Bidding open Sale L24-0619 Fine Art, Instruments & Asian Works
Ninety-six lots consigned from three private collections, catalogued in the house manner: lot number, plate, description, estimate, and — once the gavel falls — the hammer. Condition observations are keyed by superscript to the apparatus below.
Elspeth Carrow-Vane (1861–1934)
Oil on panel, signed with monogram lower right and dated ’04. Exhibited: Royal Scottish Academy, 1905, no. 212. Painted at the height of the artist's Firth period, when she worked almost exclusively after dusk.
Attributed to Jonas Peel (fl. 1790–1822)
Watercolour and bodycolour over graphite on laid paper, watermark J. Whatman. One of eleven raptor studies from the Peel album, dispersed at this house in 1998.
Marek Ostrowski (b. 1948)
Acrylic and marble dust on linen, signed and dated 1979 verso. Literature: Ostrowski, Apertures, Kraków 1988, pl. 31. Reserve not met; available after sale.
Workshop of Diego de Riaño, Seville, c. 1580
Mater, three tympans for latitudes 37°, 40° and 43°, and pierced rete with eighteen star pointers. Rim graduated in degrees; alidade replaced in the nineteenth century.
W. & S. Jones, Holborn, c. 1812
Geared planetarium showing the Sun, Earth, Moon and the five classical planets, the horizon plate with engraved zodiac and calendar scales, signed to the meridian ring.
Cetti & Co., 11 Brook Street, c. 1840
Silvered register plate engraved with the usual weather indications, vernier operated by a milled knob, cistern cover with ivorine collar. Sold without mercury; see notice to buyers.
Kanō school, Momoyama period, late 16th c.
Ink, colour and gold leaf on paper, mounted as a six-fold byōbu with brocade border and lacquered frame. Acquired in Kyoto in 1907 and unrecorded in the Western literature until 2019.
Longquan kilns, Southern Song / Yuan dynasty
Of slender baluster form with everted lip, under a thick bluish-green glaze pooling to a deeper tone at the foot ring, the unglazed base burnt orange in firing.
Lot 014. Panel sound and uncradled; a stable horizontal check to the upper left, 4 cm, not through the paint film. Retouching under UV confined to the sky at upper right. Varnish slightly yellowed but even.
Lot 015. Sheet light-struck along the former mount aperture, with faint mat burn. Two small foxing spots in the lower margin, outside the image. Colours otherwise fresh; hinged at two points with Japanese tissue.
Lot 016. Unlined and unrestored; the marble-dust surface abrades easily and shows two scuffs at the lower right edge, 1 cm each. Tacking margins intact. Not examined out of frame.
Lot 021. Rete original with light wear to two pointers; the 43° tympan a later but early replacement. Alidade nineteenth century, as catalogued. Throne with an old repair at the shackle. Overall a warm, undisturbed patina.
Lot 022. Gearing complete and turning freely. Two planet arms with old solder repairs; Saturn's ring restored. Horizon plate with scattered scratches and a small loss to the paper calendar scale near Libra.
Lot 023. Case with shrinkage crack to the trunk, 22 cm, and old surface marks. Silvering oxidised. Sold without mercury; the tube is drained and the cistern sealed. Buyers are referred to the notice on hazardous materials.
Lot 037. Gold leaf with expected craquelure and scattered losses at the fold lines, most visible on panels two and five. Two areas of infill along the lower edge, sympathetically toned.
Lot 037. Remounted in Kyoto in 1974; brocade border of that date. Hinges sound and the screen folds correctly. A detailed report with raking-light photography is available to registered bidders.
Lot 038. A firing crack of 3 cm to the shoulder, stable and glazed over, consistent with manufacture. Minute glaze nibbles to the lip. No restoration detected under longwave examination.