Textiles & Rugs

LOTS 147–155

EXHIBITIONS:

George’s Gallery, Melbourne, ‘Michael O’Connell –Textile Murals’, February 1952, catalogue no. 10 (one of twelve works forming the ‘Pageant Group’) Bendigo Art Gallery, ‘The Lost Modernist: Michael O’Connell’, 26 November, 2011–18 February, 2012

LITERATURE:

Harriet Edquist Michael O’Connell: The Lost Modernist (2011), pp 99-100 (illustrated)

OTHER NOTES:

Born and raised in Lancashire, O’Connell moved to Australia in 1920 and lived in Melbourne for a number of years.

Self-taught in art and very experimental in exploring uses of different materials, including in the production of commercially successful concrete garden sculpture, O’Connell turned to print-making in different media, ultimately concentrating on printing on fabric, combining his interest in modern interpretation of traditional subjects and motifs with pioneering use of synthetic fabrics and dyes.

With his avante garde approach to design and media and regular exhibitions from the 1920s through to the 1950s, O’Connell’s textile works, which ranged from hangings to decorating fabrics, attracted much favourable interest in Australia and in Britain, to which he and his wife Ella, also a print-maker, returned in 1937. (The ‘MAEL’ signature on the present work represents the couple’s given names combined.) In the early 1930s, O’Connell was also involved in an interior design and decorating business in Melbourne in partnership with Frederick Ward and Cynthia Reed. His post-Second War Work in Britain, including work shown at the Festival of Britain in 1951, contributed notably to modern artistic and decorative textile design in Britain and is represented in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and other design collections.

A major exhibition of O’Connell’s work (including the present lot) and his place as a modernist in Australia was held at the Bendigo Art Gallery in 2012. $3,500-4,500

AN ANTIQUE HERIZ RUG

First half 20th century

Geometric floral and foliate designs throughout, the red-ground field with a large rosette medallion with pendants within the light blue-ground spandrels, the Herati main border on a dark blue ground

332 x 250cm

$1,000-1,500

149

AN ANTIQUE PERSIAN RUG

First half 20th century

The red-ground field with an all-over floral design on the Herati pattern with triangular spandrels on a dark blue ground, the Herati main border conforming with the spandrels

315 x 216cm

$800-1,200

150

AN ANTIQUE HERIZ CARPET

Early 20th century

Geometric floral and foliate designs throughout, the red-ground field with a large rosette medallion with pendants within the cream-ground spandrels, the main border of rosettes and trailing foliage on a dark blue ground

557 x 337cm

PROVENANCE:

Bernadout and Bernardout, London, 1986, sold to the following

John Coote, Melbourne

$3,000-5,000

151

A FRAMED FRENCH PICTORIAL TAPESTRY

19th century

Depicting a pastoral scene with figures and sheep by a river in the manner of Francois Boucher, later framed and glazed

154cm x 133cm

PROVENANCE:

Talgai Homestead, Allora, Queensland; reputedly part of the first furnishings of that historic house upon its completion in 1868, the tapestry said to have been acquired in Tasmania to which it had been brought from Britain in 1850.

$1,000-2,000

152

AN AUBUSSON-STYLE TAPESTRY

In early eighteenth century ‘verdure’ manner, the field with a pictorial design of birds and rabbits amidst flowering foliage around a medallion of fruit to the centre, the borders of alternating Classical masks and flowering foliage

260cm x 180cm

$1,200-2,000

153

AN AUBUSSON-STYLE TAPESTRY

In Louis XV style, with cartouches and borders enclosing swags and sprays of flowers, the field and borders predominantly beige and pale blue

175cm x 261cm

$600-800

154

AN AUBUSSON-STYLE TAPESTRY

An all-over repeating design of barbed quatrefoils, each containing a spray of flowers, on a green-toned stylized floral and foliate ground

327cm x 274cm

$700-900

155

AN AUBUSSON-STYLE TAPESTRY

In eighteenth century Classical style, with various cartouches, borders, and medallions enclosing floral and foliate designs, predominantly in cream, pale brown, and pink tones

425cm x 296cm

$600-800

156

A JAEGER-LECOULTRE ATMOS TABLE CLOCK

Serial no. 562724, 1980s

The brass framed five glass body exposing the internal mechanism within, white dial with arabic numerals, calibre 526-5, fifteen jewels with perpetual motion.

