The catalogue for the auction, titled Tales of the Unexpected, is now live online and features a wide range of furniture, works of art, sculpture and design from a variety of cultures and periods. Estimates range from £300 to £100,000, with the collection as a whole expected to raise in the region of £1m.
Here is a look at some of the highlights going under the hammer on January 30.
Dutch screen
One of the highlights at the sale is a series of pieces from ‘The Perished Collection’ by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, known together as Studio Job. The pair’s ‘Renaissance spirit’ Dutch studio, founded in 2000, blends traditional and modern techniques to produce limited edition furniture. Their work has been exhibited at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
This 2006 four-panel screen, measuring 5ft 11in (1.80m) high, is one of an edition of six made of Macassar ebony with laser-cut bird’s eye maple marquetry. Three other version have sold at auction, most recently at Sotheby’s New York in 2010 when it took $62,500 including (£40,056) buyer’s premium. This version has an estimate of £30,000-50,000.
Italian mask
This 17th stone fountain mask, thought to be from Florence, is estimated at £6000-10,000. It is in the mannerist style of Andrea Calamech who was born in Carrara and worked in Florence. He played an important role in establishing a vogue for Tuscan mannerist influences in Sicily.
Indian ear ornaments
This pair of geometric ear ornaments come from c.1900 India. They represent the harmonious co-existence of the three worlds in Hindu belief: the physical universe, the astral or mental plane inhabited by spirits and angels, and the spiritual universe of the Hindu Gods. They would have been given to daughters by their parents before marriage as a display of prestige and an aid to fertility. They are offered with an estimate of £1200-1800.
Beetle Bowl
The 2015 Grand Silver Beetle Bowl by Marks for Roger Doyle was made in London. Doyle is inspired by natural forms and with this silver and enamel bowl he seeks to create realistic movement with vivid colours. It measures 22in (56.5cm) across and has an estimate of £10,000-20,000.
Japanese helmet
In Japanese folklore, a shachi is a fish with the head of a tiger, dragon scales and a carp tail, as seen on this decorative kabuto or helmet, made c.1970. It is attributed to Fukutake Ichiro, considered to be among the most talented smiths of his generation, and has an estimate of £7000-10,000.
Waterloo trophies
Two sunburst trophies made up of bayonets from the Battle of Waterloo featuring two brass Coldstream Guards cap badges are also on offer. Mounted as a door tympanum around a painted bas-relief panel depicting a sun in splendour, the pair have an estimate of £15,000-25,000.
Originally they hung in the Officers’ Mess of the Coldstream Guards and later formed part of the Forbes collection in the entrance hall of Canon House on the Blanca Trinchera Ranch, Colorado.
The Coldstream Guards are part of the Brigade of Her Majesty’s Foot Guards in the House Division and art the oldest regiment in the British Army with continuous active service.
Peruvian necklace
This necklace (or ‘pectoral’) would have been a status-symbol for the elite of Nazca society of pre-Hispanic Peru. Made of Nazca shells some time from 200-600AD, the necklace was previously in Geneva’s Barbier-Muller Museum by the collector Josef Müller, which includes more than 7000 early works of art. It has an estimate of £10,000-15,000.
