Isabelle Imbert

Tag: art market

  • Islamic Week, Autumn 2022: Prices and Attributions Oddities (blog)

    Islamic Week, Autumn 2022: Prices and Attributions Oddities (blog)

    The Islamic Art market is like some mystical creature living in a deep forest. Everybody has heard about it, and many will tell you they have seen it, but everybody gives different descriptions, apart that it has eyes and a tail. What I’m trying to say, with this unnecessarily convoluted metaphor, is that the art market keeps surprising me. Items surprise me, but also the ability of experts to unearth forgotten treasures and to slap completely random prices on them, that keeps surprising me.

    Bonhams opens the week on the Tuesday 25th with a catalogue of 157 lots, but is also holding an online auction between the 20th and the 28th October with a catalogue of 249 lots. Sotheby’s, follows on the 26th with 195 lots. Christie’s offers a larger catalogue of 265 lots on the 27th, including 102 carpets. Finally, a probable organisational mishmash makes Chiswick and Roseberys share the Friday 28th, Chiswick with two catalogues of 89 and 360 lots, Roseberys with a catalogue of 497 lots, including 79 lots of antiquities and 30 lots of contemporary art.

    The selection is large and include wonderful pieces for every budget, as well as intriguing items, such as a small Qajar painting in an extraordinary wooden frame, offered by Rosebery’s at £200-300, and a very amusing page showing Maharana Jagat Singh in the most lively margin of elephants and animals, offered at £500-700.

    A enamelled saucer, Awadh 18th c. Chiswick 28.10.22, lot 371

    Manuscripts and Paintings, stars of the show

    Bonhams seems to be shifting its strategy slightly by holding two auctions simultaneously, one in the auction room on the 25th, and another online, over 8 days starting on the 20th. The physical sale includes pieces between £200-300 and £90,000-120,000 and will appeal to the most fortunate collectors, while the online auction include more items, all between £200-300 and £5,000-7,000, with some lots sold without reserve, and some as low as £5. Both auctions include paintings and isolated pages, but only 3 manuscripts. Supply chain issue or deliberate choice to focus on other media, I cannot tell, but the absence is definitely intriguing given the popularity of manuscripts in past UK and French auctions, and the sheer volume of manuscripts presented by the other auction houses this autumn.

    Chiswick offers several interesting manuscripts in both auctions, including a Mughal Qur’an signed and dated 1145 H./1732 valued at £6,000-8,000, and a Safavid poetic anthology from the 17th c., incomplete but interesting for it contains the full page drawing of a standing man, in a format usually reserved for album pages. The manuscript could probably be use as a case study on provenance: it bears seals, dedications, modern collection stickers and even comes with a letter from George Anavian on behalf of the late professor Ehsan Yarshater to Dr. Marilyn Jenkins Madina, one of the curators of the Islamic Art department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dated 27 September 1983. Offered at £800-1,200, it is a bargain for anyone interested in book history.

    40% of Sotheby’s auction is composed of manuscripts, isolated pages and paintings, including 9 volumes from the Shakerine collection which was dispersed by Sotheby’s in October 2019. The sale had done well, but not all lots were sold. On the nine manuscripts offered this fall, only an illuminated Qur’an juz from Ottoman Turkey was previously sold £5,000 (incl. premium), and all the lots are now offered with estimations slashed by 25% or more. It will be interesting to see if they sell, this time around. Sotheby’s is clearly riding trends in this auction. A monumental Qur’an page from the 8th c. is offered for £250,000-350,000, from the same volume as the page sold by Millon Paris for €600,000 in June. The page was last sold by Sotheby’s in 2016 for £85,000, so given the result of the French auction earlier this year, we can understand the rush to resell.

    Page from the Shahname of Shah Tahmasp (detail), Safavid Persia, c. 1530, Sotheby’s 26.10.22, lot 49

    The star of the show is of course the page of Shah Tahmasp’s Shahnama, offered for £4,000,000- 6,000,000, following the page of the same manuscript sold at Christie’s in March this year for £4,842,000. This high price has encouraged Sotheby’s to push the estimation even higher. Every single one of this page is an event on its own, and the painting on this one is particularly glorious. William Dalrymple wrote about the page in the sale catalogue, which baffles me. Mr Dalrymple is a great historian and a fantastic author, but he is not a specialist of Safavid Persia, nor of the Shahnama, nor of the arts of the book. Why not ask one of the many experts of the field for their informed opinion? For this reason, I have invited Dr Firuza Melville, director of the Cambridge Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies, to speak about the manuscript on the ART Informant podcast. The episode will be out on the 17th October, so stay tuned!

