Paris – An important painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (Anvers 1564-ca 1638), was the top lot at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr Old Master Paintings sale today (Wednesday 9 April 2025). The Wedding Dance, one of his most celebrated works, embodying both the enduring appeal of Flemish village festivities and the artist's remarkable ability to blend narrative richness with pictorial brilliance, achieved €787,800 against an estimate of €300,000-500,000.

Triumph of the Infant Bacchus, 17th century Italo Flemish School sold for €48,640, more than 4 times its pre-sale estimate. The authorship of this painting remains a matter of scholarly debate. While some have attributed it to the Genoese artist Andrea Vassallo (active c. 1640), Camillo Manzitti has suggested the Flemish painter Jan Roos (1591-1638). Both of these artists were active in Van Dyck's Genoese circle and engaged in similar mythological compositions.

Stefania Lumetta, Bonhams Specialist of Old Master Paintings and 19th Century Art and Head of Sale, said: "It was thrilling to bring such an important work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger to auction. We are delighted that it sparked competitive phone bidding, which is testament to the exceptional quality of the work. This year's Spring Classics sales brought together an exciting selection of important and rare works, including rare Doccia and Meissen porcelain."

Other highlights of the 65-lot sale included:

• Capriccio with figures in Oriental dress, a tondo from a European distinguished Noble Private Collection, by Francesco Zuccarelli (1702-1788) sold for €32,000. Whilst the work exhibits the delicate brushwork for which Zuccarelli was well known, it also represents a new venture for the artist. Tuscan at birth but adopted by La Serenissima, Zuccarelli has placed his elegant and refined turbaned figures within a landscape, inspired by his Venetian homeland but punctuated with classical ruins designed to pull together the composition. It shows a happy marriage between the traditional landscapes of the Veneto, for which Zuccarelli was so well known, and elements reflecting the growing fascination with travel literature so resonant of the later 18th century.

• Italian painter, Faustino Bocchi (1659-1742) is renowned for his imaginative and highly detailed depictions of dwarves engaged in fantastical and often satirical scenes. Active in Brescia, he studied under the Milanese painter Angelo Everardi, known as il Fiamminghino (1647–1678), whose influence can be seen in Bocchi's refined and lively compositions. A pair of oil on canvas sold for €21,760 more than 4 times its pre-sale estimate.

8 April | The Classics | Live sale

An important example of Nuevo descubrimiento del gran rio de las Amazonas by Christóbal de Acuña sold for €102,000. This first published description of the region and its people is very rare. With only a few copies currently held in important libraries, it is the first example to come onto the market in more than a century - last recorded example was in 1914. Cristóbal Diatristán de Acuña (1597–c.1676) was born in Burgos and admitted a Jesuit at the age of 15. In the 1620s he was sent on mission work to Peru and Chile, and became rector of the college of Cuenca, situated in modern day Ecuador.

The Collection of Carlo Colli Part I of Doccia porcelain achieved €88,000. This collection began in the 1960s with Carlo Colli's father. Pieces have been on loan to the Poldi Pezzoldi Museum in Milan (amongst others). A very rare and early teapot with lizard handle decorated by Giuseppe Romei sold for €35,840 and a Doccia figure of a Turk, circa 1760 sold for €7,680 twice its estimate.

Other highlights of the 196-lot sale included:

• A Louis XVI style ormolu garniture comprising a mantel clock by Victor Paillard, after a model of Etienne Martincourt, and a pair of seven-light figural candelabra, second half 19th century sold for €32,000, 8 times its estimate of €4,000 to 6,000.

• A pair of Louis-Philippe ormolu twelve-light sphinx candelabra, circa 1830, in the manner of Thomire & Cie sold for €25,600.

• A Meissen circular dish from the Swan service, circa 1738-9 modelled by J.J. Kaendler sold for €24,320.

• An important Louis XVI ormolu-mounted polychrome-decorated vernis Martin, kingwood, amaranth and ebonised secrétaire à abattant stamped by Léonard Boudin and attributed to André-Louis Gilbert, circa 1775 sold for €24,320 twice its pre-sale estimate.