| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog N-146 | |
| Auction House | Schley (Philippus); Bosch (Jan); Spaan (Theodorus Franciscus); Vries (Jeronimo); Yver (Jan) -- from catalog: Philippus van der Schley; Jan de Bosch, Jeronimusz.; Theodorus Spaan; Jeronimo de Vries; Jan Yver | | Sale Location | Ten Huize van Carel Daniel Meerhof, Kastelein in het Oudezijds Heeren-Logement, Amsterdam, Netherlands | | Seller(s) | Bicker, Jan Bernd
Wijkerslooth van Grevenmachern, Hendricus Theodorus van
from catalog: Een Voornaam Liefhebber
from other sources: [J.B. Bikker; Wijkersloot] | | Lugt Number | 7623 | | No. of Painting Lots | 90 | | Notes | This sale was unusual for its relatively small size and the importance of the paintings included. The catalogue contained just 74 lots, and six more were added prior to the sale date. The latter are found -- but not described -- in the EBNP I and II and FLNY copies of the catalogue, all three of which must have belonged to dealers who helped organize the sale. The AA copy of the catalogue has ten additional unnumbered lots that may or may not duplicate those found in the other catalogues. We have included these lots but have preceded them with the letter "A."
The title page of the catalogue seems to indicate that everything in the sale belonged to a single "voornaam liefhebber" but the EBNP I and II and FLNY copies are annotated with letters next to each lot revealing that there were eight consigners. The EBNP I catalogue also has a list that indicates how the revenue from the sale was distributed. The consigners are designated A, B, C, E, F, G, V and Y. Only the first three submitted more than a few pictures, and they were clearly of more importance than the others. The title pages of three copies of the catalogue are inscribed with the name "Bicker" or "Bikker," indicating that the identity of the principal seller was well known. The MB catalogue is inscribed "Dr Heer Bikker," while the EBNP II copy has "J.B. Bikker," and on the RKDH copy one finds "Bicker en Wijkersloot." The first of these two names is confirmed by R. van Eijnden and A. van der Willigen (Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche Schilderkunst, III, 1820, p.439), who identify the owner as J. Bikker of Amsterdam whom they describe as being deceased at the time of the sale. They then identify some of the more important pieces in his collection, most of which can be associated with the "A" consignment. However, they also include a picture by Backhuysen (lot 2 in the sale), which belonged to a different consignment; since they apparently also did not know Bicker's full name, it is likely that their information was based primarily upon the present catalogue and may have been inaccurate. If the owner was indeed deceased, he would presumably have been Jan Bernd Bicker (1733-1774), a member of the prominent Amsterdam banking firm of Andries Pels en Soonen. Bicker married his cousin Catharina Boreel (1736-1780) in 1752, and after his death his widow remarried and moved to Geneva. It is unknown whether Bicker had a collection of paintings, but since he had been dead for more than a quarter-century, it is unlikely that he was the collector in question. If one disregards Van Eijnden and Van der Willigen's description of him as deceased, the reference could be to Bicker's nephew and namesake, Mr. Jan Bernd Bicker (1746-1812), who was also associated with the bank. The latter was a prominent politician and merchant who held many public offices between 1772 and 1796, among them chairman of the national assembly. He was the son of the merchant and banker Henrick Bicker (1722-1783) and Clara Magdalena Dedel (1727-1778). In 1778 he and his wife sat for portraits by L.B. Coclers (now in the Rijksmuseum). In 1780 he bought the monumental house at Herengracht 546 for the enormous sum of fl. 100,000. When his father died he also inherited his parents' premises at Herengracht 438. Together with his wife Catharina Six (1752-1793), he lived alternately at both addresses. He seems a more likely proprietor of the pictures in the present sale, although he still had approximately three years to live. Whatever his identification, it can be demonstrated that the paintings in the "A" consignment were those from Bicker. At least three of them can be traced to the time of their purchase in 1771 and 1777. Lot 23 by Dujardin had been acquired at the Oudermoole sale on July 25, 1771, by "Bikker," and lots 4 by G. Berckheyde and 34 by Metsu had been purchased at the Nieuhoff sale on April 14/17, 1777, by "H Bekker" or "Hy Bikker." (These annotations are found next to lots 18 and 117 in the French edition of the catalogue at RKDH. The Dutch edition has the name "JB Bikker" for lot 18 and "H Bikker" for lot 117.) This strongly implies that it was Henrick Bikker who had bought the paintings rather than his son (who would have been just 25 years old in 1771) or his brother Jan Bernd, as suggested by Van Eijnden and Van der Willigen. In this case the collection would have been inherited by the younger Jan Bernd, confirming that it was he who put the paintings up for sale on this occasion.
