Joos van Cleve
The Holy Family, by Joos van Cleve (1480/90-1540/41), showing Mary with the Christ child before a cloth of honour, seated on a high backed settle beside her mother, Saint Anne, who is in the act of offering the child an apple; behind her stands Saint Joachim, Mary's Father, and behind Mary is Joseph, her husband; the whole scene in a porch area within arches and with a tiled floor, in the background an extensive landscape.

Old collection labels to reverse, including two sealing wax seals;

Attributed to Joos van Cleve and studio.

Oil on wood panel,
Circa 1525

Joos van Cleve (ca. 1480/90, Cleves - 1540/41, Antwerp), was a Netherlandish painter who was active in Antwerp from 1511 to 1540. He died between November 1540 and April 1541.
He was one of twenty van Cleefs who painted in Antwerp, but whether the well-known Henry, Martin, and William (the younger) were kin of his cannot be determined. His father, William (the elder) was a member of the Antwerp Academy, which Joos also joined.
He is the father of the painter Cornelis (Sotte Cleef) van Cleve (1520-c.1569).
He is known primarily for his religious and portrait painting. Among his best known works are portraits of Francis I and Eleonora of Austria, King and Queen of France. He collaborated with Joachim Patinir on some works.
He is also known for integrating Northern and Southern modes of painting, as wells as using certain aspects of his compositions repeatedly, to please the growing art market.
This work belongs to a small group of the same subject, the Holy Family, showing Mary & the Christ child in conversation with the inlaws. Saint Anne (Mary’s mother) and Mary & child are seated on a high backed settle, with a balding Joseph looking over the settle back behind Mary, and Saint Joachim (father of Mary, husband of Anne) on the other side of the settle, seporated by a stone pier from which hangs the ‘cloth of honour’.
The work is interesting for its strong underdrawings, and the fact that they are visible, particularly in the child; these lines were part of the initial sketch for the work, and were usually subsequently painted over and not visable. Their appearance here would suggest an unfinished work, the sketch perhaps being the work of Joos, the painting that of his workshop assistants, who included his son Cornelis.
John Hand, in his work ‘Joos van Cleve’, notes two versions of this subject, with several copies (#35 Modena, & #36 Brussels). This work is neither, but has characteristics of both. The Brussels example is closest, and is “...... new and important.... it bespeaks an assimulation of certain elements of Italian painting. Particularly noticable is the imposition of a spacially coherent geometric pattern on the arrangement of figures. The Holy Family form a triangle........ the bodies .... as well as the floor tiles form a diamond shaped parallelogram....” This use of a geometric pattern, Hand notes, is apparent in Italian art (ie Raphael), but not in Netherlandish art.
Hand points out that Joos van Cleeve was important in changing the manner of depicting the Holy Family in northern art, particualry in making them appealing in a domestic setting. His clients were often wealthy merchants, and they were often intedned for display in their houses, rather than chapels. His works achieve a certain human dimension that is still appealing 500 years later.

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Francis Cotes, R.A.
Portrait of Alice Blair Gaft Johnston, shown in quarter length with a blue silk dress and golden shawl, a gold silk bow with pendant string of pearls trailing around her waist, a further golden bow on her sleeve.
Pastel on canvas, in a period 18th century carved foliate frame (probably original)
Signed & dated mid left
' FC 1751 '

Francis Cotes (1726-1770) began as a miniature painter, and soon came to be a prominent portrait painter amongst the aristocracy of England. He vied with the likes of Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-92) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) to become the most sought-after professional portrait painter of his generation. He tragically died in 1770 after drinking a toxic concoction intended to dissolve his troublesome gall stones.

