T his April, Sotheby’s bi-annual auction – Style: Silver, Furniture, Ceramics – offers a wide range of English and European decorative arts including tapestries, rugs, clocks, silver, vertu, ceramics and furniture.
Leading the sale is a collection of English and Continental silver and furniture from the estate of interior decorator and garden designer Andrew Hartnagle. The property comes from Mr. Hartnagle's Pennsylvania residence, Twin Silo Farm, renowned for its extensive and award-winning gardens which both inspired and informed his collection.
The sale also features an exquisite group of French furniture from a Private Connecticut Collection, with pieces dating from Louis XIV to Louis XVI and a comprehensive English silver collection from an Important Southern Collection.
Mr. Hartnagle's property was housed at his country residence Twin Silo Farm, an 18th-century estate in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which he spent the past twenty-five years transforming. Renowned for its extensive and award-winning gardens, the domain includes alleys, a 17th-century English-style hedge maze, and a three-acre pond replete with a peninsula, Chinese pavilion and black and white swans. The gardens have both inspired and informed his collection, which is particularly evident in the extensive Flora Danica porcelain on offer, and the interiors skillfully evoked the unstudied combination of formality and comfort typical of the best English country houses.
Eleven formal gardens, rows of flowers, walls of green, alleys of color, and hundreds of exotic trees are just a small sample of the lavish natural setting Andrew Hartnagle created on his 103-acre estate. His affinity for florals permeated throughout his home, where botanical motifs and nature-inspired designs brought a horticultural feel to every room.
Estimate $60,000 – 100,000
Son of the ébéniste Charles Saunier, active during the Regence and early Louis XV periods, Jean-Charles Saunier took over his father’s workshop in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine and was active until the mid-1760s, aided by his own son, the better-known Claude-Charles, who had become a master in 1752. Both bookcases are in a late Louis XV style, suggesting the one stamped by the father may have still been in the workshop inventory at the time of his death, and the second possibly an unfinished work completed by Claude-Charles to form a near pair.
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- An Italian Neoclassical Parcel-Gilt and Gray-Painted Console Table, circa 1780
- A Louis XIV Carved Giltwood Six-Light Chandelier, circa 1700
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE CONNECTICUT COLLECTION
Wired for electricity height 28 in.; diameter 30 in.; 71.1 cm; 76.2 cmEstimate $8,000 – 12,000
- A Louis XVI Mahogany Dining Table, Late 18th Century
With four leaves of later date height 28 ¾ in.; length 129 in.; depth 15 ¾ in.; 73 cm; 327.7 cm; 40 cm
Estimate $3,000 – 5,000
- A Set of Ten Louis XVI Carved and Gray-Painted Chaises en Cabriolet by Jacob, circa 1775
- A Pair of Louis XV Carved Beechwood Fauteuils, Stamped Mc, Possibly for Michel Cresson, Circa 1740
- A Pair of Louis XV Parcel-Gilt and Grey-Painted Boiserie Panels, Mid-18th Century
Now inset with mirror plates
Height 88 in.; width 29 in.
223.5 cm; 73.7 cmEstimate $5,000 – 8,000
- A Louis XVI Gilt Bronze-Mounted Mahogany Table en Chiffonnière by Stockel, Circa 1785
With an inset grey marble top
Height 29 in.; width 23 ½ in.; depth 17 ½ in.
73.7 cm; 59.7 cm; 44.5 cmEstimate $7,000 – 10,000
- A Louis XVI Gilt Bronze-Mounted Mahogany Bureau Plat by Pasquier, circa 1780
Height 28 ½ in.; width 51 ½ in.; depth 27 ½ in.
72.4 cm; 130.8 cm; 69.9 cmEstimate $10,000 – 15,000