Three Dealing Dynasties

This spring Christie's is delighted to offer for sale works of art collected by the scions of three dealing dynasties, each in business at the centre of the international art market for almost a century. With their focus on rarity, quality and provenance, each of these dealers is renowned in their respective field, celebrated for seeking out treasures and presenting beautiful works of art with new research and fresh perspective. In each case the second or third generation of their family's business, many of these works of art are items that they have lived with for many years at home. This sale includes a colourful and diverse ‘menagerie' of Chinese and Japanese animals and birds, executed in porcelain, bronze, cloisonné enamel and exquisite lacquer – exotic works of ‘Export' art from Asia which have been treasured since the 17th century across Europe and later in North America. These rare works of art from Asia were not only highly prized in themselves but were also ‘enhanced' on arrival in Europe with mounts designed to elevate their precious nature, and there are several beautiful ormolu-mounted Asian objects included in this sale, from each of the dealers represented. Furniture and works of art by some of the most celebrated French craftsmen and factories of the late 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, including André-Charles Boulle, RVLC (Lacroix), Jean-Henri Riesener, Pierre Gouthiere and Pierre-Philippe Thomire feature in this sale, alongside Savonnerie panels, porphyry vases and over twenty clocks. .