PHILADELPHIA, PA.- Freeman’s May 25 British & European Furniture & Decorative Arts Auction offers a diverse and exclusive grouping of over 350 items. The sale opens with furniture and decorative objects from the Estate of Betty Rhoads Wright and includes a beautiful George II mahogany flip-top card table ($1,000-1,500) circa 1750 opens the sale, along with several carpets, porcelain figurines and a Lot 8, a Neoclassical ivory mounted giltwood thermometer ($800-1,200).
Wright was recognized for devoting her time to improving the community. Together with her husband, Frank Lester Wright, the couple formed the Wright to Read foundation, promoting literacy skills through mentoring and tutoring programs for elementary school children in Alexandria, Virginia. The Wrights collected fine art and antiques appropriate for their historic home, which was originally built for the Surgeon General of the American Revolution and author of the first American Pharmacopeia.
A trio of ‘Le Jeu de L’Éscharpe sculptures by Agathon Léonard will be of interest to collectors (Lots 86-88). Born in Lille in 1841, Léonard was a member of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur, whose work was exhibited at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Léonard is most recognized for his Jeu de l’echarpe series, conceived as a porcelain group and executed by porcelain manufactory, Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, just south of Paris. “Danseuse Relevant sa Jupe” ($7,000-10,000), “La Danseuse au Cothurne” ($7,000-10,000), and “Danseuse à L’Écharpe” ($8,00010,000) were all produced circa 1900. The latter two lots are both accompanied by original sketches by the artist himself.
An important and extensive collection of Wedgwood ceramics, plates, intaglios are also included in the May 25 sale. Founded in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, the fine accessories company is known for its jasperware and creamware lines. Freeman’s is pleased to offer close to 80 lots of Wedgwood wares, ranging from jasperware vases, cameo portraits, china tea service, plates and assorted tablewares. The highlight among these lots include three Wedgwood Fairyland lustre ‘Queen and Frog’ plates ($6,000-8,000) designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones for the company circa 1925, from an important Pennsylvania Estate (Lot 148).
A historically rich and rare ‘Triple Mystery’ clock ($20,000-30,000) by Robert-Houdin leads a showcase on important horological works in the sale as well. Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin was born into a family of clockmakers and was early interested in mechanics and automata. He worked for the horologist Noiret before marrying Josèphe Cécile Egaletine Houdin, daughter of the famous horologer Jacques-François Houdin, who was then apprenticed to watchmaker A.L. Breguet. Joining his wife’s name to his own, the newly christened Robert-Houdin became a prominent entertainer and clockmaker, utilizing skillful mechanics for both his illusion shows and his clocks.
The exceptional ‘Triple Mystery’ clock (Lot 75) offered comes from Robert-Houdin’s third series of clocks made in the 1840s, where the clockmaker began making clocks with glass dials above glass columns, hiding the movement in the base of the clock.
Perhaps the star of the sale is Lot 33, a Flemish giltwood and carved alabaster retable ($25,000-35,000). This small retable, composed of alabaster reliefs set in a gilded wooden framing, is a Southern Netherlandish work from the circle of the leading Renaissance sculptor Jean Mone and can be dated circa 15301540. Set within a painted and giltwood architectural framework, the whole is composed of eight main reliefs depicting scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin, organized in a two-story structure with a three-story central axis, and 25 decorative relief panels set within the pediments and spandrels of the frame. Small altarpieces of this type were most suitable for private devotion, for instance in domestic or funeral chapels.
