Latest News Articles by Jonathan Franks
Bone up on Japanese woodblocks
02 November 2020On November 18 Van Ham in Cologne will hold a Decorative Art auction which will include several more items from the collection of Thomas Olbricht.
Danish painter's contemporary view of a tragedy offered in Vienna
02 November 2020A tragic shipwreck provided the Danish marine painter Anton Melbye and his colleague John William Bottomley, a German of Irish origin, with a dramatic subject for their 2ft x 2ft 11in (60 x 90cm) oil painting The Wreck of the Anglo Saxon from 1863.
White-glove auction as Berlin museum collection is dispersed
02 November 2020Modern paintings and whole wunderkammer from a closed museum deliver sell-out response
Eye-opening images feature in German auction
12 October 2020An October 27-30 sale of more than 2800 lots at Reiss & Sohn of Königstein-im-Taunus includes a 1583 first of Georg Bartisch’s Opthalmodouleia…, a famous work on eye surgery that is also the first extensively illustrated account of any surgical speciality.
Now available in 3-D: Parallax Stereogram comes to Cologne sale
28 September 2020In 1902, American inventor Frederic Eugene Ives applied for a patent for his Parallax Stereogram.
Karl Kunz's boxing match appears in Frankfurt auction
28 September 2020Among the million-plus visitors to the notorious 'Die Ausstellung Entartete Kunst' organised by the Nazis in 1937 was the painter Karl Kunz (1905-71). He was not there to be disgusted by the excesses of the “modern degenerates”, as was the official intention, but rather to be inspired by the work of his fellow painters.
Sundial and moon sketch draw demand in Plauen auction
28 September 2020Mehlis (23% buyer’s premium) in Plauen held its first sale of the new season on August 28-29. There was lively bidding, with a high proportion of the bidders joining in by phone.
Dealer event in Munich gets green light for 11th edition at Bavarian royal palace
28 September 2020Fair organisers are not to be envied at the moment. Only at the beginning of September were the managers of the 'Highlights Fair' in Munich given the go-ahead for this year’s event (the 11th edition) which is opening its doors to the general public from October 22-25.
Remembering the ‘happy’ jester
28 September 2020Joseph Fröhlich (1694-1757) was a well-known figure at the Saxon court from the late 1720s onwards. He was appointed court jester to Augustus the Strong in 1727 and held the position for three decades – perfect for a man whose family name translates as ‘happy’.
Swiss painter admired by van Gogh now sought after by collectors
20 July 2020In a letter to his brother, written in 1883, Vincent van Gogh expressed his admiration for the Swiss painter Albert Anker.
Meet the Tudors in miniature form
20 July 2020A bidding battle broke out at Kinsky (28% buyer’s premium) in Vienna for this pair of figures fashioned as King Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I, each about 13in (32cm) high.
East Germany nostalgia fuels demand
20 July 2020There is a phenomenon known in Germany as Ostalgie, which is a nostalgic feeling for the now defunct East German state (GDR).
Flamboyant Meissen ewer draws strong bidding at Wendl
20 July 2020There is absolutely no way that one can describe the decoration of a late 19th century Meissen ewer sold by Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt as restrained.
Artist Georg Schrimpf attracts flurry of bids at Van Ham
20 July 2020In his autobiography Georg Schrimpf described how he originally lacked the courage to become a painter and spent several years as a baker, a waiter and a coalman until he finally found the conviction to devote himself exclusively to art.
Netsuke nets a white-glove result
20 July 2020Two hundred eagerly awaited examples from Brockhaus collection generate suitable response.
Another Batoni emerges from the wilderness
20 July 2020Among the most important clients of the 18th century artist Pompeo Batoni was Domenico Orsini, Duke of Gravina, who went on to become Cardinal Domenico Amedeo Orsini d’Arago.
Moroccan collector secures Dinet painting depicting Sahara culture
20 July 2020An oil painting by Alphonse Etienne Dinet from 1897 caused the greatest stir at a recent auction at Karl & Faber (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich.
Feininger before the oil paintings
06 July 2020Without the signature and dedication, this crayon and pencil drawing of 'Dorfhaus mit Baum und Randsteinen' (Village House with Tree and Rocks), coming up for sale at Neumeister in Munich on July 16, would be virtually impossible to attribute to its creator.
Le Gray’s ancient and modern Paris comes to Berlin auction
29 June 2020The sale of Selected Works at Grisebach in Berlin includes this early photographic view of Paris, taken in the 1850s by Gustave Le Gray.
Tiffany’s inspired Cypriote brings demand at German sale
29 June 2020It was a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art sometime in the 1880s that inspired Louis Comfort Tiffany to produce his so-called Cypriote range of art glass.