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Lot 478
Toys: a collection of Exclusive First Edition 1:76 scale die cast models, comprising; Bristol MW Coach 16202; Daimler Utility Bus Midland Red 16401;Leyland Bet Style Bus Yorkshire Traction 24314; Leyland TD1 Closed Back Ribble 27301; Leyland Atlantean Sheffield City 16506; Bedford SB Duble Vega Barton Transport 18706; Leyland TS8 Tiger Type A Yorkshire Woollen 18301; EX London RTL Stevensons 11110; Leyland PD2 Lowbridge North Western 16007; Route Master Bus B.O.A.C. London Transport 15601; Bedford OB Coach West Yorkshire 20112; London R. T. with Roof Box Premium Bonds 16402; Bristol City Lodekka Bus 13901; Bristol VR Series II Manchester GMT 20304; Orion Bodied Regent II Sheffield City 190701; Leyland National Long 2 Door Bus Bristol City 15104; Leyland PD2 Highbridge Wigan Corporation 16101; Leyland PD2 Highbridge Sheffield City 16105; E18404 Leyland TS8 Tiger Type B Doncaster; Daimler DMS Fleetline South Yorkshire 25703; and Plaxton Pointer/Dennis Dart Yorkshire Terrier 20604DL. (21)
Lot 259
1977 Kent and Middlesex County Cricket Joint Championship plate – Coalport bone china commemorative limited edition plate of only 1500 c/w details on the base of each County`s previous cricket success together with facsimile autographs of both captains- c/w makers original box. Note: This was the first Schweppes County cricket championship
Lot 304
Don Bradman - Century of Centuries Commemorative cricket plate c. 1979 - Coalport bone china ltd ed plate of only 500, decorated with a central portrait and players details c/w facsimile signature to the base overall 9" in original makers box together with a similar commemorative mounted bronze plaque (2). Note: Bradman’s batting career average (95.14) and Test average (99.94) both of which have never been challenged. Bradman played 52 Test matches for Australia between 1928 and 1948. He made 117 first-class centuries in his career.
Lot 327
Collection of MCC cricket items to include the first overseas cricket tour 1946/47 MCC Team Australian Tour Souvenir Programme issued by New South Wales Cricket Association To include programme of matches, photos players, etc together 1963 MCC signed team photograph v Yorkshire at Scarborough (2)
Lot 341
Scarce 1946/47 MCC cricket tour to Australia signed wine list – this being the first cricket tour overseas immediately after the war and comprises a signed wine list from the Bournemouth Belle Pullman train dated 31st August 1946 and signed in ink by 19 of the MCC touring team on their way to Southampton before embarking to Australia -signatures include Hammond, Yardley, Bedser, Compton, Edrich, Evans, Hutton, Ikin, Voce, Washbrook, et al. Note: In spite of the MCC being reluctant to send out a team so soon after the war the presence of the English side in Australia not only revived cricket enthusiasm and witnessed bigger public support than ever before with a five test matches attracting an overall crowd of 846,263 spectators and off the field the tour was a tremendous success with the Englishman being popular wherever they went.
Lot 342
1946/47 MCC Cricket tour to Australia official players tour itinerary fixture cards- single folded cards c/w list of the England cricket team and match dates to one and fixture list to the other -some slight creases and thumb stains otherwise overall (G). Note: this was the first tour by MCC after the war and in the 3rd test recorded the first drawn test match in Australia since 1881/82
Lot 358
2x 1977 England v Australia Centenary FDC and Medals – issued by the Australian Cricket Board to commemorate the First Test Match played at Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877 c/w silver medal embossed with Bannerman prepared to meet the first ball bowled at MCG together with another FDC c/w silver medal embossed with portraits of the first two Captains Lillywhite and Gregory – both mf&g
Lot 360
17th c Oak Cricket Coffer From Hambledon Cricket Club – The Home of Cricket. Remarkable piece of Cricketing History comprising C.17th oak coffer which originated from The Bat And Ball Inn Hambledon, The Headquarters of the original Hambledon Cricket Club, which prior to 1787 drew up the original laws and rules regulating the game, laying the foundation for cricket as national game. The chest was removed in 1927 from The Bat and Ball Inn and comes with hand written note on linen which was attached to the lid of the coffer and reads as follows "This Jacobean coffer was removed in 1927 from The Bat and Ball Inn, Hambledon, Hampshire. This inn was the Headquarters of the Original Hambledon Cricket Club, which prior to 1787 exercised the functions of the present MCC. In this chest players for many years kept their appurtenances. The chest probably dates from the middle of the 17th century". Hambledon first played an All-England XI in 1778 and a further 29 times over the next 10 years during which time Hambledon beat All England. Further newspaper cuttings and hand written notes accompany the lot
Lot 490
1972 England victorious rugby tour to South Africa scrapbook album – large scrapbook neatly arranged recording England`s first ever and victorious tour of South Africa complete with newspaper cuttings, reception name cards, invitation, 2x programme match line ups – to include articles in both Afrikaan and English – ex South African collection
Lot 532
1905 New Zealand rugby tour team photograph postcard – c/w full fixture list on the reverse with the results up to October 21 together with each players statistics (F/G). Note: This was the first New Zealand side to tour overseas, played a total of thirty-five matches, which included five Tests, and only lost once—the defeat to Wales - scored 976 points and conceded only 59, and thus set the standard for all subsequent All Black sides.
Lot 617
1950 New Zealand v British Lions rugby programme – First Test played on Saturday 27th May at Carisbrooke Ground Dunedin, Lions drew the match 9-9, in general match worn condition, pocket folds, creases and some marks to the centre, which is also signed by R R Elvidge Fly half for NZ – hence overall (F)
Lot 33
The following lots relate to 1st Baron Lord Glanely (1868 - 1942) - shipping company owner, racehorse breeder and owner - the names of Lord Glanely’s horses reflected his love of England, pomp and circumstance and Empire. Born Mr Tatem, he worked in a shipping office and then founded his own shipping company in 1909, the year he began racing. Tatem was raised to the peerage in 1918 and in 1919 won his first Classic race, the Derby, with Grand Parade; he went onto win a total of six Classics, and spent freely at the yearling sales in pursuit of success. He was a great favourite of the people; he was elected to the Jockey Club in 1929, and was killed in an air raid in London in 1942. His colours were black jacket, red, white and blue belt and cap. The following lots 33 - 40 come from a direct descendant of the family. Set of Lord Glanely`s horse racing silks made by D Gilbert and Son Newmarket and signed to the label Ld Glanely - comprising a black jacket, red, white and blue belt and cap – Lord Glanely won 6 classics to incl 1919 Derby winner Grand Parade ridden by F Templeman, 1930 Oaks winner Rose of England ridden by Sir Gordon Richards, 1930 and 1937 St Leger winners Singapore and Chumleigh (breeder and owner) both ridden by Sir Gordon Richards, and 1934 2000gns winner Colombo ridden by W R Johnstone and 1941 1000gns winner Dancing Time (breeder and owner) ridden by R Perryman – overall (VG). Note: Comes with a letter of provenance from a direct descendant of Captain Sydney Lewis, Lord Glanely’s brother -in- law, who became his stud manager at Exning in Newmarket from the end of the First World War. The silks were given to Captain Lewis by Lord Glanely after his sixth and final classic success having been worn by Fred Templeman, Gordon Richards, and Steve Donoghue. Following the death of Capt Lewis in August 18th, 1943 the consignor’s mother inherited these silks and subsequently have been handed down to the consignor.
