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Lot 17
A collection of six sulphide glass paperweights, including a small antique French weight with a bust of Napoleon after Andrieu, another with a young Queen Victoria, a third depicts Robert Burns, a facetted Cristal d'Albret weight with bust of Albert Schweitzer, a modern Baccarat Zodiac weight with Cancer the crab and an antique Belgian weight with an annonymous portrait bust on a mottled ground (6) There are chips to the Baccarat Zodiac weight, Robert Burns has been broken though the neck of the sulphide, there are light bruises to the surface of Napoleon and Victoria, but not serious.
Lot 367
§ Alberto Giacometti (Swiss, 1901-1966) Têtes (recto); Nu debout (verso); a double-sided sketch signed and dated lower right "Alberto Giacometti 1947" pencil on wove paper 44.40 x 28.70cm (17 x 11in)Provenance: By repute part of the collection of the artist Elsa Vaudrey by 1955; From the collection of the late Eila Grahame of Claverhouse, sold to benefit the Art FundLiterature: The Alberto Giacometti Database, No. AGD 3759Other Notes: The present drawing encapsulates two of the three most important and recurring themes that dominated Giacometti’s art - (the standing female figure, the bust and the walking man). Giacometti - son of a notable post-impressionist painter - explored these motifs in endless variations and groupings across all mediums; in sculpture as well as in painting and drawing. These activities were inextricably linked throughout his artistic practice. He drew inspiration from his graphic works and would often draw the sculptures in his studio, making quick sketches in his notebooks of the things that surrounded him or caught his eye. He never made formal preparatory drawings for his sculptures - instead he regarded drawing as central to his art, a means of both exploring new concepts and finding solutions to problems. As he himself revealingly said in an interview with Georges Charbonnier in 1951 - “what I believe, is that whether it be a question of sculpture or of painting, it is in fact only drawing that counts.” Therefore, his drawings can be seen as visual reflections of his sculptural processes.Following his return to Paris in 1945, (having spent the remainder of the war years in Geneva), Giacometti began experimenting with the representation of the human figure in space and this marked the blossoming of his mature style. Driven by the desire to convey a sense of distance from the spectator, his drawings played a crucial role in his exploration of figures situated in space. He felt that his figures were only true to his vision of reality when portrayed as elongated and slender, as that is how they appeared to him at a distance. He thus gradually stretched out and attenuated his figures until they became as thin as nails. He began to focus primarily on single, elongated figures - and from this experimentation in drawing originated the tall and emaciated silhouette with roughly defined outlines which came to epitomise this new style after 1947. Giacometti claimed that the end result was a reflection of what he saw when he looked at a woman from a great distance across the street. The actual image of a person’s appearance glimpsed from afar was merely “a blur” devoid of any recognisable features.1947 marked a major watershed in Giacometti’s career. The present drawing embodies the archetype of the tall, weightless figures for which he is best known. The sketches on the recto of this sheet epitomise the series of heads and busts that constitute a large part of Giacometti’s oeuvre. The theme of the human head preoccupied him from the very beginning. He declared that it was only the head of his models that interested him, since the body merely served as an ‘antenna’. Hence, he set out to concentrate his studies on the head and the sitter’s gaze, in particular, as he believed that one’s life lay within the eyes. Since the intensity of the eye contact could only be conveyed by looking full face at a person, he focused on representing his heads from the front, as in the present work. The faces thus directly confront the beholder while the busts are only vaguely summed up by a few lines. The rendering of the faces with a flurry of coursing lines particularly evokes the rough and heavily worked surfaces of his sculptures. This side of the drawing appears to incorporate features from a number of Giacometti’s painted and sculpted portrayals of his family and friends - his brother Diego being one of his most frequent models.In the late 1940s, Giacometti began to develop his remarkable series of standing female figures. The nude on the verso of the present drawing stands serenely in a stylised interior, isolated within a space specifically demarcated by a frame. Giacometti frequently used this framing devi to fix the figure firmly in space and intensify its