Catawiki's online auction for the new No Reserve Day has finally arrived. Once again, many exciting items from art, design, jewellery, watches, and even vehicles are being offered without a reserve price. Here are some of the major highlights.
Emperor Rudolf II would certainly have enjoyed the wide variety of items on offer at No Reserve Day, as he himself was an enthusiastic collector and patron of the arts. Rudolf spent most of his life in Prague, where he studied alchemy, astronomy, and astrology and amassed the largest art collection of his time. He employed many painters at his court, including the Basel-born Joseph Heintz the Elder, who also worked as an architect. The portrait of Rudolf II on offer at Catawiki comes from the artist's circle or workshop.
The oeuvre of the Copenhagen-born Belgian artist Serge Vandercam, who was inspired by surrealism in the 1940s and initially worked with experimental photography, is varied. In 1949, he joined the CoBrA group and discovered abstract painting, blending figurative and non-figurative forms. He also explored the media of ceramics, sculpture, and film. From 1981 to 1989, he was director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Wavre, Belgium.
The Dutch photo artist Miss Jack aims to tell stories with her work, ranging from historical to contemporary themes, such as cultural heritage. For the Chapeau series, she staged spectacular hats, which she sees as full of symbolic and expressive power, combining two functions: to be seen or not to be seen. Three works by Miss Jack will be on offer as part of No Reserve Day, including another from the Chapeau series and Geertje from the Hollandse Nieuwe series.
The Shogun table lamp, designed by Italian architect and designer Mario Botta for Artemide in 1986, is a timeless classic. The aluminium and steel luminaire not only impresses with its bold design and the colour combination of white and black, but also with its adjustable perforated shades, which create fascinating visual effects. Shogun is also part of significant museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In 1960, the Italian designer Dino Gavina founded the company Gavina Spa and appointed Carlo Scarpa as its president. The designers who worked for the company included Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Achille Castiglioni, Ignazio Gardella, Tobia Shoe, and Scarpa himself. In 1968, Gavina met Marcel Breuer in New York and persuaded him to revise his Bauhaus designs from the 1920s and relaunch them at Gavina Spa. These included the Cesca chair, made of Viennese straw and steel, a pair of which is on offer at Catawiki in excellent condition.
This fountain pen from Montblanc is unique, as it won the first prize of the 'Young Directors Award' presented at the Salzburg Festival in 2005. The pen is made of solid gold and is encased in hand-painted Meissen porcelain on both the barrel and cap. Scenes and masks from the 'Commedia dell'Arte were used as motifs.
Catawiki's No Reserve Day online auctions end on 10 and 11 June.
