Bugatti Type 44 Tourer Coachwork by Harrington 1929, França

Bugatti Type 44 Tourer Coachwork by Harrington 1929, França
Fotografia

1929 Bugatti Type 44 Tourer
Coachwork by Harrington
Registration no. UL 4703
Chassis no. 44923

*Delivered new to the UK
*One of two known surviving Harrington tourers
*Matching numbers
*Outstandingly original
*Well known in Bugatti circles

'Bugattis encapsulate concepts of engineering which, once seen, change your ideas radically and definitively. Drive them, and you realise that each car is form and engineering in equilibrium, and a work of art.' – William Stobbs, Les Grandes Routières.
By the early 1930s Ettore Bugatti had established an unrivalled reputation for building cars with outstanding performance on road or track; the world's greatest racing drivers enjoying countless successes aboard the Molsheim factory's products and often choosing them for their everyday transport. Considered the finest touring Bugatti of the 1920s, the Type 44 was introduced towards the end of 1927 and lasted in production until 1930. 1,095 were built, of which around 10 percent survive today. The model was powered by Bugatti's classic single-overhead-cam straight eight engine, one of the most famous automobile power units of all time. Because of its lengthy run of success, Ettore Bugatti remained committed to his single-cam design, only adopting the double-overhead-camshaft method of valve actuation, after much prompting by his eldest son Jean, on the Type 50 of 1930. The Type 44's twin-block, three-valves-per-cylinder, single-plug engine displaced 2,991cc and produced approximately 80bhp, an output good enough for a top speed of over 75mph. Driving via a four-speed gate-change gearbox, this superb motor was housed in Bugatti's familiar Vintage chassis featuring a circular-section front axle and rear quarter elliptic springing.
This particular car's history is detailed in the accompanying and typically thorough 56-page copiously illustrated report compiled by independent Bugatti consultants David Sewell and Mark Morris, which prospective purchasers are encouraged to read. Chassis number '44923' is documented in the factory records on 23rd April 1929 and was delivered to Colonel W L Sorel, the manager of Bugatti's London Depot. Four Type 44s were delivered in this order batch: '44923', '44924', '44925', and '44926'.
The original coachwork chosen for this car was that of a well-appointed four-seater tourer with full weather equipment. Delivered to London in rolling chassis form, the Bugatti was then despatched for bodying to coachbuilder Thomas Harrington Ltd, at that time based in Brighton, Sussex. Founded in 1897 and known to have been bodying cars as early as 1905, Harrington had become a major producer of motor coach bodies while keeping up the car-bodying side of its business, concentrating on high-quality European makes, Bugatti included.
Though the exact number of Bugattis that carried Harrington coachwork is not known, it is believed that they completed only two or three coupés and perhaps as many as five cars with touring coachwork, of which this example is one of two known survivors.
The Bugatti's first owner is not recorded. The earliest reference found is photographs of the car carrying a 1938 New York State Licence Plate, but without a link to the owner's name during that period. The first clear record with owners' names appears in the 1979 American Bugatti Register, which lists John M Gill Jr of Massachusetts as owner at that time and Messrs John King and William W Marsden as former owners.
John M Gill owned '44923' twice, and after the second period of ownership it was sold to John North of Easton, Maryland, USA before returning to the UK in 1988 when it was advertised by London-based dealer Dan Margulies. Upon returning to the UK the car was registered as 'UL 4703'. This was from a series of numbers issued by the London County Council commencing in December 1928/January 1929.
From Margulies the Bugatti passed to Ed Hubbard and was advertised for sale by Ivan Dutton UK Limited. Copies of Margulies' and Dutton's advertisements are on file. It then came into the ownership of Peter Parkinson of West Sussex, During his custodianship the car was re-trimmed by Mike Thomas of Sidlesham, Chichester, while mechanical work was entrusted to Ivan Dutton Limited and servicing to Taylors of Chichester.
Peter used the car and attended various events including the BOC's Garden Party and Concours of 1993 and 1994, on both occasions winning the George Harris Cup for the Best Touring Bugatti (see photograph on file). He also took the Bugatti to the 100th Anniversary Harrington Gathering in June 1997. The current vendor bought 'UL 4703' from Peter Parkinson circa nine years ago and has used it sparingly, with any necessary maintenance carried out by his own mechanics.