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Superb quality oval French pastel of a young girl, shown facing from the chest up and semi-clad, in original frame & glass.
Inscription to original card reverse reading:
Mad’lle Cailleau fecit le 24 Xbre 1765
(Mademoiselle Cailleau made this, 24th December, 1765)

This work has proved to be the key to attributing the hand of a lady artist, previously known from a single catalogue entry in a 1926 Paris exhibition; Neil Jeffares states in his Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800 that ‘....If the oval girl is typical, there may well be other pastels by this artist languishing under attributions to “follower of Rosalba”......’
Who the sitter was, and why the Christmas Eve date, we can only speculate: a mistress commissioning a Christmas present.....?

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Important Derby guglet (water vessel) of elegant ovoid form with tall flared lip, well painted by the ‘cotton stem painter’ with a large group of exotic birds, the reverse with large scattered flower sprays.
Circa 1760

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Girl-in-a-swing (St James’s) scent bottle modelled as a seated Columbine being approached by Harlequin from around a leafy tree, he in a mask and with an open melon, she holding a bottle & raising a glass to him, a swimming swan as the stopper in the silver gilt mounts, on a grassy mound base, with flowers within a gild dentil border to the underside.
Circa 1755

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Vienna group of a gallant and lady, she dressed in a blue & yellow bodice and wide flowery skirt with bright yellow petticoat, blue shoes on her feet, he in a pink jacket and pants, his green hat under his arm, standing on a flower strewn grassy mound with tree trunk supporting the skirt, the white band with a gilt C-scroll border.
Underglaze blue shield mark,
reverse with impressed ‘ O ’
Circa 1765

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Meissen broth bowl & cover, and a plate, the bowl with c-scroll handles and an artichoke knop, superbly painted with flower specimens and insects in the Holzschnittblumen ( woodcut flowers ) manner, each with an underlying shadow, including carnations, tulips, caterpillars, butterflies, and a dragonfly.
Painted by Johann Gottfried Klinger, active as a flower painter at Meissen 1726-46.
Underglaze blue crossed swords, also impressed 20 to footrim of bowl,
Circa 1740

ref. Wark Collection #270 for a similar form, 265 for similar decoration by Klinger; also Ware-German & Austrian Porcelain fig 31 for a similar example with similar decoration, C. 1738; also Hans Syz Collection #225 for similar Klinger decoration C. 1740.
Provenance: Purchased 1947 from Herr Karl Limbach, Kunzelsau, Germany; previously from the collection of the von Racknitz family at Schloss Laibach, Dörzbach,

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Meissen ewer, in the French taste, the elegant lobed form with a female bust modelled by Johan Gottlieb Ehder, 1745, painted with large sprays of Diechblumen flowers, the bust picked out in naturalistic colours.
Crossed swords mark,
Circa 1745

ref. Arnhold Collection #265 for a similar example, with a lid, also Gillmeister collection #75, and Ware: German & Austrian Porcelain fig 33 for a lidless example in the Ware Collection. The lip is intended to have a metal mount, and it would have been coupled with a basin; decoration & form suggest an intended customer base in France. There is a Mennecy copy dating to the 1760’s. Johan Gottlieb Ehder is recorded modelling this handle in factory records.

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Meissen figure group of musical children, with a semi-clad girl & boy seated in a large yellow upholstered stool with gilt fringe & tassels, singing from an open book with musical notes and the title ‘Aria.’, with various instruments scattered around including a flute, an oboe, French horn, and a violin, the whole on a rococo scroll base.
Small crossed swords in blue to the back, also impressed 16,
attributed to Kaendler,
Circa 1755


This group belongs to a series of children in various playful poses, and would have been part of a large table decoration grouping.
ref. Adams ‘Meissen Figures’ p116 & 117 for several related Kaendler groups.

