Ceramics, art, silver on auction

● Strauss & Co’s March sale in Cape Town tomorrow includes a selection of Chinese and Japanese ceramics and works of art, and English silver and Cape furniture from two single-owner collections. The consignments from the Dr JR and Mary Strong collection and Dr Johan Bolt collection show artisanal traditions from various cultural epochs.

The Strongs, British-born and -educated medical practitioners who immigrated to Rhodesia before settling in SA in 1977, collected widely. Strauss & Co offers a selection of their Chinese ceramics, carved jade pieces and snuff bottles, as well as Japanese satsuma ware and carved netsuke, with pieces of English silver.

Chinese works from the Strong collection include a jade carving of a vase in the shape of a magnolia bloom, pictured, (estimate R20,000-R25,000) and a recumbent female dog with its pup (estimate R12,000R15,000). An intricately carved dragon carp vase (estimate R15,000-R20,000) is one of six larger Chinese jade pieces on offer. Among the 21 lots of snuff bottles is an agate piece featuring a carved duck with a lotus in its mouth (estimate R10,000-R15,000).

Strong was acquainted with London dealerships Spink and Son, Stanley Gibbons and the Fine Art Society. He also patronised Gallery Medici in Kalk Bay, founded by artist Albert Newall, from whom he acquired many of his finest pieces.

Strong was particularly fond of Japanese netsuke. Significant pieces from the 41 lots include a rare ivory miniature from the late 18th century depicting a bearded Dutchman (estimate R9,000-R12,000) and another portraying the Japanese storm gods Raiden and Futen (estimate R12,000-R15,000).

The Strong collection of English silver includes a George IV two-handled wine cooler by Benjamin Smith III dated 1825 (estimate R80,000-R100,000) and a pair of George III candlesticks made in 1762 by John Parker I and Edward Wakelin (estimate R30,000-R35,000).

Bolt started collecting Cape furniture in the early 1980s, initially focusing on yellowwood and stinkwood pieces. The collection of Cape furniture, Cape brass and copperware grew to include many rare items, among them an early 18th-century Tulbagh stinkwood chair (estimate R40,000-R60,000).

A Cape Louis XV-style stinkwood armchair from 1770 (estimate R40,000R45,000) was acquired in 1997 from the collection of Herbert Prins.

“Provenance is a key factor in attributing value to a lot,” said Vanessa Phillips, Strauss & Co’s joint managing director. “Many of the pieces in the fine Bolt collection derive from earlier important collections and are in themselves pinnacle examples of their kind.”

The quality of Bolt’s collection is widely acknowledged. Two lots — an important southwestern Cape neoclassical settee made from stinkwood and yellowwood (estimate R200,000-R300,000) and a pair of rare Queen Anne-style stinkwood side chairs from 1730-1760 (estimated R100,000R200,000) — were exhibited at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, the Netherlands, in 2002.

A fastidious collector who prizes research, Bolt is philosophical about his role. “Many of my pieces are 300 years old,” he said. “We are just the temporary custodians.”

The sale contains examples of Chinese export blue-and-white dishes dating from the 18th century.

They also include a rare early republican Chinese famille-rose bottle vase decorated with peaches (estimate R40,000R50,000).

Japanese highlights include a large lacquered, ivory and Shibayama-inlaid footed charger (estimate R50,000R60,000) and a satsuma bowl beautifully painted with a multitude of butterflies (estimate R12,000R15,000).

Noteworthy silverware pieces include an Edward VII two-handled presentation tray by Charles Stuart Harris (estimate R40,000-R60,000) and two stylish flatware services from Georg Jensen. Designed by Johan Rohde, the acorn pattern flatware service is from the 1930s (estimate R90,000-R100,000), while the earlier cactus pattern flatware service from 1930 was designed by Gundorph Albertus (estimate R80,000-R100,000).

The 400-lot sale of decorative arts has furniture pieces owned by the late artist Cynthia Villet-Gardner. These include a Gerrit Rietveld red-and-blue model 763 armchair (estimate R20,000-R30,000), a Charles and Ray Eames leather and rosewood-veneered model 670 chair and model 671 ottoman (estimate R20,000-R30,000), as well as a six-panel plywood-and-canvas folding screen (R8,000-R10,000).

Works from the Strong and Bolt collections will be on view at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town today, between 10am and 5pm. The sale will begin at 10am tomorrow at the same venue.

The auction also includes, among others, three masterpieces by Irma Stern from her golden Zanzibar period, a work by Alexis Preller, and an early work by Gerard Sekoto from his Eastwood period ... the high point of his artistic career.

The works originate from two singleowner collections, the Shill collection and the Sol Munitz collection.

For further details about the selections, visit www.straussart.co.za.