DALLAS – Bronzes from the 19th century and Western Art are expected to challenge for top-lot honors in Heritage Auctions’ 1,400-lot Fine & Decorative Arts Including Estates Auction June 8-10. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.
By way of a private collection in Grand Prairie, Texas, David Mann’s Buffalo Shield (est. $10,000-$15,000) is an oil-on-canvas painting showing an elder and a younger Native American decorating a shield with an image of a buffalo. This intimate scene (above) richly depicts the cultural importance and tradition of visual art and iconography among Native American cultures.
G. (Gerald Harvey Jones) Spring on the Pedernales (est. $8,000-$12,000) is a 20-by-24-inch oil on canvas by the Texas artist of a tributary feeding into the Colorado River. The artist known colloquially as just “G. Harvey,” was the grandson of a one-time rail boss and frequently painted scenes from the American West.
“We are pleased to offer ‘Focal Point,’ a selection of outstanding decorative objects to entice the connoisseur,” said Karen Rigdon, director of Heritage Auctions’ Silver & Decorative Art. “This carefully curated group was chosen for their quality and design merits. Many objects vie for our attention. These distinguished pieces are sure to capture your gaze and incite conversation.”
One of the auction’s strengths is a stellar offering of French decorative art, including a rare French Empire gilt bronze and verde antico marble mantel clock attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire depicting the Intervention of the Sabine Women, circa 1810 (est. $20,000-$30,000).
A Viennese enameled silver horn of plenty cornucopia (est. $1,000-$1,500), elaborately decorated with hand-painted allegorical panels and supported on the wings of Pegasus, is illustrative of Europe’s 19th-century nostalgia for the Renaissance.
A monumental French gilt and patinated bronze figural clock on marble plinth, bronze cast by Graux-Marly Frères, Paris, circa 1870 (est. $15,000-$25,000) stands nearly 7 feet high. The object transcends its purpose as timepiece, serving instead as a carefully conceived monument to military victory. A Herculean helmet tops the clock, the face is positioned between putti bearing palms and trumpets, and the standard bears a trophy of a sheathed sword and acanthus bough flanked by two captive slaves.
Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clesinger’s The Two Fates (Aphrodite and Artemis), circa 1870 (est. $8,000-$12,000) was interpreted by the artist from the original sculpture located on the east pediment of the Parthenon by Athenian sculptor Phidias (480-430 B.C.). This work appears in Ferdinand Barbedienne’s 1886 catalog as La reduction aux deus dix. Part of the Grand Tour tradition, this finely cast bronze likely was made to appeal to the English market, as the Parthenon sculptures removed by Thomas Bruce, Lord Elgin and brought to London in 1809, fueled interest in antiquity. The Barbedienne foundry produced arguably the finest bronzes of their type.
Collectors will be taken back more than a half a century at the sight of a Brionverga Model RR126 Ivory AM FM Stereo Radio and Turntable, designed by Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, circa 1965 (est. $2,000-$3,000), an early home sound system mounted atop a rolling cart.
A fine Louis XVI-style mahogany, satinwood and marquetry library table with astronomical motif after Jean-Henri Riesener’s Table of the Muses is a standout piece (est. $3,000-$5,000).
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