The most expensive lot was a George IV silver triton soup tureen, cover and stand, Robert Garrard II, London 1824, which sold at $150,000 (£94,339) against an estimate of $200,000-300,000.
It was engraved with the arms of the guards officer Fletcher Norton, 3rd Baron Grantley who married the daughter of Sir William Beechey.
Fabergé had mixed fortunes in Christie’s recent New York sale but at the Country House auction a gold and enamel snuffbox by workmaster Michael Perchin, St Peters-burg c.1900, fared extremely well selling for $125,000 (£78,615) against an estimate of $18,000-24,000.
The demi-lune box was enamelled in pink with a view of the Stock Exchange Across The Neva, giving the feel of an exquisite wintry sunrise.
While Fabergé’s box reflected the Europhile aspect of Russian art, a gilded silver and pictorial enamel jewel box, Feodor Ruckert, Moscow, c.1900, celebrated Russia’s Slavic heritage with a depiction of a boyar wedding feast.
It made $85,000 (£53,460) against $80,000-120,000 expectations.
A pair of Charles II silver-gilt covered vases (so-called ’ginger jars’) c.1675-80, embossed with scrollwork and putti, sold at a mid-estimate $95,000 (£59,750), something of a bargain given their beauty and rarity.
Close to examples marked by Thomas Jenkins, these vases were unmarked.
This is because they would have been part of one of the large, showy garnitures popular among the Restoration aristocracy. Goldsmiths’ Hall allowed such pieces to remain unmarked as they were commissions, ’not set to [retail] sale’.
A parcel-gilt silver commemorative shield mounted with enamel and jewels arrived from a Long Island private collection with a weight of European history to it. It was made by the crown jeweller, A Bachruch of Budapest, to commemorate the crowning of Franz Josef of Austria as King of Hungary in 1867.
This event effectively turned Hungary into a vassal state but the shield was very much a piece of proud Hungarian history with embossed panels and statues tracing the country’s existence from the arrival of the Magyars in 894 to Franz Josef’s coronation.
This latter event actually helped re-sow the seeds of Hungarian nationalism, a cause later supported by Franz Josef’s Empress Elizabeth.
In light of the standard of the work and its accompanying history, the winning low-estimate bid of $90,000 (£56,605) was something of a disappointment.
The magic of the Rothschild name, however, added extra shine to a ’Rococo Revival’ silver tea and coffee service by Robert Garrard for R&S Garrard, London 1858. It was engraved with the monogram of Sara Louise de Rothschild (1834-1924), daughter of Baron Anselm de Rothschild of Vienna, who married the Italian industrialist Baron Raimondo Franchetti (1929-1905) in 1858. The service may have been a wedding present from one of Sara’s English uncles, Lionel or Mayer.
Consigned by Jocelyne Wild-enstein from the Chateau de Marienthal, it sold at $65,000 (£40,880) (est. $40,000-60,000).
The superb quality of a specimen marble table top mounted on a George III rosewood-inlaid mahogany table, c.1770, ensured a strong price of $90,000 (£56,605) against an estimate of $40,000-60,000.
The top was undoubtedly a specimen of the Grand Tour, perhaps from the workshop of Giovanni Atticciati in Naples.
Exchange rate: £1 = $1.59
Hungarian silver, Italian marble and Fabergé gold stars of ‘English Country House’
AN ARRAY of elegant objects sold mostly within estimates at the Celebration of the English Country House auction at Sotheby’s New York (20/12% buyer’s premium) on April 30 and May 1.
