Category Archives: David Dallas News

New Rembrandt in Oxford

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There is great excitement at my local museum, the Ashmolean in Oxford, as some of you may have read in the Guardian on Sunday 30th August. An van Camp, curator of Northern Europe Art at the museum has made a great discovery in the museum’s basement. She was concerned that a small oak panel of the head of a melancholic old man, bequeathed to the museum in 1951 as a Rembrandt, but subsequently rejected by the Rembrandt Research Project, as an old fake merited re-examination. She was quite right! She said “It is what Rembrandt does. He does these tiny head studies of old men with forlorn, melancholic, pensive looks. It is very typical of what Rembrandt does in Leiden around 1630”.

In 1630 Rembrandt shared a studio in Leiden with his childhood friend Jan Lievens and visitors to the studio said their work was interchangeable it was so similar.

Head_of_a_Bearded_Man_Rembrandt

Head of a Bearded Man Rembrandt

The painting was examined by Peter Klein, a leading dendrochronologist and he established that it was painted on a panel of Baltic oak from the same tree as the panel used by Rembrandt for his ‘Andromeda chained to the Rocks’ in the Mauritshuis Museum in the Hague and the panel used by Lievens for his ‘Portrait of Rembrandt’s Mother’ in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. Both paintings were executed around 1630, just as An van Camp had surmised about the Ashmolean panel. Rembrandt did not have pupils at this stage of his career, so it seems almost certain it is by him.

Dendrochronology has become a very exact science and works best on oak panels from Northern Europe. In Italy they painted on Poplar, Walnut and Lime and these soft woods are very hard to analyse. Dendrochronology works by taking a cross section of the growth rings of a tree. In wet years they are wide and in dry ones black and narrow. Each panel reads like a bar code and there are enough securely dated altarpieces and panel paintings that a huge database has arisen going back from the present day to almost the last ice age. This last bit did not involve altarpieces! I once had a painting by Hendrick Martensz. Sorgh, which had a remnant of bark attached. Usually panel makers cut off the soft green outer wood as it is so prone to woodworm or beetle attack. Dr Ian Tyres, who is an English Dendrochronologist could date the tree to within 6 months of its felling!

I saw the ‘Young Rembrandt’ exhibition at the Ashmolean before lockdown and it is a ‘must-see show’; it reveals so much about the prodigious talents of this young miller’s son.
It re-opened on August 10th and now runs until November 1st. I urge you to go and see it, but remember these days you have to book a timed ticket in advance, to conform with social distancing regulations.

Corona and the Art World

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It was only when humans ceased to be hunter gatherers, began to domesticate animals and settled down to live in large communities that it became worth the while of viruses to jump from animals to humans. They have certainly got the hang of it now.

With the latest virus (Covid 19) now attacking all continents bar Antartica, governments in Switzerland and France have banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people for the former and 5,000 for the latter. Many other countries will doubtless follow suit.

This is going to have an enormous impact on all businesses and life in general. The Art World has already felt the first effects. Art Basel Hong Kong has been cancelled, as has the Art Fair in Parma and Beijing’s Jingart Fair. The Design Fair in Milan, Salon de Mobile, has been pushed back from April to June and Baselworld Watch Fair, scheduled to take place in January, is now chalked in for April. Sotheby’s have switched sales from Hong Kong to New York and Bonhams have cancelled their March sales in Hong Kong altogether.

All Museums in Hong Kong and mainland China are shut, as they are in Northern Italy. With people in China being encouraged to work from home, supply chains have been severely disrupted and this will soon affect the whole world.

The major problem with Covid 19 is that for many people the symptoms are so mild they are undetectable, so these infectious people are on the loose unknowingly spreading the disease. It cannot be contained now, with one epidemiologist suggesting that between 40% and 70% of the world will have the virus by the end of the year. Who can tell what this will mean to the world economy? Nothing good, that’s for sure.

Stay well and I hope to be able to write about the Art World again soon. If you don’t hear from me, you know why…

Rafael Valls at Sotheby’s

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You may have read that Rafael Valls, the well-respected St James’s stalwart, is to offer 100 paintings form his eclectic stock at Sotheby’s in London, online, between the 1st – 8th of April. The viewing is terrestrial, but the auction is not.

