| | | | | | | | Document | Sale Catalog Br-1413 | |
| Auction House | Christie's -- from catalog: Mr. Christie | | Sale Location | Premises, Cavendish Square, corner of Harley St., London, England, UK | | Seller(s) | from catalog: Henry Hope, Esq: Deceased
from auctioneer's copy: [Same] | | Lugt Number | 8932 | | No. of Painting Lots | 290 | | Notes | The banker , Henry W. Hope (1735-1811) had willed his collection to his niece's husband, John Williams Hope, his successor in the Hope firm. A group of 57 paintings had been sold at Christie's on Apr.6, 1811 (Br-869), and the present sale, which contained a much larger number of paintings, followed by almost five years. A third sale was eventually held on July 3/17, 1816 (Br-1465), consisting of furniture and a small group of less important pictures. However, the only name found on the catalogues is that of the deceased owner, and the current ownerJohn Williams Hope is not mentioned. It is the present three-day sale that gives the best overview of Henry W. Hope's collection, which, in its time, was one of the most famous in England. As a result, although the collection contained numerous minor works, no more than about ten pictures failed to find buyers, and the number may have been even smaller than that. (The two copies of the auctioneer's catalogues, only one of which is annotated by Christie himself, disagree on the results for a group of the most important pictures, lots 85 to 99 on the third day. The CL I copy of the catalogue shows these lots as having been sold, whereas the one marked by Christie shows most of them bought in. Insofar as it is possible to check, the paintings were indeed sold, and Christie's annotations are therefore incorrect. It is unknown why he would have marked these lots as bought in. There was also an unusual amount of confusion surrounding this sale in regard to the names of the buyers, with Christie's own catalogues often giving two or even three conflicting names.) CL I records the sale totals £14,466.12, which would make this the most lucrative auction of the new century, surpassed only by Lord Grosvenor's private purchase of the Welbore Ellis Agar collection in 1806 for £30,000 (Br-399). There were numerous individual lots that went for large amounts, but by far the highest price was brought by the very last lot, Rubens' Christ and the Adulteress, for which Philip John Miles -- bidding through the dealer Norton -- paid £2100. This places the painting among the most expensive of the period, and the first one sold after the end of the war to equal those sold earlier in the century. (It is now in the Brussels Museum.) Other notable lots were Van Dyck's Portrait of Gaston, Duc d'Orleans, which Lord Yarmouth bought for £409.10, evidently bidding on behalf of the Prince Regent. (It was later given by George IV to the Duc d'Orléans and is now in the Musée Condé at Chantilly.) Yarmouth also bought another important lot for himself, Van Dyck's Self Portrait as Paris, which cost £378. (This is now in the Wallace Collection, London.) The Hope auction must have reinvigorated the art market at a time when it was especially deflated, and certainly the collectors of the day were generally unanimous in recognizing the event as a milestone. For decades afterwards, any picture from this collection that came onto the market did not fail to carry its provenance. (See also Geo. Redford, Art Sales, 1888, I, p.117.) (B. Fredericksen) | | Catalog Location(s) | CL I [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Auctioneer's copy, annot. on interleaved pages with all buyers and prices.
CL II [annotations used in Sales Contents; photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Auctioneer's copy, annot. on interleaved pages by James Christie II with most buyers and all prices. The last pages have been badly damaged by water.
RKDH II Annot. by the dealer John Smith with most buyers and prices.
VAL [photocopy in Provenance Index Sales Files] Annot. with a few buyers and all prices.
RKDH I Annot. in pencil with a few buyers and most prices as well as a few notes.
BMPL I Annot. with a few buyers and some prices.
BMPL II [annotations used in Sales Contents] Annot. with all prices.
PLDe Annot. in ink and pencil with all prices for the second day and most prices for the third day. It belonged to Thos. Pares and the annotations are probably his. | | Photocopies | NGL, BIB and CIL (all of VAL) | | See Also | Sale Contents | | | Art Sales Catalogues Online | | | |
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