Man Ray, Profile Study of a Woman (1928) Photographs, Phillips, New York, 4 April
Est $25,000-$35,000 (sold for $30,000 with premium)
Profile Study of a Woman (1928) by the Surrealist photographer Man Ray formerly belonged to James Thrall Soby, the American critic and curator who was also an avid collector of Modern art. The gelatine silver print was among more than 50 works of art that Soby bequeathed to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he had served as director of paintings and sculpture in the 1940s and as a trustee from 1942 until his death in 1979. Sotheby’s New York previously sold the print for $21,500 (with premium) in an auction of photographs from MoMA’s collection in October 2002. It has been consigned to Phillips as part of a set from a private collection.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Portrait of Gaspard Bonnet (1812) Stephen Ongpin Fine Art at the Salon du Dessin, Paris, until 4 April
Around €230,000 (unsold at the fair)
Now in its 25th year, the Salon du Dessin is a must for drawings connoisseurs. Although the fair has diversified in recent years, French Old Master and 19th-century drawings remain at its core. The London-based dealer Stephen Ongpin is bringing this informal pencil portrait by Ingres of the civil servant Gaspard Bonnet. It was one of many pencil portraits, both formal and informal, made by Ingres during the two decades he lived in Rome. The artist gave the drawing to the sitter as a gift and it remained unknown until 1913, when it appeared in an exhibition dedicated to Jacques-Louis David and his followers at the Petit Palais in Paris.
Chinese Yongle blue and white moon flask (early 15th century) The Pilkington Collection, Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 6 April
Est HK$25m-HK$35m (sold for HK$110.52m with premium)
Western collecting of Chinese porcelain was at its heyday in the mid-20th century. One of the most active connoisseurs was Roger Pilkington, from the family of glassmakers, who acquired porcelain spanning 1,000 years of production, from the Tang to the Qing dynasties. Sotheby’s Hong Kong is offering 100 pieces from his collection with a combined estimate of more than HK$225m (£20m). This blue and white moon flask (est HK$25m-HK$35m, or £2.2m-£3.1m) is among a group of Ming dynasty pieces. It was made in the early 15th century, when trade links between China and the Middle East were strong, and its form and complex geometric decoration show the influence of Islamic ceramics.