As presented today, '44923' is a very fine touring Bugatti, capable of seating 4/5 people and equipped with full weather equipment (hood and side screens). The coachwork has been restored but retains original details such as the twin side-mounted spare wheels; the central air vent on the top of the scuttle; the scuttle side vents; and the two-piece opening windscreen with side deflectors. One of the great joys of this car is the coachwork's originality. Although it has been restored, and the main body's fabric covering replaced, some of the original fabric survives on the underside of the passenger-side rear door. These samples show the original colour to have been maroon, subsequently over-painted black. Thus, the fabric used in the body's restoration has returned the car to its originally specified maroon colour.
Another remarkable attribute of the car is the original ash frame body structure and original floorboards, all of which appear in remarkable condition. Nicely appointed with red leather trim, both front door openings retain their original Harrington nameplates, while a period-correct Jaeger instrument panel and Marchal-Vaucanson switches adorn the dashboard. A rare Schebler choke cable pull is fitted to the left of the setting column, while the ignition advance/retard lever and hand throttle are to the right of the steering column, with a Bosch horn button alongside. A battery master switch is mounted on the driver's side below the bodyline.
The car's original Bugatti–Alsace chassis plate stamped '44923' and '17 HP' is mounted on the bulkhead together with an original patent plate. The original Molsheim chassis frame has matching numbered components stamped '636'; these include the engine, cam box, gearbox casing and lid, plus both the front and rear axles. The bonnet, which was standard supply when Bugatti sold a complete rolling chassis, also is stamped '636', which again helps to confirm the car's correctness. The frame number is '1035', consistent with what one would expect given the chassis number. Repusseau/Hartford friction shock absorbers are fitted to both front and rear axles.
On the engine, the upper and lower crankcase are stamped with assembly number '51' and are thus an original matched pair. Although its number is obscured by the radiator, the cam box is without question an original Molsheim component. The engine number '636' is correctly stamped on the driver's-side front crankcase arm, with an additional 'C' below the number. The chassis number '44923' is stamped on the passenger's-side rear arm.
Ignition is supplied by a period Bosch distributor, and a replacement coil has been fitted to the bulkhead. The cylinder blocks still retain their aluminium cover-plates, concealing the fixing nuts on the upper crankcase/cylinder block interface. The other great rarities on this engine are the clutch under-tray and the louvered valance panel under the carburettor. The latter is an updraft Carter BB1 manufactured in the USA, rather than the standard Bugatti-issue Schebler SX 280. Originally fuel would have been fed to the carburettor from the main tank at the rear of the car via an Autovac tank. This has been replaced by a neatly installed electric fuel pump, which is mounted in the driver's chassis side rail. The starter motor and front-mounted dynamo are period Marchal-Vaucanson components, while lighting is supplied by Marchal headlights and Hella-Saturnus 'Marchal'-pattern taillights.
Outstandingly original and correct, well detailed and with its original coachwork fittings intact, '44923' represents a rare opportunity to acquire a practical and very usable example of Bugatti's Vintage-era 3.0-litre eight-cylinder touring car. Affording the fortunate next owner the opportunity to enjoy open-top touring in unmatched pre-war style, this wonderful Bugatti is also eligible for many of the world's most prestigious historic motoring events.

Roma, Vista do Rio Tibre com o Castelo de Sant'Angelo e Basílica de São Pedro, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of the Tiber with the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica Beyond) - Antonio Joli

Roma, Vista do Rio Tibre com o Castelo de Sant'Angelo e Basílica de São Pedro, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of the Tiber with the Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Peter's Basilica Beyond) - Antonio Joli
Roma - Itália
Coleção privada
OST - 55x98

This fine pair of Roman views by Antonio Joli are precisely the kind of pictures which would have been commissioned and collected by the British aristocracy travelling to Italy on the Grand Tour. Although the early provenance for this pair of Roman views is not known, the fact that they are in matching English gilt frames, datable to circa 1840, suggests that they may indeed have been painted for a British patron.

