Art Market Magazine - Visit zone-secure.net

32 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 25
Kashan tile from the
first quarter of the 13th
century, 25 x 39 cm.
Estimate:
€8,000/12,000.
3 June
The Orient in Paris
For its sale of Orientalist works and art from the Orient, the Paris auction house Millon & Associés is providing a choice
selection of some 200 Islamic objets d'art and a hundred-odd paintings, including two by José Cruz Herrera. These
pictures feature the Spanish artist's favourite themes: Morocco and women. Be prepared to pay €70,000/80,000 to obtain
one of these paintings. Connoisseurs will also linger over a Constantinople hammam scene by the Italian painter Amadeo
Preziosi. A pretext to show naked women (who incidentally occupy the foreground of the composition), this watercolour
drawing (€35,000/40,000) is a faithful image of the fantasy Orient popular with the artist's clientele. Preziosi lived much of
his life in Constantinople, where he died. He excelled in drawing, particularly watercolour: a technique he used to depict
delicate landscapes of the Bosphorus. However, the star of this first section is a painting by Arthur Ferraris (1846-1936),
exhibited in the Salon of 1892. Its theme is one the artist loved: the streets of Cairo (€400,000/500,000). With the section
devoted to the arts of Islam, connoisseurs will be eyeing two Iznik tiles from the Murad III period with a rich decoration of
carnations, wild roses and tulips, of the sort that made this little Anatolian town famous. The Metropolitan Museum in New
York and the Louvre in Paris each have a similar panel. The two here are estimated at €40,000/50,000. With ceramics, we
can also mention this Kashan tile dating from the first quarter of the 13th century. The Kufic inscription "Bismillah
al-rahmän al-r…" means "In the name of compassionate and merciful God…" A tile marking the beginning of a frieze,
it once decorated an ancient mosque. The expert skill evident in this piece links it with the tomb of Kumm (1206) and a
mausoleum in Mashhad (1215), cited by Oliver Watson. The workshops in Kashan, an Iranian city famous for the excellence
of its ceramics with their metallic lustre glaze, produced highly refined shaped pieces and tiles used as architectural
finishings. This know-how is attributed to the craftsmen of Fatimid Egypt who came to Iran. The tile also has a fine
pedigree, as it comes from the former collection of Hakky-Bey, an Egyptian notable close to the royal family. This collection
was dispersed successfullyin March 1906 at the Hôtel Drouot. S. P.-D.
>
HD