English School, circa 1790

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Dr. Leo Catzenstein (1863-1936) Christie's South Kensington is honoured to offer for sale 45 portrait miniatures from the collection of Dr. Leo Catzenstein. Seventy further miniatures will be sold at Christie's King Street on 6 November 2001. Dr. Catzenstein, a highly regarded and successful German physician, lived in the fashionable Theaterplatz in the centre of Hanover. Nicknamed 'the little doctor' because of his height, he was not only a popular figure in early 20th Century Hanover but also a generous patron of the arts and of numerous charities. A benefactor and member of the board of the Jewish Gardening School of Ahlem near Hanover, he contributed actively to the integration of Eastern European Jews who had fled from the pogroms in their home countries. A founder member of the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover's famous fine arts club, Dr. Catzenstein started collecting art at an early age, specialising in antique furniture, porcelain and paintings. Portrait miniatures did not interest him until his wife threatened to hang the next commode he bought from the ceiling as even in their thirteen room apartment there was no free space. When he made his public début as a collector of miniatures in one of the first exhibitions of portrait miniatures ever to be held in Germany, in Berlin in 1906, Dr. Catzenstein's participation was still modest. Eight years later, his loans to the legendary Centenary exhibition of German Baroque and Rococo in Darmstadt, 1914, contained important pieces and confirmed his growing connoisseurship in the field of miniatures. Perhaps the pinnacle of his activities as a collector was the Miniatures Exhibition in Hanover organised by the Kestner-Gesellschaft in 1918, after the First World War, where his pieces compared favourably in quality and number to the miniatures lent by German Princely Houses. Dr. Catzenstein died in Hanover on 18 January 1936. His daughter Ellen Catzenstein, a gifted sculptor, had emigrated from Germany because her work had been declared "entartet". Risking her life, she returned to Hanover, retrieving her father's most prized possessions and left Germany for good with the miniatures in her suitcase. Shortly after, the Catzenstein home was emptied by the National Socialists. The miniature collection remained in the family. Now the heir has decided in the new century to offer collectors the opportunity to enjoy these miniatures whose survival is a testimony to the agitated years of modern European history and to the timeless good taste of an eclectic collector.

Details

English School, circa 1790
A young officer, facing right in scarlet coat with black facings and silver epaulette, frilled cravat, powdered hair
silver-gilt frame, the reverse with initials JD on hairwork within blue glass surround (cracked)
oval, 2¾ in. (70 mm.) high
See Front Cover Illustration

Exhibited

Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Bildnisminiaturen aus niedersächsischem Privatbesitz, 1918, no. 440 (lent by Dr. Leo Catzenstein, Hanover).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

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