Christian Gottlieb Stiehl, Very Rare Gold and Hardstone ‘Steinkabinett’, Dresden (around 1770)
The Collection of Maurice Tempelsman, Sotheby’s, New York, 24 June
Estimate: $600,000 to $800,000
Among the highlights of the collection of the Belgian American diamond magnate Maurice Tempelsman—maybe better known as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s final companion—is a gold-mounted steinkabinett box. One of only around ten recorded examples, it has not been publicly seen for more than a century and last appeared at auction in 1906.
Before Tempelsman acquired it, the box was known largely through a single black-and-white illustration. The box’s sides are inlaid in zellenmosaik, an 18th-century technique in which finely polished hardstones were set within gold borders. The lid features an inlaid floral design of roses, carnations and forget-me-nots. A concealed sliding compartment contains a handwritten booklet cataloguing each stone and its origin.
Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1734) Courtesy of Christie’s
Jan van Huysum, Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1734)
Old Masters Evening Sale, Christie’s, London, 30 June
Estimate: around £3m
Jan van Huysum was renowned for his highly detailed still lifes, which achieved exceptional prices during his lifetime. Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (1734) will be offered in Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale during Classic Week in London, alongside another of his works, Fruit and flowers in a wicker basket (1720s), also estimated in the region of £3m. The paintings have been a pair since the later 19th century, when Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild commissioned matching gilt wood frames that they retain today.
Their provenance includes prominent 18th-century Dutch collections, as well as ownership by Willem II of the Netherlands. When last offered at auction more than 20 years ago, the works set records for the artist, with Fruit and flowers in a wicker basket establishing a benchmark that still stands. This month, they are offered as separate lots.
Maynard Dixon, Train on the Desert (1941) Courtesy of Bonhams
Maynard Dixon, Train on the Desert (1941)
Diane Keaton: The Architecture of an Icon, Bonhams, New York, 8 June
Estimate: $20,000 to $40,000
Diane Keaton worked as an actor for over 50 years and starred in more than 50 films. She was also a prolific art and design collector. One of the highlights of her dedicated sale at Bonhams is Train on the Desert by the American Western artist Maynard Dixon, nicknamed “The Last Cowboy in San Francisco”.
A celebrated landscape painter of the American West and Southwest, he was married to the photographer Dorothea Lange, and later to the muralist Edith Hamlin. Keaton’s sale is the next in a string of high-profile, single-owner collections to come to sale at auction, a trend that has become a significant source of revenue for auction houses.
Several sales will offer work from Keaton’s collection of fine art, as well as home furnishings, her designer wardrobe and even personal effects like her script for the Woody Allen film, Annie Hall (1977).
William Morris, Hanging “Petroglyph” (1993) Courtesy of Phillips
William Morris, Hanging “Petroglyph” (1993)
A Life in Color: Property from the Estate of Tina Hills, Phillips, New York, 12 June
Estimate: $15,000 to $20,000
William Morris’s Hanging “Petroglyph” (1993) combines blown glass with imagery inspired by prehistoric cave paintings and rock carvings. Animal figures frolic across the flattened surface of the work, which Morris shaped to create a broader area for decoration rather than a traditional vessel form.
Morris trained under Dale Chihuly at the famed Pilchuck Glass School and later became one of America’s best-known studio glass artists. Unlike many of the medium’s artists at the time, Morris looked to ancient archaeological objects and natural imagery rather than purely decorative forms.
For his Petroglyph series, Morris worked closely with the artist Jon Ormbrek, who created detailed images using coloured glass powders arranged by hand on heated steel plates. Morris rolled molten glass over the designs before continuing to shape the piece, causing the imagery to shift and stretch as the form expanded. The work comes to auction from the collection of Tina Hills, a Miami media mogul and major museum benefactor.
