Around the globe

Los Angeles
Peak performance

The Scottish-American 19th-century naturalist and explorer John Muir was a man of vision and tenacity. During the early 1870s, he spent five years pioneering the scientific study of glaciers in California’s Eastern Sierras. There he discovered 65 ‘living glaciers’ and, on the basis of his observations, developed the hypothesis that the Sierra Nevada mountain range was carved by glacial movement. At the time, he was widely derided by geologists, but Muir was absolutely right. In 1879, he tested his theory in Glacier Bay in the Alaskan Alps where he discovered the Muir Glacier, the subject of a superb oil painting by Thomas Hill to be offered in Los Angeles in August. In 1888, Muir – who was an early advocate for the protection of wild open spaces and was known as ‘John of the Mountains’ – published Picturesque California in which an engraving of The Muir Glacier, Alaska takes pride of place.

Image: The Muir Glacier, Alaska by Thomas Hill
Estimate: $30,000 - 50,000
Sale: California Art
Los Angeles,
3 August
Enquiries: Scot Levitt +1 323 436 5425
scot.levitt@bonhams.com

The Gold Cup, 1873. Estimate: £80,000 - 120,000

London
Eyes on the prize

The most spectacular moments of the 1964 film My Fair Lady take place at Royal Ascot. Cecil Beaton’s flamboyant sets and costumes – which won him an Oscar – perfectly captured the very British mixture of glamour and social climbing with which this famous week of The Season has been associated since it was first held in the early 19th century. Royal Ascot has become so fashionable, that it is easy to forget the main point of it – the horse racing. The meeting’s premier race, the Gold Cup, guarantees prestige for the winner and an actual cup, which is retained in perpetuity. The Victorians set great store by the Gold Cup’s design, as seen in the candelabrum to be offered in London in June. Won in 1873 by Cremorne, it is one of the largest and finest examples of the Victorian craze for decorating horse-racing trophies with historical or mythical scenes. Here, a scene from medieval history shows Elizabeth Woodville pleading with Edward IV to return the lands confiscated from her late husband, who had been on the losing side in the War of the Roses. The king not only restored the lands; reader, he married her.

Image: The Gold Cup, 1873
Estimate: £80,000 - 120,000
Sale: Fine Decorative Arts, 1200-1900
New Bond Street, 23 June
Enquiries: Ellis Finch
+44 (0) 20 7393 3973

New York
A giant of literature

The 18th-century satirical masterpiece by Jonathan Swift was published in 1726 with the intention (according to the author) of vexing the world rather than diverting it. The four-part novel ridicules those whom Swift held in contempt (and not many escaped his scorn), as well as taking a swipe at the contemporary fashion for travel writing. One of the major texts of English literature, Gulliver’s Travels was recognised as a masterpiece from the outset and was an immediate success on publication. Its withering dissection of human folly still packs a punch centuries later. A very fine first edition of this biting masterpiece in a contemporary calf binding will be one of the highlights of the book sale in New York in June.

Image: Gulliver’s Travels
Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000
Sale: Fine Books and Manuscripts
New York, 17 June
Enquiries: Darren Sutherland
+1 212 461 6531
darren.sutherland@bonhams.com

Gulliver’s Travels. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000

Switzerland
Nina Skunca Lama

Milan-born Croatian Nina Skunca Lama is Bonhams’ recently appointed regional representative for Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. Based in the Geneva office but frequently to be found travelling throughout the region, Nina is steadily building the company’s profile with collectors and consigners, arranging specialist valuations for everything from classic cars to jewellery and Old Masters. Nina worked for Christie’s both in Lugano – where she went to school, before completing her BA in Fine and Decorative Arts in London – and Geneva.

