This silver box with “fabulous beast,” Dagobert Peche, circa 1920, enchanted bidders up to the top price at $768,668.

Review by Z.G. Burnett; Images Courtesy of Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen

DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY — Hargesheimer Kunstauktionen conducted its 130th auction, Fine Art & Antiques| Jewelery, offering more than 4,000 lots of fine art, decorative arts, instruments, jewelry and antiques from many other categories. The auctions were conducted from September 6 to September 9. Although all four days produced impressive results, it was the second day’s European Works of Art | Art Nouveau session that brought the highest prices.

Silver handwerk was favored by bidders, especially the work of Dagobert Peche (Austria, 1887-1923) and Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann (Austrian-Moravian, 1870-1956), which constituted 12 lots in the auction. Both were important figures in the Wiener Werkstätte, an association of artists, architects and designers in Vienna. Hoffman was also a founding member of the Vienna Secession movement, which was closely related to Art Nouveau.

The highest price achieved overall was for a “highly important and extremely rare” silver box by Peche that was featured on that session’s catalog. Made in the Wiener Werkstätte circa 1920, the box showed a deer- and dog-like creature with leafy tendrils sprouting from its mouth. The top of the vessel came off entirely, and its bottom rested on four egg-shaped legs with small, ribbed feet. Peche joined the workshop in 1915 and became a co-director the next year, after which he began to produce work such as this in the “spiky baroque” style. The box was won by an American bidder over the phone for $768,668.

“Apple” and “Pear” figural silver boxes, Dagobert Peche, circa 1923, were both bought by German bidders for $45,412.

Two rare, separate lots of Wiener Werkstätte figural silver fruit boxes by Peche also did well, with both selling for $45,412. First in the catalog was an “Apple,” second was a “Pear” and each were dated circa 1923 These boxes came from the collection of Chemnitz entrepreneur and manufacturer Fritz Niescher (1889-1974), were inherited by his only daughter Ursula and remained in the possession of her husband, Dr Wolfgang H.E. Müller, following her death. The fruits were both bought by German bidders; one in the room and another over the phone.

Second in this session and in the auction was a pair of fluted “tazzas” with a marbled surface that were designed by Hoffmann and also came from the Niescher collection. The pair showed Wiener Werkstätte marks and were probably made circa 1925, as they are similar in design to a bowl by Hoffmann in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The pair was bid to $48,059 and won by a UK buyer who participated over the telephone.

This pair of “tazzas,” Josef Franz Maria Hoffman, likely circa 1925, sold together for $48,059.

Prices quoted with buyer’s premium, using conversion rate provided by the auction house on the day of sale. Hargesheimer Art Auctions’ Art & Icons From The Orthodox World will occur November 9-11. For more information, www.kunstauktionen-duesseldorf.de/en/.