The second name found annotated on the title page of the RKDH catalogue, "Wijkersloot," presumably refers to a member of the family Wijkerslooth van Grevenmachern. By 1809 the families Bicker and Wijkerslooth van Grevenmachern had been acquainted with each other for over three decades, having been the owners of neighboring houses at Herengracht 438 and 436 in Amsterdam since 1777. The seller in question would then be jhr. Hendricus Theodorus (1780-1823), son of the recently deceased jhr. Cornelis Gerardus Josephus des H.R. Rijks, baron van Wijkerslooth van Grevenmachern (1749-1804). Like Bicker, the younger Van Wijkerslooth had probably inherited the paintings upon the death of his parents. His mother, Geertruida Maria Roest (1753-1807), had died just two years earlier. Wijkerslooth moved into the parental premises at Herengracht 436 in 1808. He also held public offices, including membership in the Amsterdam city council from 1808 until 1823. Both Bicker and Wijkerslooth were in close contact with several prominent Amsterdam collectors, some of whom were their neighbors in the Herengracht, such as Everhard de Burlett (1731-1806) at 442 and Lucretia Johanna van Winter (1785-1845) at 440. It is probable, but not demonstrable, that the Wijkerslooth paintings constituted the "B" consignment. This group contained works of greater importance than the "C" group; since the letters were evidently chosen without any relevance to the spelling of the name, it is likely that it would immediately follow the Bicker (A) consignment. We have, therefore, tentatively linked them. The other consigners remain unidentified with the exception of "Y," who was almost certainly the dealer Jan Yver, one of the organizers of the sale. The consignments designated E, G and V contained just two paintings each, and the "F" consignment consisted of just one, although some of these brought quite good prices and were clearly selected because of their value.
Taken as a whole, the sale included numerous works of importance, many of which were sold for record prices, although in many cases the same paintings were later unable to attain the levels established at the present sale and were sold for lesser amounts. Like the Pot sale from the year before, the results were no doubt stimulated in part by the participation of the king, Louis Bonaparte, on whose behalf Jan Yver was bidding. He acquired seven paintings that later passed to the Rijksmuseum. One of these, lot 3 by Berchem called The Cattle Ferry that belonged to Bicker, brought the highest amount at the sale, fl. 3040. The other six pictures were all much less expensive, but the total spent for the national collection on this occasion came to fl. 4375. A similarly high price, fl. 3000, was paid by another collector, D. Teengs, for lot 23, A Mountainous Landscape with a Waterfall and Seven Pigs by Dujardin that also belonged to Bicker. When Teengs's collection was sold just two years later the price dropped to fl. 2250. (It's present location is unknown.) Among other pictures from the Bicker collection that can be identified are The Music Lesson by Frans van Mieris which was bought for fl. 1625 by T. Spaan acting for the Amsterdam collector Pieter de Smeth van Alphen (and which fell to fl. 1320 when resold in 1810; it was last recorded ca.1928 in the collection of Anton Jurgens, Nijmegen), The Marriage at Cana by Jan Steen (now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), and The Quack Doctor by Adriaen van Ostade (Rijksmuseum). Among the paintings from the "B" (Van Wijkerslooth) consignment were Dujardin's The Riding School (National Gallery of Ireland) and Pieter de Hooch's Interior with a Couple with a Parrot Cage (Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne). The EBNP I copy of the catalogue records the total for the sale as fl. 18,412:5 with just fl. 1080 (three lots) bought in. (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | EBNP I [annotations used in Sales Contents] Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages as well as letters for the sellers.
EBNP II Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages as well as letters for the sellers.
FLNY Auctioneer's copy, annot. with all buyers and prices on interleaved pages as well as letters for the sellers.
AA Annot. with all buyers and prices as well as some additional lots.
MB Annot. with all buyers and prices.
BG Annot. with most buyers and all prices.
RKDH [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. in pencil with all prices.
BMB Present location unknown. According to Lugt it is annot. with prices.
BRB Not annot.
MR Missing for many years and presumably lost. According to Lugt it is not annot. | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | Digitized Catalog - Frick | | | |
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