LONDON.- An exceptional single-owner collection of furniture, silver, ceramics, and clocks, as well as an extensive library, all belonging to the late Dutch connoisseur-collector Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet, will come to Bonhams New Bond Street on Tuesday 21 November.

Charlie Thomas, Bonhams UK Group Director of House Sales and Private and Iconic Collections, Furniture and Works of Art, commented, “This exceptional private collection represents the very best of Dutch and French Fine and Decorative Works of Art. Diligently assembled by Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet over a 50-year period and housed in his Amsterdam home, a stone’s throw from the Rijksmuseum, the works in this sale showcase the evolution of Dutch taste from the 17th century to the late 19th century.”

The influence of the French style on Dutch interiors, following the arrival of the Huguenots from France to the Netherlands in the 1600s, is evident in the collection which features works by revered Dutch craftsmen adopting fashionable French court tastes in their craft. Most notable perhaps, are three pieces featured in the sale, attributed to German-born Matthijs Horrix (1735 – 1809), who owned the largest and best-known workshop in The Hague and who proudly proclaimed his emporium to be “in the manner of Paris”, and for whom Cornelis Paulus van Pauwvliet had a particular admiration.

The pieces include two ormolu-mounted Dutch commodes with plain grey marble tops, typical of Matthijs Horrix’s refined restraint, offered with estimates of £25,000-30,000 and £30,000-50,000. Even more lavish is a Dutch Louis XIV bureau, most probably by Renaud or Aubertin Gaudron, which will be offered in the sale with an estimate of £40,000-70,000.

Dutch silver, along with vessels and silver boxes for tobacco spanning the centuries, also reflects the influence of foreign craftsmen on native traditions, with work by the Swede, Johannes Schiotling, who settled in Amsterdam around 1762 and employed several silversmiths from Sweden and Germany, will also feature in the sale. His tankard of 1767, ornamented with a floral garland, flowers and shells is offered with an estimate of £30,000-50,000. The tankard was also part of the Rijksmuseum’s seminal Rococo exhibition in 2001-2002.




An impressive and rare clock collection, oil paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries depicting landscapes and marine scenes and Dutch Delftware will also feature.

Highlights of the sale include:

• An extremely rare musical table clock by Rutgerus van Meurs with an estimate of £25,000-35,000 and a Julien Le Roy, mid-19th century French ormolu-mounted clock with the case by A. Dubois, with an estimate of £70,000-100,000. Julien Le Roy (1686-1759) was regarded by his contemporaries as perhaps the most influential horologist of his era.

• A selection of oil paintings including Kees van Dongen’s Deauville, Le Champ de Courses from 1935 and Théo Van Rysselberghe’s Quai à Veere, 1906, both with an estimate of £300,000-500,000 along with work by the Dutch painter and printmaker, Johan Jongkind, whose free manner was seen as a forerunner to impressionism. Sortie du port de Honfleur of 1866 has an estimate of £50,000- 70,000.

• A Louis XVI ormolu-mounted purplewood, bois satiné, sycamore, fruitwood marquetry and parquetry table à écrire – coiffeuse circa 1779-82, made by Jean-Henri Riesener, one of the most celebrated furniture-makers of the 18th century. It has an estimate of £30,000-50,000.

• A pair of Louis XV ormolu mounted Chinese 'Clair de Lune' celadon glazed porcelain garniture vases (1678-1735). Estimate £50,000-80,000. A selection of Dutch Delft wall placques will also be offered, one circa 1740-60 with an estimate of £7,000-9,000 and one with a moulded border, circa 1750-60 with an estimate of £6,000-8,000.

Susan Moore, writing in the current edition of Bonhams Magazine, states, “These works of art outline the evolution of Dutch taste over the course of this relatively little-studied century and beyond… Barely a square inch of wall or tabletop was left unadorned in this Amsterdam apartment.”