impact. The indistinct outline and the rigid stance of the figure instantly recall the stylisation of his standing female sculptures. Posed frontally with her limbs pressed tightly together and imbued with a sense of lofty gravity, the model directly engages the viewer and commands a powerful presence. An interesting parallel could be drawn between this sketch with its distinctive, choppy hairstyle and Giacometti’s sculpture, ‘Femme Leoni’. He conceived the original plaster cast in the same year and later named the sculpture after Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian palace - Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, (as she was the first to receive the bronze cast). Both portrayals of the lone standing female figure are early, iconic examples of Giacometti’s post-war style. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Giacometti and is registered in the Alberto Giacometti database.Condition report: Pencil sketches on a double-sided sheet of paper.Signed and dated lower right "Alberto Giacometti 1947" in pencil to recto. Also signed and dated to verso lower right "Alberto 1947" (signature partially faded). A blindstamp to the bottom left corner of an "S" with an arrow running through it.Recto: Very slight creasing in the upper area above the heads - this is only visible when holding the sheet against the light. Minor scattered spotting mostly along the margins. Two larger foxing spots - approximately 1 cm (0.4in) in width - one by the head on the far right and the other by the left-hand edge, left of the figure's shoulders. Old sellotape marks along the bottom edge. A small red stain by the shoulders of the figure on the far right. A crease running horizontally - 6 cm (2.4in) long - below the figure's shoulders far right.Verso: Scattered foxing, particularly below the figure, with few smaller foxing spots also to either side. A larger foxing spot right of the figure, approximately 1cm (0.4in) in diameter. Old sellotape marks along the bottom edge of the sheet. A slight crease top right, running horizontally about 5 cm (2in) from the top edge. A small scuff to the paper left of the figure's head - 1 cm (0.4in) in width - approximately 2.5 cm (1in) from the left margin.Condition report by a paper conservator:Condition: the artist has used a reasonably good quality paper. The paper is slightly discoloured overall as a result of long term exposure to light. The very left edge is slightly more discoloured. The sheet is currently loose but was mounted in the past. The mount attachment was via strips of Sellotape and the discoloured adhesive remains along one edge (both on the recto and verso) and on the two opposite corners. At some point the glass in the double-sided frame broke, causing a typical glass cut on the verso. The verso is foxed and the recto less so. This is as a result of the microclimate when the sheet was mounted and framed. A brown stain on the verso is starting to show on the recto. The other prominent brown mark on the recto is a glue spot. Many of the minor marks appear to be traces of watercolour and other artist’s media. These and the slight surface dirt were probably acquired in the artist’s studio and so should be left. The pin hole in the top edge probably also dates from the same time. The artist’s technique has caused the paper to stretch locally where most heavily worked. This is of course part of the artwork and should not be flattened during treatment. Similarly the blind stamp of a capital S pierced by an arrow should not be flattened during treatment.
Lot 362
MEDAL. OLIVER CROMWELL, LORD PROTECTOR, 1653. Cast in AR. By Thomas Simon. Obv: Armoured and draped bust left, OLIVERVS DEI GRA REIPVB ANGLIÆ SCO ET HIB & PROTECTOR. Rev: Lion displaying arms of the Protectorate, PAX QVAERITVR BELLO. 38mm, c.13.3, AVF. MI 409/45; Eim. 188b; Platt I, pp. 338-39; Farquhar I, 222. (1 coin)
Lot 359
MEDAL. MATTHEW BOULTON, BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, 1805. Struck in white metal. By C.H. Küchler. Obv: Uniformed bust of Nelson left. Obv: A view of the naval engagement with legend ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY. Edge impressed 'TO THE HEROES OF TRAFALGAR FROM M: BOULTON'. 48mm, c.41.7g, minor edge nicks and surface marks, otherwise AEF. BHM 584; Eimer 960; Hardy 40; MH 493. (1 coin)
Lot 1065
TERRACOTTA BUST OF PRINCESS LOUISE - WATCOMBE POTTERY an interesting terracotta bust of Princess Louise (Daughter of Queen Victoria), mounted on a plinth. Impressed to the back, Watcombe Terracotta Clay Co Ltd, Torquay, Modelled expressly for the company by Liefchild. 12 3/4ins (32cms) high *Princess Louise visited the Aller Vale pottery in 1886, which resulted in Royal Patronage and the firm changing it's name to Royal Aller Vale Pottery. This could have been made around this time.
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