    Rosebery’s is also coming in strong with Shahnama pages, including one page of the so-called Freer Small Shahnama, produced in Iran c. 1300-1340 and bearing the illustration of “Sawa Shah slain in battle by Bahram Chubina” (£3,000-4,000), and an illustrated page of one of the so-called Small Mongol Shahnama, made around the same time as the Freer Shahnama (£3,000-5,000), as well as other, Deccani and Qajar.

    Let’s mention here the painting of a black and white bird signed by the famous Persian painter Riza ‘Abbasi, offered by Christie’s for £100,000-120,000. This particular page hadn’t been seen since its first appearance on the market in 1961, until last summer when it was sold in France for €36,000 on an estimate of… €100-150. The snarky comments write themselves.

    Finally, it is interesting to note the prominence of Indian painting. I mentioned this summer that Indian painting didn’t sell well in Paris, so I am particularly interested to see what it will do here in London, though previous auctions have showed that the medium usually encounters success. I never counted the Indian paintings in London auctions before, but because I found the catalogues particularly submerged in Indian paintings this time around, I decided to count. Christie’s catalogue includes 13,2% of Indian paintings, Roseberys 15%, Sotheby’s 15.3%, Bonhams live 17,8%, Bonhams online 25.3%, and Chiswick 30,2%, with a rough total of 310 isolated pages produced in India, excluding illustrated manuscripts, more than 17% of all lots combined. There are some really wonderful treasures among all this mass, but I don’t know where to start, I feel genuinely overwhelmed. As for manuscripts, I wonder when Indian paintings became so prominent, but more importantly I wonder if such volumes are sustainable in the mid to long term. Am I the only one feeling this “Indian painting fatigue”?

    Detail of a folio of the Tarikh al-Alfi, Imperial Mughal India, c. 1590. Sotheby’s 26.10.22, lot 51

    Provenance, prices … All these random things

    In this day and age, it becomes risky to present a star lot without provenance. Of course, the interested buyer can contact the expert and ask, but it seems like good practice to put it directly in the catalogue, both ethically and commercially. The stakes are high to sell the most expensive lot, because even if auction houses often achieve better results with smaller items selling above their range, an unsold star lot represents a significant loss of investment (in terms of research and cataloguing time and resource, advertisement, freelance experts, etc.), as well as bad publicity. One will remember the two pairs of glasses presented by Sotheby’s last Autumn, which I had questioned on this blog; Sotheby’s had contracted William Dalrymple and an independent consulting firm, with additional support (paid or not) from Dr Usha R Balakrishnan and Pr Ebba Koch. These glasses had a number of issues, including the complete absence of provenance in the catalogue, and remained unsold.

    Bonhams has a tendency to omit provenance, but it is never systematic. Their most expensive item is a late 13th century Mamluk silver-inlaid brass penbox offered for £90,000-120,000. At this price, potential buyers should not have to work to find out where it comes from. Oddly, the second star object, a group of Safavid niello and gem-set gold jewellery offered at £80,000-120,000, has a provenance line. Go figure.

    A Mamluk silver-inlaid brass penbox, Egypt, late 13th c. Bonhams, 25.10.22, lot 36

    Christie’s is changing gear with their top lot, presenting a Mughal pashmina carpet from the mid-17th century for £2,500,000-3,500,000. I imagine that this piece might be acquired by a museum, as the infrastructures required for conserving textiles are particularly complex. I am not a carpet specialist, so I couldn’t say if the very high price is justified or not. Let me know your opinion in the comments, and let’s see what the market decides.

    For £15,000-20,000, Sotheby’s offers an 18th c. Ottoman Qur’an of 573 folios, 10 lines by page, measuring 26.6 x 16.4 cm, with no date, signature nor provenance. Christie’s offers for £2,000-3,000 an Ottoman Qur’an of 228 folios (no mention whether it is complete or not), 15 lines per page, 16.9 x 10.7 cm, signed Muhammad, known as Ferayazi, dated 1172 H./ 1758, from the collection of Michel Abemayor (1912-1975). The writing is of better quality in Sotheby’s manuscript, but it doesn’t fully justify the immense price gap between the two, and I struggle to understand how these prices were attributed. Sotheby’s Qur’an is too expensive and Christie’s Qur’an is too low-priced. Someone, somewhere, has some explaining to do.

    Bold Attributions or Misleading Captions?