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Stunning English enamel box of large proportions, well painted with fanciful pastrol scenes of shepherds and fishermen in fantastical ruinous landscapes, with various goats, sheep and cows scattered about, swans on the water, and ruined temples including pyramids in the background, with gilt metal frames and catch.
Battersea, London
Circa 1760

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Rare life-size porcelain model of a monkey, modelled after the Kaendler Meissen macaque original, seated on a tree stump and wearing a belt, an opened pomegranate in one hand, an apple in the other.
Crossed arrows mark in blue, by Achille Bloch, Porcelain de Paris, late 19th century

The original model is attributed to the master sculptor of Meissen, J. J. Kaendler. He is recorded as creating a macaque monkey, known as ‘ Monkey taking snuff ', in the 1732 work reports of the factory archives. The figures of this period were intended to become the decorative elements of Augustus the Strong’s Japanese Palace, and four were recorded in the 1770 inventory.

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Early Woods-type pottery jug, from the model known as ‘The Coal Man’, crisply modelled as a seated toper with black tricorn hat and blue coat, a foaming jug of beer in one hand, a glass in the other, on a short plinth base, coloured in slightly translucent brown, blue,
and black glazes.
Circa 1790

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Staffordshire figure of Madame Vestris (1797-1856), the famous opera singer, dressed in her stage role as the ‘Broom Girl’, shown dressed in Dutch costume, on a square green plinth.
Circa 1826

Ex-Carver Collection
In 1826, Eliza Vestris, dressed as a Dutch Girl, had a great hit with the song 'Buy a Broom', for which Alexander Lee set new words to an old German air. At her benefit later that year, Vestris teamed up with John Liston and, dressed in similar costumes, they sang the ballad as a duet. Liston was acknowledged as one of the funniest performers of his generation, and the combination of the bizarre and nonsensical comedian with the exquisite Vestris proved irresistible. The impression that the duet made was so great that in 1826, Ingrey and Madeley found it profitable to issue this commemorative lithograph.

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Large Ming porcelain bowl, recovered from the Binh Thuan shipwreck, Vietnam, painted with reserves of flowers & buddhist symbols, the rim with flowers & foliage.
Ship wrecked Circa 1608

Around 1608, this ill-fated vessel with its valuable cargo of mostly blue and white Swatow ware from Zhangzhou was probably headed for markets in Malaysia or Indonesia, which were well-established consumers of Chinese ceramics.
An Archaeological examination and commercial recovery in 2002 brought the pieces to the surface....

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Chinese pottery Hill Censor, modeled after a bronze form with the lid as a mountain with various wild beasts roaming its peaks, the sides moulded in relief with lions head and ring handles, wave patterns, and several striding felines, standing on three zoomorphic feet modeled as ‘bears’.
Eastern Han dynasty, 25-220 AD

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Iranian buffware zoomorphic vessel, the round body with beaked spout and flared lip, a platted strap handle over the opening with an animal head terminal, with wild sheep curled horns, a further animal head to the rear of the handle, painted in iron colours with a large hatched kite pattern, with various other geometric designs to the body and spout.
Luristan ware, Baba Jan Level III period,
Circa 8th -7th century BC

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French mahogany sofa with shell carved crest rail, the upholstered sides and back with scrolling arm supports above a reeded frieze and on paw feet.
Circa 1830

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Silver mug with Renaissance style strapwork engraving, the rim & foot beaded, the handle ribbed with acanthus scroll terminals, engraved ‘ THOMAS G LIGHTFOOT - in rembrance of his - GREAT GRANDFATHER R TWENTYMAN LIGHTFOOT, Newcastle upon Tyne - 1815-1908
Hallmarked for London, 1865

Twentyman Lightfoot was a well respected surgeon of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was connected to the infamous Burke & Hare murders of the 1820’s..........

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Dutch amber glass bottle with ring handle to the long neck, well painted in oils to one side with a sophisticated scene of peasants making wine, a city in the background.
Circa 1800

ref. ‘Antique Glass Bottles’ pl 106 - 111 for several similar examples

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Early Australian Cedar carver, with elegant scrolled arms, scroll carved top rail & acanthus leaf mid rail, on turned front legs, the seat caned.
Circa 1850

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