Masterworks Sale at Sotheby’s New York on 1 February 2013
Sotheby’s sale of Masterworks will be held in New York on 1 February 2013 as part of Old Masters Week. The exhibition will be on view beginning 25 January 2013. The auction will be highlighted by The Morgan Aldobrandini Tazza (est. $400/800,000), an important Italian Renaissance silver-gilt tazza circa 1560 – 1580, previously in the collection of Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini (1571 – 1621), one of the great collectors and patrons of late Renaissance Italy. Upon his death in 1621, his collection, including this tazza, was passed on to his sister Olimpia, wife of Giovanni Grancesco Aldobrandini, and it remained with her descendants for almost two centuries. In the 19th century this tazza was owned by important collectors including Charles Scarisbrick and Frédéric Spitzer. In 1901 it was purchased by J.P. Morgan and remained in the Morgan family until 1982. A further highlight is a Safavid carpet, Isphahan, Central Persia (est. $500/700,000), coming from the collection of Gordon P. Getty. This richly colored carpet with its spiral-vine and palmette design belongs to the group of carpets believed to have been woven in Isphahan during the Safavid dynasty (1502 – 1732).
Also included in the sale is a magnificent Renaissance Colombian Emerald-set gold jewel recovered from the shipwrecked Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha from the early 17th century (est. $150/250,000). The Atocha was commissioned by the Casa de Contractación, a Spanish government agency which attempted to regulate Spanish exploration and colonization efforts, and was named for Our Lady of Atocha, whose shrine in Madrid was regularly visited by Spanish kings. The fleet set sail for Spain with goods and passengers on September 4, 1622 in the midst of hurricane season. Both the Atocha and the Santa Margarita only sailed as far as the Florida Keys before they hit a squall and sank along the reefs. In the 1960s Mel Fisher, a diver with an interest in salvaging shipwrecks, began exploring the waters off of Florida searching for Spanish ships lost in the area. In 1985, his team uncovered the main hull of the Atocha and its hidden treasure, including silver and gold objects, bullion, scientific instruments, and hundreds of rough cut emeralds and gem-set gold jewelry. Of the items recovered from the shipwrecked galleon, this stunning jewel is one of the most important. The size and quality of the stone combined with the masterful goldsmith's work are evidence that this jewel was made for a person of noble standing in Spanish society.
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