    Signature and date in beautiful Qajar margins. Christie’s 26.10.22, lot 95 (detail)

    Christies’ second-highest lot gave me pause, and raises the issue of attributions on the art market. A beautiful album page bearing, on one side, a painting of a night hunt scene produced in India circa 1691, and a calligraphy signed ‘Imad al-Hasani on the other side. The page is presented as coming from the famous St Petersburg muraqqa’, an album produced in Persia after the sack of Delhi in 1739 by the army of Nadir Shah Afshar. Most of the album is kept in the Institute of Oriental Studies in St Petersburg, but some of the pages were dispersed before it arrived in Russia and sometimes appear on the market. One page was sold at Millon Paris in 2019, for instance. Other times, pages resembling to those of the album are wrongly attributed to the volume, such as one offered by Sotheby’s in 2018. The present page could be linked to the album for its size (47.8 x 32.5 cm, the St Petersburg album is 47.5 x 33 cm), and the fact it bears a calligraphy of the Persian master ‘Imad al-Hasani, predominant in the original volume, however (yes, in bold) the margins are signed Muhammad Yazdi and dated 1247 H./ 1831-32, some 80 years after the latest date in the album, 1172 H./1756-57. The catalogue entry deals with this crucial information like an afterthought, mentioning it in the very last paragraph and adding that: “The St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ was however never completed and we know that many of the margins and borders were not finished in the 1750s. This might be a later attempt to complete it.” The keyword is in the last sentence, “might”. There is no evidence whatsoever that the album decoration was continued after 1757, and we don’t even know what the complete album even looked like. This lack of nuance is extremely misleading.

    Another jump to conclusions is the attribution of a Safavid papier-mâché mirror case to Muhammad Zaman, valued at £50,000-70,000. With the amount of scientific literature widely available on the topic, I simply do not understand that we can still give every random piece under the sun to the painter Muhammad Zaman, on the base that they look Safavid, and that they bear the inscription “ya saheb al-Zaman“. Many legitimate signatures are known for this painter, some in the aforementioned St Petersburg muraqqa‘, but the attribution of this inscription to him has been questioned many times, and the fact is that nothing tangibly links this “crypto-signature” to him. The scenes on the mirror case are indeed close to his style and can be compared with signed works such as the Khamsa of the British Library, but an attribution is not a signature.

    Bonhams also drops Muhammad Zaman’s name for a page of the album made in 1888 for Nasir al-din Shah Qajar (£15,000-20,000), recognisable by its margins covered in decoupage motifs, but states that the painting is “in the manner of”, which is a lot better.
    This album is problematic and needs to be briefly mentioned here. Pages have been frequently appearing on the market for the past few years, with little to no provenance. Also appearing on the market are empty margins from the same album: Chiswick is offering 6 in one lot as part of their morning, single-owner sale. The margin of Bonhams’ painting resembles very closely another margin offered by Chiswick last year (but is not identical), and because the complete album has never been seen, I think we need to keep an eye on the isolated margins being sold and potentially reappearing not empty. That or I’m being paranoid. In the same auction, Chiswick is also presenting two loose calligraphic panels from the same album, this time without their margins (except for a small band bearing the characteristic decoupaged motifs).

    A lot more can be said about these catalogues, but this article is already too long. I am genuinely excited to go to London and see the exhibitions, but also to see what the market will decide. Bonhams is taking risks by focusing on metals in their live auction, Medieval ceramics are as strong as they have ever been, Iznik are full of promises, I could go on forever. Let’s meet on this blog after the auction to debrief!

    A calligraphic panel with 2 figures (detail of the page), Shaybanid Balkh or Bukhara, 983/1575. Christie’s 27.10.22 lot 54
    1. The catalogue can be downloaded in PDF here. Thank you to Benedict Carter for providing me with the link that I couldn’t find.
    2. Most recently by Dr Amy Landau in her doctoral dissertation “Farangī-Sāzī at Isfahan : The Court Painter Muhammad Zamān, the Armenians of New Julfa and Shāh Sulaymān (1666-1694)” and by Dr Mélisande Bizoirre in her doctoral dissertation: “a Hache et Le Rossignol: Productions Artistiques En Iran Après La Chute d’Esfahān (1135/1722-1163/1750)”.
    3. See Amy Landau’s article in Muqarnas 28 (2011).
  • Parisian Art Market Debrief and Other News (blog)

    Parisian Art Market Debrief and Other News (blog)

    As I am about to enter a studious summer, let’s take a look at the Parisian art market most recent months, which were packed with action. I also want to share with you some of my ongoing and upcoming projects and plans. If this article interests you, please comment below and share on social medias!

