Fine Jewels & Timepieces | Meaningful Motifs in Victorian Jewellery 12 The Collector's Auction | Henri Le Sidaner 14 A Painting Mystery Solved and a Victorian Woman Artist Revealed

FINE JEWELS & TIMEPIECES

Meaningful Motifs in Victorian Jewellery

A Private Collection of Vintage and Antique Jewellery Mon 20 Sept, 6pm MELBOURNE

TOP LEFT: 18ct Gold and Diamond Interlocking Snake Ring, Birmingham, 1901 $1,000 - $1,500

TOP RIGHT: 14ct Gold Onyx and Seed Pearl Mourning Locket, 1890s $400 - $600

OPPOSITE: 18ct Gold Diamond and Ruby Snake Ring, Birmingham, 1858-9 $1,000 - $1,500 Symbolism and allegory have formed an important part of personal adornment throughout history, and at no time was this more prevalent than during the Victorian era. Both overtly and covertly, symbols of love, mourning, loyalty, spirituality, and friendship were all incorporated into jewellery designs to navigate the social restraint and restrictions of the 19th Century.

SNAKES & SERPENTS Representing wisdom and eternity, snakes and serpents have appeared in jewellery designs across various cultures since antiquity. With ancient civilisations being of particular interest to the Victorians, they translated the coiled snake motif into rings, bracelets, brooches, and pins. The motifs surged in popularity after 1839 when Queen Victoria’s husband to be, Prince Albert, proposed with a snake engagement ring. Embedded with the Queen’s birthstone (emerald), the coiled snake was thought to represent everlasting eternal love. FLORA & FAUNA The natural world was of particular interest to the Victorians, reflected in the jewellery of the period. Forget-me-nots, ferns, ivy, violets, butterflies, and doves were worked into designs in keeping with the Victorian preference for the elaborate and intricate. Ivy for example was frequently worked in gold as a symbol of friendship, whereas ferns were a means of showing sincerity. Flowers such as forget-me-nots were set into mourning jewellery in memory of a loved one. As gemstones were also used to communicate further meaning, the forget-me-not flowers were often detailed with seed pearls to represent tears in these sentimental pieces. Birds such as swallows were also frequently featured in jewellery of the period, with swallow motifs becoming popular gifts for sailors and fishermen. As swallows were typically sighted near land, the talisman was gifted to those departing for travel with the hopes of guiding them home to land safely. Soon the swallow motif became associated with returning home, a tradition that continued well into the 20th Century. It was common for swallow brooches to be gifted by soldiers to their sweethearts before heading to abroad during World War I.

HEART PADLOCK One of the more overt symbols of love in Victorian jewellery is the heart padlock. Hanging from a curb link or gate link bracelet, these charming pieces rose in popularity during the mid to late 19th Century, reflecting the highly regarded values of chastity and loyalty. They were typically gifted to women by their beloved before they travelled for an extended period, with the lock protecting their love for one another. The padlock could then be unlocked by the key held in his possession upon his return. CRESCENT MOON Referencing a feminine goddess in ancient cultures, the crescent moon symbol surged in popularity during the Georgian and Victorian eras. During these periods, the crescent represented change, cycles, and the ebb and flow of life. Brooches and necklaces were often gifted to the wearer in the hopes that a newly embarked upon relationship may result in marriage, turning the crescent moon into a full moon. Newlywed Victorian brides were sometimes gifted a ‘honeymoon’ brooch, with a crescent moon cradling a flower or star.

An incredible single owner collection of over 200 lots of Victorian, antique, and vintage jewellery will be offered at Leonard Joel on Monday the 20th of September.

BETHANY MCGOUGAN / Head of Fine Jewels & Timepieces

A Private Collection of Vintage and Antique Jewellery Mon 20 Sept, 6pm MELBOURNE

TOP LEFT: 9ct Gold Curblink Padlock Bracelet, A. Saunders, Circa 1900 $500 - $700

TOP RIGHT: 18ct Gold and Diamond Swallow Brooch, Circa 1880 $2,000 - $3,000

OPPOSITE: 18ct Gold and Sapphire Snake Pin $300 - $500

18ct Gold and Diamond Interlocking Snake Ring, Birmingham, 1901 $1,000 - $1,500

9ct Gold Curblink Padlock Bracelet, A. Saunders, Circa 1900 $500 - $700

THE COLLECTOR'S AUCTION

Henri Le Sidaner

The Collector's Auction Tue 21 Sept, 6pm SYDNEY

OPPOSITE: HENRI LE SIDANER (French, 1862-1939) Soir 1896 oil on board signed and dated lower right: Le Sidaner/1896 23.8 x 33.5cm $20,000-30,000

ABOVE: Heure Recueillir (1896) was exhibited alongside Soir at Galerie Mancini in 1897 and sold for 112,500 USD at Sotheby’s New York in 2013. Early in Henri Le Sidaner’s career as an artist in late 19th Century Europe, classical artistic training still consisted of the copying of artworks in the Louvre, academicism still held sway, and the Impressionists had not yet won the battle against classicism. However, as a 23-year-old novice, Le Sidaner recognised the genius of the thencontroversial Manet at the Paris Salon and resigned his scholarship place at the highly prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. In 1885 he gave up his tutelage under the esteemed Belle Époque painter Alexandre Cabanel and retreated to the fishing port of Étaples to (in his own words), “find a cure in the open air and in nature” (Camille Mauclair, Henri Le Sidaner, 1928, p. 3). Twelve years later, Le Sidaner would emerge from his solitary existence to re-enter the global art world.