The View of the Tiber with the Castel Sant'Angelo was one of Joli's most popular views and was repeated by the artist on a number of occasions, though he introduced differences in the format, viewpoint, and staffage of each representation.1 The boat at lower centre with a gondolier and two seated figures reappears almost identically in the majority of Joli's versions of the subject, but other details remain unique to this particular representation: the yacht at lower left, for example, adds interest to the foreground area (even though its presence is entirely fantastical, for it could never pass beneath the Ponte Sant'Angelo). By contrast, only a couple of variants of the View of Piazza del Popolo are known to exist in Joli's œuvre, despite it being one of the most recognizable squares in Rome and one of the most-painted by vedutisti. Except for Joli's set of views of Rome and Venice painted for Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, the only other known panoramic view of Piazza del Popolo by the artist is a signed and dated canvas of 1759, formerly with Galleria Apolloni, Rome.2 

These paintings were most likely already at Hartham Park when Sir John Poynder-Dickson inherited it in 1888, and they were certainly there in 1910 when a manuscript inventory lists them, under the erroneous attribution of Vanvitelli, as hanging in the Drawing Room (see Literature). Hartham had been leased by Poynder's grandfather in 1855 from Lord Methuen of Corsham Court. 

Sir John Dickson-Poynder was a distinguished politician and colonial administrator.  In 1884, he became 6th Baronet and on inheriting his maternal grandfather's property, he assumed the additional surname of Poynder and settled at Hartham Park in Wiltshire where the Poynder lands were extensive. In 1892, he was elected as the conservative member for the Chippenham division and married Anne Dundas in 1896.  In 1910, he was appointed Governor-General of New Zealand, a post he held for two years and in the same year was created Baron Islington of Islington. Whilst maintaining Hartham until 1922, the Islingtons also had residences in Sussex and London, and purchased Rushbrooke Hall in Suffolk to save it from demolition.  Lady Islington inherited the paintings after her husband’s death on 6 December 1936 but it is not known where they might have hung. Lady Islington was one of the most admired 'leaders of fashionable taste' and belonged to a group of women known as 'The Lady Decorators.'

Roma, Vista da Piazza del Popolo, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of Piazza del Popolo) - Antonio Joli

Roma, Vista da Piazza del Popolo, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of Piazza del Popolo) - Antonio Joli
Roma - Itália
Coleção privada
OST - 55x98

Vista da Praça de São Pedro, Cidade do Vaticano, Vaticano (Rome, A View of Saint Peter's Square) - Giovanni Paolo Panini

Vista da Praça de São Pedro, Cidade do Vaticano, Vaticano (Rome, A View of Saint Peter's Square) - Giovanni Paolo Panini
Cidade do Vaticano - Vaticano
Coleção privada
OST - 60x126

Panini was the pre-eminent painter of vedute in Rome from the second quarter of the 18th century until his death in 1765. Though born in Piacenza, where he is thought to have trained with the architectural painter Bibiena, Panini moved to Rome in 1711 and remained there for the rest of his life. He joined the Congregazione dei Virtuosi al Pantheon in 1718, aged seventeen, and shortly afterwards became a member of the Accademia di San Luca, of which he was elected principe in 1754. During the first two decades of the 18th century Panini worked almost exclusively for the Roman nobility; the Patrizi amongst them, for whom he decorated a villa outside Porta Pia; and the Spinola, for whom he decorated an apartment in the Quirinale. Panini’s main output, however, consisted primarily of easel paintings in which he accurately depicted the various splendors of ancient and modern Rome.

