Unveiled: Chinese Antiques Collected in 1870s by Emperor's Dentist Heads to Auction on March 8, Alongside Treasures Acquired at 1892 Sale at Borghese Palace

News provided by

Mar 04, 2015, 08:45 ET

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Imagine the grandeur of an auction held onsite at Palazzo Borghese, home to the noble and Vatican-connected Borghese clan. Take it a step further and visualize the auction offerings as being actual artworks and other family treasures from the stately Roman palace and library. Just such a thing happened in 1892, after a financial setback compelled members of the Borghese family to liquidate many of their elegant holdings.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150303/179360

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150303/179361

Myers Fine Art in St. Petersburg, Fla., will revisit the fabled 19th-century event when it auctions three paintings and 11 vellum books and manuscripts from the celebrated Borghese sale in their Sunday, March 8 auction. All 14 items can be traced directly to their American purchaser of 123 years ago, Bradford DeWolf, an ancestor of the prominent DeWolf family of Rhode Island. The consignment comes from the Estate of Dorothy DeWolf (1930-2006) of Washington, D.C.

"The Borghese items add a gilt edge and historical cachet to Myers' 560-lot European & Asian Antiques Auction," said co-owner Mary Dowd. "The Borghese auction was attended by a number of wealthy Americans who had the money to buy the incredible works of art in the sale. They were names you would know, even today," she said.

The auction also offers an extraordinary opportunity to acquire rare Chinese antiques from the Dr. J. Ward Hall collection, which originated in Shanghai in the 1870s. An American dentist whose patients included the Emperor of China, Dr. Hall "had a connoisseur's eye," said Dowd. "We believe strongly, based on the quality and remarkable workmanship, that some of his pieces may have been gifts from the Chinese Imperial Family."

In a 1913 book titled Letters Written While on a Collecting Trip in the East Indies, co-authors Thomas Barbour of Harvard University and his wife Rosamond retrospectively describe the interior of Hall's Shanghai residence as "filled to overflowing with attractive things." Among the objects mentioned are a "magnificently carved" 15ft screen from an Imperial palace, embroideries that are "simply beyond words," old china and porcelain, bronze incense burners, oil vessels, and the "piece de resistance," a 12 by 6ft heavy silk brocade embroidered with the central image of a huge dragon.

Upon Dr. Hall's death in 1908, his estate passed to his sister, Mrs. Clifford Hall Jordan, who lived in one Chicago's grand Gilded Age mansions. The Chinese collection remained in family hands through several successive generations. Myers will auction many early, very rare Chinese porcelains, furniture and fine textiles from the Hall-Jordan collection.

The auction also includes an antique chest from the estate of Countess Consuelo Crespi (1928-2010), a trendsetting American-born model and former Vogue editor who married into Italian nobility; and pieces from the estate of Countess Mara (Russian, 1915-2010), whose ancestors included members of both the Tchernycheff-Bezobrasoff and Romanov families.

Tel. 727-823-3249, e-mail [email protected]. Online: www.myersfineart.com.

SOURCE Myers Fine Art