400-lot collection includes Asian treasures retained by same family for 100+ years

PALMETTO, Fla. – Only rarely does a collection come to the auction marketplace that can match for quality and provenance the one Manatee Galleries is offering on July 27th. The Ambassador Ragnar Petri and Mrs. Ingrid Burdin Petri collection of European and Asian fine and decorative art is a testament to the connoisseurship of two world travelers driven by a passion for beauty and cultural history.

Chinese Guangxu blue and white dish, 7¼in dia., with underglaze blue six-character mark and of the period (1875-1908), featuring curled dragon and flaming pearl amongst thunderbolts. Est. $2,000-$3,000. Manatee Galleries image.

“Ambassador and Mrs. Petri are both originally from Sweden and now retired in Florida. Ragnar Petri served as Swedish ambassador and consulate to many nations, including Japan, Ecuador, Germany, Spain and Colombia,” explained Adrienne Falconer, president of Manatee Galleries. “Ingrid Petri was born into a family of collectors. Her father was Gylfe Burdin, a prosperous Stockholm businessman and art aficionado who acquired only the finest antique Asian porcelain, which Ingrid eventually inherited.”

Over a period of 65 years, the Petris have formed an exceptional collection that blends the Gylfe Burdin collection with antiques judiciously purchased during their years of diplomatic travels. The collection has remained solely in the Petris’ hands, and they have never before offered it for sale. Everything in the July 27 auction is fresh to the market, and most of the Chinese pieces – which have provenance from the Burdin collection – have been kept within the same family by direct descent for over a century.

Manatee Galleries has opted to place conservative estimates on all pieces. The Petris’ favorite Chinese work is a rare Chongzheng (1628-1643) transitional “Wucai boys” covered jar. The 11½-inch vessel is richly painted with a depiction of genteel ladies seated in a garden, watching boisterous young boys at play. A similar jar sold for HK$275,000 at Christie’s May 2012 sale in Hong Kong. It is entered in Manatee’s sale with a $3,000-$5,000 estimate.

An important famille verte covered jar, 18th/19th century, has a Chinese signature on the side of the jar and an underglaze blue double-circle mark, possibly of the Kangxi Period 1662-1722). Its motif depicts a robed dignitary holding a bolt of silk, followed by a servant with a large hand fan. Standing 8 inches tall, it is expected to make $1,000-$5,000.

Chinese Chongzheng (1628-1643) transitional “Wucai boys” covered jar, 11½in, similar to an example that sold for HK$275,000 at Christie’s May 2012 sale in Hong Kong. Est. $3,000-$5,000. Manatee Galleries image.

Another famille verte highlight is the brightly enameled 17th-century Kangxi Period Chinese plate, 9¼ inches (dia.), with an image of two elegant ladies in a verdant pavilion garden. The wonderfully decorative border features four cartouches with colorful winged insects. A similar example sold for $17,276 at Christie’s South Kensington’s Sept. 19, 2012 Interiors sale. The plate from the Petri collection carries a $2,000-$5,000 estimate.

Manatee Galleries’ catalog describes a rare and important 17th-century Chinese verte covered box as having “the finest-quality painting [we] have seen on a piece that is well over 300 years old.” Its lid is vibrantly filled with the image of two boys – possibly twins – bound together at the waist but running in opposite directions. The 4.1-inch diameter box retains a 1950s label from the Amsterdam gallery “Kunstzalen A. Vecht” and is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.

An eye-filling early 17th-century Ming Zhangzhou (Swatow) polychrome basin has steep flaring sides and is generously decorated in iron-red, green, turquoise and black enamels. Its central image is of a bird in full flight amongst peony blooms, and the medallions at each quarter turn bear Chinese marks. On verso, there are old collectors’ labels and a six-character Chinese mark. With no chips, cracks or repairs, the 15½in-diameter basin is entered in the sale with a $1,000-$5,000 estimate.

Yet another premier lot is a Chinese Guangxu blue and white dish with underglaze blue six-character mark, and of the period 1875-1908, featuring a central motif of a curled dragon and flaming pearl amongst thunderbolts. The 7¼-inch dish is estimated at $2,000-$3,000.

A showcase for Chinese artistry at its most appealing, an antique huanghuali wood screen is embellished with jade and hardstone on its panels, each with a lively scene of activities within an imperial or noble court. The multicolored screen measures 72 inches by 72 inches and is estimated at $4,000-$5,000.

Of the Asian scrolls to be auctioned, the most significant is a signed Kanou Motonobu (Japanese, 1476-1559) metallic scroll painting that measures 49 inches long by 19½ inches wide. Centered with an ethereal depiction of three horses standing in water – one of them leaning down to drink – the painting is of particular importance because it was created by the eldest son of Kano Motonobu, founder of the famous Japanese school of painting.

“The Kano family is one of the most important lineages in Japanese history,” said Adrienne Falconer. “They dominated the painting world from the end of the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) to the end of the Edo Period (1600-1868).”

The Motonobu Kanou scroll painting exhibits a technique known as wa-kan, a hybrid of Japanese and Chinese painting that requires careful brushwork techniques. The scroll is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.

The Petri collection also includes an outstanding selection of English Staffordshire, silhouettes and miniature paintings; and even some mid-century modern design. The star of the European antiques section, however, is a 19th-century “blue john,” white marble and slate urn on pedestal that has been electrified to function as a lamp. Blue john, which was discovered by the Ancient Romans nearly 2,000 years ago, is a rare natural variety of calcium fluorite known as “radix amethysti” for its distinctively colored deep purple veins. The only known deposit of this unusual mineral – also known as Derbyshire spar – was found in the hills of Derbyshire’s Hope Valley in England. Highly prized blue john was a favorite mineral of Birmingham silversmith and ormolu manufacturer Matthew Boulton, who used it in the production of candelabra, urns, candlesticks and other decorative and functional pieces.

