The Epoch Times has written a fine survey of the new exhibition “Tradition & Opulence.”
For the arts and culture enthusiast, one activity to celebrate as America slowly reopens could be a visit to the Museum of Russian Icons (MoRI) in Clinton, Massachusetts, to see “Tradition & Opulence: Easter in Imperial Russia.” The exhibition has been extended through Aug. 7.
For the full article, click here.
I am very pleased to announce the upcoming publication of my new book, co-authored with my colleague Helen Azar, “Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, Diaries and Letters 1916-1918” is coming on July 1, 2020 from peer-reviewed Academica Press and it’s publisher Paul du Quenoy. Many thanks to all there!
The book can be preordered on Amazon at full hardcover price HERE
For a SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE for both Hard- and Soft-cover editions, please go HERE
PRESS RELEASE:
In Michael Romanov: Brother of the Last Tsar, translator Helen Azar and Romanov historian Nicholas B. A. Nicholson present for the first time in English the annotated 1916-1918 diaries and letters of Russia’s Grand Duke Michael, from the murder of the Siberian mystic Grigorii Rasputin through the Revolution of 1917, which dethroned the Romanov dynasty after Michael briefly found himself named Emperor when his brother Nicholas II abdicated. Michael’s diaries provide rare insight into the fall of the Empire, the rise and fall of the Provisional Government and brief Russian republic, and the terrifying days of the February and October Revolutions after which Michael found himself a prisoner who would meet his end in the Siberian city of Perm.
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (1878-1918) was born the youngest son of Tsar Alexander III, but with the death of his brother Grand Duke George in 1899, Michael was thrust into the spotlight and the role of “Heir-Tsesarevich” to Emperor Nicholas II, then the father of three girls. Even after the birth of an heir in 1904, Michael found himself pushed closer to the throne with each of the boy’s bouts of hemophilia. By 1916 during World War I, Nicholas and Alexandra found themselves deeply unpopular not only in political circles but also with other members of the House of Romanov, who felt that the parlous times required drastic change. Michael found himself at the center of these events.
Azar’s translation is uniquely faithful to the original text and gives readers the feeling of the immediacy and haste in Michael’s original observations of these tumultuous times. Nicholson’s annotations provide important biographical and historical background, while quoting dozens of other rare primary sources published here for the first time in English.
Market:
Political Science, Eurasian Studies, Twentieth Century, History, Russia, Russian History, Imperial Russia, Russian Revolution, Romanov Dynasty, Michael Romanov, Nicholas II, Soviet Union, Communism
Release Date:
June 1, 2020
Copyright:
2020
ISBN:
978-1680539455 Hardcover
Price:
$99.95
Trim Size:
6x9
Pages:
160
Illustrations:
B/W
Publisher:
ACADEMICA PRESS
1727 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 507
Washington, DC 20036
academicapress.editorial@gmail.com
For more information:
Click HERE for more information and to register!
Nicholson Advisory is honored to announce the upcoming exhibition "Tradition & Opulence: Easter in Imperial Russia" to open on April 7th, 2020 at the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Mass. The show gathers an unprecedented selection of material culture related to Russian Easter celebrations, including icons and works by Fabergé, Ovchinnikov, Grachev, Denisov-Uralsky, the Russian Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, Kuznetsov, and Gardner, as well as ephemera and graphic works ion the Easter theme.
Nick Nicholson will be co-curating the exhibition with Dr. Karen Kettering and Dmitry Gurevich. The show runs through August 7, 2020.
A Collection of Dodie Thayer “Lettuceware” at the Sotheby’s “Prince of Interiors” sale.
I was very happy to speak with Eileen Kinsella at Artnet about the recent Sotheby’s sale of the collection of interior designer Mario Buatta.
She asked if I thought the sale indicated a change in trend — I noted that the sale is evidence of a complete rejection of the current viewpoint of the design and art media. We have been told for years that all collectors, both old and young, ‘hate’ antiques. This is clearly not the case.
For the full Artnet article, click HERE.
I first met Mario Buatta at Christie’s in the early 1990’s, when he was an active buyer on behalf of his clients in the English furniture sales. Hilarious, generous, and colorful, Mario was always on the lookout for the rare and the delightful. He was drawn to color, and understood that well-selected mini-collections made a stronger visual impact than individual objects.
His home was an amazing advertisement for his work — elegant, comfortable, and colorful. It was an English country house in a funhouse mirror’s reflection. Heavy walls of formal portraits were replaced by dog portraits (“My ancestors,” he would note, waving at the pictures). His understanding of scale was extraordinary, and his apartment, while comparable to the best of British country interiors, did not feel precious, pretentious, or theatrical. They were rooms for living, not museum settings.
Buatta’s living room, recreated at Sotheby’s.
In the recent Sotheby’s sale in New York, his exceptional eye was in evidence everywhere. I noted with real pleasure lots 611 through 616 which were a selection of boxes veneered with red wax intaglios, and a pair of small obelisks similarly decorated. The individual impressions were spectacularly clear, and the fact that they had been used in a mosaic-veneer method was exceptional, especially when a group of them were gathered. To find one piece like this is rare — to find several, a real feat of collecting. Estimated at a high total of $6,600, the combined collection totaled over $25,000
I was also impressed by a group of 11 sulphur-green Chinese brush pots from the Qing Dynasty. These very typical forms are made unusual by the unique color, presented in a large group. This kind of “pop”of acid color in an interior is pure Buatta. Estimated at $1,000 - 1,500, the collection sold for $23,750.
There were a few things I wanted for myself. I thought that I might get away with the pair of gilt ostrich candlesticks which were also pictured in a Jeremiah Goodman watercolor of Mario’s apartment. No such luck. Lot 597, a pair of gilt-bronze ostrich candlesticks, estimated at $800-1,200 sold for $15,000.
