Year: 2015

Strauss & Co ensures art enthusiasts worldwide stay connected with new upgraded highly personalised mobile-friendly website

Draw breath for the one shilling Dagga Smoker set for a high of almost half a million Rand at Strauss & Co auction

In a long career spanning 85 years, Peter Clarke produced remarkably few portraits of children making this Portrait of a Young Boy a rare find.

Strauss & Co’s Spring auction on 12 October at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands promises a veritable cornucopia of rare and beautiful South African and international art from Irma Stern, JH Pierneef, Pieter Wenning, Jean Welz, Walter Battiss and Erik Laubscher to Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge and Penny Siopis. Younger artists include Georgina Gratrix, Athi-Patra Ruga, 2015 winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Performance Art, and Mohau Modisakeng. An early hand-coloured print by Colin Richards is likely to appeal to discerning collectors. International works range from seventeenth-century portrait paintings to works by Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse and Diego Rivera.

By Sean O’Toole. Rejection can be motivating force in an artist’s life. Take the definitive “no” that prefaced the start of much-loved painter Erik Laubscher’s prodigious career. In 1946, Tulbagh-born Laubscher, whose work is now highly sought after, knocked on a door at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and enquired from a secretary about his application to study at this prestigious Cape Town art school.

Items which emerged from the sale in 1942 of The Contents of Vergelegen, the property of Sir Lionel and Lady Phillips will be offered for sale at Strauss & Co, in Cape Town, on 12 October 2015. These include two 18th century aquatints of Cape Town, originally purchased for 3 guineas each (R4 000 – 6 000), and an ornate George III giltwood cartel clock (Edward Clarke, London) inscribed on the reverse ”Mrs L Phillips” (R25 000 – 30 000). Also with the same provenance is a George III style linen press which bears an inventory label for Sir Lionel Phillips Bart, Tylney Hall, his former home in England (R15 000 – 20 000).

Property from the Rodwell House Collection to be included in Strauss & Co’s Auction of Important South African and International Art, Furniture, Decorative Arts and Jewellery, Cape Town 12 October 2015

Last night a chest of drawers sold for close on R2 600 000 at Strauss & Co’s auction in Cape Town drawing gasps from the packed saleroom. This important 18th century chest of drawers, which was formerly part of the collection of Vergelegen, was hotly contested between two international buyers on the telephone.

Important South African and International Art, Furniture, Decorative Arts and Jewellery

Strauss & Co’s summer auction on 9 November at the Wanderers Club will include among its highlights an Italian casting of Anton van Wouw’s famous Dagga Smoker. The sculpture was donated by the artist as a raffle prize to raise funds for the Dutch Relief Fund during World War 2. Tickets cost one shilling (10 cents). At the time the sculpture was valued at 60 pounds. It is expected to fetch in excess of R350 000 on auction this November.