His acceptance into the Académie de France à Rome in 1732 not only attests to the extent of his influence already at that date, but more importantly it marks the beginning of a period in which he was to receive commissions from an increasingly international clientele. From the 1730s royal and aristocratic patrons from France, Spain and England commissioned and acquired works by Panini; amongst them Philip V of Spain, who commissioned a painting from the artist in 1735, and three years later Panini executed a set of five paintings for Marble Hill House in Richmond. Many of his international commissions were not merely topographical reminders of places visited by the tourists on the Grand Tour, but they often assumed historical significance, commemorating important events or visits to Rome on behalf of dignitaries and royal figures. By the mid-18th century Panini was at the head of an extensive workshop which he had set up to meet the ever-increasing demand for his paintings. As an epistolary exchange from 1752 records, Panini only worked on commission by this date and a letter concerning the King of Sardinia’s wish to acquire paintings by the artist records that he barely had the time to meet the demand for commissions he received both from Rome and abroad: 'ha appena il tempo di soddisfare alle commissioni che gli vengono date e dai paesi e qui in Roma da molti e dal Signor Cardinal Segretano di Stato specialmente, che lo protegge' (cited by Arisi, see Literature, 1986, p. 215).

Panini’s success was largely due to the fact that he differed from other contemporary painters in his picturesque approach to painting these familiar sites. Though topographically accurate, Panini’s views tend to appear more theatrical than the more precise views of other vedutisti such as Bellotto or Vanvitelli, and the importance that he places on the numerous figures that populate his scenes and the unusual viewpoints he adopts serve to underline this more dramatic approach to view painting. Panini’s vedute had a lasting influence on painters of the second half of the 18th and early 19th century. Hubert Robert, who arrived in Rome in 1754 (the same year in which these paintings were executed), went on to propagate Panini’s style not only in Rome but in his native France.

St. Peter's Square was the square most often painted by vedutisti in Rome. Its impressive scale (it measures a colossal 240 metres in width), the grandeur of its architecture and its position within the Vatican combined to make it the most famous square in Europe. The obelisk, which can still be seen in situ in the centre of the square, was brought to Rome by Caligula in 37 A.D. and was moved by Pope Sixtus V to its current location in the summer of 1586. The two fountains were erected in the 17th century, in 1613 and 1677 respectively. Designs were provided for the Basilica by some of the greatest architects of the Renaissance: Leon Battista Alberti, Bernardo Rossellino, Bramante, Raphael, Giuliano da Sangallo, Baldassarre Peruzzi, Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and, most famously, Michelangelo. Further modifications were made in the 17th century by Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The square, as it appears in Panini’s painting, had been remodelled following Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s designs in 1656-7 into a perfectly symmetrical space, framed by an elegant double colonnade, itself surmounted by statues based on Bernini’s designs.

Roma, Vista da Piazza del Popolo, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of Piazza del Popolo) - Caspar van Wittel

Roma, Vista da Piazza del Popolo, Roma, Itália (Rome, A View of Piazza del Popolo) - Caspar van Wittel
Roma - Itália
Coleção privada
OST - 57x109

Caspar van Wittel, better known by his Italianized name Vanvitelli, painted this magnificent view of Rome’s celebrated Piazza del Popolo – his most frequently painted Roman view – in 1711, the year he was elected to the Accademia di San Luca. By this date he had undertaken several trips around Italy, including an extended sojourn in Naples between 1700 and 1702. He then returned to Rome, where his reputation as the leading figure in topographical view painting flourished and he continued to work there with great success for the rest of his life. Signed and dated as if written onto the church wall, this spectacular view of contemporary Rome creates a vivid impression of the city’s appearance in the early eighteenth century.

