AMESBURY, MA.- The Marc J. Matz Collection - Part Two will be sold on August 18th in Amesbury, Massachusetts at John McInnis Auctioneers. The important single owner sale, comprises an extensive collection of Colonial Indian and China Trade antique furniture and decorative arts, as well as a fine selection of Chinese Domestic Furniture and Southeast Asian Sculpture.

Marc Matz, a prominent Cambridge, Massachusetts antiques dealer for over thirty years, was a yearly exhibitor at the prestigious New York Winter Antiques Show, as well as Boston's Ellis Memorial. This auction will offer antique furniture and objects from his collection that, have never before been on the market.

Interest in colonial trade furniture from India has gained great momentum in the past few years following the publication of Furniture From British India and Ceylon, by Amin Jaffer of the Victoria & Albert Museum followed by the landmark V&A exhibition: Encounters, The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800. Matz was the leading financial sponsor of the book and wrote the Foreword.

In addition to a very rare pair of carved rosewood palace torcheres, the collection features a large selection of Anglo-Indian furniture including an impressive extension banquet table, two large marble top center tables and a Neoclassical secretary bookcase with designs inspired from London Cabinetmaker's Guides of the early 19th century. The Matz collection also offers a wide selection of exotic carved Indo Portuguese rosewood furniture as well as luxurious satinwood and ebony examples from the Dutch East Indies

Of particular note, the auction has numerous fine examples of 18th century inlaid and solid Indian ivory boxes and objects, including rare sets of ivory charpoy feet, ivory fly whisk handles, ivory sandals, ivory and horn walking sticks, and an ivory model of a royal barge.

Numerous other notable forms of furniture include a fine mahogany chest on chest, an ebonized console, a figural carved armoire, two fine carved tall post beds, a rare pair of 18th century corner chairs, a neoclassical pedestal sideboard, several campaign chests, secretary bookcases, brass mounted campaign boxes and a diminutive double pedestal desk signed by its maker.

The Matz collection includes an important group of eighteenth century oil paintings of Mughal emperors, a life size solid silver mask of Shiva, a Mughal silver flower-offering bowl, meticulous large Company School ivory paintings of Mughal monuments, glass chandeliers and architectural columns.

Matz did not solely collect pieces from the Indian Subcontinent, and was fascinated in all of the trade routes, especially those leading to China. The sale will include many works of Chinese export art including a very rare China Trade silver clipper ship on an intricate carved rosewood base, a lacquered and gilded throne chair, and a small 18th century slant-front desk. There are a number of China Trade silver objects, paintings,
and a mother-of-pearl carved box depicting the United States Capitol building.

The Matz collection includes a very wide selection of early Chinese vernacular furniture rare to the auction market, including examples of horseshoe shaped armchairs, altar and side tables, a fine incense table, stone top table, and a group of wonderful stools.

From his keen interest in the arts of Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia, the collection holds several important pieces, featuring a rare, large inscribed Shan States Bronze image of the seated Buddha, a Thai gilded manuscript chest, and an outstanding Burmese silver sword decorated with a British Coat of Arms, a master work of cross cultural design.

The collection also features significant Burmese temple carvings, Khmer stone figures from Cambodia, and several examples of early Thai earthenware.