Michael Lake
Head of Department
Lot 9*
A Limoges style enamel plaque depicting the Adoration of the Magi mounted within a carved and gilt gesso architectural freestanding frameprobably late 19th century
29 November 2022, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,800 - £2,400
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A Limoges style enamel plaque depicting the Adoration of the Magi mounted within a carved and gilt gesso architectural freestanding frame
probably late 19th century
the seated Virgin and Christ child flanked to the right by the three kings, one standing, bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the figure of Joseph standing behind the Virgin, all on a tiled foreground before a townscape below a starry sky, the frame of rectangular form with a guilloche frieze below moulded cornice with scrolling twin dolphin cresting, raised on foliate pilaster supports raised and a moulded foliate plinth foot,
the panel 14.8cm x 11cm, the frame, 30cm x 16cm
the seated Virgin and Christ child flanked to the right by the three kings, one standing, bearing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the figure of Joseph standing behind the Virgin, all on a tiled foreground before a townscape below a starry sky, the frame of rectangular form with a guilloche frieze below moulded cornice with scrolling twin dolphin cresting, raised on foliate pilaster supports raised and a moulded foliate plinth foot,
the panel 14.8cm x 11cm, the frame, 30cm x 16cm
Footnotes
Provenance
The collection of Sir Michael and Lady Oppenheimer DD (3rd Baronet, British, 1924-2020), Jersey, thence by family descent.
Sir Michael Oppenheimer's maternal grandparents were Sir Robert Grenville Harvey, 2nd Baronet (1856-1931) and Lady Emily Blanche Harvey (1872-1935) of Langley Park, Buckinghamshire which was the Harvey Baronet's main family seat from 1788 until 1945.
Sir Michael's paternal family wealth was derived from mining interests in South Africa and his father Bernard Oppenheimer, as Chairman of the South African Diamond Corporation, received a baronetcy from George V in 1921 for setting up diamond sorting factories to employ wounded ex-servicemen after the First World War. The Oppenheimer family was involved with the prestigious De Beers brand over the subsequent decades of the 20th century and Lady Oppenheimer DD (1926-2022) was a distinguished moral and philosophical theologian, with a particular interest in the ethics pertaining to personal relationships.
A comparable panel of this subject from a triptych signed bottom left 'SAMSON' is in the permanent collection of the Diocesan Museum in Mantua. See P.Venturelli 'Gli Smalti Dipinti Limoges', Mantua 2010, cat. No. 10.