Van Wittel’s vedute held great appeal not only for collectors in Rome but also for visitors on tours of Italy wishing to take back mementoes of their travels. This view is among the finest depictions of one of the city’s greatest public spaces. Indeed, the Piazza del Popolo would have been the first landmark encountered by visitors coming to Rome from the north, via the Porta del Popolo, this veduta’s vantage point and the principal northern entrance to the Eternal City. The picture’s central focus is one of Rome’s oldest obelisks, the red granite monolith originally brought to Rome by the Emperor Augustus after the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC and erected in the Circus Maximus. The celebrated landmark was moved to its present location in 1589 under Pope Sixtus V. Beyond it, at the southern end of the piazza, are the matching domed churches of Santa Maria di Monte Santo and Santa Maria dei Miracoli. From there radiate the three principal arteries, known as the tridente, leading to the heart of the city. Against a backdrop that includes famous landmarks such as, from left, the Villa Medici, the twin towers of Santa Trinità dei Monti, and the Quirinal Palace, Van Wittel animates the cityscape of his day with figures going about their daily business. On the right are the buildings later demolished by Giuseppe Valadier (1762–1839) in his remodelling of the piazza, seen here in a valuable record of the city as it once was.

Van Wittel’s earliest recorded Italian veduta is his depiction in tempera of this very same view, a work on parchment dated 1680, now at the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin.1 Not long after that, in 1683, he provided his fellow Dutchman, the hydraulics engineer Cornelis Meyer (1629–1701), with an etching taken from essentially the same vantage point as the present painting, published by Meyer in L’arte di restituire a Roma la tralasciata navigatione del suo Tevere. The popularity of the view is attested by the large number of autograph treatments that are known today: Van Wittel captured the Piazza del Popolo in no fewer than fifteen paintings (eight in oil and seven in gouache), ranging in date from 1680 to 1718. These include a work in tempera datable to 1688 in the celebrated Colonna collection in Rome and an oil of similar dimensions to the present painting in the Devonshire collection at Chatsworth.2 The present work has been compared to the veduta in the Intesa collection of the Banca Commerciale Italiana, signed and dated 1718 and of comparable size.3 They probably all derive from a preparatory drawing that remains untraced, since they each vary in minor ways although the perspective remains broadly unchanged. At the far left of this composition Van Wittel has included the side-aisle façade of Santa Maria del Popolo, with the dome of the Cybo chapel visible above the wall of the adjacent Augustinian monastery, its gardens extending over the slopes of the Pincian Hill.

In this veduta Van Wittel renders with consummate skill the sweeping vista of the city captured in the afternoon light and brings to the scene a vivid sense of atmosphere. This View of Piazza del Popolo encapsulates his clarity of vision, meticulous depiction of architecture and profound understanding of panoramic perspective.

Egípcios se Afogando no Mar Vermelho, Egito (The Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea) - Antonio Tempesta

Egípcios se Afogando no Mar Vermelho, Egito (The Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea) - Antonio Tempesta
Egito
Coleção Privada
Óleo sobre mármore - 42x59

Antonio Tempesta was a painter, draughtsman and printmaker best known for his battle scenes. Alongside commissions for large-scale decorative projects, he produced elaborate and sophisticated cabinet pictures for the connoisseur market. The present picture is an exceptional and characteristic example of his ingenious works on stone. In it he illustrates, with great precision, the biblical passage from Exodus in which God instructs Moses to hold out his hand over the Red Sea, thus dividing the waters and allowing the Israelites to pass through on dry ground.

Tempesta shows Moses standing in the background with his hand raised. The pillar of cloud, the manifestation of God, floats above the sea. The Israelite women, with their babies and possessions in their arms, stare in wonder at the dreadful destruction as the water closes back over the Egyptian army, the men and horses flailing helplessly in the turbulent waters. In one detail typical of Tempesta, a turbaned man looks out with pleading eyes towards a dog barking on the shore. With great creativity the vivid, animated patterns of the marble are incorporated into the design: a particularly strong vertical vein is used to define the land on which the Israelites stand and the land itself occupies the markedly lighter section of the stone. Other paler masses in the top right corner become rocky outcrops, their darker tones serving as deep clefts in the rock, while smaller, whiter sections of the marble are ingeniously transformed into the flanks of horses. Tempesta created the churning sea in which the soldiers thrash and struggle by picking out the darker and lighter reds of the marble with coloured highlights to define waves and foam. The entire surface is transformed into a highly sophisticated pattern of painted detail and flecked, variegated stone.