    Moulded bowl with hunting scenes, Seldjuk Persia, 12th/13th c.. Artcurial, sold €20,992
    Moulded bowl with hunting scenes, Seldjuk Persia, 12th/13th c.. Artcurial, sold €20,992

    The Islamic Art Market in Paris: New Players, New Scores

    This spring, excitement was palpable around Drouot, the Parisian main marketplace. No less than four large auctions were scheduled in May and June, as well as individual lots passed in non-specialist auctions, and that ended being major surprises.

    Result summary

    All prices include premium.

    On the 16th May, Pingannaud-David expertise opened the season with their first solo auction and new collaboration with Artcurial. They chose to focus on a small catalogue of 118 lots (excluding archaeology), with low estimates ranging from €300 to €25,000.

    As for the results, Artcurial arrives in fourth position with 52% of lots sold for €211,336, a halftone result for the bold selection offered to the public. The biggest success was achieved by a late 19th century Ottoman karlik, a silver cooling vessel from a French collection, bearing the tughra of either Sultan ‘Abd al-‘Aziz (r.1861-76) or Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid II (r.1876-1909). Valued €6,000-8,000, it was sold for €26,240, 437% of its low estimate. The second record, a beautiful moulded pottery bowl with hunting scenes, from 12th or 13th century Seldjuk Persia, was sold within its estimate of €15,000/20,000, for €20,992.

    Silver cooling vessel (karlik), Ottoman Egypt or Turkey, late 19th century. Artcurial, 15.05.22, sold €26,240
    Silver cooling vessel (karlik), Ottoman Egypt or Turkey, late 19th century. Artcurial, 15.05.22, sold €26,240

    The next day, Rim Encheres, with Rim Mezghani supported by the expertise of Laure Soustiel, was also taking its first steps inside the hotel Drouot. After an inaugural sale in November, the challenge was to show a clear progression margin for the newly created auction house. Were presented 154 lots divided in two thematic groups, “shades of blue” and “empires and artisans”, with estimates from €80 to €30,000.

    Rim Encheres achieved a total of €279,253 with 56% lots sold, which is not extraordinary, given the estimate of some unsold lots, but still shows a clear progression compared to their inaugural sale, which had made €220,580 for 50% sold. Challenge succeeded for the Parisian latest comer. The most successful lot sold within its estimate of €30,000/50,000: A rare Qur’an from the second half of the 15th century, probably produced under the Aq-Qoyunlu dynasty in Iran, with a 16th century Safavid binding, sold for  €41,600. The second-biggest lot came as a surprised: A nice Iznik dish from circa 1590, with a charming decor of sailing ships, and an impeccable provenance, was valued at €4,000/6,000, and sold for €29,900, 748% of its low estimate.

    A month later, on the 15th and 16th June, Millon and Anne-Sophie Joncoux-Pilorget, Parisian market almost veterans in this context, were offered over two days a large catalogue of 441 lots from €50 to €200,000, risking daring estimates and a two-day sale to assert its place on the market.

    I was contracted by Millon, with whom I worked in the past, to support with marketing and communication surrounding the sale, bringing more awareness to the event (with more or less success given the current climate in France, following the scandal in the Louvre).

    Page from a monumental Qur’an on vellum, Mesopotamia, second half of the 8th century, Millon, 15.06.22, sold €650,000 €
    Page from a monumental Qur’an on vellum, Mesopotamia, second half of the 8th century, Millon, 15.06.22, sold €650,000 €

    Millon broke records with €2,014,727 achieved in total, and €650,000 for a monumental Qur’an page on vellum from the second half of the 8th century, beating all French sale records for single Qur’an pages. Overall, Millon was in the average with 56% of lots sold, but managed to sell well above estimate in many cases. The second-biggest lot, a Qur’an juz’ from 12th century Baghdad, also sold for 200% of its low estimate (without premium): €200,000 against €80,000/120,000.

    Finally, Camille Célier was also taking her first solo steps with Ader-Nordmann on the 28th June, presenting a catalogue of 293 lots (including Orientalist painting, excluding archaeology) between €50 and €15,000.

    Lacquered mirror case, signed Muhammad Isma’il Isfahani, Qajar Persia 1274 H/1857-58. Ader-Nordmann 28.06.22, sold €19,840
    Lacquered mirror case (detail), signed Muhammad Isma’il Isfahani, Qajar Persia 1274 H/1857-58. Ader-Nordmann 28.06.22, sold €19,840

    Comparatively, this auction was the most successful one with 69% of lots sold for a total of €330,656. The auction house had made the choice of presenting more objects with lower estimates, around half below €1,000, and it clearly paid off since buyers from all backgrounds gathered. Both top lots were sold within their estimate: A lacquer mirror case with historical scenes and a crucifixion from Qajar Iran, dated and signed Muhammad Isma’il Isfahani (1814-1892,) sold €19,840; and a large Orientalist oil painting by Rigolot (1862-1932) sold €19,200. Here again the surprise came for an Iznik dish (that looks like Kutahya), valued €3,000/5,000 and sold €16,640.