Lot 63
2004 British Olympic Ladies Rowing Silver medallist signed Adidas Great Britain Olympic shirt – signed to the front by the 6x British Ladies Silver medallist rowing teams in the Quadruple Sculls and Coxless Pairs to incl Alison Mowbray, Debbie Flood, Frances Houghton, Katherine Grainger, Cath Bishop and Rebecca Romero. Note: Rebecca Romero went onto to win Cycling Gold Medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing becoming the first ever British woman to compete in two different sports at Olympics and only the second woman of any country to win a medal in two different sports at Summer Games.
Lot 81
Boxing – Roy Jones Jr World Champion signed boxing display – comprising a signed White Everlast glove and colour action photograph – mounted in a picture frame display case – overall 30 x 21.5". Note: Roy Jones, Jr. USA (b. 1969) has captured numerous championships in the Middleweight, Super middleweight, Lightheavyweight and Heavyweight divisions; a record seven belts at the same time. Jones left his mark in boxing history when he won the WBA heavyweight title, becoming the first former middleweight champion to win a Heavyweight title in 106 years. Jones was named “Fighter of the Decade” for the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Lot 99
1937 Japanese Tennis Collection - to incl rare 1937 `Axis` Commemorative Lawn Tennis Programme, an unusual Taikodo Lawn Tennis Racket from imperial Japan and Edwin Trim postcard of Japanese Davis Cup player Zenzo Shimidzu. Note: The 12 page programme was produced for a tennis meeting between Japan and Nazi Germany, shortly before the second World War. The meeting took place from November 6th-8th. The black and white photographs inside are all of the competing players which include; Gottfried Von Cramm and Henner Henkel. The content introduces each player and shows the meeting schedule.(All in Japanese). The Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japanese (also known as the Axis alliance) or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War 2 against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and Japan. The wooden tennis racket is a very unusual pre-war ‘Taiikudo Athletic Goods-Tokyo” lawn tennis racket with spoon-shaped, flat-topped head – with just 16 vertical and 16 lateral strings, resulting in a very wide stringing pattern. Comes c/w ‘BAG Aluminium Press overall (VG). Together with an Edwin Trim postcard of Japanese Davis Cup player Zenzo Shimidzu as well as an accompanying card autographed by him in the 1920s. Shimidzu was the first Japanese player to reach the highest class and rose to prominence after getting to within two points of beating Bill Tilden, and for reaching the All-Comers’ singles final at Wimbledon in 1920. (5)
Lot 104
Very Early Australian Tennis Presentation Tankard (1884) - the silver plated tankard was presented to Ernest Raleigh ((1861-1935) and William Henry Moule (1858-1911) on their victory at the "Alta Vista Lawn Tennis Tournament, 1st. July 1884". Both gentlemen were very prominent in Australian sporting, business and social circles. Ernest Raleigh won the doubles championship of Victoria with Alexander Chomley (Later to be a Davis Cup Referee) in 1887. The first inter-colonial championship was played in 1883 and the first formal inter-state match between NSW and Victoria played in 1884 with Victoria winning. Raleigh was active in State Championship tennis in the late 1880s. While Judge Moule who`s practice was in Melbourne became famous for his cricket exploits. Moule played nine first-class matches between 1879 and 1885 for Victoria including the first Victorian team to defeat a touring English side (February 1879). He went on to play for Australia with William Murdoch`s touring side of 1880 in a team that included the legendary Frederick `Demon` Spofforth. In the Test at the Oval, September 1880, won by England, he took 3 wickets for 23 runs and batted in the last wicket stand of 88 runs, in which William scored 34 runs. There was a country mansion named "Alta Vista" in a well-healed area of South Yarra (4km south-east of Melbourne) and this could well be where the tennis club was formed. Supplied with a 3 pages of biographical notes.
Lot 109
Collection of 13 tennis First Day Covers and other ephemera to incl 4 signed – namely 3x Commemorative Tennis Centennial first day covers autographed by Evert, Graf, Lendl plus Miloslav Mecir and others incl Jarryd Cover--1986 Buick WCT Finals Champion, McEnroe Cover 1979 Colgate Grand Masters Champion. 1999 U.S. Open Cover, 1987 Buick WCT Cover, 1924 West of Scotland postcard scheduling Miss Glass` match, Austrian Davis Cup Invitation 1990 vs U.S., 1997 U.S. Open Cover, Kal Cup Invitation package (Korea), possibly the first year (VG)
Lot 8
GRIGORIEV, BORIS 1886-1939 Portrait of Anna Sergeeva , signed and dated 1921, further inscribed in Cyrillic with a dedication to Anna Sergeevna Sergeeva, signed and dated "Paris 921" on the stretcher. Oil on canvas, 92 by 73 cm. "Provenance: Private collection, France.Exhibited: Exposition des artistes russes à Paris en 1921, Galerie La Boétie, Paris, 1921, No. 46.Literature: T. Galeeva, Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev, St Petersburg, Zolotoi Vek, 2007, p. 132, illustrated.Exhibition catalogue, Exposition des artistes russes à Paris en 1921 organisée par les membres et exposants de la Société Mir isskousstva (Monde artiste) à la Galerie “La Boétie”, Paris, Édition “L’Art russe” A. Kogan, 1921, No. 46.This portrait of the poet Anna Sergeeva was painted during the most fruitful and successful period of Boris Grigoriev’s life. Executed in 1921, shortly after the artist moved from Berlin to Paris, it became a kind of first milestone on the road to European recognition of his talent.As early as June 1921, the finished portrait of Sergeeva appeared in a World of Art exhibition at a renowned gallery in the rue La Boétie, in a fashionable area of central Paris. Although Grigoriev joined the World of Art group primarily to solve his financial problems, exhibiting side by side with the stars of the group — Bakst, Larionov, Goncharova, Sudeikin, Benois, Somov, Roerich and others — brought the artist real success.Grigoriev was noticed at the exhibition, not only thanks to the large number of works he showed (more than 40), but above all thanks to the “Realist audacity” that so struck the critics, and the “great expressiveness and conviction in his picture of Russia, its people and its way of life” of the new cycle, Faces of Russia (Visages de Russie). As a result, most of the exhibition reviews highlighted Grigoriev as one of the brightest talents of contemporary Russian art.These pictures from the series People (Les Hommes) that were shown in the exhibition, and the female portraits among them, including that of Anna Sergeeva, mark a new stage in Grigoriev’s career. In them the acute individuality of the subjects combines with a vivid decorative structuring of the canvasses. A grotesque element, which had previously served as a stylistic principle of Grigoriev’s creative ideas, has not disappeared from his work entirely but has been partially neutralised and transformed under the influence of the Neoclassical trends that then seized European art. However, the characteristic “showiness” of the portrait concept remains.Grigoriev strives to penetrate the mystery of the individual human form with his vividly expressive sense of colour, he presents it extremely perceptively and with an affected deliberateness, emphasising the crucial features, surfaces and lines. In Grigoriev’s portraits of this period, designed to be taken in at a glance, we can recognise this artist’s hand even from a distance. But in this portrait of the Russian poet Anna Sergeeva, the distancing effect of the general detachment from real life, which was also the source of the cool, elegant brilliance of the artist’s work of the 1920s, comes together with the theme — common to all Grigoriev’s portraits of notable figures in the arts — of virtuosity. This would, some years later, be further developed in his dazzling cycle depicting actors from the Moscow Art Theatre."
