London Auction Research Articles

Between ruin and renewal: Egon Schiele's landscapes

The Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918) is renowned for his intensely confrontational portraits, self-portraits, erotic images, and allegories. What is less well known today is that Schiele was also a talented and prolific landscape painter. These fascinating landscapes, however, are now gaining the attention of scholars and the art world. Indeed, Landscape at Krumau (1916) by Schiele recently sold at auction in London for about USD20 million. In this beautifully illustrated and engaging book, Kimberly Smith provides the first full examination of Schiele's landscapes and townscapes, offering a new approach to and insights into the artist's work and motivations. Diverging from the conventional interpretation that Schiele's paintings are revelations of the artist's psychology and emotional experience, Smith focuses instead on how his landscapes relate to the political, social, and historical conditions in early twentieth-century Austria. As Smith argues, Schiele's extraordinary landscape paintings are marked by a dialectic of resignation and renewal and convey the character of Viennese modernism itself.

The Portraits and career of Mohammed Ali, son of Kazem-Beg: Scottish missionaries and Russian orientalism

The occasion for the present article was the appearance for sale in a London auction of the portrait, apparently by the Scottish painter Sir William Allan 1782–1850), reproduced here on p1. I. It represented a young Persian gentleman in mid-nineteenth-century dress. On the back was a label in a later hand, which read:‘Muzjd [read Mirza?] Mohammed AH Bey / Professor of Oriental Languages / University of Hazan / Painted by Sir William All…’.On 26 March 1987 the present writer received an inquiry from the cataloguer, Karen Taylor, seeking help with the identification of the sitter and his place of residence. Some rapid inquiries were made at the time, from which it appeared that the university was probably that of Kazan in eastern Russia, and that the sitter may have had some connexion with a teacher of Persian known to the celebrated Russian Orientalist V. V. Bartol'd. However, records relating to Kazan then available in London were insufficient to support a definite identification. The portrait was sold as Lot no. 352 in the auction held on 4th November 1987, and was reproduced in the catalogue of the sale.Subsequent research, and inquiries in Russia, have brought forth fuller information about the sitter, a person whose career was unusual and distinguished, and who may be considered one of the founders of Oriental Studies at St. Petersburg. In spite of the time which has passed since the sale, it seems worth while to put the resulting information on record.

Manuscript and printed music at auction in London, 1991–3

Manuscript and printed music at auction in London, 1991–3

Hard Work-Where Will It Get You? Labor Management in Ur III Mesopotamia

M UCH has been reported recently about the Erlenmeyer collection of cuneiform documents sold at an auction in London in December of 1988.' By far the greatest attention before and after the Christie's auction was commanded by the group of documents in that collection containing nearly 80 texts from the archaic period Uruk III/Jemdet Nasr (ca. 3100-3000 B.c.). These were indeed the finest examples of proto-cuneiform script, both in terms of state of preservation and in terms of accounting contents, which P. Damerow, H. Nissen, and I, in our work on such texts as members of the Uruk Project, Berlin, had heretofore seen; this archive of tablets has been dealt with summarily in a publication accompanying a Berlin exhibition including the proto-cuneiform Erlenmeyer texts,2 and will be the subject of a text edition with extensive commentary to appear in due course as a volume in a new Berlin series entitled Materialien zu den friihen Schriftzeugnissen des Vorderen Orients. Less attention, on the other hand, has been given the texts in that collection from later periods. Together with the major portion of the archaic tablets, the Senate of West Berlin was able to purchase a number of these later texts, altogether 12, of which 6 can be dated to the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 B.C.). Due to their particular importance, two of these latter texts will be the subject of special treatment. The first is the large account of gurus, workmen, who were involved in the plowing, maintenance, and harvest of fields surrounding the town Umma.3 The second of these two texts, earlier with the collection number Erlenmeyer 155,4 contains a one-year account of a group of female millers from Umma. These laborers,