The blue john mines and seams are now largely exhausted, making the urn/lamp in the Petri collection all the more valuable. Its auction estimate is $3,000-$5,000.

Manatee Galleries’ auction of the Ambassador Ragnar Petri and Mrs. Ingrid Burdin Petri collection will take place on July 27, 2013, starting at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Preview July 24-26 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., on July 27 (auction day) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. The gallery is located at 1007 10th Avenue West in Palmetto, Florida 34221. All forms of bidding will be available, including absentee, phone and live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com, Artfact.com and the-saleroom.com. The online catalog may be viewed online at any of these three websites.

For additional information on any item in the auction, to leave an absentee bid or to book a phone line, call 941-722-4800 or email info@manateegalleries.com. Visit Manatee Galleries online at www.manateegalleries.com.

Since the 5 of January 2009, Wedgwood, Waterford and Royal Doulton has been sold K P S Capital Partners had purchased The English Manufacture works. Except for special orders and smaller ware in Jasper ware, Wedgwood jasper ware is NO LONGER produced in any volume .

Most ware are now manufactured outside of the UK by other locations  in the Foreign  Companies owned by the WWD ( Waterford-Wedgwood-Royal Daulton ) producing other wares and not the noted Jasper ware .

The more outstanding items, Larger Plaques, Portland Vases, tricolor works are still produced in the United Kingdom.  The sweet dishes, small plates, small vases that we see by the thousands are what has flooded the market and still can be found in the secondary auctions. These you find in so many auctions houses, on-line Auctions by the hundreds.

Special and outstanding ones can still be found on the Better Auction Houses and by dedicated Smaller Antique dealers.  The older vintage works can be purchased for far less than the new ones produced and available from the Wedgwood site in the United Kingdom.

“What a Shame, that the “Father of British Pottery” was a victim of the global financial crisis.”

Josiah Wedgwood (July 12, 1730 – January 3, 1795, born Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent) was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. He was a member of the Darwin — Wedgwood family, most famously including his grandson, Charles Darwin.

Born the thirteenth and youngest child of Thomas Wedgwood III and Mary Wedgwood (born Stringer; d. 1766), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters. He survived a childhood bout of smallpox to serve as an apprentice potter under his eldest brother Thomas Wedgwood IV. Smallpox left Josiah with a permanently weakened knee, which made him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter’s wheel. As a result, he concentrated from an early age on designing pottery rather than making it.

In his early twenties, Wedgwood began working with the most renowned English pottery-maker of his day, T. Whieldon. There he began experimenting with a wide variety of pottery techniques, an experimentation that coincided with the burgeoning early industrial city of Manchester, which was nearby. Inspired, Wedgwood leased the Ivy Works in his home town of Burslem and set to work. Over the course of the next decade, his experimentation (and a considerable injection of capital from his marriage to a richly endowed distant cousin, Sarah Wedgwood) transformed the sleepy artisan works into the first true pottery factory.

To better appreciate the beauty and hand craftsmanship of these works please visit the two sites here;

Part 1-    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy87Gd7kQpE

Part 2-    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9E_BJgc3kM

Vintage works in Jasper Ware from the Wedgwood Manufacture can be seen at;

http://stores.ebay.com/Candlewood-Yankee-Fine-Arts/_i.html?rt=nc&_nkw=wedgwood&_sid=645563163&_sticky=1&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14&_sop=3&_sc=1

James Stow & Anthony Yau

Candlewood-Yankee Fine Arts

What are Putti … Putti in art are plump male children, usually nude and winged that one often sees in Renaissance, Mannerist, Baroque and Rococo art. These come to mind with the works of Franz Anton Bustelli and were most likely originally created to decorate the table in the “Stone Hall” at Schloss Nymphenburgi. The hall’s ceiling painting shows the nymph Flora surrounded by important gods as befit her standing, e.g. Mercury, Jupiter and Juno. Bustelli’s children, clothed as Ovidian gods, may be regarded as allegoric.

Franz Anton Bustelli (April 12, 1723 – April 18, 1763) was a Swiss-born German modeller for the Bavarian Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory from 1754 to his death in 1763. He is widely regarded as the finest modeller of porcelain in the Rococo style: “if the art of European porcelain finds its most perfect expression in the rococo style, so the style finds its most perfect expression in the work of Bustelli.”

From 1754 to today these little Putti or Cherubs, are still produced on the designs of Anton Bustelli in white or referred to as Blanc de Chine (French for “White from China”) is the traditional European term for a type of white Chinese porcelain and hand colored.

These are to be found on the secondary market … These are retailing new at the $800-1,000.00 for the uncolored works and up to $3,000.00 an up for the colored works. With patience and a level head you can acquire some beautiful works of Nymphenburg Porcelains.  These are in fact more rare than Meissen and are quite beautiful.

Works of these (both Blance de Chine & Colored works) can be seen at;

http://www.antiques.com/classified_items.php?SeArChItEmS=Nymphenburg&img.x=12&img.y=14

James Stowe

House of Stowe Galleries

For more information on Nymphenburg Porcelains, check out their website:

http://www.nymphenburg.com/en/nymphenburg/