A special wristwatch will be up for auction at Neumeister during the auctions of old, modern and applied art on December 7th and 8th: Although it does not come from a famous manufacturer, its gold plating has flaked off a little and the dial is partially oxidized, it should be worth its estimate from 1200 to 2200 euros, because it once showed Thomas Mann the time.
His grandson Frido Mann brings the heirloom for sale.
The proceeds will benefit an interreligious, peace-building network.
A fine provenance also accompanies the half-length portrait of Philipp Melanchthon, dated 1543, created by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop: it is considered a gift from Crown Prince Maximilian of Bavaria to Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling on his seventieth birthday.
Descendants of the philosopher delivered the work for auction.
The Cranachs, who diligently produced portraits of the Wittenberg reformers, painted the university teacher Melanchthon as well as his close friend and confidante Martin Luther frequently and at many ages.
The digital corpus Cranach lists a whole series of versions of the present type of the forty-six-year-old with a black cap, some in large collections such as the Uffizi (estimate 100,000 to 120,000 euros).
It continues with noble portraits of the 18th century.
Antoine Pesne portrayed the pretty Countess Maria Magdalena von Dönhoff, successor of Countess Kosel, as "Maîtresse en titre" August the Strong (7000/9000), while Johann Georg Ziesenis portrayed the less open-hearted and hat-dressed Princess of Saxony-Meinigen, Marie Charlotte in front of her hoop (15,000/20,000).
A Rhenish Maria with child, carved in the round around 1420, leads the sculptures with an expectation of 60,000 to 80,000 euros.
A century later, the Master of Rabenden made a wooden sculpture of John the Baptist, which was sold at the Rudolf Neumeister estate auction in 2019 for three times the top estimate (30,000/40,000).
A Tyrolean master expressively depicts the sword-wielding executioner and next to him Saint Catherine, who is kneeling and praying awaiting her beheading (9000/10,000).
Many works by the Munich school with a favorable four-digit estimate fill the offer for the 19th century.
Carl Spitzweg's deep gorge with farmhouse and stream requires a little more at 12,000 to 15,000 euros.
Arnhem's Anton Sminck Pitloo, on the other hand, was drawn to the sunny "Coast of Naples" after 1815 (10,000/12,000).
It was winter in Dresden when Conrad Felixmüller painted the view of roofs and gardens with “dew snow” on the window of his apartment in 1934;
the work, long owned by the artist's son Titus, ranks among the top lots of classical modern art with an estimate of 40,000 to 60,000 euros.
Two paintings represent the Fauvist Louis Valtat: "Cornfields in Normandy", painted around 1922 (15,000/20,000) and a colorful "Floral Still Life" (20,000/30,000).
One of Ernst Wilhelm Nay's eight gouaches from the series "Woman with Child in Autumn" from 1946 is also characterized by powerful colors (30,000/40,000).
Friends of art Bernard Buffets should be interested in his "Casserole rouge" from 1955 (20,000/ 30,000).
Works by the Latvian artist Normunds Braslins have repeatedly achieved high hammer prices at Neumeister;
his "White Room" from 2013, a female nude executed in the manner of old master fine painting, is said to bring in 8,000 to 12,000 euros.