| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog Br-590 | |
| Auction House | Phillips (Harry) -- from catalog: Mr. H. Phillips | | Sale Location | No.73 New Bond Street, London, England, UK | | Seller(s) | from catalog: Count de Navalle, Deceased | | Lugt Number | 7417 | | No. of Painting Lots | 51 | | Notes | This very curious sale consisted of 51 lots of old master paintings and three lots of miscellaneous furniture and small statuary. The owner is specified as the "Count de Navalle, deceased," who was presumably either French or Flemish, but his identity remains mysterious. No record of this title has been found, and no other contemporary sources refer to the collection, which leads to the suspicion that the name is in fact fictitious. Indeed, most of the collection reappeared in a sale at Phillips's on May 9, 1811 (no.929), in the possession of the French dealer James Mosenau, suggesting the possibility that the pictures belonged already in 1808 to Mosenau, who may have invented the name "Count de Navalle." However, none of the pictures can with certainty be connected with Mosenau prior to the present sale, so the possibility remains that the collection had been recently brought over from France and that Mosenau somehow bought it en bloc after this sale. The annotations in the CIL catalogue indicate that the prices were fairly high, but since most of the lots reappear as a group in 1811, it is likely that very few, if any, sold on the present occasion. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | CIL [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. in ink and pencil by J. Galpine with all prices and many notes giving the approximate dimensions. | | Photocopies | BIB, NGL and RKDH (all of CIL) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | |
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