the most forward thinking curatorial minds of the day, including founding visionary director, Alfred Barr Jr., who helped Nelson develop the confidence to collect and commission artworks unerringly for the rest of his life.
Happy received her nickname early in life due to her outgoing and easy temperament. From a prominent main-line Philadelphia family, her life was infused with a generous spirit of volunteerism; starting in the war years as a driver for the Women’s Volunteer Service, later on numerous campaign trails for Nelson, as an outspoken advocate for breast cancer awareness, as President of the Board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and finally, as an official delegate to the United Nations.
While much of the couple’s collection was bequeathed to prestigious institutions and dispersed to various family members during Nelson’s lifetime, Happy continued to live with her favorite of the works. Taken together, this collection presents a lifestyle of spectacular refinement, emblematic of the Rockefeller style and taste of the 20th century.
