Classic Week London Autumn 2022
Art from antiquity to the 20th century
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Event date 25 November - 15 December -
Event location London
Classic Week in London totals £29,222,910 over four live auctions and three online sales, celebrating the breadth of human creativity from antiquities to modern classics.
Leading this season was the Old Masters Evening Sale, which totalled £13,145,100 and saw the highest sell-through rate by lot at 98% for an auction of this category at Christie’s. The world tuned in on 8 December to watch the excitement live, witnessing five artist auction records. Jean-François de Troy’s The Reading Party from the collection of Lord and Lady Weinstock was the shining star of the evening, selling for £2,922,000. Other notable highlights included Sir Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, achieving £2,442,000, and Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger and Workshop, realising a record-breaking £1,122,000. Our Antiquities sale achieved a total of £3,166,506, led by a Roman marble head of an athlete that doubled its pre-sale high estimate to make £604,800. The final part of the G. Sangiorgi collection of ancient engraved gems realised a total for £400,428.
British and European Art: Part I live auction achieved a total of £5,571,300. The top lot was John William Waterhouse’s iconic Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, which sold for £966,000. Other highlights of the sale included Dame Laura Knight’s At the Edge of the Cliff, realising £441,000. Valuable Books and Manuscripts totalled £4,540,285, led by the first complete edition of the first truly modern scientific atlas by Gerard Mercator, reaching £882,000.
We saw robust performance online. Old Master Paintings and Sculpture totalled £1,185,282 with the top lot, Pieter Isaacsz.’s Venus and Cupid, reaching over 10 times its pre-sale low estimate. The Collection of Marvin L. Colker sold 94.4% by lot with a total of £720,342, headlined by a rare papyrus of Babylonian Lunar Theory which achieved £201,600. The online auction of British and European Art saw excellent prices achieved for works by Sir Alfred James Munnings, with his Study for ‘The Second Set’ making over double its pre-sale low estimate to reach £107,100.
Leading this season was the Old Masters Evening Sale, which totalled £13,145,100 and saw the highest sell-through rate by lot at 98% for an auction of this category at Christie’s. The world tuned in on 8 December to watch the excitement live, witnessing five artist auction records. Jean-François de Troy’s The Reading Party from the collection of Lord and Lady Weinstock was the shining star of the evening, selling for £2,922,000. Other notable highlights included Sir Anthony van Dyck’s portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, achieving £2,442,000, and Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger and Workshop, realising a record-breaking £1,122,000. Our Antiquities sale achieved a total of £3,166,506, led by a Roman marble head of an athlete that doubled its pre-sale high estimate to make £604,800. The final part of the G. Sangiorgi collection of ancient engraved gems realised a total for £400,428.
British and European Art: Part I live auction achieved a total of £5,571,300. The top lot was John William Waterhouse’s iconic Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May, which sold for £966,000. Other highlights of the sale included Dame Laura Knight’s At the Edge of the Cliff, realising £441,000. Valuable Books and Manuscripts totalled £4,540,285, led by the first complete edition of the first truly modern scientific atlas by Gerard Mercator, reaching £882,000.
We saw robust performance online. Old Master Paintings and Sculpture totalled £1,185,282 with the top lot, Pieter Isaacsz.’s Venus and Cupid, reaching over 10 times its pre-sale low estimate. The Collection of Marvin L. Colker sold 94.4% by lot with a total of £720,342, headlined by a rare papyrus of Babylonian Lunar Theory which achieved £201,600. The online auction of British and European Art saw excellent prices achieved for works by Sir Alfred James Munnings, with his Study for ‘The Second Set’ making over double its pre-sale low estimate to reach £107,100.
