Sotheby’s sets record for lost Canaletto, van de Velde war scene

Sotheby’s London held three strong sales on Wednesday attracting global buyers and setting a string of new auction records.
The top lot of the Old Master and British Paintings Evening Sale was a historic naval scene by Willem Van de Velde the Younger, “The Surrender of the Royal Prince during the Four Days’ Battle, 1st-4th June 1666”, which sold for 5.3 mln pounds ($8.3 mln / 6.6 mln euros) after nine minutes of intense competition between four bidders, finally selling to a Dutch private collector.
The sale realised a total of 32.3 mln pounds, comfortably within the pre-sale expectations of 26.7 – 40.4 mln.
A dramatic composition by Willem Van de Velde – an early war artist who 350 years ago went to great lengths to capture the heat of the action – the painting left far behind its pre-sale estimate of 1.5-2.5 mln.
In this evocative rendering of the Four Day Naval Battle against the English in 1666, the artist depicts his own father sketching in a tiny galliot beneath the stern of the English ship “The Royal Prince” as it surrenders.
Van de Velde and his father were 17th -century war artists, who put themselves at the heart of the action. The subject marked the high point of Dutch naval history and was considered so important that the precursor of the Rijksmuseum attempted to acquire the work for the nation in 1800 but was outbid. The work was bought in London by a private Dutch collector and will return to Holland.
In addition, a rare and newly-discovered drawing by Canaletto, his view of the Campo di San Giacomo di Rialto, sold in the “Old Master Drawings & Watercolours Sale” for a record 1,945,250 pounds ($3.05 mln, 2.42 mln euros). The sale achieved a combined total of 6,900,500 pounds against pre-sale estimates of 3.4 – 4.9 mln.
Headlining this evening’s sale of “Treasures, Princely Taste” – now in its third year at Sotheby’s – was a pair of gilt-bronze-mounted Sèvres porcelain vases (c. 1788-1790) which realised 1,777,250 pounds, tripling its pre-sale low estimate of 600,000. Together, the 39 lots offered in the sale realised 9,507,800 pounds (pre-sale estimate 6.8-11 mln) with 72% sold by lot and 84% sold by value.
Also on Wednesday evening at Sotheby’s London, an extraordinary 18th-century gilded elephant automaton clock sold to an Asian collector for 1.6 mln pounds ($2.5 mln).
Made for the Asian market by the celebrated English clockmaker Peter Torckler, it was previously owned by the Shah of Persia Naser al-Din (1831–96), who resolved to buy it having seen the remarkable collection of performing clocks owned by Ferdinand de Rothschild at Waddesdon Manor.
The magnificent automaton springs to life every third hour, playing music, waving its tail and trunk and flapping its ears. The clock, which has been on display in the foyer of Sotheby’s New Bond Street premises for the last month, had become a popular attraction at the auction house.
“Buyers from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East competed for beautiful works with noble heritage. In particular, a pair of Sèvres porcelain vases saw spirited bidding, realising a phenomenal 1.7 mln pounds,” said Mario Tavella, Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman, Europe.