NEW YORK, NY.- On Wednesday, January 30 at 10am, Doyle will hold an auction of English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts, Old Master Paintings and Russian Works of Art from prominent estates and collections across the country.

Spanning the Italian Renaissance through the 19th century, the sale presents a broad selection of elegant furniture, decorations, Georgian silver, porcelain, sculpture, mirrors, clocks, chandeliers, sconces, tapestries and rugs. The selection of Old Master paintings and drawings offers a wide range of landscapes, still lifes, portraits and religious subjects. Showcased among the Russian Works of Art are Fabergé, icons, silver, bronzes and imperial memorabilia.

Michele Marieschi (Italian, 1710-1743), like his fellow view-painters Antonio Canaletto and Giovanni Paolo Panini, began his career as a designer of theatrical sets. That training is clearly visible in his early easel paintings, of which two architectural fantasies in the sale are prime examples. Already at this stage of his career, we can see the expressive, textured brushwork that is one of the signatures of his mature style (est. pair $30,000-40,000).

Cómodas de sacristía, or chests of drawers made to store a priest’s vestments in a church’s sacristy, can be found throughout Latin America. The auction offers one such chest that is a fine example of Cuban Baroque cabinet making, with its massive form, outset rounded corners, and boldly projecting foliate-carved feet. Each foot is made from a single piece of mahogany held in place by a wooden peg (est. $10,000-15,000).

Interested in saving the distressed mosaics of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, Antonio Salviati, a lawyer from Vicenza, founded a firm in 1859 that developed a process for the production of mosaics. In doing so, he saved the declining fortunes of the Venetian glass-making trade, resuscitating and energizing the industry. From the Estate of Marianne Schaller is a large micromosaic mirror from the late 19th/early 20th century that exhibits the feats of those new processes, with panels depicting the lion of St. Mark and the Doge’s barge flanked by allegories of Summer and Autumn (est. $12,000-18,000).

A magnificent Russian silver-gilt and enamel box (est. $90,000-120,000) highlights a wide range of Russian enamels, Fabergé and objets de vertu from a West Coast Private collection. Produced by Feodor Rückert, arguably the most talented of all enamel artists in pre-revolutionary Russia, the box depicts A Knight at the Crossroads by the important Russian painter, Viktor Vasnetsov (1848-1926). Further highlights include an impressive silver tea service by Andrei Bragin, St. Petersburg, 1894, from a Philadelphia Private Collection (est. $25,000-45,000).

From the Collection of a Gentleman are Russian silver and enamel salt thrones featuring examples by the eminent Russian silversmiths Khlebnikov and Ovchinnikov. Used in the traditional Russian welcome ceremony of bread and salt, these popular salt thrones are elaborately decorated with native ornament and folk sayings (est. range $500-2,500).

The public is invited to the exhibition on view from Saturday, January 26 through Monday, January 28.