ZURICH.- Museum-quality artworks will come to auction during the September sales at Koller Zurich. A rare Renaissance panel depicting Venus and Cupid by Paolo Schiavo was formerly in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, and later was shown in the exhibition “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Two still lifes by Georg Flegel and Isaac Soreau were also part of a major exhibition, “Die Magie der Dinge” (The Magic of Things) in Basel and Frankfurt in 2008-2009, and several faïence pieces to be offered have been featured in museum exhibitions in Cologne and Düsseldorf. One of the highlights of the furniture auction is an upright piano made for Baron James de Rothschild.

Old Master Paintings
Rare Dutch still lifes and allegories, and an important work from the Italian Renaissance
Suites of allegorical paintings representing the months of the year by Antwerp master Abel Grimmer (ca. 1570 – ca. 1620) are seldom seen on the market. Only three complete series of the twelve months by Grimmer are known to exist, and the set of five to be offered by Koller – comprising February, March, April, October and December – would form a nearly complete suite if combined with one recently sold on the French market (only November would be missing). Conserved in the same family for over 300 years, the five works will be offered on 23 September with a combined estimate of CHF 500 000 – 700 000 (lots 3033A – 3033E).

A still life by Dutch artist Pieter Claesz. (Berchem/Antwerp 1597–1661 Haarlem) features not only food and drink but smoking paraphernalia, an element introduced by the artist to Dutch still life painting in the 1620s. This beautiful work painted in monochrome tonalities was chosen by Dr. Martina Brunner-Bulst as the frontispiece to her catalogue raisonné on Claesz, thus underlining the importance of this painting within the artist’s oeuvre (lot 3046, CHF 500 000 – 700 000).

Among the series of striking works from the Italian Renaissance to be offered by artists such as Tommaso di Credi, Giuliano di Amadeo, and Andrea Manzini (known as Andrea di Giusto), one rare and beautiful panel is particularly outstanding: a reclining Venus with Cupid in a landscape by Paolo Schiavo. Formerly in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, it was later included in the exhibition “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Dating from the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, circa 1440-45, its original function was as an interior panel of a marriage coffer, or cassone, made to hold a bride’s trousseau, of which relatively few survive today (CHF 250 000 – 350 000).

The Schmitz-Eichhoff Collection
Important old masters and wonderful trompe l'oeil ceramics
Koller auctions will offer the collection of Marie Teres Schmitz-Eichhoff on 19 and 23 September. The Cologne collector’s sharp and discerning eye was eclectic, but the core of her collection consisted of old master paintings and drawings, and Baroque trompe l’oeil faience.

Several important old master paintings from the Schmitz-Eichhoff collection have figured in notable exhibitions, including works by Georg Flegel (Olmütz 1566–1638 Frankfurt) and Isaac Soreau (ca. 1604 Hanau 1645). These characteristic paintings were included in the exhibition “Die Magie der Dinge” (The Magic of Things) in Basel and Frankfurt in 2008-2009. Georg Flegel is one of the most important German still life painters from the first half of the 17th century, and his work is distinguished by a wide variety of details and motifs rendered with painterly precision. The fine-quality, colourful still life of strawberries, walnuts, bread, butter and wine to be offered on 23 September will be offered with an estimate of CHF 150 000 – 250 000 (lot 3023). The composition of another still life with fruits and vegetables by Hanau artist Isaac Soreau is marked by a systematic overlapping and staggering of the individual elements, providing the viewer with a unique chromatic experience (lot 3019, CHF 150,000 – 250,000).

Among the old master drawings in the collection are a series of watercolours depicting tulips from the early 17th century. These exquisite works became important during the Tulip Mania speculation bubble in Holland, which saw prices for single tulip bulbs sharply rise to the point where they sometimes cost as much as an Amsterdam town house (see full article here). Precise documentation of what buyers were purchasing became essential, giving rise to watercolours such as these – the ancestors of modern day gardening catalogues (lots 3426–27 and 3435–39).