Lot 9
FALK, ROBERT 1886-1958 Woman in Red. Portrait of Lyubov Georgievna Popesku , signed. Oil on canvas, 71.5 by 91 cm. "Provenance: A gift from the artist to Nina Lurie, Moscow. Thence by descent.Collection of Olga Dvoretskaya, Moscow, until 1975. Private collection, Moscow, until 1994.Private collection, UK.Exhibited: Robert Falk, Tsentral’nyi dom rabotnikov iskusstv, Moscow, 1939.Literature: D. Sarabianov, Yu. Didenko, Zhivopis’ Roberta Fal’ka. Polnyi katalog proizvedenii, Moscow, Elizium, 2006, p. 572, No. 801, illustrated.The portrait of the artist Lyubov Georgievna Popesku, marked the final stage in the creative evolution of Robert Falk’s images of women.Falk first met Lyubov Popesku in the Crimea in 1916, where he painted her in a notable Nude, now in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. The next meeting between artist and model was 15 years later, in a totally different time and place. By this time, having initially arrived in Paris on a short trip, Falk was already more firmly settled in France. His previous enthusiasm for Cézannism during the Jack of Diamonds period had now given way to an ever more intense quest for a unified environment, saturated with colour and with light enveloping people and objects. Seeing Popesku in Paris in 1930, Falk painted her portrait In a Red Turban, as a traditional psychological study and, two years later, Woman in a Blue Beret. The picture Woman in Red occupies a special place in this series.The pose — in which the artist Popesku sits at a table — was quite random. The fragile female figure is shown as slightly alienated, as if seized by a fleeting moment of melancholy. A distinctive feature of the composition is its circular movement, which dictates the direction of our gaze and leads us from her left hand, placed on the table, up to the slightly bowed head and hat, making the painting harmonious.According to Falk, the portrait was created as a study for the monumental canvas Old Women. Loneliness which was conceived as a definitive summation of life. This female figure, still young and with traces of her former beauty, conveys much more clearly than other protagonists might the true meaning of the work. D. Sarabianov, speaking of this work, ascribed a special significance to the figure of Popesku. “Turned slightly sideways, away from the centre of the canvas, she is lost in this space, in this world, among other people. The figure of the woman was particularly important to Falk’s intention, demonstrating that the subject of his picture is not simply suffering from old age... It is the expression of emotional fatigue, anxiety, burn-out; in other words, of universal qualities born of the contemporary world — or perhaps intrinsic to mankind.”"
Lot 10
NESTEROV, MIKHAIL 1862-1942 The Nightingale is Singing , signed and dated 1918. Oil on canvas, 81 by 68.5 cm. Provenance: Private collection, UK.Authenticity certificate from the expert V. Petrov.Related literature: For a later version of the same composition, see Russkaya dorevolyutsionnaya i sovetskaya zhivopis’ v sobranii Natsional’nogo khudozhestvennogo muzeya Respubliki Belarus’, Vol. 2, Minsk, Belarus, 1997, p. 178, No. 1189, illustrated.Mikhail Nesterov’s The Nightingale is Singing is one of his earliest versions of the celebrated 1917 composition, of which the artist painted at least four. It is now impossible to establish what became of the 1917 original, which, according to contemporary sources, was a larger-scale work than the later versions. We know for certain that a picture of the same name was sold at the famous Russian Art Exhibition in America in 1924 (and it is possible that this and the present work are one and the same). Another version, painted in 1922, is in a private collection in Kiev and the 1929 work that concludes the series is in the collection of the National Art Museum of Belarus.The well-known avant-garde theatre director and theorist Nikolai Evreinov visited Nesterov’s studio in the early 1920s and wrote that: “Among the versions of subjects that I knew well I found my eyes glued, so to speak, to the spellbinding work The Nightingale is Singing which Nesterov had painted in 1917. The subject is not complicated: in early summer, a young novice nun stands by a dreamy lake bordered by a beautiful forest and listens breathlessly to the song of Nature pouring forth in the nightingale’s trilling; and on her lips, which have vowed never to know a sinful kiss, is a smile — such a sad smile, so understandable, so human!”The story of how this subject arose is closely linked to Nesterov’s cycle of works dedicated to nuns, the “brides of Christ”, which he created over twenty long and extremely fruitful years. He conceived The Bride of Christ as a memorial to his beloved wife who had died unexpectedly. He first painted a large study of a girl lost in thought, in a dark dress with a little stalk of grass in her teeth and “with the face of my Masha”. In the words of one who had seen this now-lost work, “you could stand before this pensive girl for a good while and ponder for hours that mystery of life that she too is pondering. And in those thoughtful eyes there was so much that was familiar and close to us, such a revelation of the deepest recesses of the female soul that, looking into them, you could not help but recall the similar pensive heroines of Melnikov-Pechersky, his Flenushka and others, and the whole of our native Rus and its God-seeking people.”“With this picture” said Nesterov later, “I had reached a turning point and something had appeared that would later grow more consistent, something well-defined, which gave me my ‘persona’... My love for Masha and my losing her made me into an artist, brought to my art what had been missing: emotion and a living soul — in a word, everything that people would later come to value and still value in my art.”And indeed, The Bride of Christ immediately attracted serious critical attention. With this work, the artist’s destiny was decided. Continuing his initial theme, between the 1890s and 1910s Nesterov painted a whole story in pictures dedicated to the fate of the innocent girl, partly serving to develop the theme of his own sweet melancholy and partly inspired by Pavel Melnikov-Pechersky’s twin works In the Woods and In the Highlands.However, according to the celebrated writer and close friend of the artist S.N. Durylin, it was The Nightingale is Singing that “became one of the most poetic versions of Nesterov’s theme of the fate of the Russian woman. Again we have a bride of Christ, but this time the artist brings her outside the convent walls one peaceful May evening to the edge of the forest, basking in the fragrant warmth of spring, while the nightingale’s song of love and paean to springtime makes her forget for a moment all her vows to obey, to pray and to ‘withdraw from the world’… We cannot see the nightingale in the picture, but we hear its song in the fragrant stillness of that spring evening, a stillness that seems to hear and respond, and the subject of the song is clear: youth, happiness and love.”Indeed, in the delicately observed motif of the nightingale’s song, which seems to come from beyond the bounds of the picture, a theme resonates which was of great significance in Nesterov’s work — the theme of music bringing man and nature into harmony. As we look at this picture, we are reminded of what Vasily Rozanov said of Nesterov in 1907, in connection with the gloomy and oppressive state of Itinerant painting, and his words seem prophetic: “Then, like the resonant song of the skylark from a warm, blue sky, we heard the music and the musicality of Vasnetsov and Nesterov. ‘To the sky! To the sky!’ And we all looked to the sky. That is why we love them!”