This is not the first time a sole trader’s stock has come up for auction and single owner sales date back centuries. Sotheby’s has an enviable record in this regard. In October 1991 they had their first sale of the works of a living artist, when David Oxtoby consigned 100 works on paper of musicians of the 1950s to be sold in aid of Nordoff Robbins Music therapy. Next up, in September 2008, was the Damien Hirst sale, which grossed over $200m. Subsequently, most of the top London Antique Furniture dealers consigned their stock to auction, notably Hotspur, Mallet, Phillips and Harris and Pelham Galleries, but this was because their market had almost evaporated.

There are two things that set this sale apart from the above and from the Moretti Mannerlist sale of 2015 and the Otto Naumann retirement sale of 2018. The first is that this is just a small, perhaps toe-in-the-water, tranche of what Rafael Valls holds and the second is that it is online. This must appeal to a younger audience unfamiliar with Old Masters. Furthermore, as we find ourselves in a climate where gatherings are banned, viewing and auctioning a sale in cyber-space helps in maintaining motion within the art world.

Nordoff Robbins Music therapy: www.nordoff-robbins.org.uk

Fine Wine – Domaine de la Romanee-Conti

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I had intended to give an up-to-date analysis of auction results for Fine Wine, but Covid-19 put paid to that . It is an indiscriminate bug ! So, instead, I am going to share some musings on arguably the finest and purest expression of the Pinot Noir grape, which, by the way, comes in more than 1,400 different clones. La Romanee-Conti, owned by Domaine de la Romanee-Conti (always affectionately known as DRC).

When Clive Coates published his classic ‘ Cote d’Or ‘ in 1997, he warned ‘ If you can lay your hands on a case [of La Romanee-Conti] and it is a big ‘if’- you would have to pay £5,000 or more for a young vintage, double or treble for a wine in its prime.’ Recessions have come and gone, world banking crises have been overcome and Red Burgundy, in particular wines by Henri Jayer and DRC have risen inexorably in value. Why is this? Obviously this is in part due to the excellence of the wine, produced from very old vines growing on a perfect terroir, but it has a lot to do with scarcity. La Romanee-Conti is minute, 1.8 hectares, producing around 400 cases of wine a year, which means that only a few thousand people can own a bottle in any one vintage and there are strict allocations. Every bottle is numbered, so that the owners can track any that come onto the open market. Romanee-Conti is a Grand Cru and despite its size, has its own Appellation.

By 2015, when a rare case of 12 appeared at auction, it was usually estimated at £80-120,000. Odd bottles appeared more frequently, priced more modestly at £4-5,000. As you can see, there is a premium attached to untouched cases. The rise continues. Bonhams sold a case of six bottles of the 1988 vintage for £107,550 in September of last year and a case of twelve for just under £ 250,000. In the space of twenty-two years, bottles are more valuable than cases of twelve were when Clive Coates went to press. To put this in perspective, a case of Chateau Latour, from the much-vaunted 2010 vintage would make £10,000 at auction. Romanee-Conti is in a league of its own.


When I was last at DRC, five years ago, with a friend who was collecting thirteen mixed bottles from the DRC’s six world-famous holdings (his annual allocation), the owner Aubert de Villaine was in the middle of a group ‘selfie’ surrounded by young Chinese enthusiasts. Chinese involvement at the top end of the wine market has certainly added to the price rise.

So go to your cellar, the stair cupboard or wherever you keep your wine and look for the dustiest bottles. If, by some good fortune, you discover some red Burgundy you had forgotten about, take a clear photograph of the label, make a note of where the level of the wine comes to on the neck or shoulder of the bottle when upright and send it to us and we can give you a rough guide as to its value, assuming it has been stored correctly. The dramatic rise in the value of La Romanee-Conti has had a beneficial effect on many of its neighbours.

All Part of the Service!

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Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (British, 1727-1788)

 

A Day in the Life of David Dallas, Old Master Specialist

Last spring, I went to value a collection of pictures, in which there was reputedly an early portrait by Gainsborough painted in Suffolk in the 1750s.
The client believed the work to be by Gainsborough as it was a family descendant and heirloom, however they had no provenance for the work to authenticate it and had been asked by their insurer for a valuation.