    Success and Deceptions

    Iznik dish, Ottoman Turkey, c. 1590. Rim Encheres, 16.05.22, sold €29,900
    Iznik dish, Ottoman Turkey, c. 1590. Rim Encheres, 16.05.22, sold €29,900

    Ottoman productions encountered a massive success for most. Beside Artcurial’s karlik sold €26,240, Alexis Renard and Beaussant-Lefevre sold a magnificent tombak ewer and basin dedicated to the princess Mihrimah Sultan (1812-1838), daughter of Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808-1839), dated 1236 H./1820 for €130 560 against an estimate of €20,000/30,000, pre-empted by the Louvre. Millon presented Ottoman arms, especially a curious 18th century yatagan sword with hidden mechanisms that sold €24,000, a price within its estimate of €25,000/35,000.
    Iznik and Kutahya potteries also broke records, confirming the cravings for these productions, especially Iznik’s, that had already been seen in London last Autumn. Rim Encheres, in particular, sold the 11 Ottoman ceramics – dishes and architectural, as well as Ader which achieved high prices with 5 of the 7 lots presented.

    Ewer and Basin in tombak, Ottoman Turkey, 1236 H./1820. Beaussant-Lefevre, sold €130,560
    Ewer and Basin in tombak, Ottoman Turkey, 1236 H./1820. Beaussant-Lefevre, sold €130,560

    The biggest deception was probably Indian paintings. Artcurial presented 23 lots of Indian paintings, 18 being in temporary importation (which incurs an additional 5.5% premium on hammer price, for the buyer), but only managed to sell 8, most within or below estimate. Most likely, Pingannaud-David imported lots from London in a daring effort to hype up Indian painting on the Parisian art market. This could have worked, given the reputation and legacy of late Marie-Christine David in the field, but it might have been too early for the newly created expertise, or estimates might have been too high (some definitely made me raise an eyebrow), and buyers did not respond.
    The same goes for Millon which offered 13 paintings, only 4 were sold, including one more than 300% above estimate.

    However, and because there is always an exception to the rule coming to contradict my shiny theories, a 19th century Awadh painting was offered at Coutau-Begarie on the 3rd June, expertised by Anne-Sophie Joncoux-Pilorget, which clearly unleashed all passions. Valued €3,000/4,000, it was sold for more than 10 times its value.

    Finally, manuscripts made sellers and buyers very happy, confirming here again the importance of the media on the market. Apart from the extraordinary result achieved on the monumental Qur’an page, Millon confimed its leadership on the market by selling the vast majority of manuscripts, including a copy of the Book of Conduct for Sufi Aspirants, written by the great Persian philosopher Sohravardi and copied in 717 H./1317 by his indirect descendant, Ahmad ibn al-Sohravardi al- Bakri (1256-1340), sold for €152,000. Ader managed to sell a 19th century Ottoman miniature Qur’an for €16,640 against an estimate of €3,000/5,000, and Artcurial sold most of their manuscripts (not the biggest ones unfortunately), including an illuminated frontispiece from a 16th century Layla wa Majnun probably made in Herat, gone at €2,099, that is 350% of its low estimate.

    Qur'an juz, Baghdad, 588H./1192-3. Millon, 15.06.22, sold: €160,000
    Qur’an juz, Baghdad, 588H./1192-3. Millon, 15.06.22, sold: €160,000

    It seems that the Parisian art market is entering a new phase of its history. Experts are younger (but highly experienced), with new ideas and new ways of working. Provenances were put under a shining light in the catalogues, which is, as we know, particularly appreciable. We can look forward the Winter auctions to see how Paris will find its new balance.

    Art Informant Update

    The ART Informant podcast, started in November 2021, is now taking a short break after an eventful first season full of amazing guests. It will be back for a second season in September 2022. I also hope to expand on the concept with additional content, but it will depend on external factors I will hopefully be able to talk about in a few months.

    The podcast has been received very positively, and I am really grateful to the community that has helped share the episodes, grow the audience, and gave me very constructive feedback.

    Stay tuned for more info on season 2 very soon, relayed on the ART Informant’s Instagram and Twitter accounts. Don’t forget to follow!