Lot 14
* KUSTODIEV, BORIS 1878-1927 Merchant`s Wife , signed and dated 1923. Oil on canvas, 97.5 by 77 cm. "Provenance: Private collection, 1924-1998.Anonymous Sale; The Russian Sale, Sotheby’s London, 19 February 1998, Lot 90. Private collection.Authenticity certificate from the expert V. Petrov.Exhibited: The Russian Art Exhibition, Grand Central Palace, New York, 1924, No. 421 (label on the reverse).Literature: Die Dame, No. 19, June 1924, p. 11, illustrated.Exhibition catalogue, The Russian Art Exhibition, New York, 1924, No. 421, listed.V. Voinov, B.M. Kustodiev, Leningrad, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1925, p. 87, listed.M. Etkind, Boris Kustodiev, Moscow, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1982, p. 232, No. 645, listed.Russian merchants’ wives are without doubt among the most memorable and recognisable images in Boris Kustodiev’s oeuvre. Painted in 1923, the present work was conceived as a kind of continuation and development of the celebrated 1915 work of the same name, which now occupies pride of place in the Russian Museum. The subject is recognisable, as is the protagonist’s pose — as if in a state of suspended animation before the viewer — and even the details: a shawl over her shoulder and handkerchief in her hand. However, what we have before us is not merely the artist’s retrospective attempt to outdo himself at a successful subject. His pictures of merchants’ wives of the early 1920s, painted at a time of tumultuous and dramatic events in Russia, play a far more symbolic role and are of far greater significance than would at first appear. Imbued with nostalgia for the dignified patriarchal society that was by then gone for ever, these portraits of archetypes became a kind of symbol of early 20th-century Russia.Of course, Kustodiev’s romantic view of his homeland, based on an aesthetic fondness for the past and a poetizing of its images, is interwoven with elements of stylisation, as were the images of his old World of Art comrades. Kustodiev’s languid, contented merchants’ wives are as different from their real-life prototypes as Somov’s saucy marchionesses. Boris Kustodiev’s bright, festive, carefree, big-hearted peasant Rus became for him a kind of dream of Russia, as she had at no time, in no place existed but as she unwittingly appeared when looking back from the bleak, cold-hearted Petrograd of the 1920s. For this very reason the best-known merchants’ wives works were done during the Civil War and the destruction that followed when the Kustodiev family, like many others in Russia, were forced to sell their belongings and queue for bread. The hunt for a ripe watermelon in that half-starved city, for the famous Merchant’s Wife Drinking Tea, was a real feat for the artist’s wife Yulia Yevstafievna.The artist had long dreamed of creating a universalised image of Russian beauty, for in the 1910s none of his contemporaries had set themselves such a task. When Kustodiev found his ideal of female beauty he was already an established and recognised artist, and he invested all of his creative genius and the searing power of bright, full-blooded colours into these merchants’ wives. Once seen, you cannot forget these magnificent, corpulent women, their figures towering majestically over a Volga townscape, which fades into the background, eclipsed by their ripe beauty.Yet, at the same time Kustodiev’s beauty is only a fruit of the imagination, a splendid mirage appearing before a European, a World of Art member, along with the legends of the city of Kitezh and the firebird’s feather, from the exotic life of the deep provinces. It is no accident that the ladies who modelled for the sketches of practically all Kustodiev’s merchants’ wives were members of the intelligentsia. One of the models for the Merchants’ Wives of 1912 was the European-educated Natalia Zelenskaya, whom Kustodiev had met in Switzerland. He used a pencil and sanguine sketch of the young actress Faina Shevchenko, done at a premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre, as the basis for his picture Beauty (1915); for Girl on the Volga (1915) the daughter of a neighbouring landowner, Pazukhin, sat for him; the model for Merchant’s Wife Drinking Tea (1918) was Galina Aderkas, a student at the medical institute, who lived nearby; and, finally, the model for his celebrated Russian Venus (1925-1926) was his own daughter Irina. However, when sketching a real individual for one of his protagonists, Kustodiev would always create the specific character he needed and which was frequently rather different from the original. The Merchant’s Wife of 1923 belongs to this group of splendid female types.It should be noted that all the artist’s paintings of this subject, in their various guises and different formats and sizes, were not conceived as parts of a single, unified series. So it is that each one of them — be it the 1920 Merchant’s Wife Taking a Walk (Russian Academy of Fine Arts Museum) or the 1923 Merchant’s Wife — represents an intrinsically valuable and unique variation on the composition, of which Kustodiev painted many. All, with the exception of the work offered here, are either long settled in museums and private collections or lost without trace. Today Kustodiev’s various merchants’ wives adorn the collections of the Russian Art Museum in Kiev, the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery and several other Russian museums, as well as the best private collections. The portrait of collector and painter Isaak Brodsky attests to the popularity of this image. Kustodiev depicted him walking in a Petrograd in the grip of famine and destruction during the terrible years of the Civil War. Lost in thought and with a dreamy expression on his face, the artist carries a Kustodiev Merchant’s Wife under his arm, oblivious to what is going on around him.The Merchant’s Wife of 1923 was already widely-known during the artist’s own lifetime. He showed the work a year after it was painted, at the celebrated Russian Art Exhibition, organised by Igor Grabar and Sergei Vinogradov, which was housed at the Grand Central Palace in New York, before travelling around a good many of the central and southern states. The exhibition opened on 8 March 1924, and many of the paintings sold successfully, including the Merchant’s Wife, which was acquired by a private collector. Soon after the exhibition, the much admired picture of the young and smartly dressed beauty out for a walk, appeared in the pages of the popular German women’s magazine Die Dame. The picture remained out of public view until 1998, when it sold successfully at Sotheby’s. Today, for the first time in many years, it is again offered for sale and presents a rare opportunity for even the most exacting collector of Russian art. This painting is undoubtedly among Kustodiev’s most iconic works."
