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Refinement and tradition central to Strauss & Co's 2019 Live Virtual decorative arts auction

28 Apr 2019

The online sale will be held in partnership with Invaluable.com, the world’s leading international platform for buying art, antiques and collectibles online, and will replicate a physical saleroom scenario, with Strauss & Co’s auctioneers conducting the sale live, in isolation.

“Invaluable.com hosts hundreds of auctions and provides a fair, safe, public and accessible auction platform all year round,” says Strauss & Co-chairperson Frank Kilbourn. “This partnership will expand our reach internationally, for the benefit of buyers and sellers alike.”

Strauss & Co’s much-anticipated specialist auction includes jewellery, English silver and furniture, continental and contemporary furniture, ceramics, glass and oriental ceramics representing diverse artisanal traditions from various regions and epochs.

A fine selection of Dutch East India Company collectables consigned by a private collector will be offered, along with historical Cape furniture from the estate of the late Graham and Rhona Beck, and a variety of domestic objets assembled by the late Lady Caroline “Ina” Magdalen Oppenheimer.

Due to its history and geographic position, Cape Town has always had a special association with the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie), a megacorporation identified by its distinctive VOC monogram. The consignment from a private collector includes three 17^th century Arita blue and white dishes, each bearing the VOC monogram (estimates between R150 000 – 250 000 each).

The VOC collection also includes a Chinese Table Bay plate from the Qianlong period (1735-96) (estimate R50 000 – 70 000), and later era Chinese VOC blue and white dish (estimate R40 000 – 60 000). A large VOC iron key (estimate R20 000 – 30 000) forms part of a cornucopia of VOC ephemera that includes bronze weights, coins and a miniature replica of a cannon.

The historic Cape focus of this distinguished private collection extends to various furniture pieces, many with impeccable provenance, for example a Cape Queen Anne teak and yellowwood corner armchair (estimate R70 000 – 80 000), and an extensively illustrated Cape Transitional Tulbagh stinkwood side chair (estimate R30 000 – 40 000) both of which were acquired at auction from the collection of Herbert Prins in 1997.

Strauss & Co’s forthcoming sale will include a diverse consignment of paintings and decorative works of art acquired by business magnate, wine maker and philanthropist, Graham Beck with his wife, Rhona. Noteworthy furniture pieces include a late 18^th/early 19^th century Cape stinkwood parquetry bureau cabinet (estimate R70 000 – 100 000) and an Edwardian mahogany breakfront secrétaire bookcase (estimate R25 000 – 30 000).

In the 1940s, mining entrepreneur Sir Ernst Oppenheimer and second wife, Lady Ina Oppenheimer, acquired the farm Blue Bird near Hekpoort at the foot of the Magaliesberg. Strauss & Co is pleased to offer various lots from this former cattle farm and weekend retreat. Highlights include a charming assembly of treen (small wooden domestic objects) such as a nutcracker carved with a hand clasping a walnut (estimate R2 000 – 3 000) and two 19th-century silk winders (estimate R4 000 – 6 000).

The auction also includes various individual properties. Jewellery highlights include a 1930s Art Deco five-stone diamond ring, the central emerald-cut diamond weighing 2.86 carats (estimate R315 000 – 320 000), and two gold wristwatches from luxury manufacturers, Bulgari (estimate R60 000 – 80 000) and Patek Philippe (estimate R80 000 – 85 000).

English silverware is an evergreen collectable and the forthcoming sale features a customarily strong selection by distinguished silversmiths, such as Paul Storr, whose opulent neoclassical style is vividly evidenced in a magnificent George IV silver wine cooler (estimate R80 000 – 100 000).

The elegant figuration of past artisanal traditions carries through to the furniture category, most notably in a 19th-century black japanned and chinoiserie decorated brass-mounted cabinet-on-stand (estimate R50 000 – 70 000).

The sale also includes various furniture pieces recording shifts in Italian, Danish and French design. An Italian walnut centre table that is profusely inlaid with mother-of-pearl and bone (estimate R80 000 – 100 000) is in striking contrast to a first edition P40 lounge armchair designed in 1954 by Italian architect and furniture designer Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno (estimate R40 000 – 50 000), and a walnut poker table with four walnut and leather folding chairs designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti in the 1960s for Fratelli Reguitti (estimate R35 000 – 40 000).

South Africa has a well-established record of collecting historical Chinese and Japanese artefacts. Recent sales in 2019 of works from the Strong Collection and Harcroft House registered solid performances. The forthcoming sale includes a set of four extremely decorative Republican-period Chinese ink and colour paper scroll paintings (estimate R20 000 – 30 000). Three lots of Japanese lacquer inro, a traditional case for holding small objects, typify a refinement visible throughout the catalogue (estimate R10 000 – 12 000 each).

All the lots mentioned in this communiqué will go under the hammer on Monday 11 May. The contents of the forthcoming two-day auction are already live on the Strauss & Co website, www.straussart.co.za, or can be accessed by visiting invaluable.com. Prospective buyers can register online and it is possible to place bids now.

Strauss & Co will continue hosting its well-received programme of daily Zoom.us virtual talkabouts, which feature company specialists and guest speakers in conversation about highlights of the May sale. Visit www.straussart.co.za for the schedule and the log-in link.

Press contacts:
Bina Genovese  bina@straussart.co.za  | 083 680 9944
Mia Borman mia@straussart.co.za | 084 685 1671

LIVE VIRTUAL AUCTION:

19th Century, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art,

Decorative Arts, Jewellery and Wine

including The Property of a Collector, The Late Lady Ina Oppenheimer Blue Bird Farm Collection,

Property of the Kangra Group (Pty) Ltd. Assembled by the Late Graham and Rhona Beck

Sunday 10 and Monday 11 May 2020

Enquiries:
Office: +27 (0) 21 683 6560

Absentee Bids
Tel +27 (0) 21 683 6560 8185bids@straussart.co.za

Payment
Tel +27 (0) 11 728 8246
Debbie Watson debbie@straussart.co.za

Condition Reports
conditionreports@straussart.co.za

www.straussart.co.za