Was the work worth £800 or £80,000 was the question?

So, it was arranged for me to visit the client at his home to view the works. When I saw the painting, I immediately recognised it to be by Gainsborough, it was not only by him but also in a perfect state of preservation in its original carved and giltwood frame.

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (British, 1727-1788)
Portrait of Mr Pattison, bust length wearing a brown coat and white stock

Happily, I know the current Gainsborough experts, Hugh Belsey and Sue Sloman, and arranged with the clients approval to tell Hugh of its whereabouts in time for him to photograph it and include it in his Catalogue Raisonne of the artists’ portraits.

Our client was delighted as this will enable future generations of his family to be able to confirm with authority that the work is in fact a work by Gainsborough and in the Catalogue Raisoone. This firmly establishes the painting in the current most authoritative work on the artist, adding lustre to its reputation, as an authentic Gainsborough and, therefore, enhancing its value.
This is all part of our service and at no added cost to the client.

Our team of renowned and internationally recognised specialists are available to assist you covering all areas of Art, Antiques, Silver, Jewellery, Watches, Cars, Books and Manuscripts and other valuable collectables.

We provide a personal, professional, friendly, discreet and completely confidential service providing independent Valuations for insurance, inheritance tax purposes, divorce and family division and providing independent advice on buying and selling.

The Importance of Consulting Industry Recognised Art Specialists

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Reports in the press recently about fake paintings loaned to a country house in Scotland and the London art dealer who paid £1m for a painting and proceeded to sell it on for £8m, highlight the importance of consulting recognised industry specialists when buying or considering selling. Unfortunately, these examples are only the ones in the press and not the works we see where clients have overpaid or the works are not right and we are the bearer of bad news.

This then reminds me of a very sad story that happened nearly 50 years ago, when I worked on the front counter at Christie’s, King Street.

A middle-aged man came to the desk with a large canvas of Diana and her hand maidens, wrapped up in brown paper and string. He said it was his family’s ‘Rubens’ and he wanted it valued. By pure chance, Christie’s Old Master Department had just taken on Gregory Martin, who for the previous 10 years had been curator of Flemish paintings at The National Gallery and was a Rubens expert. He examined the picture and pronounced it an old copy worth £1000-£1,500. I went back downstairs with the painting, wondering how best to break the news. He took it very badly, the blood draining from his face and slumping backwards into a chair. I bought him a cup of hot sweet tea like you do for trauma victims and he told me the story of how the painting came to be his.
His father had died a year ago and as the elder son, he was allowed first choice from the collection. The ‘Rubens’ was undoubtedly the most significant thing in the castle, and he had always loved it, so that was what he chose. His younger brother got everything else, which amounted to a little over three hundred paintings. I just prayed his brother was the accommodating type.
If only he’d taken a second opinion from a recognised specialist in the field of Old Master paintings prior to making his final choice. Please don’t make the same mistake.

In the art world there are many different genres of works and consequently experts who are authorities in their chosen field. Here are a few of our specialists who help to showcase the breadth and depth of knowledge we offer to our clients.

David Dallas,
Old Masters Specialist

David Dallas joined Christie’s in 1969, where he was the youngest person in a Technical Department (Old Masters). He subsequently became deputy head of the Picture Department at Phillips Son and Neale and ended his auctioneering career as International Director (Global Head) of Old Masters at Bonham’s in January 2015.

In between he worked for more than twenty years with Johnny Van Haeften, specialising in Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th Century. He is a specialist in British Landscape Paintings 1750-1850.

He was for many years on the Vetting Committee of the Summer and Winter Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia and Chairman of the Picture Vetting Committee at Grosvenor House Fair and has also been on the vetting committee of Masterpiece. He is a trustee of the Reading Foundation for Art, a former Chairman of The Friends of Readings Museum and Gallery and an external advisor to the Collections Committee of Eton College.

Jonathan Horwich,
Modern British Art Specialist

Jonathan Horwich began his career in the art world in 1973 with the picture dealer Thomas Agnew. In 1976 he joined the picture department of the recently opened Christie’s South Kensington, where he valued and catalogued their many multi- discipline picture sales. He was involved in all aspects of ‘CSK’s business including their innovative ‘ Roadshow’ valuation days held at locations across the UK. Jonathan became a regular auctioneer from 1984 onwards and an Associate Director in 1985.