The most original and playful element of the Schmitz-Eichhof collection is certainly the group of approximately 250 faience trompe-l’oeil wares and animal figures from the 18th century. The catalogue contains one whimsical surprise after another: cabbage-form tureens, covered dishes in the shape of bundles of asparagus, and plates with eggs, beans and nuts. Many of these items were the subject of an exhibition in 1999 in the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAK) in Cologne, and again at the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf in 2006.

The Baroque period was a time of opulent feasts, as the European upper classes attempted to outdo one another in everything regarding fashion, including extravagant table settings. Trompe-l’oeil ceramics were among the highlights of such table settings, and dinner guests greatly enjoyed seeing platters decorated with faux vegetables and fruit, casseroles in the form of cabbage heads, and animal-shaped bowls for pastries and ragouts. Among the highlights of the collection are a mid-18th century French trompe-l’oeil platter with eggs (lot 1751, CHF 4 000 – 6 000); a pair of mid-18th century Delft blackberry jam terrines (lot 1729, CHF 3 000 – 5 000) and a large mid-18th century cabbage-shaped terrine, Brussels, Philippe Mombaers (lot 1742, CHF 6 000 – 8 000).

Furniture, Carpets & Sculpture
A piano for Baron James de Rothschild
The furniture auction on 22 September features an upright piano “aux sphinges ailées” created by a trio of the finest master craftsmen of the 19th century (lot 1293, CHF 150 000 – 250 000). Commissioned in 1836 by Baron James de Rothschild for his luxurious townhouse on the Rue Laffitte in Paris, the mechanism was created by royal piano maker and composer Ignace Pleyel (Ruppersthal 1757-1831 Paris), the case finished in brass “Boulle” marquetery on ebony by the cabinetmaker to the royal family, Alexandre Bellangé (1799 Paris 1863), and the ormolu mounts in the form of winged sphinxes were crafted by master bronze maker Jean Jacques Feuchère (1807 Paris 1852).

Among other highlights in the furniture auction are a pair of Louis XV trumeau mirrors after a model by Johann Michael Hoppenhaupt (1719 Berlin 1785), who completed commissions for Frederick the Great of Prussia (lot 1050, CHF 80 000 – 120 000), an important gilt-bronze-mounted Empire/Biedermeier armoire after models by Josef Danhauser (1780 Vienna 1829) which was formerly in the palace of the Archduke Albrecht, today’s Albertina Museum (lot 1273, CHF 15 000 – 25 000), and a stunning pair of Russian Directoire gilt bronze and cobalt glass wall appliques (lot 1191, CHF 40 000 – 60 000), identical to those that adorn Vladimir Putin’s office in the Kremlin.

Books & Autographs, Old Master & 19th Century Prints & Dawings
Tiepolo, Dada & Erotica
Two works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727 Venice 1804) are featured in the Drawings auction on 23 September: an oil sketch depicting the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (lot 3425, CHF 20 000 – 30 000), and a brown ink drawing of a standing figure in Oriental dress (lot 3452. CHF 6 000 – 9 000). Both works are remarkable for their powerful spontaneity. The oil study may have been made either as a model for Tiepolo’s workshop or for direct sale, as there was already a market for such studies in Tiepolo’s lifetime. A very similar study is in the collection of the Kunsthaus Zurich.

The Books & Autographs auction on 24 September contains two important zoological works: “Histoire naturelle des oiseaux de paradis” by François Levaillant (lot 361, CHF 70 000 – 90 000), and a four-volume ornithological work by Johann Michael Seligmann, “Verzameling van uitlandsche en zeldzaame Vogelen” (lot 362, CHF 25 000 – 40 000).

The 100th anniversary of Dada is being celebrated this year, and Koller is offering one of the most important publications of the movement, “Die Kathedrale” from 1920, with eight original lithographs by Kurt Schwitters, considered to be among his finest (lot 218, CHF 8 000 – 12 000).

The books auction at Koller will also feature approximately thirty works of erotica from an important Swiss private collection, including ten volumes of works by the Marquis de Sade, formerly in the Michel Simon collection (lot 191, CHF 40 000 – 60 000).