Strauss & co - 2015 Review

Strauss & Co The middle market stands its ground… The name Strauss & Co is synonymous with fine art, but there is another important facet to our business in the form of the decorative arts. This term encompasses a wide and diverse field which includes furniture, silver, ceramics, glass and jewellery and the Cape Town salerooms have sold some spectacular pieces since the company’s inception seven years ago. In October this year, far and away the most impressive result was for an 18th century Régence ormolu-mounted rosewood commode which made headline news when it sold for R2 500 960. The provenance of this commode, formerly the property of Punch and Cynthia Barlow, Vergelegen, Somerset West, added to its appeal. Up until this time Strauss & Co had held two additional auction records for furniture. The first was an 18th century coromandel buffet, resplendent with silver mounts by the well-known Cape silversmith, Johannes Casparus Lotter, which also had an illustrious provenance having belonged to Baron Joachim von Plettenberg, Governor of the Cape from 1771 to 1785, and which sold for over R1 058 300 in 2009, and the second an exotic late 18th century Anglo-Indian engraved ivory cabinet-on-stand, Vizagapatam, which sold for R2 046 240 in October 2013. The company is proud to have been entrusted with the sale of several single owner Cape collections, namely those of Dr Bothma Buitendag, Dr Johan Bolt and, this year, Robin von Holdt, of Rodwell House, St James, whose rare West Coast cedarwood and stinkwood cupboard sold for R284 200. Strauss & Co has sold 297 lots of Cape furniture since the company’s inception, realising a total of R16 000 000. From these results and others, fine South African furniture has made its mark on the market. In October 1989 Stephan Welz auctioned a Cape silver two- handled sugar bowl, marked by the unknown Cape silversmith HNS, for R8 000. He re-auctioned this sugar bowl 26 years later, in October this year, for the staggering sum of R261 460. In Stephan’s book, Art at Auction in South Africa, the art market review 1969-1995, he states: ‘The collector of silver will find it increasingly difficult to find examples of early Cape silver. Most of the finest pieces are already in the Church and State collection, or in museums. Over the past quarter century, only some twenty pieces of hollow-ware have appeared on Sotheby’s auctions and in recent years the number of pieces coming to auction has diminished considerably.’ From 2009 to 2015 Strauss & Co has sold a total of 132 lots of Cape silver, realising a total of R5 820 547 and ranging from R2 170 for a William Moore butter knife to a record R534 720 for an important presentation cup by John Townsend. Equally English, foreign and Chinese silver have seen fine returns. In 2009 the company sold a magnificent pair of George III wine coolers by the renowned English silversmith, Paul Storr, for R1 559 600. Canny collectors of silver are not only able to buy at the live auctions, but also follow the Online auctions. The rising popularity of these Online only auctions is confirmed by the successful sell-through rate for silver of over 90%. Provenance and craftsmanship both play a significant role in securing high returns for jewellery. There is an insatiable appetite for any piece with historic or romantic connotations, as was proven by the sale of a Victorian diamond brooch which belonged to Colonel Sir David Harris KCMG, VD, (1852-1942), pioneer of the South African diamond industry, a director of De Beers for forty years and a distinguished financier, soldier and politician. This brooch, which sold for R454 720, was a gift to his wife, Rosa Gabriel of Pomerania (Prussia) whom he married in 1873. From the Art Deco period a sensational diamond and emerald brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels, in its original case, realised the princely sum of R397 880 in October of this year. In line with the universal trend, Chinese furniture and porcelain have attracted much attention. In 2011 an 18th century Chinese hunghuali bench sold for R356 480. In March, Strauss & Co sold a near pair of late 18th/early 19th century Chinese copper-red-glazed bowls for an impressive R284 200. Mid-20th century Italian designer glass has provided some exciting results in the auction rooms. The dazzling colours and liquid forms have attracted the eye of connoisseurs who have been seduced by the electric quality so typical of glass from this period. In 2015 39 lots from two collectors realised a total of R1 102 362. With only two sales a year, the decorative arts have contributed significantly to our annual turnover. With a yield of R100 000 000 since opening in 2009, the decorative arts have consistently held the middle ground of the art market and continue to go from strength to strength. 97