In 1987 Jonathan was recruited to join Christie’s in King Street as Director and head of the Modern British picture department. During this time Jonathan continued as an auctioneer and gained a strong reputation for the sale of single owner Modern British Art collections, including those of Frederick Forsyth , Peter Meyer and many others and also became recognised as an expert in Modern British Art. In addition to his role in Modern British at Christie’s, Jonathan was appointed head of British and Irish Art in 1998, International Director of the 19th European picture department in 2003 and Deputy Chairman in 2006.

After 22 years at Christie’s King Street, Jonathan joined Bonhams in late 2009 as Global Director of picture departments, where he continued his involvement with Modern British auctions, while at the same time building up Bonhams worldwide picture auctions. This included setting up Impressionist and Contemporary sales and departments in London and New York. In January 2016 Jonathan was recruited to join Phillips in London as a Senior Specialist Director with a focus on Modern and Contemporary British Art a position which he held until December 2018.
Jonathan is recognised as an expert in the Modern British field and maintains close links with experts and galleries and also keeps abreast of all current market developments, trends and issues. Jonathan has a particular interest in and knowledge of the work of L.S. Lowry. As a result he has appeared on ITV’s ‘ Looking at Lowry’ and a Lowry focussed episode of the BBC’s ‘ Fake or Fortune’ .

Jonathan serves as a Council member and Steward for the Artists charity, the Artists General Benevolent Institute (AGBI) and is a member of Chelsea Arts Club.

Ben Hanley,
Contemporary Art Specialist

Ben is an established contemporary art specialist. He began his career working in the Old Master and 20th Century markets before moving into the contemporary market. He has over 20 years’ experience working in the UK and international art markets.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the Courtauld Institute of Art London, Ben has developed specialist level knowledge in Old Masters, Impressionist, Modern and Post War & Contemporary art. In addition to this Ben has extensive project management experience having curated and produced over 100 art projects spanning highly complex multi-venue festivals to smaller bespoke events. He has worked with governmental, institutional and commercial partners including the National Gallery, V&A, the Serpentine Gallery, the Courtauld Institute, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and the Russian Ministry of Culture.

Review of Old Master Sales in July 2019

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As we approach the start of a new auction season, with Old Master Sales happening in London in October, it might be interesting to reflect on how the last season ended.
The Old Master Sales followed the pattern of the last 10 years. Ever since the world’s financial markets crashed in 2009 buyers have been very choosy about what they want to take home. Masterpieces, which in this instance, means good/great paintings in excellent condition and fresh to the market thrive, whereas the more mundane paintings and anything that looks as if it has been consigned by a dealer, struggle.

Circle of Sir Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and his brother Lord Francis Villiers

The sale at Bonhams proved particularly difficult with the star lot, a set of The Four Elements attributed to Jan Brueghel the younger failing to find a buyer, which was also the fate of the Constable Oil Sketch of East Bergholt Common. Overall of the 60 lots offered, 25 were bought in, which is 42% of the sale total.

Thomas Gainsborough, R.A.
Going to Market, Early Morning

Christie’s was marginally more successful with 19 out of 50 lots in the evening sale failing to sell, which is 38%. Surprisingly, their day sale had a selling rate of 62.5% with 57 out of 152 lots being bought in. This sale was marginally more successful in percentage terms than the evening sale, which goes against the normal run of play. The most surprising lot in their day sale was a double portrait described as “Circle of van Dyck”, which made £323,250 against an estimate of £40,000-£60,000. More than one person believes in it, clearly!

Jusepe de Ribera
A Girl with a Tambourine (The Sense of Hearing)

Sotheby’s sales, which totalled £56.2m were the most successful for 5 years. The most extraordinary statistic of their evening sale was that there were more world records than bought in lots! Only 6 paintings failed to sell whereas, there were 9 world records broken, including ones for Gainsborough, whose “Going to Market, Early Morning” sold for £8.2m and Jusepe de Ribera’s “A Girl with a Tambourine” which sold for £5.9m, nearly twice the previous record.
The Sotheby’s sale is cause for optimism in the world of Old Masters, despite the current financial uncertainties.