Soir was painted in the summer of 1896, during one of Le Sidaner’s visits to his sister Marguerite’s house in Montreuil-Bellay, on the Thouet river. It exemplifies his masterful ability to paint a veil of velvety shadow over the world. Illuminated by a single burning lamp in a window, the riverside scene demonstrates Le Sidaner’s preoccupation at that time with poetic silence and intimacy. Le Sidaner characteristically sought to depict the feelings evoked by ‘things’, rather than directly representing those ‘things’ themselves. In particular, he became drawn to the effects of dusk and moonlight; the silent, mystic moments when the world is not yet completely shrouded in darkness. His efforts to capture the feeling of such moments culminated in 1897 with his series of 34 works, including Soir, exhibited in his first critically successful private exhibition at the Galerie Mancini in Paris.

Le Sidaner’s atmospheric works are rarely offered in Australia, with only one coming up at auction in recorded history - Le Moulin Gris, Montreuil-Bellay (1914) – which sold for $200,000 in 1998. Many of his works are found in the world’s great museums including the Musée d’Orsay, The Tate, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

We look forward to presenting this work within our September Collector’s Auction in Sydney.

MARCELLA FOX / Sydney Manager

A Painting Mystery Solved and a Victorian Woman Artist Revealed

The Collector's Auction Tue 21 Sept, 6pm SYDNEY

OPPOSITE: MARY EVELINA KINDON (British, 1849-1919) Elaine with the Shield of Lancelot (detail) oil on canvas signed lower left: M. E. Kindon $3,000-5,000

ABOVE: The label on the back of artwork framed by R J Stannard, Picture Frame Manufacturer Recently, a client contacted me with a painting he had inherited from his father that he knew nothing about except that it was very old, likely “over 100 years”. He asked if I would be able to do some research on it and although I happily agreed, (I do love a good research project!) I must admit that my hopes of attributing it to a particular artist were very low. Upon receiving a photograph of the painting, I was immediately enchanted by the soft and delicate features of the central female figure who sat gazing longingly with hands clasped by a window. The scene reminded me of some of the works by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English painters who were active in the second half of the 19th Century and went on to influence a slew of other wellknown British artists well into the 20th Century. As such, I agreed to consign the painting and have it delivered to our premises for more research.

When the work arrived, my first port of call was to look more closely for that elusive signature and much to my delight there were the vague remnants of red paint in the lower left-hand corner which could just be made out to read “M. F. K...” or was it “M. E. K…” either way, though the last name was illegible, it was a start. My second step was to examine the back of the painting where I found two paper labels adhered to the frame, one from a framer and one which I’m sure would have given me the information I was seeking had it not been so badly blackened and damaged over time that it was no longer legible. The label from the framer was partly intact and I could just make out the company name, “R J Stannard”. After a little online research, I found that R J Stannard, Picture Frame Manufacturer, was active in London from 1854-1907, and this confirmed that the rough time frame I had placed on the painting was likely correct and that this was the original frame the painting was housed in. As such, I allowed my hopes to grow, but only a little. Through some more online sleuthing I discovered that a Rupert Bunny painting, Madame Melba (c. 1902) currently housed at the National Gallery of Victoria and painted during his time in London, happened to also carry the same framing label. This led to what can only be described as a deep rabbit hole of research which began when I found out that Bunny had exhibited several times at the Royal Academy in London and that they have now digitised all their exhibition catalogues dating back to 1769. Wondering if perhaps some of the artists who exhibited together used the same framers, I started picking catalogues from the years Bunny was in London and trawling through the lists, over 70 pages per catalogue, of every artist that exhibited in that year. In the catalogue from 1895, on page 16, I could not quite believe my eyes when I found an artist listed by the name of M. E. Kindon.

Mary Evelina Kindon (1849-1919) was a British watercolourist and painter of genre scenes, urban landscapes, and domestic scenes. Her distinctive signature, found often in red paint, and particular proclivity for painting women in white dresses gave me no doubt that this painting could safely be attributed to her. Although nothing is known of her personal life, she exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Suffolk Street Gallery and the Institute of Painters in Watercolours in London as well as abroad at the Société des Artistes Francais, Paris and the Paris Salon. Her work can be found in the Bushey Museum and Art Gallery, Bushey, UK, and now in The Collector’s Auction on 21 September at Leonard Joel, Sydney!

MADELEINE NORTON / Decorative Arts and Fine Art Specialist, Sydney