Lot 16
* KOROVIN, KONSTANTIN 1861-1939 Lady with a Guitar , signed and dated 1912. Oil on canvas, 86 by 66 cm. "Provenance: Collection of A.Y. Abramyan, Russia.Private collection, USA.Exhibited: The Fine Art Exhibition of the Russian Union of Artists, Fadeev Central House of Literature, March-April 1972 (label on the stretcher).Literature: Illustrated on a postcard published by Izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo, Moscow, 1974.Lady with a Guitar is a magnificent example of Korovin’s work from the 1910s when the master reached the peak of his career. His canvasses became increasingly colourful during this period, and a free, sweeping style emerged. This is clearly visible in the portraits of Nadezhda Komarovskaya, a close friend of Korovin, who frequently modelled for him during this period.Korovin painted his model by improvising directly from nature, and therefore the portrait has none of the deliberate, painstaking style and faithfully recreated details which were characteristic of his very early work. He strove to depict the young lady in a relaxed pose and to convey a lively, domestic scene. His speedily produced works are focused on conveying first impressions. A relationship between the sitter and her environment is constructed with the aid of vibrating light and varied reflections. The way in which he makes use of his own “trademark” colourist discovery of 1886 is also extremely striking: the “burning” of the red next to green, gradually transforming into the traditional colour spectrum of the master and his diverse combinations of dark green and red-ochre tones. The very structure of the composition, in which a model sits in the corner against the background of a window, becomes a characteristic feature of Korovin’s works of this period, which frequently combine the genres of portraiture, landscape painting and still life. A number of compositions from this series are well-known. They include one of the Lady with a Guitar portraits, which was sold at MacDougall’s Russian Art Sale in May 2006."
Lot 19
BOGDANOV-BELSKY, NIKOLAI 1868-1945 The Teacher`s Guests , signed. Oil on canvas, 80.5 by 102 cm. Provenance: Private collection, UK.The work will be included in the book on N. Bogdanov-Belsky being prepared by A. Kouznetsoff.The Teacher’s Guests by Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky is the artist’s reworking of his celebrated work The Teacher’s Name Day. Executed with impeccable skill, it presents a significant departure from his earlier works painted at the turn of the century and bears witness to the creative strides made during his later period.The idea of a work on the theme of village children invited to tea with their teacher was first conceived of by Bogdanov-Belsky in 1908, when visiting the estate of a landowner named Ushakov, in Tver Province. There he executed a sketch entitled Visiting the Teacher from which, two years later, he painted the large-scale work that brought him celebrity in Europe. Sadly, it has been lost and is known only from reproductions. The artist, however, carefully preserved the sketch itself and used it as the basis for several variations which would have been well-known by his contemporaries, including The Teacher’s Name Day, The Teacher’s Birthday and Visiting the Teacher.When Bogdanov-Belsky left Soviet Russia for Latvia in 1924 he took the sketch with him, and it is today preserved in the Art Museum in Riga. As an émigré he again turned to the theme of children having tea in a garden, always composed from fresh sketches drawn from life and never forfeiting the principles of Impressionism, which for him were still relevant. Thus his protagonists change from picture to picture and this large work, The Teacher’s Guests, is a splendid demonstration of this. Painted while the artist was living in Latvia, this work continues to focus on the theme of a happy village childhood, which allowed him to address the creative problems of light and colour that interested him. By arranging his figures within their landscape and using lively, vivid, vibrant colours, the artist fills the picture with the fleeting movement of foliage trembling in the wind and with the sense of a glimpse of real life. The composition is imbued with the desire to convey artistically the link between man and nature and to suffuse the canvas with light and air.It was most likely local youngsters who posed for this picture, alongside the artist’s young wife, who often modelled for Bogdanov-Belsky’s portraits and genre works. Incidentally, many of the teacher’s guests can also be seen in his other works of the time. We can, for example, recognise the little girl in the flowered headscarf and striped top, drinking tea from a saucer, as the protagonist in the romanticised work Inspiration, and the two urchins sitting at the end of the table nearest to us as the young visitors to an artist’s studio in the painting Guests.
Lot 35
SAVRASOV, ALEKSEI 1830-1897 Pastoral Scene , signed. Oil on canvas, 65 by 54 cm. Authenticity certificate from the expert V. Petrov.Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert N. Ignatova.Authenticity of the work has also been confirmed by the expert G. Churak.Pastoral Scene is one of the small group of light, lyrical landscapes that Savrasov painted towards the end of his life. Very few works of this period survive and for this reason they are of undoubted interest to collectors.The small-scale, salon-style format so beloved by Savrasov (similar to that of the celebrated works in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Rooks Have Returned and A Country Road) and the poetic nature of the motif bear testimony to that single-minded quest for artistic form which for many years was at the centre of the work of one of Russia’s most soulful landscape painters.The juxtaposition of the expansiveness of a Central-Russian river panorama, a blue sky covered with scudding clouds and the peaceful, unspectacular beauty of a river bank and pine forest with a herd of cows come to drink at the water’s edge, is a motif which first appeared in the artist’s work in the 1850s. Even then, in the earliest days of his artistic career, Savrasov’s keen love of nature, tinged with a religious quality, was already finding radiant expression in his low-key landscapes, imbued with careful and touching attention to the details of village life.Domestic cattle grazing peacefully by the water became the theme of a series of notable Savrasov works, so that the subject the artist elaborated in Summer Day (1850s, now in the Krasnodar Regional Art Museum) was taken further in his work of the 1860s and 1870s, including the celebrated Elk Island, Sokolniki (1869), acquired by Pavel Tretyakov. We sense definite echoes and resonances with this masterpiece in Pastoral Scene, painted two decades later, which was composed as a variation on the artist’s favourite motifs. It displays Savrasov’s usual selection of component parts: a watering-place in the foreground reflecting the intricate pattern of clouds and sky, a group of cows drinking unhurriedly, slender pine trunks suffused with sunlight, a path leading off into the distance and a far-off, evanescent church and bell-tower.His paint is applied in thin, almost transparent layers. The brushwork is without superfluous differentiation in the texturing of forms and only serves to emphasise the details this artist considered essential — the silhouette of the distant church on the hill and the tiny figures of birds over the water. Only the copse intrudes into the expanse of sky, preventing the eye from penetrating any further, instead directing us upwards towards the sky which still shows blue between the clouds. The artist has managed to seamlessly combine the intimacy of this homely little spot with the picturesque beauty of the view. As Savrasov’s pupil Isaak Levitan wrote of his master, “What simplicity! But behind that simplicity you sense the good, gentle soul of the artist, for all this is dear to him, close to his heart... In this simplicity lies a whole world of sublime poetry.”
