Although many dealers reported less footfall around the fair as a whole, a significant number of exhibitors said they preferred the organisers’ approach that allowed for easier conversations with serious collectors.
Anthony Meyer of Paris Oceanic and Eskimo Art dealership Galerie Meyer said: “I was extremely pleased with the turnout and the attitude of the people.
“The flow of serious collectors was non-stop and we had regular sales throughout. It was much better than expected – better than the last two years.”
With dealers reporting new and old clients coming through the doors at TEFAF’s flagship art and antiques fair, ATG learned of a larger number of sales than at any TEFAF event held previously.
A selection of confirmed sales
Koopman Rare Art recorded a number of sales during the fair and director Lewis Smith said the “antique silver market is gaining in momentum”. Among the sales was a pair of silver-gilt ewers made by Edward Farrell for the Duke of York (1763-1827). As well as their Royal provenance, the ewers were also more recently in the Robert de Balkany collection. They were offered at £175,000.
Munich dealer Kunstkammer Georg Laue sold an alabaster sculpture based on the Allegory of Melancholie by Willem van den Broecke, Antwerp, c.1560. It will be on loan at the Dresden Old Master Gallery for the exhibition Michelangelo - Giambologna and the Medici chapel from June 23-October. It was offered for a price in the region of €100,000 and was sold to a European private collector.
The Dutch museum Singer Laren acquired Takken met appels, 1952-1953 by Charley Toorop (1891-1955), from gallery Douwes Fine Art. It was painted in the artist’s garden and will be added to the museum’s modern Dutch works.
Russian art specialist James Butterwick recorded a number of sales in the first few days of the fair including Ukrainian artist Aleksandr Konstantinovich Bogomazov’s Experimental Still Life (1928) which was offered in the region of €25,000.
Among the sales at Didier was a César Baldaccini (1921-1998) gold pendant with diamonds that sold to a private collector.
A private collector bought Two Nesting Tables, 1927 by Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) from Galerie Ulrich Fiedler.
Agnews sold Portrait of Stephen Spector by Claudio Bravo (1936-2011), a mixed media on paper. It sold to private European collector.
Hammer Galleries has sold a Vincent van Gogh oil on canvas Lilac (1887). It had an asking price of $9.5m and was bought by a private collection.
Librairie Camille Sourget sold a number of books to private collections including Comte de Buffon (1707-1788), Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, (Paris 1770-1786). The first issue of the book includes 973 contemporary hand-coloured plates.
Galerie Le Beau sold a pair of presidencial armchairs c.1960 by Jorge Zalszupin (1922) to a private collection.
Yufuku Gallery sold a slip-cast porcelain with pale blue glaze by Sueharu Fukami made this year (2018) for a six figure sum to a private Chinese museum.
Jorge Welsh Works of Art sold a Ming dynasty hexagonal porcelain salt cellar from the Wanli period (1573-1619) for a mid-six-figure sum to a private European collector.
Rupert Wace Ancient Art sold a Greaco-Roman marble Aphrodite Anadyomene from the late Hellenistic period (1st century BC) for €42,000 to a private collection and Villanova bronze lid with hunting scene from the 8th-7th century BC for €150,000 to a public collection.
Vanderven Oriental Art sold a Qianlong period Mandarin dating from 1741 for €100,000 to a private European collection.
Hidde Van Seggelen sold a 1982 neon tube, electrical wire and acrylic paint on wood panel artwork called ‘Un tableau et un fil électrique inclinés a 15’ by François Morellet (1926-2016) for €200,000 to a public US collection.
The Merrin Gallery sold a pale green stone Maskette with Incisions dating from 900-600 BC for more than €150,000 to a private collector. It also sold a 2nd century BC-2nd century AD monumental foot from a statue to a private collector for around €250,000.
M&L Fine Art sold a Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) oil on canvas called Natura Morta (1951) to a private European collection. It carried an asking price of €1m.
Koetser Gallery sold an oil on panel by Jan Josefsz Van Goyen (1596-1656) called Ships in Dordrecht harbour with the ruins of Huis te Merwede in the background c.1655 to a non-European private collector.
Kollenburg Antiquairs sold a tempera on panel by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) called Saint Albinus and Saint Bernardus c.1496. It carried an asking price of between €750,000-1m and was bought by a private buyer outside of Europe.
Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art sold the oil on canvas Study for clouds and sky by G.M. Cels to a private buyer and the marble sculpture Joseph by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850)for a sum in the region of € 100,000 to a French public collection.
Rupert Maas sold William Henry Millais’ On the Lyn, North Devon to a Dutch museum at €10,000. It has doubled the number of English pictures in that institution to two.
Ben Janssens Oriental Art sold in excess of 40 works during the first two days, including a Northern Wei/Eastern Wei horse for €50,000 to a European collector.
Benjamin Proust Fine Art sold a wax model of the fountain of Palazzo Pitti (1556) by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511-1592). It carried an asking price of €700,000 and was bought by the Rijksmuseum.
Tribal dealer Donald Ellis sold a grease bowl in the form of a baby bird, dated c.1800-1830, for €285,000 to a private collector.
Rare maps specialist Daniel Crouch Rare Books, located in TEFAF Paper, sold an atlas described as ‘the greatest and finest atlas ever published’ by Johannes Blaeu, c.1662-1665. The work, published in Amsterdam, had an asking price of €730,000.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books sold a rare incunable of Christopher Columbus’s first account of the discovery of the New World, Epistola de insulis nuper inventis, in its second Basel edition of 1494, priced at approximately €1m. The dealership also sold two miniatures that were illuminated in Simon Bening’s workshop in Bruges between 1510 and 1520 to a private collector for an undisclosed price. A further sale was a Burgundian manuscript to a private collector in Europe for a seven-figure sum. The manuscript contains an anthology of chivalric treatises and includes 14 different texts compiled under the direction of Gilles Gobet, King of Arms of Maximilian of Austria, duke of Burgundy – alias Toison d’Or.
Giacometti Old Master Paintings sold a number of works including an oil on canvas of Saint Stephen by Bernardo Cavallino to a new client.
Ancient art dealership Charles Ede sold a small Egyptian Ptolemaic Period head from c.332-30 BC with an asking price of €85,000. It also sold an Athenian fragment of a head from early 4th century BC with an asking price for €50,000. The dealership also reported a number of other sales including a Roman carved ivory relief depicting a Bacchic scene which had a price tag of €110,000.
Day & Faber sold a chalk portrait of the artist Maurice Eliot by Charles-Lucien Leandre to a French collector, priced at €22,000.
Asian art specialist Sydney Moss sold a 19th century Noh mask to a European client. It also sold six netsuke ranging in price between £10,000 and £20,000.
H. Blairman & Sons reported sales including a Gordon chair, ticketed at £95,000, bought by an existing client and a Thebes stool sold to a new client.
Rafael Valls early sales included a small trompe-l'œil of a partridge for a four-figure sum.
Colnaghi sold Mater Dolorosa an oil on canvas by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo for a seven-figure sum to a private European collector. The sale took place “almost immediately” after the fair opened according to a spokesperson from the gallery.
