Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Carceri d’Invenzione. Magnifica edizione romana, 1761, starting price €40,000. Courtesy Gonnelli, Florence.
Thus, it’s an auction that attracts a diverse audience made up not only of specialists but also of those who allow themselves to be fascinated by prints or Old Master drawings.
Especially the section dedicated to fashion drawings is special. “We have acquired a number of collections from which we were able to isolate this section in a catalog in itself,” said the director of the auction house, Marco Manetti. “It’s an experiment, but it has all the characteristics to be successful internationally. It is not easy to find such a large collection of works of this type; usually there are only single sheets. Fashion is a topic that attracts the attention of a wide, international audience, and also a public with important resources. For example, in Florence there is the Fashion Museum founded by fashion designer Ferragamo, who also owns in its collection fashion sketches from the 18th and the 19th century.”
Among the authors represented at auction there are famous names of this genre such as Erté (1892-1990), a Russian-born French artist who was one of the greatest exponents of Art Deco (lot 448, starting price €2,000), and Umberto Brunelleschi (1879-1949), an Italian artist who moved to Paris in 1900 and since the 1920s has worked as a set and costume designer in music halls like Les Folies Bergère, as well as theaters such as La Scala in Milan (lots 183, 433, 434, 435, starting prices from €150 to €700).
Another interesting section is that devoted to Piranesi. In particular there will be on offer a full volume of 16 etchings of the Carceri d’invenzione, which is very difficult to find because these volumes are often broken up to sell the sheets individually. It is the second Roman edition from 1761. It is a relevant lot both for its printing quality, and for the state of preservation. The prices on the market are usually higher. Here the starting price is €40,000 (lot 148).
The visionary nature of this series by Piranesi, an artist who’s in great demand at the international level, has influenced later artistic movements such as romanticism and surrealism, but also the Dutch artist Escher, and even contemporary movies and music.
In the section of the Old Masters drawings Lot 4 stands out: a head in red pencil from the narrow circle of Michelangelo Buonarroti, which could be interesting for a deeper research by some scholar (starting price €5,000). Also there’s Lot 34: an architectural study by Bernardo Buontalenti. It is important, even if it is just a decoration, as it is not easy to find drawings by Buontalenti on the market, both because of a limited production and many are held by institutions. Bidding for the Buotalenti will start at €9,000.
The market for Old Master drawings currently enjoys special attention at the international level. And it does at the expense of prints by Old Masters, for which at this time there is not a big market – unless it is a rare and a valuable print, both in terms of printing quality, and especially in terms of the state of preservation, which has become crucial. There should be no signs of restoration, defects, cuts, abrasions, etc. because, whereas before these kinds of prints were sold at lower prices, today they remain unsold.
Gonnelli also specializes in ancient books. It is not just an auction house but also an antiquarian bookstore, and thus it has been maintaining a tradition since the 19th century. Its aim is to spark interest in a sector, antiques, which is experiencing a crisis. In fact, many Italian antiques dealers are moving abroad. Gonnelli is among the oldest antiquarian bookshops in Italy, founded in 1875, and has never changed location. The auction house has been operating since 1880.
The market for ancient books in Italy is in a downturn not so much because of the offer, which is rich, but because of lack of demand due to the economic crisis. It’s also because of a generational change. “We need to attract young people to the ancient books,” Marco Manetti said. “In the case of ancient books, people often are afraid of not having the right preparation.”
The auction house works a lot with foreign countries, for example, with the United States, Great Britain and France, even if Italian export restrictions laws do not facilitate their efforts. On the contrary, they slow down their work in a market that is hectic today. “It takes 40 days to apply for an export permit and customers abroad do not want to wait,” Manetti said. “We do all the export practices for our collectors because it would be extremely difficult for them to relate to the Italian bureaucracy, which changes also from region to region.”
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Carceri d’Invenzione. Magnifica edizione romana, 1761, starting price €40,000. Courtesy Gonnelli, Florence. Erté, Gli impermiabili. Due figurini di moda, circa 1950, starting price €2,000 for the pair. Image courtesy Gonnelli, Florence. Umberto Brunelleschi, Le ballet de la fin, 1917, starting price €700. Courtesy Gonnelli, Florence.