22cm high, 18cm wide, 13.5cm deep

PROVENANCE:

Property from the George and Janice Rayner Collection, Melbourne $800-1,200

157

A NAPOLEON III GILT BRONZE CARTEL CLOCK

The movement by L. Barbaste, Rue Auber 13, Paris, third quarter 19th century

In Louis XV style, the eight-day bell-striking movement and enamelled Roman and Arabic numeral dial with glazed bezel set within a foliagedraped case surmounted with an urn and with an Classical mask to its base, the dial and movement both signed by Barbaste 63cm high, 32cm wide

PROVENANCE:

Property from the George and Janice Rayner Collection, Melbourne $600-800

158

A FRENCH GILT WOOD SUNBURST-FRAMED WALL CLOCK AND A SMALL CONVEX MIRROR OF SIMILAR STYLE

Both early 20th century

The clock 65cm diameter, the mirror 38 x 75cm $600-800

A NAPOLEON III PORCELAIN-MOUNTED ORMOLU MANTEL CLOCK

AND VASE GARNITURE

The movement by Jean-Baptiste Delettrez, Paris, third quarter 19th century

In Louis XVI style, the eight-day bell-striking movement and Roman numeral dial in an upright case of architectural form richly modelled with floral and foliate decoration and mounted with a Sèvresstyle porcelain dial and panels variously painted with portraits of ladies, putti, and flowers, the movement stamped JBD within an oval, accompanied with a pair of associated vases of matching style and quality

The clock 49.5cm high, 31.5cm wide, 14.5cm deep; the vases 21.5cm high

$1,400-1,800

160

A LOUIS XVI-STYLE PINK MARBLE AND ORMOLU TABLE CLOCK

French, last quarter 19th century

The eight-day platform movement and enamelled dial with Arabic numeral hours and minutes around floral garlands set within a ring of paste jewels in a lyre-shaped stand on an oval base with turned feet, the whole richly decorated with ormolu garlands and surmounted by a trophy crest 23.5cm high

$1,200-2,000

161

A NAPOLEON III MARBLE AND SILVERED BRONZE CLOCK AND CANDELABRA GARNITURE

Thr case and candelabra by Auguste Lemaire, Paris, the movement by Japy Frères, third quarter 19th century

The eight-day bell-striking movement and gilt Roman numeral dial in a rouge royale marble case of Classical casket form surmounted with a silvered bronze bust of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Mathurin Moreau, signed to the reverse, the dial signed ‘Mon. Aog. Lemaire J. Lohse Suc. Rue Vieille du Temple Paris’, the movement stamped with Lemaire’s and Japy Frères’ marks, the base of the bust with the impressed mark of E. Lohse, the conforming candelabra each of two lights raised on a support in Renaissance Revival style

The clock 60cm high, 34.5cm wide, 21.5cm deep; the candelabra 43.4cm high, 26.5cm wide

$1,800-2,400

162

A FRENCH EMPIRE-STYLE MARBLE AND GILT METAL PORTICO CLOCK

French, second half 19th century

The eight-day bell-striking movement and enamelled Roman and Arabic numeral dial with glazed bezel within a drum raised on a black marble portico decorated with gilt metal mounts of griffins, Egyptian figures, and other Classical motifs 56cm high, 32cm wide, 13cm deep

$1,800-2,400

162

A George I Repeating Table Clock

BY WILLIAM WEBSTER I Circa 1720

Double fusee movement with verge escapement and pull repeat on six bells, striking the hour on a single bell, the silvered main dial with matted centre and mock pendulum aperture beneath subsidiary calendar, strike/ silent, and six bells to one bell subsidiary dials within gilt relief spandrels in an ebonised bell-top glazed case of typical form with a brass swing handle to the top and brass mouldings and foliate grilles to all sides, the dial and the richly engraved backplate each signed ‘Wm Webster Exchange Alley London’

41.5cm high (with handle raised), 23.5cm wide, 16.5cm deep

PROVENANCE:

Gifted to Abigail Byzant as a wedding present, 1730, thence by descent to Ernest T. Tennant, Aberavon, Wales, 1927 (information from a previously-prepared history of the clock detailing the various stages of its ownership from 1730 to 1927 passed to A. Bowlt upon his purchase of the clock in 1960)

L.H. Allen Pratt (information from another note on the history of the clock given to A. Bowlt after his purchase of the clock)

Stephenson & Alexander, Chartered Surveyors and Auctioneers, Cardiff, 9 and 10 November, 1960, sold to A. Bowlt

OTHER NOTES:

A comprehensive overhaul of the clock in 2008 by Phillip Gale, clockmaker in St Austell, Cornwall, included reinstatement of the verge escapement, reversing a previous conversion to a recoil escapement and associated modifications, together with replacement and repair of other parts and cleaning of the movement and dial. (Mr Gale’s invoice detailing his work is available for inspection.)

$10,000-20,000