Enquiries: Nina Skunca Lama
nina.skunca@bonhams.com

London
Porcupine

The British have always been fond of nicknames, sometimes to cut people down to size – Boney for Napoleon Bonaparte for example – but just as often as terms of endearment. So, it is not surprising that the AJS 497cc E90 Grand Prix Racing motorcycle, a very rare example of which is offered at the three-day Summer Stafford Sale in early July, quicky acquired the nickname Porcupine thanks to its distinctive spiked-head fins. This particular bike belonged to Ted Frend who was signed up by AJS in 1947, the year he rode the Porcupine to victory at the 1947 Hutchinson 100 race. It was found in pieces after Ted died in 2006 and lovingly restored. Just a handful of E90s were built by AJS, purely for its works team so they were never available for general sale. Only two other examples have come to auction – both sold by Bonhams for world record prices – and most other porcupines are either in the world-famous Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum or owned by private collectors.

Image: The ex-Ted Frend, AJS 500cc E90 Porcupine Racing Motorcycle
Estimate: £250,000 - 300,000
Sale: The Summer Sale
Stafford, 2-4 July
Enquiries: Ben Walker
+44 (0) 20 7468 5858
ben.walker@bonhams.com

The ex-Ted Frend, AJS 500cc E90 Porcupine Racing Motorcycle. Estimate: £250,000 - 300,000

Nunc est bibendum. À votre santé. Le pneu Michelin boit l’obstacle by O’Galop

London
Poster boy

The Michelin Man – Bibendum as he is known more properly, and always when in France – is one of the world’s oldest, most recognisable trademarks. He made his debut in a poster by graphic artist Marius Rossillon aka O’Galop. At the suggestion of the Michelin brothers, O’Galop adapted unused artwork for a Munich brewery by replacing the central figure with a man made out of tyres. He retained the quote from the Roman poet Horace from the brewery poster – nunc est bibendum (“Now is the time for drinking”) – hence the name. A highly sought-after example of that first poster from 1898 is just one of a group of very rare Michelin posters to be offered in London in June. The sale also features evocative holiday posters by the master of the genre, Roger Broders.

Image: Nunc est bibendum. À votre santé.
Le pneu Michelin boit l’obstacle by O’Galop
Estimate: £16,000 - 20,000
Sale: 20th Century Decorative Art & Design
Knightsbridge, 3 June
Enquiries: Richard Barclay
richard.barclay@bonhams.com

Los Angeles
Brando Recognition

Marlon Brando’s appearance in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (three hours plus for the Director’s Cut) lasts barely 15 minutes. Yet, among rain and mud and helicopters riding out of the sun to ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’, it is Brando’s rogue soldier Colonel Kurtz who lives in the memory. A collection of Brando’s personal papers at the TCM sale in Los Angeles in June includes 1976 correspondence from Coppola to the actor. In view of the troubled shoot and Brando’s legendary difficult behaviour on set, the director’s sign-off from one letter “nothing is impossible, and together we can accomplish anything” might appear a little optimistic.

Image: Collection of Marlon Brando scripts,
letters and notes for Apocalypse Now
Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000
Sale: TCM Presents… Mavericks
Los Angeles, 8 June
Enquiries: Catherine Williamson
+1 323 436 5442
catherine.williamson@bonhams.com

Centigraphe by F. P. Journe. Estimate: HK$600,000 - 900,000

Hong Kong
Perfect timing

If you’ve ever wanted to time an object moving at 360,000km/h – about 1/3,000th of the speed of light – then the Centigraphe by F. P. Journe is for you. It is the first ever wristwatch in the world equipped with a single hand-wound movement, allowing the measurement of elapsed times from 1/100 second. A rare pink gold boutique edition of the Centigraphe – a model no longer produced – will be offered in the Fine Watch sale in Hong Kong in June. Instantly recognisable for the combination of a black lacquered dial with pink gold case, hands and indexes, contrasted with red chronograph scale and white subdials, it was made in strictly limited quantity between 2010 and 2016 – one of the Swiss manufacturer’s rarest series.

Image: Centigraphe by F. P. Journe
Estimate: HK$600,000 - 900,000
Sale: Hong Kong Watches
Hong Kong, 20 June
Enquiries: Sharon Chan
+852 9865 6120
sharon.chan@bonhams.com