Press Release London
For Immediate Release
London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 | Matthew Weigman | [email protected]
Leyla Daybelge | [email protected] | Mitzi Mina | [email protected]
~ SILVER-TONGUED ~
THE LANGUAGE OF
“DR. HELLER’S LEXICON”
SOTHEBY’S LONDON TO OFFER AN OPULENT
PRIVATE COLLECTION OF PRECIOUS EUROPEAN
GOLDSMITH’S WORK SPANNING FOUR CENTURIES
A parcel-gilt silver shell-form wine cup, Prague, circa 1630, 20cm long est. £60,000-90,000
Sotheby’s London will offer an unrivalled private collection of precious Central
European silver and goldsmith’s art in the single-owner sale “Dr. Heller’s Lexicon”
on 4th December 2012. Over 200 works, spanning four centuries – from the 16th to
the 20th - from the collection of the eminent radiologist and art historian, Dr. Dr.
István Heller, will be offered for sale. These exceptional pieces originate from the
most famous workshops and centres of Central Europe, including Maastricht,
Amsterdam, Nuremberg and “city of goldsmiths”, Augsburg (80 pieces), but also
from some of the rarer ancillary centres of Halberstadt, Olmutz, Riga and Rostock.
Amassed by Dr. Dr. Heller over some 50 years, this unique and scholarly collection is
estimated to realise in excess of £1.8m.
Dr. Dr. István Heller commented: “As a collector I am fascinated by the aesthetics
and history of a work of art. Both can be discovered in the goldsmith’s work in high
concentration. Beyond that, city and master marks enable a degree of research
precision, to which I am accustomed as a physician.”
Professor Dr. Ulrich Schneider, Art historian, Art Advice, continues: ”Dr. Heller's
Lexicon is not an art collection in a conventional way. It is a scientific lifetime
achievement, recorded in major publications. For the history of the goldsmith’s work
this is a great step forward.”
Cynthia Harris, Head of Decorative Arts at Sotheby’s London commented: “Dr.
Heller’s Lexicon is a unique, beguiling amalgam of the epic, Central European
imagination, and of the medical and the scientific - something to appeal both to the
hearts and to the minds of collectors. Each treasured piece - amassed over 50 years is testament to an extraordinary clarity of collecting vision.
“Dr Heller’s Lexicon” was born with his first purchase, 50 years ago in Frankfurt, of a
historicist Messkelch from Hanau – paid for in three instalments from a watchmaker.
Moving to Rotterdam, where for 30 years he was Chief Consultant at the Sint
Fransiscus Gasthius Clinic, Dr Heller began collecting in grand style, seeking advice
from the noted silver specialist, Dr Johan ter Molen. Almost 50 Dutch examples of
goldsmith’s work represent a major entry in “Dr Heller’s Lexicon”.
Highlights include a shell-shaped drinking goblet (illustrated, page one, estimated
£60,000-90,000) from the 17th century court of Rudolf II in Prague, on whose elegant
leaf stem Gábor Fürst of Siebenbürgen once rested his redoubtable thumb.
A Hungarian parcel-gilt silver
tankard, Hans (Johannes) Henssel,
Hermannstadt, dated 1605,
24.3cm high, (illustrated right) is estimated to
realise £40,000-70,000.
A large German parcel-gilt silver figural
candlestick in the form of Venus and Amor,
(illustrated above) Andreas I Wickert (Wickerd),
Augsburg, 1652-1653, 42cm high, is estimated at
£40,000-60,000.
Estimated to realise £30,000-50,000,
the sale will offer a German silver-gilt double cup,
Balduin Drentwett, Augsburg,
circa 1600, 34cm high.
A Hungarian parcel-gilt silver canister, by
Andreas Schissler, Neusohl, 1670, 16.7cm
high is estimated at £30,000-50,000.
A set of six German parcel-gilt
silver tumbler cups,
Jürgen Richels, Hamburg,
circa 1670, 7.2-5.2cm high, is also estimated
at £30,000-50,000.
A pair of Hungarian silver-gilt octagonal
dishes, Andreas Eckhardt Hermannstadt,
circa 1658, 24.1cm in diameter, are estimated
to realise £20,000-30,000.