Reaching a stage

On March 7th, an exceptional collection of 28 Victorian wrought-iron horse-drawn carriages will be auctioned off for an estimated $2.26 million (£1.5 million). The pristine lot includes an 1835 Traveling Landauer wagon (IMAGE ABOVE, MORE HERE) that was commissioned by the Royal Mews and used to carry King William IV on his royal duties. The man who owned the coaches has reached an age where he can no longer enjoy them – which includes putting them to use. Rob Hubbard of London auctioneers Bonhams explains, "The owner is a Dutch collector but a lot of the carriages he has were made by English coachbuilders. He has spent over 30 years collecting but he is now aged in his 80s and he no longer has any horses left and has decided now to pass it on to somebody else."

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Cromwellian relic

Before British former Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell suffered the posthumous punishment of being disinterred; hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tibburn; and having his head placed on a spike above Westminster Hall in 1661, he had been buried with dignity. Escutcheons were used and an effigy – complete with an orb, sceptre, and crown – lay in state at Somerset House. And if you are prepared to bid upwards of $16,000 (£10,000), you can own the engraved black brass plate that was placed on his chest.

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Napoleon's hat

In the 1801 painting "Napoleon Crossing the Alps” (IMAGE HERE), Jacques Louis David depicts the French emperor in his trademark bicorn hat. He actually wore the 2-cornered, black felt hat sideways so that he could be recognized on the battlefield. Alexandre Giquello of the Osenat auction house in Fontainebleau, France, says of Napoleon, "He understood at that time that the symbol was powerful. On the battlefields, his enemies called him ‘The Bat’ because he has that silhouette with this hat.” During his 15-year reign, Napoleon reportedly went through about 120 hats, 19 of which of are still extant. One of these (PICTURED ABOVE), in the possession of Prince Albert II of Monaco, just sold at auction to an unnamed South Korean collector for $2.4 million (£1.5 million).

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Jewel

"It's rare that a car with connections to some of the most important figures in history is offered on the market," says managing director Nick Whale of Silverstone Auctions. He is talking about the state limousine used by former Argentine President Juan Domingo Perón and his wife, affectionately known by the public as Evita. The 1951 Cadillac (CURRENT AND hISTORICAL PHOTOS HERE) will be sold at auction in London in September and is expected to go for £200,000-£260,000 ($340,000-$407,000). The car has been on long-term loan to the Museo Evita in Buenos Aires, the staff of which are trying to determine which of the first lady's dresses a jewel fell from. The gem was discovered in the limousine (INTERIOR PHOTO ABOVE AND HERE) and will be included in the sale of the car.

 

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Strings and rings

We have just bought you "the most fabulous violin in the world," wired the parents of American heiress Huguette Clark, when she was a teenager in New York and they were visiting Paris in 1920. They brought home a Stradivarius violin – a Kreutzer Stradivari, named for its first-known owner, French violinist and teacher Rodolphe Kreutzer – and presumably she got some use and enjoyment out of it. Huguette died a recluse in 2011 and the instrument was found in the closet of one of her homes. It is now up for auction by Christie's and expected to fetch between $7.5 million and $10 million. Musical instruments specialist for the auction house Kerry Keane holds the violin and explains, "We did a dendrochronology of it. It matches four Stradivaris from 1730 to 1734 made from the same tree. That is a great find. It's like a fingerprint."

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Poveglia

If you have money to spare and are in the market for your own private island, you may wish to consider Poveglia. The 17-acre island in Italy's Venice lagoon will be auctioned off, complete with its abandoned buildings (IMAGE ABOVE, MORE PHOTOS HERE). The high bidder will own a piece of history. In the 18th c., the island was used as a quarantine station for passengers on plague-riddèn ships. In the mid-20th c., the mentally ill were hospitalized there and questionable experiments were performed on them. Buyer beware. Despite the lovely view of St. Mark's Square, the property is billed as one of the most haunted places in the world.

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Van Gogh in the vernacular

In a letter he wrote in 1888, Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) mentioned he had been to Montmajour, in Provence, France, more than 50 times to admire the view. That same year, he painted the landscape at dusk: hilly, with forests, wheat fields, and the ruins of a Benedictine abbey. The painting was owned by his brother until Theo's widow sold it to a Paris art dealer in 1901. It was purchased by a Norwegian collector in 1908, but shortly thereafter was deemed a fake. It lived in the collector's attic until he died in 1970. The current anonymous owners have just met with success on their second attempt to authenticate the painting. They have not indicated whether they intend to keep it or to auction it, though it is of course worth tens of millions of dollars. In the opinion of art historian Fred Leeman, former chief curator of the Van Gogh Museum, “Sunset at Montmajour" (IMAGE ABOVE) contributes to an alternative understanding of the artist. “We have the impression of van Gogh as a very modern painter, but here he’s working in the tradition of 19th-century landscape painting."

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Hambleton gets hammered

I feel a great affinity for people who have special collections,* having had one myself, though I have since sadly had to disassemble most of my Cabinet. The image above shows the spectacular collection of meteorites that Robert Elliott has amassed since 1996. Many of them he found himself with the use of a metal detector, including the Hambleton meteorite, a 38.8lb (17.6 kg) rusty metallic rock he identified on a walk with his wife in North Yorkshire, U.K., in 2005. Considered his greatest discovery, the Hambleton meteorite is a pallasite, a rare type described as "fruitcake," because it is run through with semi-precious gemstones, in this case peridot crystals (IMAGE HERE). Elliott has parted with pieces of his collection by selling them to celebrities and other collectors and by trading them to Britain's Natural History museum. He has sold dozens of his specimens, including pieces of the Hamilton meteorite, at auctions in 2009 and 2011. A third auction is being held in Edinburgh today and a 6.4lb (2.9kg) slice of the Hambleton rock is expected to fetch £7,000-10,000. But Elliot is not in it for the money. "Catch a falling star — that's what I do. There's a bit of romance there. These things are falling stars. They are so old — they saw the planets forming, they have seen comets and they have suffered extremes of temperature."

 

*Thanks to Wendy Muir for this link!

 

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