Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573-1621)

The eagerly-awaited stars of the Binoche & Giquello sale of 19 June, "Cut flowers in a roemer on an entablature...", a painting on oak panel by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, achieved the highest bid at Drouot since the start of the year. They had remained in the same collection for over a hundred years.

With Bosschaert the Elder, Dutch still lifes with flowers truly established their pedigree, as further proved by these cut flowers.

The star of this auction, a painting of flowers by Ambrosius Bosschaert, leaves the collection in which it has been for over 100 years, as well as works by Panini and Boudin, jewellery, objects and 18th-century furniture.

The auction house recorded €201 M in products sold at 569 sales: a result up on the first half of 2018, mainly thanks to six bids of over a million, with the highest hammer price, €3,307,716, going to Fleurs coupées by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

This panel is interesting for two reasons: a rare still life of fruit and shellfish now listed in the corpus of Ambrosius BosschaertT the Younger, it is also coming on the market for the first time and has never been published.

If there is a collection that must not be missed under any circumstances, it is the one put together decades ago by James Bismuth, an agricultural commodities broker, who died last December at the age of 89.

This bouquet of anemones, which has stayed in the same family since purchase at the Pétridès Gallery in 1956, illustrates Leonard Tsuguharu Foujita's feeling for nature.

Two lovely works by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon and Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita achieved their rightful prices at this sale, which also included a portrait of pirate Barbarossa.