Lot 51
JAWLENSKY, ALEXEJ VON 1864-1941 Landschaft mit rotem Dach, Wasserburg , signed. Oil on board, 48.5 by 52.5 cm. Executed c. 1906.Provenance: Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, acquired by 1952.Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, acquired by 1961.Anonymous Sale; Lempertz, Cologne, 28th November 2007, Lot 154.Acquired from the above.Private collection, Germany.Private collection.Exhibited: Alexej Jawlensky, Neues Museum, Wiesbaden, 4 September-3 October 1954, No. 10 (label on the reverse).Kunstwerke aus Galeriebesitz, Städtisches Museum, Wiesbaden, 14 October-117 March 1956-1957, No. 24.Alexej Jawlensky, Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, 3-31 October 1961.Vom Abbild zum Urbild, Ganserhaus, Wasserburg, 5 September-28 October 1979, No. 8.Literature: C.Weiler, Alexej Jawlensky, Cologne, 1959, p. 262, No. 514, illustrated.Vom Abbild zum Urbild, Wasserburg, Ganserhaus, 1979, p. 32, No. 8, illustrated.M. Jawlensky, L. Pieroni-Jawlensky & A. Jawlensky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, 1890-1914, London, 1991, vol. I, p. 136, No. 145, illustrated.Landschaft mit rotem Dach, Wasserburg (Landscape with a Red Roof, Wasserburg) is an early work by the outstanding innovator and gifted colourist Aleksej von Jawlensky. It was painted in 1906 at Wasserburg am Inn, at a time when the artist’s enthusiasms for various styles were constantly shifting and he was seeking his signature colour palette.In January of that year Jawlensky showed nine pictures at the World of Art exhibition in St Petersburg, along with Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Vladimir Serov and Konstantin Somov. The exhibition was organised by Sergei Diaghilev, who invited Jawlensky and Marianne von Werefkin to spend the winter with him in St Petersburg. That summer the artists set out for Wasserburg, an old Bavarian town with narrow lanes and picturesque views. Jawlensky worked tirelessly, painting from nature, excited by the idea of “life in colour”.The countryside had a calming effect on Jawlensky: his colours were already less outrageously dazzling, and light and dark bluegreen tones now predominated in his pictures, while his yellows and reds became somewhat muted. The landscape is charged with exceptional energy, conveying the psychological state of a person as he contemplates nature. Jawlensky was a real observer, convinced that it was necessary to devote one’s whole being to take in and commit to canvas the beauty of nature. Of the works of this period — mostly spent in Germany with only occasional visits to Russia — a significant number were landscapes, executed in the spirit of Impressionism. However, over time, the artist adopted the portrait as his favourite genre and this is the genre in which he was to work most and which was clearly the answer to all his creative urges.Jawlensky was forever trying to find himself and continually discovering new enthusiasms. His acquaintance with Matisse and his passion for the work of Cézanne and later Gauguin, greatly influenced his aesthetic views and it was under the influence of the French masters that Jawlensky developed his individual colour palette, which would blaze particularly brightly on the eve of the First World War.
Lot 53
* ROERICH, NICHOLAS 1874-1947 Taos Pueblo, New Mexico , stamped with a signature, further stamped twice “Nicholas Roerich Paintings and Art Collections, Inc.” on the reverse. Tempera on canvas, 49.5 by 76 cm. Executed c. 1921.Provenance: Roerich Museum, New York, USA, 1922-1935. Nettie and Louis Horch collection, USA, from 1935.Thence by descent.Private collection, USA.Literature: Probably Roerich Museum Catalogue, New York, Roerich Museum, 1930, no. 122, listed.Roerich, New York, International Cultural Centre “Corona Mundi”, 1924, illustrated and listed as “New Mexico”.Related literature: For similar works, see N. Roerich, Arizona and New Mexico Sketchbook, 1921, Roerich Museum Archives.Taos Pueblo, New Mexico was painted in 1921 and is one of the few surviving works from Roerich’s American period. In all, we know of 15 works which he painted in the Southwest — in New Mexico and Arizona — but the actual whereabouts of only six, and a mere two of these depict the ancient Native American settlement Taos Pueblo. It is one of these two paintings which MacDougall’s is now proud to offer at auction.The legendary Native American pueblo depicted in this work, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, became a place of inspiration for many remarkable artists, and for Roerich was one of his “hallowed grounds”. Of his two-year stay in America Roerich later remarked: “In New Mexico and in the spaces of this beautiful country again sounds for you the anthem of the East… the same note of great vision, of great wisdom.” During his stay in America, Roerich gave numerous lectures in the nation’s museums and universities in which he tried to convey the idea of a new perception in art. He was astounded by the lack of interest in other artistic traditions that he found in the United States in the 1920s. In his desire to change the situation he was instrumental in the opening of The Master Institute of United Arts, the main aim of which was to bring people together through art and culture. Simultaneously in Chicago the Cor Ardens (Flaming Heart) group was established, and in 1923 the Nicholas Roerich Museum opened in New York.Despite the fact that those two years he spent in America, 1920-1923, were filled with a flurry of artistic and academic activity, his religious and cultural research into the Native Americans inspired Roerich to create a series of particularly characteristic and instantly recognisable works.In the works of his American period he skilfully conveys the immediacy of his first impressions of America, a country to which he returned three times after his first visit. His images of the desert which brim with energy and enthusiasm are startlingly life-like. The bright palette and motifs from ancient art, which made such an impression on Roerich as a keen anthropologist and ethnographer, markedly distinguished his works.From an anthropological viewpoint, Roerich was fascinated by the similarities between Native Americans and Mongols and he remarked upon this more than once in his notes: “In 1921 when I became acquainted with the Red Indian pueblos of New Mexico and Arizona, I was forced to exclaim repeatedly: “But those are real Mongols!”