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Slug: Doyle New York Auction Begins January 26

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NEW YORK CITY — Doyle New York will hold an auction of Important English and Continental furniture and decorations including Old Master Paintings and Asian works of art on Wednesday, January 26, at 10 am. The sale will offer important furniture and decorations from the Seventeenth through early Nineteenth centuries, as well as Continental, English and Chinese export porcelain, Georgian silver, sculpture, clocks, chandeliers, sconces, tapestries, rugs and Asian works of art. A special section of the auction will be devoted to furniture and decorations from the collection of Mr and Mrs Howard K. Smith of Bethesda, Md.

The Old Master Paintings section of the sale will offer more than 100 lots of landscapes, still lifes, portraits and religious subjects by European artists from the Renaissance to circa 1800. Also offered on the same day will be porcelain and glass from the Jindrich Waldes collection.

The collection of Mr and Mrs Howard K. Smith comprises 120-plus lots in the sale and features English furniture and decorations dating from the Elizabethan era through the Regency, as well as some Continental pieces. The collection was assembled primarily in the 1950s during the Smiths’ years in London.

One of the highlights of the Smith collection is an Elizabeth I four-poster bed ($8/12,000) formerly in the collection of William Randolph Hearst at St Donat’s Castle in Wales. This bed was purchased by Hearst from Charles of London in 1927 and shipped to St Donat’s Castle, 14 miles west of Cardiff, Wales. Hearst bought the castle through the National Magazine Company in 1925. He hired Sir Charles Allon and greatly restored and expanded the castle, which had belonged to members of the Stradling family since the Fourteenth Century. Upon Hearst’s death in 1954, the National Magazine Company undertook the sale of the estate, and it is at this auction that the Smiths purchased the bed.

Also featured in the Smith collection are an impressive Commonwealth mother-of-pearl inlaid oak chest dated 1654 ($6/9,000) and a William and Mary marquetry inlaid walnut tall case clock by Peter Garon of London ($15/20,000). Among the later offerings are a George IV triple-pedestal dining table attributed to Gillows of Lancaster ($20/30,000) and a set of 12 Regency painted and decorated dining chairs ($20/30,000). Included in the Continental offerings are a Flemish Baroque oak refectory table, four Swiss carved side chairs and an extensive Georg Jensen sterling silver flatware service in the Pyramid pattern.

Among the notable property in the January 26 auction, from other collections and estates, are furnishings, Georgian silver and paintings from the estate of Rose L. Augustine; provincial Louis XV furniture from the estate of Patricia W. Harrison; and a large group of Renaissance through early Baroque English and Continental furniture. Highlighting the rugs is a fine Heriz carpet from the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century

Leading the Old Master Paintings is a rediscovered double portrait of Philippe, Duc D’Orleans, Regent to Louis XV, and his mistress, the noted Madame de Parabere, as “Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden,” by Jean-Baptiste Santerre ($80/120,000). The painting was executed circa 1716, and is recorded in various collections until its last documented sighting in the imperial collection in Austria. During the Twentieth Century, it has resided in American private collections. It is one of two large-scale portraits that Santerre produced of the couple. The other, depicting the regent in armor and his mistress as the Goddess Minerva, hangs in the Trianon at Versailles.

Another work with royal connections to be offered is the “Fête in Naples on the Occasion of the Marriage of the King to the Arch Duchess Maria Carolina of Austria” in 1768 by Pietro Fabris ($100/150,000). Fabris, a Neapolitan native noted for his views of the local life and countryside, was greatly patronized by English collectors, Sir William Hamilton in particular. This canvas displays the royal couple on a dais in the foreground surrounded by dignitaries while a large temporary fort built for the celebration looms in the distance.

The selection of Old Master drawings includes a charming example by the noted Seventeenth Century Italian watercolorist Giovanna Garzoni, one of the few female artists to achieve fame in the Seventeenth Century. This engaging work depicts a small pug dog politely seated next to a piece of sopressatta, a Ming tea bowl, and a loaf of bread ($15/25,000).

The exhibition will be on view from Saturday, January 22, through Tuesday, January 25. Doyle is at 175 East 87 Street. For information, call Alan Fausel, paintings, or Andrea Blunck Frost, furniture and decorations, at 212-427-2730. All lots from the auction may be viewed and absentee bids placed at www.DoyleNewYork.com.