Strauss & co - Review 2021

Strauss & Co’s decorative arts department has a distinguished reputation for bringing exceptional single-owner collections to market. The year in review further entrenched this status. The decorative arts department has historically offered its consignments twice annually at Strauss & Co’s two live sales in Cape Town. These two live sales remained the premium venue for important single-owner collections, but in 2021 were complemented by five specialist sales. Two remarkable single-owner collections of Chinese porcelain and works of art went under the hammer at Strauss & Co’s first live sale in April. The 16 lots from the Property of a Connoisseur dated from the mid- seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. The consignment included a rare Chinese famille-verte dish featuring the Chinese deity Magu beside a cart bearing gifts of longevity, luck and happiness, which sold for R1 365 600. Many of the works in this exacting collection, including a Chinese celadon-glazed brushpot with incised motifs which sold for R398 300, were acquired from reputable English and Swiss dealers like Bernheimer Fine Arts and John Sparks. “It is both extremely unusual and extraordinarily difficult to pursue collecting with such concentrated focus,” said Vanessa Phillips, an expert in porcelain. “The quality of the individual lots in this particular consignment bears testament to a discerning eye of a patient collector.” Single-owner Collections Offer Concentrated Focus A rare Chinese famille-verte dish, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722 Sold R1 365 600 Property of a Connoiseur A Chinese celadon-glazed brushpot, bitong, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi period, 1662-1722 Sold R398 300 Property of a Connoiseur 48