Collection F. Gross - Special-Auction 30 to 31 March 2009 Highlights

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		S09/158 BLUE AND WHITE FAIENCE PLATE Spain, circa 1700. CHF 1 500 / 2 500 EUR 990 / 1 640 Sold for CHF 18 000 buyer's premium included Please click on the image for the high resolution picture.

		S09/191 CORPUS CHRISTI Limoges, 13th century. H 25 cm. CHF 15 000 / 25 000 EUR 9 870 / 16 450 Sold for CHF 38 400 buyer's premium included Please click on the image for the high resolution picture.

		S09/245 RARE DOOR KNOCKER Renaissance, Venice, 16th century. H 28.5 cm. CHF 20 000 / 30 000 EUR 13 160 / 19 740 Sold for CHF 36 000 buyer's premium included Please click on the image for the high resolution picture.

		S09/237 VERMEIL GOBLET Nuremberg, circa 1670. With master's mark Reinhold Rühl. 17.5 cm. 120 g. CHF 2 000/ 4 000 EUR 1 320 / 2 630 Sold for CHF 33 600 buyer's premium included Please click on the image for the high resolution picture.
A life's work: the collection of Professor Franz Gross, comprising art works from the Antique to the Baroque periods, was sold in a two-day special auction at Koller. Professor Gross, the son of a zoologist and an actress, collected art with a passion from his early years until his death in 1984. Since then, and until the recent death of his wife, his collection remained intact and virtually untouched in their home near Basel. When called upon to value the collection, Koller's specialists found a veritable treasure trove of Renaissance and Baroque art – bronzes, porcelain and faïence, furniture, carpets and objets d'art, as well as drawings, engravings and paintings – assembled with exquisite taste and knowledge. The attraction of this collection worked its charms on seasoned connoisseurs as well as on relative newcomers to these fields, and the success of this sale strengthens a growing impression that the popularity of Renaissance and Baroque art is on the rise. Gross' taste in sculpture particularly pleased the bidders in this sale. A rare South German bronze statue of Bacchus that was formerly in the collection of Prince Christian August von Waldeck sold for CHF 90 000 / € 59 400 (lot 738). A very attractive Venetian Renaissance door knocker (lot 245) that sold for its high estimate at CHF 36 000 / € 23 800, and a pair of small marble Medici lions (lot 2) that sold for the same price (CHF 36 000 / € 23 800) – but for ten times their estimate – are just two more examples among many. All categories of objects sold well in this auction, but faïence regularly inspired bidding wars, for example for a large blue and white faïence plate decorated with soldiers that was originally thought to be Spanish, circa 1700, but was later considered to be possibly from southern Italy and therefore quite rare (lot 158). It sold for CHF 18 000 / € 11 880, more than ten times its estimate. A very rare chinoiserie decorated faïence plate from Nove or Naples (lot 114) was disputed up to CHF 13 200 / € 8 700. An unusual Palissy-type pilgrim's flask with a mottled glaze sold to the trade for CHF 15 000 / € 9 900 (lot 274). Other highlights of the two-day auction include a small pear-shaped Nuremberg silver covered goblet from circa 1670 (lot 237) that sold for CHF 33 600 / € 22 200, a 13th century Limoges Corpus Christi that fetched CHF 38 400 / € 25 350 (lot 191), and a series of five etchings by Canaletto depicting Dresden in circa 1750 (lots 634 - 638), that soared far above their estimates to reach CHF 91 200 / € 60 200 (estimations CHF 26 000 – 36 000 / € 17 000 – 24 000). Altogether the Gross Collection garnered CHF 2.3 million / € 1.52 million, selling 80% by lot, and doubling the low estimates in value.