The late Robert Wooley used to say “once is a fluke, twice is a trend, three times is a market.” I think that the Buatta sale and the upcoming Jayne Wrightsman sale will start to prove that people want to live with exceptional decorative arts again, and that living beautifully is coming back.
Photo © Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve
This report was created by Nicholson Advisory for the Friends of the Alexander Palace in 2013 in order to help in their work raising funds for the restoration of the textiles in the suite of rooms at the Alexander Palace belonging to the Emperor and Empress. French textiles were expensive at the turn of the century, and they remain justly so today for their high quality and the fact that the method of their production has hardly changed since 1900. This report was submitted to the staff of the Alexander Palace in the hope that it would be possible for the Friends to assist them in commissioning reproduction fabrics for the rooms.
There was debate for several years over whether the rooms of Nicholas & Alexandra would be restored to their original condition, including the furnishings and textiles. Today, the recreation of the furnishings and architectural details of the Maple Room, the Palisander Room, and the Mauve Boudoir are well under way by the “Stavros” firm of St. Petersburg.
To read the whole article, click HERE.
A rare and enchanting gold-mounted nephrite miniature model of a sedan chair went on the block today at The Cotswold Auction Company in Cirencester.
The sale, filled with a relatively uninteresting group of objects went on for hours mostly selling lots below 100 GBP, before arriving at lot 555 at approximately 10:28 AM Eastern Standard time.
Viewers of the sale were subjected to a fairly awkward break, as the computer was changed, and bidders and viewers online were forced to open a new screen in their browser.
The camera turned sideways, and the lot was offered horizontally.
Bidding opened at 60,000 GBP, and rose quickly with phone bidders, experiencing delays because of poor mobile phone service and simultaneous translation. There was a leap in bids to 250,000 GBP at 10.30, and the hammer price kept rising. by 10.31 the bidding was at 340,000 between a bidder in the room and a Russian phone bidder — finally selling for 380,000 GBP to the phones.
The lot hammered down at 380,000 GBP — a final total of 463,600 GBP (plus 22% sales commission), which came to roughly $572,597 in US dollars.
An exceptionally rare gold-mounted nephrite Sedan chair by Fabergé has resurfaced in a provincial British collection coming up for auction in Cirencester. Sedan chairs by Fabergé are rare, but they constitute a distinct group of objects produced by the firm.
This particular example was known and is pictured in Kenneth Snowman’s 1962 ‘bible’- The Art of Carl Fabergé.
Auctioneers Elizabeth Poole and Lindsey Braune commented: "Discovering the sedan chair in Kenneth Snowman’s book was rather a spine-tingling moment. It belongs to a family who collected some absolute gems in the early 20th century – and have looked after them ever since."
The sedan chair is estimated at £60,000-80,000.
See the original article here
Some other examples of Fabergé sedan chairs are seen below:
On June 19 at Morphy’s Fine and Decorative Arts auction, an unrecognized Fabergé silver-mounted Stroganoff School ceramic vase dated 1903 and with impressed marks, came to the block with an estimate of $600-900. Sixty-seven bids later, the 7½-inch-tall vase sold at $141,450.
Sources in the field indicate that the vase was sold to a buyer in Moscow.
The heretofore unknown vase joins a rare group of Fabergé-mounted Stroganoff School ceramics. While at Christie’s in 1996, I sold a much larger scale work by the two firms which graced the cover of the Russian Sale catalogue.
A Fabergé silver-mounted cEramiC vase by the StroganofF school, ca 1901. Sold christie’s New york, april 18, 1996.
Nicholas B.A. Nicholson was born in New York and first visited the Soviet Union in the 1980’s. Informed by his time there, he developed an interest in Russian Fine and Decorative Art which led him to study Art History and Russian Area Studies at Kenyon College, from which he was graduated in 1991. Nicholson worked first for Karl Kemp, a premier dealer in continental furniture and decorative arts, before joining the staff of Christie's in 1993. Nicholson joined the Continental Furniture and Decorative Arts department as a Graduate Trainee, and was involved in the cataloguing and sale of the property of Alice Tully, Bernheimer & Co., and Rudolf Nureyev among others.
Nicholson took over the New York Russian Department as Specialist in 1994 and sold important property from the estates of Landsell Christie, Jane Englehardt, and Frank Sinatra, as well as participating in the landmark sale of the Faberge Imperial 25th Anniversary Clock, which at the time set records for Works of Art by Faberge, Clocks, and Silver.
Nicholson left Christie's in 1997, and became the American Curator of "Jewels of the Romanovs; Treasures from the Russian Imperial Court" an exhibition of works from five Russian lending institutions, including a selection of the Imperial Crown Jewels from the State Diamond Fund of the Russian Federation. The exhibition toured the US for two years, during which time Nicholson became a popular lecturer on Russian topics. In 1999, Nicholson joined the staff of circline.com, an online art location and advisory service, leaving in 2002 to open his own company.
Since 2002, Nicholson has done appraisal and advisory for individuals and institutions, arranging for sales of Russian Works of Art, as well as Continental furniture, porcelain, silver, and jewelry. While Nicholson is considered an expert on decorative objects from the "almaznii vek" or the Russian "Diamond Age" (1780-1810), his interests and expertise are broad and cover such diverse areas as Tiffany silver and 20th century jewelry; he is also a published novelist and translator.
Do you have questions about an object or your collection? Are you looking for an appraisal or sale? Are you looking for a specific work of art? Please feel free to engage Nicholson Advisory for assistance.
Nicholas B.A. Nicholson
+1 (646) 512 2995
nick@nicholsonadvisory.com