    1. To learn more about Drouot, listen to the ART Informant episode with Rim Mezghani.
    2. France24, “Louvre ex-director charged in art trafficking case”; The Art Newspaper, “Antiquities trafficking case escalates as Louvre Abu Dhabi joins civil action and Swiss collector files criminal complaint”; 247 News Agency, “Accusations against former Louvre director uncover global art smuggling scandal”.
    3. You can check some of the press releases I wrote here and there.
  • Happy New Year 2022 !

    Happy New Year 2022 !

    Time flies when you’re having fun… And when you’re stuck at home, apparently. 2021 went like a dream in sweatpants, or like a bad sequel to 2020, which was already not that great.

    Luckily, 2021 has also been the year of new encounters, collaborations and initiatives, and overall has been a busy year. Two highlights of the year were my participation to the symposium “Eighteenth-century Persianate Albums Made in India: Audiences – Artists – Patrons and Collectors” in Berlin, during which I had the opportunity to talk about floral margins in 18th century Indian albums. The proceedings will be published this year or the next.
    The second highlight was the launch of the ART Informant podcast at the end of the year, of which three episodes are already out. I debated whether to start this project for a while, as this format did not exist in the fields of Islamic art history, conservation and market. In the end, I am glad I got passed my doubts, as the feedback of the audience and guests have been particularly positive. For this, I thank you all.

    What to look for in 2022

    In 2022, I want to continue growing the ART Informant community and reach out to a larger audience. There are a lot of fantastic scholars, curators, conservators, collectors, experts and merchants I want to invite, let’s hope they’ll all say yes.
    The content I offer via the website and the podcast represent a significant investment, and even though I do this with passion, the realities of the world remind themselves to me. For this reason, I am introducing a Paypal donation button on the site. If you like the content I offer and want to support the site and the podcast, please consider donating. Your donations will help me in growing the platforms and eventually offer more diversified content.

    [paypal-donation]

    I will attend London spring Islamic week, should covid let me. Last time I was able to attend was in 2019, so I’m particularly excited to meet experts and collectors, and to offer new content on the website and the podcast related to the event.

    Hopefully, I will publish two papers, or at least get them accepted for publication. Because I’ve been short on time since I got my PhD in December 2015, I haven’t been able to publish my doctoral dissertation. This is still a project, but to do so I will need uninterrupted time, which your donations might be able to get me. In the meantime, I spread information in shorter bursts, such as the paper I published in The Journal of Islamic Manuscripts last year, on “Patronage and Productions of Paintings and Albums in 18th-Century Awadh“.

    On a more personal note, I am aiming to finish my Diploma in Art Law offered by the Institute of Art and Law in London. I would also come back to teaching art history, which I miss dearly, and will start to look for opportunities to do so.

    Rendezvous in December 2022 to see if all the above have been accomplished!

    I wish you all a fantastic year, hoping the journey will be filled with success, joy and surprises.

     ‘Abd al-Qadir Hisari, Calligraphic Galleon, A.H. 1180/ A.D. 1766–67, Turkey (MET 2003.241)
  • Islamic Week, Autumn 2021 or An Unexpected Number of Bats

    Islamic Week, Autumn 2021 or An Unexpected Number of Bats

    I admit it, this title might be a bit dramatic, but it is still an accurate depiction of the upcoming Islamic week, as, yes, there are bats.

    This year, Bonhams opens on the 25th October with a large catalogue of 342 lots, more than double since last Spring auction;
    Roseberys presents on the next day with a head-turning catalogue of 557 lots, though not all are Islamic. Going through the selection is not easy, as there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when the internal organisation of the catalogue makes no sense and the online navigation only allows keyword searches. That being said, a large part of Oliver Hoare’s collection is offered for sale and kept as a cohesive whole within the catalogue.1
    Sotheby’s holds two auctions on the 27th, in the morning with 29 Company School paintings, in the afternoon with 184 lots, including three going over the million.
    Christie’s presents a single catalogue of 207 lots on the 28th. Only one item goes over one million, and the catalogue gives the impression that the auction house has struggled to get a high-quality selection. There are still some pretty amazing and unpublished artefacts, so all is not lost.
    Finally, Chiswick closes the week on the 29th with two catalogues, a single-owner sale of 162 lots in the morning entirely dedicated to 19th and early 20th Qajar Iran, and a larger catalogue of 236 lots in the afternoon.

    All previous auction results include premium.
    You can click on any image below to get to the corresponding catalogue entry.

