Pick up something special

TALKABOUTS: TUNE IN TO LEARN ABOUT ANTIQUING

Something for everybody’s taste at Strauss and Co’s online auction.

With museums and galleries closed during the lockdown, Strauss and Co’s online sale of modern, post-war and contemporary art, decorative arts and wine, on until Monday, offers an inspiring journey through two centuries of art.

Like a museum with many annexes, the 500-lot sale features a handsome showcase of decorative arts and wines inspired by chenin and pinotage.

Attractions from the multi-generational showcase include trailblazers of the landscape tradition (Gwelo Goodman, JH Pierneef, WH Coetzer and JEA Volschenk) as well as post-war abstraction (Christo Coetzee, Bill Ainslie, Hannes Harrs) and modernist sculptors (Elsa Dziomba and Joseph Wolpe).

The contemporary selection includes fine examples of paintings by Johannes Phokela, Beezy Bailey and Willie Bester), printmaking by Diane Victor, Claudette Schreuders and Maja Maljevic and ceramics by Hylton Nel, Noria Mabasa and Lionel Smit.

For the auctioneer’s senior art specialist Wilhelm van Rensburg, the selection maps diverse historical themes and trends.

Other highlights include a portfolio selection, notably with works by two past winners of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award – Pippa Skotnes’ White Wagons, worth R30 000 to R50 000, and Beth Diane Armstrong’s To Skip the Last Step (R15 000 to R20 000).

Three books by artist Judith Mason, including A Dante Bestiary, worth R18 000 to R24 000, and her 1988 collaboration with poet Wilma Stockenstroem, Skoelapperheuwel, Skoelappervrou, worth R25 000 to R35 000 are testimony to SA’s strongtradition of printmaking.

Van Rensburg is particularly enthusiastic about a “maximal minimal” etching by conceptual artist Willem Boshoff (Word Woes, worth R40 000 to R60 000), and a late work by abstract-expressionist painter Bill Ainslie (Pachipamwe No 5, worth R40 000 to R60 000), whose pioneering workshop method, he says, is the subject of a forthcoming survey exhibition.

A carved serpentine sculpture by Elsa Dziomba, Head of a Man, worth R10 000 to R15 000, marks a rare sighting at auction of this major force in mid-20th century South African art.

“Her work is scarce as hen’s teeth in the secondary market,” says Van Rensburg.

Cape Town art specialist Jean le Clus-Theron is enthusiastic about the large selection of works of artists from Namibia, including Adolph Jentsch, Carl Ossman, Axel Eriksson and Fritz Krampe.

A highlight of the Krampe lots is the oil painting Masken/Masks (worth R100 000 to R200 000), from the Peter and Regina Strack Collection.

Strauss & Co established the world record for Krampe’s work at a 2018 auction.

Hugo Naude’s oil Street Scene, Utrecht Holland is worth R20 000 to R30 000) and Le Clus-Theron also singles out two paintings by Joseph Wolpe, who is better known to some as a dealer and friend of Irma Stern.

Van Rensburg points to a large print, Karoo Twilight (R30 000 to R50 000) by Basil Jones, cofounder of the Handspring Puppet Company, as one to watch.

Van Rensburg also directs collectors to Gaiety, worth R10 000 to R15 000, one of two woodcuts by Peter Clarke, and Le Clus-Theron to prints by Walter Battiss.

Amongst the selection of English and continental silver pieces is an eye-catching George IV hot-water jug, ornately moulded with Greek mythological sea-gods (1828) by Hyam Hyams of London (R15 000 to R20 000), an usual cigar-shaped George VI sugar castor by S Blanckensee and Son of Chester (1937 and worth R2 000 to R3 000) and a George V four-piece tea service (1915) by Henry Matthews of Birmingham (R8 000 to R12 000).

A Japanese milk jug dating from the Meiji period (R1500 to R2 000) is a highlight of the oriental silver.

Decorative boxes were popular in 18th-century Europe for storing jewellery and small personal items. Two are featured on the auction – one late 18th-early 19th century in tortoiseshell, finely painted with figures by a quayside, and the other a dainty French silver-and-gold example, circa 1905 (each valued at R3 000 to R4 000).

Six rare Royal Worcester Erica botanical plates are worth R4 000 to R6 000. Each was hand-painted and signed by William Hale, a renowned artist at the factory at the turn of the century, and will appeal to local botanists.

With the current ban on the purchase of tobacco, smokers will remember wistfully the rare pleasure of lighting up a cigar. Interesting 19th and 20th century smokers’ accoutrements and accessories, such as silver cigar cutters, cheroot piercers and cases put together by a collector will attract attention.

The current lockdown has also curtailed vinous pleasures. Following on Strauss and Co’s white-glove sale of Bordeaux-style wines on 10 May – held in full compliance with current legislation – the current online sale draws attention to wines inspired by chenin and pinotage.

“These varieties have a long lineage of unique expression in the Cape and have become an international calling card for South African wine,” says sommelier Higgo Jacobs, who, along with wine specialist Roland Peens of Wine Cellar, entered into a joint venture with Strauss and Co to create a fine wine auction.

Jacobs adds: “Fine wines from the best producers of both chenin and pinotage are wonderfully diverse and possess remarkable ageability, as illustrated by the lively and complex 15-year-old De Morgenzon Reserve Chenin Blanc (three-bottle magnum lot) and the elegant Lanzerac Pinotages from the late 1960s that have aged gracefully for over half a century.”

Said Peens: “We are excited to make available mature vintages of the greatest chenin blanc and pinotage South Africa has produced!

“All the big names are present: Sadie, Alheit, Raats, Ken Forrestor, Beyerskloof, Rijks and more.”

Strauss and Co will be resuming its popular Talkabouts during the sale.

Hosted every weekday at 4pm by art specialist Matthew Partridge on Zoom, the Talkabouts will run until Strauss and Co’s next hybrid auction through invaluable.com on Monday, 27 July.

Wine will occupy the Monday slot, while Tuesdays are billed as an auction master class and will feature Strauss and Co senior art specialist Ann Palmer and guests, discussing auction history.

Every Wednesday, Strauss and Co will cast a spotlight on a single museum.

Strauss and Co specialists and invited guests will discuss current auctions every Thursday and Friday. – Citizen reporter