The Culture of Radical Basque Nationalism

The Culture of Radical Basque Nationalism

An Island gem in Derby

The following note aims to bring the attention of scholars to a very fine seal (plate XIIa) in the collection of the Derbyshire Museum Service at Kedleston Road, Derby. My thanks are due to Mr D. Sorrell, County Museums Officer, for permission to publish this piece.Following Boardman, the seal may be identified as an Island gem, probably from Melos, of the early sixth century BC. The seal was acquired in 1954 from a dealer, following its purchase at auction in London (of which no details are available), and now bears the catalogue number 833:6. It consists of a small piece of green serpentine, flecked with white, shaped to a lentoid form. 5·5 mm thick at the centre, tapering to 1·75 mm at the top and bottom, it is not perfectly round, the width being 17 mm and the height 17·5 mm. A hole is drilled across its width.

The effect of pH modification during fermentation on the quality parameters of central African black teas

AbstractAdjusting the pH of fermenting tea from the physiological value to within the range 4.5–4.8 resulted in an increase in theaflavin content, a reduction in thearubigin levels, and an increase in the organoleptic evaluation of the product. Industrial‐scale acidification of commercial leaf was practicable and the market price realised on the London auction floors for treated teas was considerably higher than that for control consignments.

Thuribles: Ancient or Modern?

During 1970 the Ashmolean Museum acquired at auction in London two Syriac-inscribed bronze censers of a now well-known but insufficiently studied type decorated with New Testament scenes in relief and with incised ornament on their plain surfaces. The following speculations about these objects are offered in admiration to Sir Max Mallowan, and as a reminder of bumpy but delightful journeys to certain ancient monasteries in the Mosul area where such objects will have been used: forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit.Several fresh examples of these censers have come to notice in recent years, so that the number known to exist in museums or private collections must now exceed 30 or even 40, while the number still in ecclesiastical possession is presumably very much greater. All of those recently acquired by museums must once have belonged to churches or monasteries of the Near East; and one may suspect that some of these communities have either recently been robbed or, more probably, have been induced to sell or succeeded in selling some of the more battered contents of their sacristies.

Estimation of the market value of Central African tea by theaflavin analysis

AbstractThe price of plain and medium quality teas sold on the London auction on two separate occasions was closely correlated to their theaflavin content. An equation including theaflavin content and the colour of the tea liquor was derived, and explained 60% of the variation in market price at any one time. A very close agreement was found between theaflavin content and a broker's valuation. It is suggested that the results justify the use of theaflavin analysis as an objective assessment of tea quality in research.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum

I am glad that in the Centenary Year of the publication of “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights” I am able to report a record attendance of visitors—no less than 53,649 came to Haworth during the year, an increase of 15,875 on the previous year and more than double the number for 1945.Several interesting gifts have been made, and your Council was able to purchase at a London Auction a Spanish Lace Veil worn by Charlotte Brontë and other items, but few genuine Brontë relics are now offered for sale and your Council must rely more than ever on the generosity of private donors into whose possession such items have passed in earlier years. Publication of the novels in foreign countries is rapidly increasing, and we have been presented with copies in Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish and Turkish.

The Penrose MS of "La Resurrection"

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Penrose MS of "La Resurrection"John M. ManlyJohn M. Manly Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 37, Number 1Aug., 1939 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/388406 Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Véronique Dominguez La mansion du théâtre médiéval, non-lieu ou forme de la méditation ?, (Jan 2020): 23–38.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.septentrion.136352

Historic Cup Sold at London Auction

Historic Cup Sold at London Auction

On laurionite and associated minerals from cornwall

The two exceedingly interesting specimens which form the subject of the present notes came under my observation in the following manner. In 1905 there was sold by public auction in London an old and very fine collection of minerals, mostly Cornish, which had been formed by John Hawkins, F.R.S. (b. 1758, d. 1841), of Trewithen, Probus, Cornwall; a gentleman well known in his day both as a scientist and traveller. The major part of the collection unfortunately left this country, having been purchased by the dealer F. Krantz of Bonn. A few lots were, however, bought by myself, and one of these contained the first specimen to be here described.