280th Preliminary Report

280th Sale – September 13th, 2019

Artists estate Josef Steiner (1899-1977 Munich) & studio glass collection of Prof. Wolfgang & Inge Ritter, Ludwigshafen

One highlight of the 280th Sale at K&K Auctions in Heidelberg is the just recently rediscovered artists estate of the painter Josef Steiner (1899-1977). About 300 lots with graphical works and oil paintings  by the artist, a student of Karl Hofer, will be sold on September  13, 2019 , including his probably oldest etching  „Frühling (Spring)“  from 1914 and the oil painting  „Junge Schöne mit Gitarre (Young beauty with guitar)“ (reserve price: € 480.-). Besides these there are other early works from the times at the Vocational School in Munich as a student of Adolf Fleischmann and from the years at the Bavarian Art Academy where he was a student of Angelo Jank starting with nude painting. His relationship to Gertrud Steiner-Schaefer brought him to Berlin. It was in the early 20ies when he started his studies with Karl Hofer and became part of the artist community which influenced his artistic development significantly.  The water color „Schnitter und badende Frauen am See (Cutters and bathing women on the lake)“ together with the preparatory study (reserve price: € 290,-) , also his famous chicken and rooster images originate from this period. Steiner had his best times in Berlin- he was a member of  the Berlin Secession and  his works were exhibited together with George Grosz, Alexei von Jawlensky and Max Pechstein. His zenith ended with the uprise of National Socialism. During this period he produced flower paintings and plant studies of a newspaper which are also on the sale. Upon his  protest against the closure of the Secession he was arrested and he could hardly survive during the NS reign. After he came out of prison he left Berlin and went back to Munich. The etching „KZ-Leichen (concentration camp corpses)“ shows his way of commenting the horrors of the regime. The oil painting „Nackter Farbiger mit liegender Schönheit (Nude black and reclining beauty)“ (reserve price: € 380,-) is pointing to the times of the US occupation after the World War II. The fifties yielded among others collages as the „Neue Welt (New World)“ , numerous nudes, informal compositions like „Informell rot/Schwarz( informal red/black)“ (reserve price: € 890,-), also modern landscapes in late expressionist style. This sale not only offers a large range of works of all artistic phases of this painter but also  some features like a test-print of the etching  „Rassige Schönheit (classy beauty)“ with comments for coloring and a cliché for the etching  „Masse Mensch (human mass)“.

A second focal point of the sale lies on the studio glass collection Ritter that was compiled in the 1980ies and 90ies, with outstanding objects and vases by international studio glass artists like Stanislaw Borowski, Michel Bouchard, Keith Brocklehurst, Willem Heesen, Helmut Werner Hundstorfer, Ursula Huth, Jiri Karel, Ivo Lill, Charlie Meaker, Richard Craig Meitner, Miluse Roubickova, Jiri Suhanek, Yukio Ueno, Naoto Yokoyama et al.

The sale offers a large range of fine arts of the 19th and 20th centuries, for example a male portrait by Duncan Grant (estimate: € 3.500-4.000,- / reserve price: € 600,-), „Bajadere“ by Arnulf de Bouché (estimate: € 1.600-1800,- / reserve price: € 750,-), 12 bronze statues by Bruno Bruni ( estimates: 250- 2.000,-/ reserve prices: € 60- 600,-), a 18th century copy after Carlo Dolci, 1616 – 1686 Florence,  showing  St. Cecilia playing the organ (estimate: € 1.600-1.800,- / reserve price: € 590,-), a folder with drawings by Achille Granchi-Taylor (estimate: € 2.000-2.500,- / reserve price: € 250,-), „Picknick im Walde (picnic in the forest)“ by Rudolf Alfred Höger (estimate: € 1.800-2.000,- / reserve price: € 600,-), Friedrich Kallmorgen’s oil painting „Titisee“  (estimate: 1.400- 1.600,- / reserve price: € 450,-), a water color and 2 oil paintings by Fritz Köthe 1988-1999 (estimates: 900-5000,- / reserve prices:€ 350-3.500,-), the mixed media „Der skulpturale Handlungsraum ist innen (the sculptural space of action is inside)“ by Franz Ehrhard Walther (estimate: € 1.800-2.000,- / reserve price: € 450,-), the artist estate Erich Wessel with 27  works (estimate: € 1.000-1.200,- / reserve price: € 20,‑) , to mention a few.

Modern graphical works are manifold: there are numerous etchings and lithographs by Paul Wunderlich, Emil Schumacher und Horst Janssen. A must for collectors of old prints: 37  17th/ 18th century prints for the Raree-Show with views of Paris, Rome, Florence, Madrid et al. and a large number of 18th-19th century prints from the collection Massoulié, Versailles, all framed with a reserve price of € 20,-.

The desk set „Venetian“ in gilded bronze by Tiffany, NY from 1913, hardly if ever used, is a real eye-catcher!(estimate: € 2.200-2.600,- / reserve price: € 900,-). What a luxury it was in the good old days to have the travel vanity by  Bramah, London about 1860 with a jewelry compartment (estimate: € 1.000-1.200,- / reserve price: € 480,-)! Just the right place to put our jewelry highlight of the sale: a ring with a 10 carat emerald  and diamonds of approx. 2,50 carat (estimate: € 40.000-45.000,- / reserve price: € 14.000,-)! Or would you prefer a gold Patek Philippe Calatrava (estimate: € 5.000-7.000,- / reserve price: € 1.500,-)?