ISSUE 2424 | antiquestradegazette.com | 11 January 2020
koopman rare art
antiques tr ade
KOOPMAN (see Client Templates for issue versions)
THE ART M AR KET WEEKLY
Regent’s treat
Rediscovered Prince of Wales portrait sold for €325,000 by Laura Chesters This rediscovered drawing of the future George IV (1762-1830) is believed to have been owned by his true love Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837). It surfaced at the Drouot auction centre in Paris on December 16. Estimated at €12,000-15,000, it was hammered down at €325,000/£276,700 (plus 28% buyer’s premium) by local auction house Baron Ribeyre.
Continued on page 6
+44 (0)20 7242 7624
www.koopman.art
Fleamarket find joins the national ceramics collection A white porcelain sculpture made in the experimental years of the Chelsea factory has been acquired for the national ceramics collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Head of a Laughing Child c.1746-49 was first unveiled at auction in 2013 after its chance discovery at a French fleamarket. Only one other porcelain example of the 8in (20cm) model is recorded: that in the Ashmolean Museum decorated (probably at a later date) with coloured enamels.
Louis François Roubiliac The identities of the subject and the sculptor of the bust have been much discussed by scholars and collectors. The V&A is now almost certain it was modelled by Louis François Roubiliac (1702-62), the French sculptor working in London in the 1740s who was friends with the silversmith and entrepreneur Nicholas Sprimont (1716-71), proprietor of the Chelsea porcelain factory.
Maria Fitzherbert ‘pendant’ The 9 x 5½in (23 x 14cm) watercolour, black pencil and gum arabic drawing on paper is the work of leading Regency m i n iat u r i st R icha rd Cos way (1742-1821). It is very similar in style and technique to a larger 12 x 9in (30 x 22cm) portrait of Fitzherbert sold for £65,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Christie’s Old Master sale on July 2, 2019. This ‘pendant’ picture, it later emerged, had been acquired for The Royal Collection Trust. Cosway met the Prince of Wales in 1780 through Fitzherbert and eventually completed nearly 50 portraits as the heir to the throne’s ‘principal painter’. During the early years of the secret 1785 marriage between George and Maria (the union was not approved by the king), Cosway received numerous commissions from the couple.
info@koopman.art
Continued on page 6
Above: Richard Cosway’s black pencil and gum arabic on paper portrait, in period frame, of the Prince of Wales – €325,000 (£276,700) at Baron Ribeyre.
P R E S I D E N T S’ DAY W E E K E N D
FEBRUARY 13-18, 2020 A PALM BE ACH SHOW GROUP EVENT
PAGE 001-003, 006, 008.indd 1
BUTCHOFF ANTIQUES |
PALMBE ACHSHOW.COM
03/01/2020 15:31:32