NEW YORK, NY.- Bonhams auction of Fine Furniture, Silver, Decorative Arts & Clocks on September 24 opens the New York furniture auction season at its 580 Madison Avenue salesroom with approximately 500 lots from several important private collections.

For the first time at Bonhams in New York, a special section of the furniture auction will be devoted to Fine European and American Clocks, with nearly 50 lots of high quality timepieces. This sale has something for all clock enthusiasts, including marine chronometers, carriage clocks, longcase clocks, skeleton clocks, musical clocks and much more. Bonhams is exceedingly pleased to present its fine and rare examples of American, English and Continental clocks, some of which have not seen a public auction in close to a century.

In addition to the exciting and diverse timepieces on view, three private collections of Renaissance and Baroque furniture and sculpture will fill the galleries with mythological and classical references, including a French Renaissance walnut cabinet with extremely fine carvings of the Four Seasons (est. $30,000-$50,000), and a very expressive pair of Italian Mannerist sculptures of angels (est. $4,000-$6,000). The latter come to the auction from the collection of Nelson Shanks, a world-renowned portrait artist, whose subjects have included President Bill Clinton and Lady Diana Spencer.

Another private collection in this sale is that of Bernard and Miriam Landman of Indianapolis, Ind. The Landmans collected many important clocks featured in the sale, but also sterling quality English furniture, such as a pair of George I walnut marquetry armchairs with the arms of the Suckling family, from Surrey (est. $30,000-50,000). These chairs maintain their original, dated needlework seats – an extremely rare occurrence – made with the family coat of arms by Robert and Dorothy Suckling’s daughter, sometime before her marriage in 1734.

Several important tapestries will be offered in this auction, including a fine mid-18th century Beauvais tapestry, depicting Europa and the Bull, after a design by Francois Boucher (est. $30,000-$50,000), and a very rare Renaissance tapestry by Joost van Herzeele, representing a royal entourage returning from the hunt (est. $30,000-$50,000).

Nineteenth-century furnishings and decoration are well represented by a Louis XVI style center table after Adam Weisweiler, beautifully mounted with pink ground Sevres style porcelain plaques, in the grand tradition of 18th-century marchand-merciers such as Daguerre and Poirier (est. $22,000-$30,000), and a stunning pair of gilt bronze mounted Imperial Russian cut glass vases (est. $100,000-$150,000).

There are nearly 150 lots of silver in the September 25 auction, and an elegant Puiforcat sterling silver flatware service for 12 (est. $18,000-$25,000) and a set of 12 Regency sterling silver dinner plates by Paul Storr (est. $15,000-$25,000) are among the most outstanding.

The sale also features unusual and compelling decorative items. One such example is a Victorian sterling silver presentation shield by Charles Frederick Hancock (est. $15,000-$20,000), depicting scenes from Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. The shield and its subject matter powerfully illustrate the revival of Gothic imagery evident in Europe at the end of the 19th century. An equally striking, and decidedly more whimsical, highlight on offer is a Meissen porcelain 22-piece monkey band, or Affenkappelle (est. $14,000-$18,000). Originally created by the Meissen porcelain factory in Saxony in the mid-18th century, Affenkapelle ware parodied the Dresden Orchestra in ornate singerie, popularized by French artists of the period. Bonhams fine 20th century example is based on the models of J.J. Kandler.