… And now, having the opportunity to study the Mongols of outer and inner Mongolia, I was involuntarily reminded of the Pueblo Indian. Something inexplicable, fundamental, beyond all superficial theories, unites these nations.”Depicted in the pencil sketches in Roerich’s albums, now preserved in his museum in New York, is not only the structure of Native American tribes, but also their ritual dances and renowned mystical “Vision Quest” ceremonies. Unfortunately, very few of these were transposed to canvas. This very fact further illustrates quite how rare the present work is.The present painting depicts the famous Taos Pueblo, which Nicholas Roerich visited in August, 1921 while vacationing in the neighbouring town of Santa Fe. (There is a well-written account of Roerich’s sojourn in Santa Fe in Ruth Drayer’s Nicholas and Helena Roerich: The Spiritual Journey of Two Great Artists and Peacemakers.) Taos Pueblo is one of a group of Pueblo Indian settlements which appeared in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries along the path of the Rio Grande river. This Pueblo consists of adobe dwellings and ceremonial buildings, and exemplifies the traditional architectural arrangement from the pre-Hispanic period in the Americas. Culturally, it marks a significant stage in the history of ancient Pueblo people.In Roerich’s own lists of his works, there is a painting titled Pueblo from 1921 which most probably is the present work. It acquires special significance since the Taos Pueblo appears in two of Roerich’s monumental canvasses from 1923 — The Legend from the Miracle series and Vision. Both, especially The Legend, are among Roerich’s most expressive and mystical artistic statements. Both paintings touch upon the idea of the Messiah, and their iconography references the symbolism of this most cherished and profound concept in spiritual lore. Thus the presence of the Taos Pueblo in both of these works instils this American Indian setting with transcendental rather than geographical meaning.From Roerich’s writings and the accounts of his friends and followers, we know that he understood and venerated the sacred places of the world as the focal points where the energies of the Cosmos meet the Earth. His trip to New Mexico in the summer of 1921 was more than just a summer holiday. The real purpose was seeking “the harmonies of deeper insights and wisdom” at the power centres of the American continent. These visits inspired a series of his most spiritual works executed during his American period.The present painting is more that just a study of native Indian architecture. It serves as an icon, a sign pointing to a culture which emphasizes the bond between man and the natural world. The warm tones of yellow, pink and orange, which display Roerich’s mastery of subtle brushwork, convey his philosophical message. The adobe clay, an otherwise dull material, becomes a beacon of the sun’s permeating light. Set against a serene blue sky, the Pueblo emerges as a fortress and focal point of spiritual energy. We are grateful to Gvido Trepša, Senior researcher at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, for providing catalogue information.
Lot 54
* ROERICH, NICHOLAS 1874-1947 St Moritz , numbered "286" on the reverse and further labelled. Tempera on board, 30.5 by 40.5 cm. Provenance: Roerich Museum, New York, USA, 1923-1935.Nettie and Louis Horch collection, USA, from 1935.Giro collection, USA.Gift from the above to the present owner.Private collection, USA.Exhibited: Roerich Museum, New York, USA (permanent collection), 1924-1935, No. 286.Literature: F. Grant et al., Roerich, Himalaya, A Monograph, New York, Brentano, 1926, p. 199.Roerich Museum Catalogue, New York, Roerich Museum, 1930, p. 18, No. 286.The present lot is one of five works that the artist executed during a stay in St Moritz, Switzerland, in July and August of 1923. These studies are Nicholas Roerich’s first attempt at rendering high mountains and, as such, they present a unique moment in Roerich’s creative evolution. At the end of that year, he would go to India, and from 1924 onwards, mountain scenery would become the defining signature of his work.Roerich’s travels in Central Asia transformed his whole style of painting and more than a thousand canvasses of mountain vistas earned him a reputation as the ultimate “master of the mountains.” Here, however, the brush is still in the hand of the early Roerich, the famous artist of the Vrubel and Bakst generation and integral member of the Russian art scene of the beginning of the 20th century. He had never painted high mountains before, and one can see that he is on unfamiliar ground. There is some uncertainty in his brushstroke and colour choices, as he is experimenting with how to contain the monolithic force and magnitude of mountains. Three other studies in this series are direct reproductions of postcard scenery, but this sketch is much more personal and inquisitive. By condensing the perspective, Roerich tries to convey the awe one feels at the foot of a mountain range. As one of the very first representations of mountains in Roerich`s body of work, this sketch is of utmost interest for both knowledgable and amateur lovers of Roerich’s art alike.We are grateful to Gvido Trepša, Senior researcher at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, for providing catalogue information.
Lot 214
ANISFELD, BORIS 1878-1973 Grey Day with Storm Clouds , signed and dated 1954, also further titled on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 116.5 by 91 cm. Provenance: Estate of the artist.Private collection, UK.Exhibited: Boris Anisfeld Retrospective Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1958, No. 86.Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Boris Anisfeld Retrospective Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1958, p. 23, No. 86, illustrated.E. Lingenauber and O. Sugrobova-Roth, Boris Anisfeld. Catalogue raisonne, Düsseldorf, Edition Libertars, 2011, p. 104, P 040, illustrated.Anisfeld was fascinated by the drama and danger of storms. As a boy in the Bessarabian countryside, he would have experienced at first hand the spectacular violence of summer thunderstorms rolling down from the Carpathians. Later in life, he spent the summer of 1913 studying and painting in Spain, where according to the artist’s daughter, he paid particular attention to El Greco’s style of painting stormy skies. This influence is clearly seen in The Storm, 1919-1920, and in another painting from 1938-40, Coming Storm, as well as in this work Grey Day with Storm Clouds.This painting, unlike the others, presents the environment before the storm has fully broken. The rising wind is kicking up the women’s skirts and capes, the colours of which blend with those of the swirling clouds in the background. They and their wolfish dog stand as calmly as the golden birch to their left, waiting. In western art and literature, the storm, or storms, often stand in for Fate. As Anisfeld grew older, he became more fatalistic in his outlook. But he never lost track of the fact that fate cannot prevent one from facing it resolutely. This resolution, coupled with the acceptance of the inevitability of one’s fate, is what comes across in this picture.Charles Chatfield-Taylor
Lot 510
