GOLDEN AGE OF COLLECTING

Christie’s presents a landmark sale of European furniture, Sèvres porcelain, Chinese works of art, clocks, sculpture and more from Dalva Brothers, a family firm that has been a fixture in New York for eight decades. “My mother always said that Dalva Brothers was collecting for collectors,” says Leon Dalva of the storied antiques dealership on the Christie’s website. “What’s so wonderful about the history of the gallery is that it reflects the history of New York as a collecting city.” For the past 80 years, Dalva Brothers has furnished connoisseur collectors, interior designers and museum curators working for such prestigious institutions as the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Versailles and the Louvre, with the finest 18th-century furniture and decorative arts on the market. This month, Christie’s pays tribute with “Dalva Brothers: Parisian Taste in New York”, a dedicated sale of more than 250 lots spanning European furniture, porcelain, clocks, sculpture, and Chinese works of art from the firm’s extensive inventory. A second sale will take place in Paris in November. “The sale encapsulates a golden age of American collecting in the 20th century,” says Christie’s specialist Victoria Tudor. “The name Dalva Brothers is synonymous with excellence in the rarefied world of French decorative arts.” Dalva Brothers was established in 1933 by Leon Dalva Sr. and his brothers, and was later taken over by Leon’s sons, David II and Leon Jr. The founder’s grandsons, David and Adam, are the third generation to work at the gallery, now located in a magnificent six-storey townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side.