Chinese treasures under hammer
A COLLECTION of Chinese antiquities will be a special offering at Bernardi Auctioneers’s art, collectables and antiques sale in Pretoria on Monday.
Included in the collection is a pair of Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) door handle relics (estimated price R3,000R6,000); a hardwood ink stand, its carved body featuring an unopened bud, leaf and trunk embellishment (R15,000R25,000); a pair of Han dynasty clay horse head relics (R6,000-R10,000 each) and a Han dynasty clay wine gourd (R6,000-R10,000).
Works by Walter Battiss will be prominent in the art section, notably a signed pen, ink and watercolour on paper, Sydney Harbour, dated April 1976 (R40,000-R60,000) and a signed oil on canvas, Figurative Landscape, (R150,000-R250,000).
Other notable works include Zakkie Eloff’s oil on board, Running Ostriches, signed with the artist’s initials and dated 1959 (R25,000-R40,000); Titta Fasciotti’s oil on canvas on board, Clouds Above a Sunlit Landscape, signed (R6,000R10,000); Robert Hodgins’s mixed media on paper, Accusation, signed and dated 1984 (R50,000-R70,000); Wopko Jensma’s gouache and charcoal, Abstract, Snakes and Ladders, signed with the artist’s initials in pencil and dated 1973 (R3,000-R6,000); Adolph Jentsch’s watercolour, Windiges Wetter in SWA, signed with the artist’s initials, dated 1945 and inscribed with the title on the reverse (R8,000-R15,000) and William Kentridge’s photo lithographic exhibition poster, Notes on a Model Opera, signed and dated 2015 (R10,000R15,000).
Of interest too are Johann Koch’s oil on canvas on board, Bushveld Landscape after the Rain, signed and dated 1971 (R6,000-R10,000); Marie Luyt’s (Netherlands) charcoal, Transporting the Wounded, signed in pencil (R6,000R10,000); Ernst Mayer’s Reid St Burghersdorp, signed, dated 1930 and inscribed with the title in pencil in the artist’s hand on the reverse (R4,000R8,000); Johannes Oldert’s oil on board, On the Way to Tokai Forest, Cape, signed and inscribed in the artist’s hand with the title on the reverse (R2,000R4,000) and Lucky Sibiya’s carved, incised and painted wood panel, Figures in Conversation, signed and dated 1987 (R20,000-R40,000).
Also attracting interest are Jacob Pierneef’s linocut, Unie Gebou Vanaf Prinshof, Pretoria, signed with the artist’s monogram in the plate, signed in pencil, dated 1925 and inscribed with the title and “impr” (R20,000-R30,000); Edward Roworth’s oil on panel, Landscape, Sun and Shadow, signed, dated 1962 and inscribed with the title on a label on the reverse (R4,000-R8,000); Cecil Skotnes’s pastel, Figures, signed, dated 1967 and inscribed with the title on a label on the reverse (R20,000R30,000) and Irma Stern’s pen and gouache The Lovers, signed and dated 1955 (R40,000-R60,000).