LONDON.- On Tuesday, 11th October 2022,
Bellmans held a fine books and manuscripts auction ahead of the picture auction - both auctions went exceptionally well and meant the October auctions went off to a great start.
The majority of the 25 lots included in the sale came from one outstanding Scottish collection with all bar one selling during the auction. The top four lots alone made £188,000 hammer. The relatively small but select sale included an important illuminated manuscript on vellum of a Bible in Latin, most likely from a Parisian workshop in the 13th- or early 14th-century. It was expected to sell for £20,000 - £30,000, but fierce bidding on the phones and internet with bidders occasionally trying to speed up the bidding by suggesting higher increments, meant that the hammer came down at £86,000 (£107,156 including buyer's premium and VAT). It went to European trade in the end.
Another highlight is the first edition of the most lavishly illustrated of all incunables - Liber Chronicarum - 'The Nuremberg Chronicle' by Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514), printed in Latin in Nuremberg in 1493 by Anton Koberger as a large folio with some 1,800 exquisite woodcut illustrations. It is one of the first printed books to successfully integrate text and illustration. 'The Nuremberg Chronicle', as the work has popularly become known, is a complete history of the Christian world from the Creation to the time of its printing. It also carried an estimate of £20,000 - £30,000 and sold for £50,000 (£63,200) to a German private buyer.
As you would expect, the collection also included a fine Scottish book - the rare first edition of Gawin Douglas's (c.1474-1522) first translation of a major poem from antiquity into any form of English, namely into Scottish, which was later published in London in 1553. The xiii. Bukes of Eneados of the famose Poete Virgili Translated out of Latyne verses into Scottish metir was translated by the Bishop of Dunkeld, who was one of the first to draw the distinction between Scots and 'Inglis' and unlike many of his contemporaries, he wrote only in the vernacular, which was greatly admired by others later. Ezra Pound said about him that 'he gets more out of Virgil than any other translator'. While the book was estimated at £3,000 - £5,000, it saw lots of interest and sold for eight times its low estimate (£30,336) to UK trade.
Another highlight of the auction was the greatly admired The Birds of Great Britain by John Gould (1804-81) which was printed in London in five volumes from 1862 to 1873. Not part of the same collection, but a much loved family heirloom, it sold at low estimate (£35,392) to US trade.
The Old Master, British & European Paintings auction started with several collections of over 70 portrait miniatures, of which only three failed to sell during the auction. They sold to both trade and private collectors.
Top lot was rather unsurprisingly the portrait miniature of General Powney but John Smart (British, 1741-1811) which sold above low estimate for £3,500 (£4,424), while another one by the same artist of Mrs Shippey of Sloane Street, Knightsbridge from 1784 sold for three times its low estimate at £3,000 (£3,792). A stunning portrait of a young Philip Button Esq. of Gifford, Essex by William Wood (British, 1769-1810) attracted much attention and sold online for £3,200 (£4,044) against an estimate of £1,500 - £2,500.
The real bidding war, however, was fought over two oval portraits of Colonel Arent DePeyster (1736-1822) and his wife Rebecca DePeyster (nee Blair, died 1827).
The portraits had been found by Bellmans in a cupboard in a house clearance in South London and catalogued as late 18th/early 19th Century English School with an estimate of £150 - £250. While DePeyster, the American born British colonial military officer best known for his term as commandant of the British controlled Fort Michilimackinac and Fort Detroit during the American Revolution, has been largely forgotten in the UK, he clearly still has his place in the US. Strong bidding between two US bidders meant that the relatively conservative commission bids were soon out and the bidding continued online and on the phone, the online bidder finally succeeded when the hammer came down at £38,000 (£48,032).
Just over a month short of the 200th anniversary of Arent DePeyster's death, Bellmans is thrilled to hear that the portraits will return to the US, where following the capture of Lieutenant-Governor General Henry Hamilton, DePeyster is often credited as being the military leader of the British and Native American forces in the Western American and Canadian frontiers. The DePeysters actually moved to Dumfries after he retired in 1794, but when the United Kingdom was threatened by Napoleon, he became actively involved with the militia again, which included the prominent Scottish poet Robert Burns, who dedicated his poem on "Life" to him.
The portraits were purchased by the Mackinac Island State Park Commission, an agency of the State of Michigan, for their permanent museum collection. They operate several historic sites at the Straits of Mackinac, including a reconstruction of Fort Michilimackinac where Arent Schuyler DePeyster served as commandant from 1774 to 1779. Based on the style of his uniform, the portraits date to ca. 1790. Steven C. Brisson, the director of the agency said: "We have been aware of the existence of these portraits for many years and have used black and white copies, provided by the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, in several publications and exhibits. We are extremely pleased to acquire the originals. We also have in our collection a stunning silver punch bowl, made by Smith & Sharp of London, that was presented to DePeyster by the traders at Fort Michilimackinac in 1779."
The second highest lot was part of the Shakenhurst Hall Collection - an impressive landscape with figures on horseback by a lake which has to be assumed to be by a follower of Richard Wilson. As such it was estimated at £800 - £1,200 and sold for £9,500 (£12,008).
Julian Dineen, head of pictures at Bellmans, said: "We were delighted with the sale which included some outstanding results, with competitive bidding coming from across the UK, Europe and further afield. We look forward to following this up with what is sure to be a fantastic Modern British and 20th Century Art Sale on 15th November."
90% of the auction sold with most lots achieving prices above expectations and with £225,000 it is one of the best totals of a Bellmans picture auction in recent years.