    Garnet set gold elements, Roseberys, lot 314, £6-800

    The commodity of Indian art

    Let’s start with the bats. Sotheby’s first auction is exclusively made of Company School paintings, coming from the collection of the New-York gallery Carlton Rochell. Prices go from £8.000-12.000 to an astonishing £300.000-400.000 for a Great Indian Fruit Bat signed Bhawani Das, produced for Sir and Lady Impey. Elijah Impey was Chief Justice of Bengal from 1774 to 1787 and settled in Calcutta with his wife Mary, where they took a particular interest in hiring local artists to depict Indian natural history. They are today the most famous patrons of “Company School” painting, reflected here in the price of Sotheby’s bat. The flying fox was already famous on the market, having most recently been sold for £458.500 at Bonhams in 2014, before that for £168.500 at Christie’s in 2008 as part of the Niall Hobhouse Collection sale.

    Company School bat, Sotheby’s lot 14, £300-400.000
    Company School bat, Christie’s lot 55, £20-30.000

    The second flying fox, presented at Christie’s for £20.000-30.000, appears a bit pale in comparison to the first one. Unsigned, it lacks the endearing realism that characterises Sotheby’s bat. As well, the catalogue only mentions one previous provenance and nothing prior to 2018.

    Company School paintings haven’t moved crowds in a few years, and estimations rarely exceed £40.000. Sotheby’s is taking a risk by presenting a catalogue exclusively composed of Company School paintings, hence the clever marketing, betting on a foreword of William Dalrymple, famous author and curator of the exhibition Forgotten Masters: Indian Painting for the East India Company, held at The Wallace Collection in 2019-2020. It will be interested to see if the announcement effect bring new buyers, but we can at least expect the Flying Fox to do well.

    Sotheby’s details the provenance of most of the paintings, which is always laudable, but was not particularly difficult in this case, the majority having been sold in the past 10 years on the London market, either in public auctions or in galleries such as Simon Ray and Francesca Galloway. Stuck in the close loop of increasing values, this leads to suspect that Sotheby’s Bat and Crimson Horned Pheasant are not collected for their artistic merits, but instead the safety their investment represents. It would be naive to think this is not the case for other, even any, high-value artefacts, but this is particularly obvious in this case.

    What is also obvious in this auction, is the unofficial agreement between Sotheby’s and Carlton Rochell. Browsing through the afternoon auction catalogue, many Indian paintings rang a bell. With reason, as they were published not long ago in Carlton Rochell’s 2020 and 2021 catalogue, for instance lots 141, 146 and 147 (as I’m finishing this article, Carlton Rochell’s website has been down for two days, and I didn’t get the chance to download the catalogues to compare with Sotheby’s any further. The site was working on the 5th October when I started writing. As we say in French, mystère et boule de gomme).

    Indian glasses?

    Moving from bats to elephants (the ones in the room), Sotheby’s presents two pairs of 19th century spectacles set with emerald and diamond lenses, each valued at £1.500-2.500.000. I am not a lapidary specialist, so my opinion is solely based on the catalogue, and let’s say I’m confused by these objects. The emeralds originate from a mine in Colombia discovered in 1560, and it is stated in the text that large quantities of emeralds were subsequently acquired by the Mughals. This seems to contradict the fact that emerald deposits can be found in Afghanistan and India. The diamonds “most probably” came from Golconda, but this is not confirmed. Aside from the stone’s origins, the main issue is that the frames are described as European. Indian stone-setting techniques are mentioned in the text, but it is specified that “they incorporate a European ‘open claw’ design”. Examples of figurative paintings showing Pince-nez glasses are also given, such as a portrait of Aurangzeb2, but these spectacles are not pince-nez. The valuation is probably justified by the stones, but the catalogue is extremely misleading, as these beautiful spectacles might very well not be Indian at all. Golconda diamonds and Colombian emeralds on a European frame raise a lot of questions, but I let the reader forms their own opinion.

    Emerald spectacles, Sotheby’s lot 213
    Diamond spectacles, Sotheby’s lot 214

    Metalwork in the Place of Honour

    The debatable spectacles are not Sotheby’s high-value lots, the first place goes to a gold and silver inlaid brass candlestick attributed to Mosul circa 1275, offered for £2-3.000.000. Previously sold in Paris in 2003 for a price I was unfortunately not able to retrieve, it was exhibited in the MET from 2017 to 2021. The inscriptions do not give any information on the production context, but the subtle iconography suggests a court commission.

