The Spitzer Collection. Two sets of works pertaining to this iconic collection. Paris: 1890-1891; 1893
No reserve
Auction Closed
January 30, 06:14 PM GMT
Estimate
1,000 - 2,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Lot includes:
La Collection Spitzer. Paris and London: Maiso🎃n Quaintin, Librairie Centrale, and MM.♑ Davis, 1890-1891
6 portfolio volumes (lacking atlas volume, as usual), folio (503 x 360 mm). Number 113 of 600 copies, titles printed in red and black, text leaves ruled in red, with approximately 342 photogravure or chromolithographed plates, some heightened with gold, numerous wood-engraved illustrations, neat c♍ontemporary pencil annotations recording prices realized; some closed marginal tears, offsetting, and browning, primarily to text leaves. Housed in original green cloth card-backed folding portfolios, covers and spines gilt-lettered; some rubbing to extremities, with🧸 some loss to ties.
[And:]
Catalogue des Objets d'Art...Collection Spitzer. Paris: 🍷Paul Chevallier and Charles Ma🍎nnheim, 1893
4 volumes (two text and two plate), folio (from 395 x 300 mm, to 585 x 415 mm). In-text illustrations, price list laid in; some foxing and browning. Uniformly bound in grey-greꦯen cloth, gilt-lettered labels to spines; extremities rubbed with some staining.
Sold as a collection of plates—not subject to return.
Sir Rowand Anderson (Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, Sir Rowand Anderson Bequest bookplates to front pastedowns of Catalogue des Objets d'Art...) — "DB♑I" (monogrammed bookplate to front pastedowns)
Frederic Spitzer was born in Vienna in 1815. Following his military career, he retuned home and purchased his first artwork: an engraving by Albrecht Dürer, which he later sold in Paris for a significant profit. In 1852, he settled in Paris and became one of Europe’s l𝔍eading art dealers, renowned for his passion for medieval and Renaissance material. Upon his death in 1890, his personal collection was one of the largest and most coveted in all of Europe.
The Spitzer collection was publicly auctioned over the course of three months in 1893. Prior to the sale, editorials in American newspapers implored institutions and private donors to join forces in order to acquire the collection en bloc for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Despite these efforts, much of the material was purchased by George Salting, an Australian-born and London-based private collector, 𓄧who bequeathed the works to the British Museum, London's National Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.