Treasures
Treasures
A jewelled parcel-gilt silver mother of pearl, tortoiseshell and ivory figural group, probably Augsburg, circa 1725 and possibly later,
Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 EUR
Lot Details
Description
the female figure wearing a jewelled dress with scale-patterned corset and a bow brooch in the centre, her pinned up hair decorated with a jewelled tiara, seated on an jewelled silver-gilt throne engraved with scrollwork, surmounted with a parrot, the throne resting on scrollwork legs and faceted carnelian ball feet, her right hand holding a textile thread connected to a silver-gilt distaff via a silver-gilt and mother of pearl weaving loom, a carved ivory baby (represented as Cupid) to the front and a small circular gem-set table to the right, a scalloped handled dish on tripod base to the left of the throne, all mounted on an oval base decorated with a chessboard pattern of hexagonal inlays of mother of pearl, tortoiseshell and gilt-metal, within leafy silver mounts, mounted on a possibly later silver-gilt base, the protruding sides richly applied with brightly-coloured collet-set gems of different shapes and sizes on a ground engraved with lozenges and stippled scrollwork and scales, further containing four small drawers, the fronts hung with floral garlands dispensed from stylised bows or flowers, set with small turquoise cabochons and other jewels, two of the drawers with hinged mother of pearl lids engraved with strapwork, lined in velvet and the interior of the lid fitted with a mirror, the other two with aventurine quartz lids, the interiors set with a gouache miniature of a putto surprising lovers in a tent and a miniature of an amorous couple on deck of a boat at full sail, the sides of the base further applied with chased cornucopiae and caryatid supports resting on flattened ball feet, unmarked apart from assay scrape,
5 1/8 in. 5 3/4 in. high ; 13,5 cm x 14,6 cm
Please note that this lot contains elephant ivory the export of which outside the EU is now prohibited pursuant to European regulation 2021/2280 of 16 December 2021. Pursuant to the UK Ivory Act 2018, clients based in the United Kingdom are not able to bid on / purchase this lot. Sotheby's will be able to provide the buyer with the intra-community certificate attached to this item.
Collection of Emma Budge, Hamburg;
her forced sale, Berlin, Paul Graupe, 4-6 October 1937 (printed sale date 27-29 September), lot 228, pl. 57;
Purchased by Hans Modschiedler, Hamburg
Emma Budge (1852-1937) was a prominent Jewish art collector and philanthropist in Hamburg. Born the daughter of a merchant family, in 1879 she married her husband Henry – Heinrich – Budge and the pair moved to New York where Henry worked as a banker and benefitted substantially from the railway boom. In 1900 they returned to Hamburg, taking up residence in the lavish Budge-Palais. Together, Emma and Henry amassed a large art collection including paintings, sculpture, silver, objects of vertu, furniture and ceramics, as well as being notable philanthropists. Their philanthropy sought to help the poor, regardless of religious background while also promoting peaceful co-existence between Jews and non-Jews in Germany.
Upon their deaths, the pair had initially intended to leave their collection to the city. However, the Nazi party’s rise to power and subsequent antisemitism, led Emma to revise her will, including appointing only Jewish executors for her will. However by the time of her death in 1937, her executors found that, as Jews, they could not transfer her property abroad. Thus, in October 1937, the executors were forced to put the collection up for auction in Berlin. They had initially chosen the auction house of Paul Graupe who was also Jewish, however, mere months before the auction took place, Graupe fled and the auction house was Aryanised. After the sale date had been postponed from the initially late September auction to the 4th and 6th of October thousands of works from the Budges’ collection were sold off with the profits going into the coffers of the Nazi state. Many have since been the subject of restitution claims, including works now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and in important private collections around the world (see also Jacques Schuhmacher, “After the War: Nazi-era provenance research today” in Nazi-Era Provenance of Museum Collections. London, UCL Press, 2024, 47-81).
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