    Mosul brass candlestick Sotheby’s lot 170, £2-3.000.000

    The same way, Christie’s second-biggest lot is an elegant brass ewer attributed to the Khorassan region c. 1200-1210, valued at £ 300-500.000. Bonhams presents a few early bronzes, including a horse-shaped censer. The piece had previously been presented by Christie’s in 2006 as Byzantine and sold for €20.050, but is rebranded here as Umayyad and valued at £100-120.000. The line between Byzantine and Umayyad is often so thin, deciding on one over the other becomes a marketing question. Early Islamic usually sells better than late Byzantine, but it also involves more risks. Clearly, Bonhams feels confident enough to give a 6 figures’ valuation.

    Umayyad bronze burner, Bonham’s lot 23, £100-120.000

    Not to be outdone, Roseberys and Chiswick offer a large selection of metalworks. Roseberys presents 12 lots composed of gold elements set with garnets and two similar rings, attributed to 12th century Iran and valued between £2-300 and £2-4.000 (lots 309-320). My guess would be that the gold elements come from two different ensembles, but the 10 pieces would deserve to remain together.
    From what I could see (again, navigation is really uneasy), their most expensive metal artefact is a 12th century Seljuq bronze incense burner in the shape of a bird, valued £20-30.000. It is close to another burner in the MET, though Roseberys’ is better preserved.

    My personal favourite presented at Chiswick is an engraved brass casket attributed to 12th century Sicily with later modifications, offered for £4-6.000. The complex history of the Sicily kingdom makes attributions particularly tricky, and art market professionals tend to stay away from the region, complex to brand and sell. It will then be particularly interesting to see if buyers are willing to invest.

    Qajar enamelled copper, Chiswick, lot 201, £6-800

    Historical Figures, Historical Manuscripts

    Chiswick main attraction in their afternoon auction is a group of 11 ivory figures depicting the Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his court, probably produced in Delhi in the first half of the 19th century. The central figure is identifiable, which is quite rare for this type of artefacts, but not unique in the case of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, as demonstrated by another ivory figure in the Victoria and Albert museum. The identification and the overall quality of the ensemble easily justifies the valuation at £25-30.000. To be noted that a second group of ivory figures is presented by Chiswick in the same auction, 13 anonymous palanquin bearers and attendants, valued only £6-800.

    The same way, Bonhams most valuable artefact is a gold-koftgari steel repeating flintlock from the personal armoury of Tipu Sultan, signed by Sayyid Dawud and dated 1785-86. The provenance is no less prestigious, the weapon was acquired by Major Thomas Hart of the East India Company, following the siege of Seringapatam, and kept in the family until March 2019. I would not be surprised if a museum decided to acquire this piece, while Bonhams continues to establish their authority on historical artefacts.

    Portrait of Sultan Orhan, Christie’s lot 76, £800-1.200.000

    Christie’s is betting big on historical figures this season, with their highest valued lot being six portraits of Ottoman sultans produced in Venice around 1600 for the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. The ensemble is very interesting, both for its historical value, but also for the inherent dynamism and quality of each portrait. It seems risky to put European paintings as showrunner of an Islamic art auction, but I believe these will do well.

    My favourite item of this entire Islamic Week is a Qur’an produced in Sultanate India, both signed and dated 838/1435, which is extremely rare. Offered by Christie’s for £30-50.000, the valuation doesn’t seem to fit the quality of the manuscript. That being said, Sultanate manuscripts rarely fly, so it will be interesting to see what this one will achieve. The gorgeous illuminations are characteristic of Sultanate Qur’ans, an odd mix of Egyptian and Persian influences, interpreted through then Indian lens.3

    To finish, and speaking of rare, Sotheby’s present a complete Chinese Qur’an in 30 volumes, signed and dated 1103/1691. This is a huge event, and I hope the specialists of the field will have the opportunity to rush to London to see it before it is sold. Chinese Qur’ans are almost always dismembered, juz being sold separately, while dates and signatures are art history unicorns. The manuscript is sold without provenance, which is highly problematic, and I sincerely hope Christie’s will open their archive to scholars (which they usually do).

    So much more could be said about this Islamic week, but I’ll stop there before rewriting all the catalogues. What do you think about Bonhams, Roseberys, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Chiswick selections? Please share in the comments below!

    Complete Chinese Qur’an, Sotheby’s, lot 119, £40-60.000
    1. Oliver Hoare (1945-2018) was an influential Islamic art dealer, to whom we owe the creation of the first Islamic art department at Christie’s. More info on his Wikipedia page.
    2. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, inv. I4594 fol.5.
    3. The lot essay finally quotes Pr Brac de la Perriere’s work, one of the few specialists of Sultanate India and who has been mostly ignored in previous auctions. It was about time!