A feeling of spring...

Nature has always served as inspiration for artists. It has been interpreted and rendered in different ways depending on the period, but it has always constituted an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

The inherent beauty of Nature unfolds in a most impressive manner in the sumptuously and beautifully crafted Japanese hardwood display cabinet-on-stand from the Meiji period (1867-1912). This cupboard is quite unique. Its carvings are of a very high quality and, combined with the fine silver inlays, they sensualize the cupboard so much that it almost seems to ‘breathe’. This cupboard was formerly a part of the furnishing of The East Asiatic Company’s Copenhagen headquarters.

The pleasures of the table

Once French Empire broke through around the year 1800, this style soon became a trendsetter all across Europe and Russia in everything from furniture and interior design to architecture, fashion and painting. Even the way dinner parties were held was influenced by the new style. The 18th century’s pompous displays of venison, fruit and cake in which the food as such was the decoration were partly succeeded by delicate and more ingenious collations on the individual plate – and this made room for new traditions of decorating the centre of the table. One of the major innovations of the age was the huge, extravagant Surtout de Table that adorned the most distinguished tables and banquets of the day. In enormous arrangements of flowers, fruits, venison and even ice sculptures, these presented the fruitfulness of Nature in all its splendour. Placed in the middle of the table and surrounded by lights and the cherubs, the guardians of Paradise, that the Surtout de Table is so profusely adorned with, the centrepiece in its entirety presents a small glimpse of the Garden of Eden. This tradition still exists today where such impressive spectacles can be seen at the Nobel Prize banquet in Stockholm, for example, and at European royal banquets. The Surtout de Table presented at this auction was presumably made by either Pierre-Philippe Thomire (1751-1843) or Gérard-Jean Gallé (1788-1846). Estimate: DKK 750,000 - 1,000,000.
As the finishing touch to an enchanted dinner, the beautiful, illuminating Russian chandelier in brass draped with numerous prisms will project its own mirror image down on the centre of the table and from there on to the rest of the room in a magnificent interplay of light.

Nature and the divine

The Gothic church architecture of the Middle Ages mirrored the relationship of the age to God and to the divine in Nature. The basic structure consisted of the round arch, which functioned as construction and as decoration at the same time. The ornaments were often large, beautifully painted and carved figures of apostles or saints. These were often placed at the top of ogival portals so the viewer could see them from below. It is quite uncommon to have the opportunity to acquire Gothic figures of such high quality as “The Madonna and Child”. This figure, in partly gilt, painted and carved wood, was made approximately in the year 1500.

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