* A TRIPTYCH OF THE MOTHER OF GOD WITH SAINTS SERAPHIM OF SAROV AND SERGEI OF RADONEZH IN A WOODEN FRAME OLOVYANISHNIKOV & SONS MANUFACTORY, 1908-1911, OKLAD STAMPED WITH MAKER`S MARK OF IVAN BUTUZOV IN CYRILLIC, MOSCOW, 84 STANDARD Extended 40.5 by 49 cm, closed 40.5 by 27.5 cm. "Related literature: For similar icons, see A.K. Lazuko, Victor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, Leningrad, 1990, p. 55.Museum Catalogue, Russkiy Stil’: Sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Istoricheskogo Muzeya (Russian Style: Collection of the State History Museum), Moscow, 1998, p. 103, cat. 225.The folding triptych is an outstanding early 20th century work in the Art Nouveau style, and associated with three names that brought about a revolution in Russian ecclesiastical art.The icon of the Mother of God at the centre of the triptych reproduces an image painted in 1887 by the renowned Russian artist V.M. Vasnetsov (1848-1926) for the apse of St. Vladimir’s athedral, Kiev. The depiction of Sergei of Radonezh on the right-hand panel also reproduces an 1882 icon by Vasnetsov for the Church of the Vernicle on S.I. Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate. The “Venerable Sergei of Radonezh” icon in the Sovereign tier referred both to Abramtsevo’s geographical proximity to the Trinity Sergiev Lavra and the aesthetic preferences of artists in Mamontov’s circle. The icons at Abramtsevo were the first in the history of the Orthodox Church to be painted in a realist manner and anticipated Vasnetsov’s work at St. Vladimir’s Cathedral in Kiev. The third panel depicts the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, canonised in 1903.The carved oak frame was designed by S.I. Vashkov, chief artist at the firm of “P.I. Olovyanishnikov & Sons”. The closest comparable carved oak frame is that of the “Mother of God of the Sign” icon from the 1900s collection in the State History Museum. Sergei Ivanovich Vashkov (1879-1914) was an architect, artist and famous master of applied decorative religious art. His work attracted the attention of the well-known Moscow church plate manufacturers, Olovyanishnikov & Sons.From 1910 to 1914, Vashkov was the artistic manager at the Olovyanishnikov factory, devoting himself to creating genuinely artistic church plate. The role played in his creative development by Vasnetsov was huge, and the young artist regarded himself as Vasnetsov’s pupil. Combining old Russian and early Christian motifs, the artist developed his own distinctive threedimensional language to give medieval forms a new interpretation and link Vashkov’s name with a genuine revival in Russian ecclesiastical art. Through the Olovyanishnikovs’ close cooperation with the eminent artist, their firm became one of the early 20th century’s leading producers of decorative and applied art.The folding triptych, whose story involves Vasnetsov, Vashkov and the Olovyanishnikovs, is a unique, vibrant work, exemplifying the diverse facets of the Art Nouveau era in Russia."
Lot 511
AN UNUSUAL MINIATURE TRIPARTITE ICON WITH CHRIST PANTOCRATOR AND CHERUBIM IN A SILVER OKLAD SET WITH SEMIPRECIOUS STONES OKLAD STAMPED WITH MAKER`S MARK OF KUZMA KONOV IN CYRILLIC, MOSCOW, 84 STANDARD 9.5 by 11.5 cm. K.I. Konov crafted a number of stylish pieces after designs by S.I. Vashkov, and also used his techniques of contrasting surface textures, areas of colour, various precious and semiprecious cut stones and a deliberate asymmetry to achieve an unusual aesthetic impact, expressiveness and harmony. Vashkov, whose ideas found their practical expression through Konov, wrote in the journal Religious Art: “...the purpose of icons and church plate...is to nurture and develop man’s aesthetic sense, and therefore they should show conceptual commitment and be highly artistic.” This kind of creative work is brilliantly exemplified by the fine Christ Pantocrator icon. On either side of the Pantocrator are Cherubim who, according to Dionysius the Areopagite, form the first triad of the Angelic Orders, together with the Seraphim and Thrones. The Cherubim are depicted according to Chapter 1 of the Book of Ezekiel, where they appeared with four wings (two raised and two covering the body), four arms and four faces — of a man, lion, ox and eagle. In early times, these “tetramorphic” Cherubim symbolised a single Gospel written by the four evangelists (in the Christian tradition, the aforementioned symbols were attributed to the four gospel-writers). Such imagery was replaced in late and post-Medieval cclesiastical art with cherubim and seraphim with four or six wings and human faces.In terms of cultural history, this Art Nouveau artist’s interpretation is of great interest. Here, an old tradition is uniquely interwoven with a new one — the tetramorphic iconography is seen in the Cherubim’s two extra faces: the eagle and man on the left and the ox and lion on the right.Despite the composition’s apparent simplicity, the icon is distinguished by its clarity and the depth of thought behind it. In Dionysius the Areopagite’s Celestial Hierarchy, the Cherubim’s attributes are described: “the name Cherubim denotes their power of knowing and beholding God, their receptivity to the highest light, their contemplation of the beneficence of the Godhead in Its first manifestation.”Thus, this early 20th century image is a remarkable ecclesiastical artefact, in which new modes of artistic expression combine with the traditional symbolism and theology of the icon.
Lot 523
* THE FEODOROVSKAYA MOTHER OF GOD WITH TWELVE SCENES OF THE ICON`S LEGEND KOSTROMA, END OF THE 18TH TO FIRST QUARTER OF THE 19TH CENTURY 66 by 52 cm. THE CONTENTS OF THE SCENES: 1. St.Theodore Stratelates brings the icon of the Mother of God to Kostroma; 2. Vasiliy Kvashnya, Prince of Kostroma, sees the icon in a tree whilst hunting; 3. The icon is translated in sacred procession to the church of Theodore Stratelates in Kostroma; 4. Prayers are offered before the icon in the church; 5. Fire in the church; 6. The icon is found unharmed after the fire; 7. The icon is translated to a new church, built of stone; 8. Another church fire and the icon is saved by being borne aloft into the air; 9. Victory over the Tatar enemy by virtue of the icon’s intercession; 10. Joseph is healed of palsy before the icon; 11. A youth is healed of possession by demons before the icon; 12. Tatiana is healed of possession by demons before the icon.The original icon of the Feodorovskaya Mother of God is the Protectress of the City of Kostroma and was created around the mid-13th century and kept in Kostroma’s main cathedral. It was revered throughout Russia after the early 17th century when Mikhail Feodorovich, the first Romanov Tsar, was blessed by it. The iconography of the icon’s miracles was developed according to the established Legend in the latter 17th century. Initially, the miracle scenes related to early 13th century events and the icon’s history, but later scenes included the wonders it had worked from 1636 to 1646.17th century Feodorovskaya icons depict the Legend in twenty scenes, but 18th century abbreviated versions depict only twelve scenes, as with our icon.The icon was created in Kostroma, which is associated with a vast majority of similar works. The painting style conforms to late 18th-early 19th century classicism, as shown by the elongated figure proportions, the 17th century techniques for writing faces and the particular colours used. This artefact is a shining example of highly professional icon painting from Kostroma in the modern age.
Lot 165
A TRAY CONTAINING 5 X FIVE POUND COINS, 1990, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, uncirculated set 1983, 5 x two pounds, Cook Islands Matt proof with polished portrait of Princess Diana one Dollar 1997, South Africa five shillings 1953 v.f, silver fob, modern crowns, Diana photographs, First Day Covers etc
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