Tempesta treated this biblical subject on more than one occasion both in print and as paintings on stone. As part of a print series of 1613 depicting scenes from the Old Testament, plate no. 7 shows the Egyptian army in the foreground with soldiers on horseback pursuing the Israelite army and the waters of the Red Sea parting in the distance to the left. The following plate in the series, no. 8, shows in the foreground the Israelites giving thanks to God on the shore of the Red Sea, while behind to the right the Egyptian army is drowned.1 The present painting combines the two events into one scene – Exodus 14: 28–31 and Exodus 15 – the Egyptians drowning and the song of praise by Moses and the Israelites after that event:

‘And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharoah that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. But the children of Israel walked upon dry land. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians’.

The painting differs from the etching in bringing the actual drowning of the Egyptian army right to the foreground of the composition, thereby making best use of the extraordinary marble ground. This solution also increases the dramatic potential of the scene, as the fate of the Egyptians occupies much of the painting’s surface.

Tempesta made a number of other paintings illustrating the Crossing of the Red Sea, each different in composition. Examples in Rome are at the Galleria Doria Pamphilj (painted on alabaster on an oval format),2 and the Galleria Borghese (on pietra paesina);3 the Giulini Collection in Milan (on alabaster with an arched top);4 and the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest (oil on marble, oval).5 The subject was also published in 1614 as an etching in the series of twenty-four Old Testament Battlescenes dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici.

The present work stands out amongst the various painted versions for its exceptional vividness and magnificence. Tempesta would undoubtedly have known the celebrated fresco by Cosimo Rosselli (1439–1507) of the same subject in the Sistine Chapel, part of the cycle of paintings on the south wall depicting the Stories of Moses. The compositional arrangement is broadly similar to Rosselli’s large narrative fresco, comparable in groupings such as the prominent figures of the Israelites on the left and the dense ranks of cavalry and infantry to the right; atmospheric elements recur, such as the massed storm clouds and pelting rain in the middle distance. Tempesta would have had ample opportunity to study this impressive wall painting at first hand during his employment at the Vatican. As such it constitutes an important precedent for this uncommon subject.

Tempesta, a Florentine, maintained his links with his native city, albeit that he spent much of his career in Rome, counting two successive popes among his most illustrious patrons. Tempesta was listed as a member of the Florentine Accademia del Disegno on 8 December 1576. According to Giovanni Baglione (c. 1566–1643), he was taught by Johannes Stradanus (1523–1605) and certainly his work shows a clear allegiance to the school of Vasari and the continuing influence of the battle scenes of the Salone dei Cinquecento at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Tempesta was in Rome by 1575 when he is recorded as working on the cycle of frescoes in the Loggia Gregoriana of the Vatican Palace alongside Matthijs Bril (1550–1583); the influence of Netherlandish art constitutes another strong current in his work. Among Tempesta’s Roman commissions are a series of frescoes for the church of Santo Stefano Rotondo, frescoes and mosaics in S. Giovanni in Laterano, contributions to the decorations of the villa of Cardinal Francesco Gambara at Bagnaia; and the Farnese villa at Caprarola and, late in his career, two frescoes to flank Guido Reni’s Aurora in the Loggia del Giardino of Scipione Borghese’s palace. Rome remained his focus and his career there was further advanced by the patronage of the succeeding Pope, Paul V Borghese, elected in 1605. In around 1610, there is, however, evidence of renewed contact with Florentine patrons. While Tempesta always referred to himself as ‘pittore’ and was consistently producing pictures and painting frescoes, from the late 1580s he also began to work as a printmaker, initially making designs for execution by experienced engravers but quite quickly employing the medium of etching himself. The majority of Tempesta’s early prints are on religious themes, but with the freely etched hunting and battle scenes that he began to publish in the 1590s, Tempesta established himself as the first Roman artist to reproduce his own graphic style. The less overtly devotional subject matter of this work meant that it escaped the strict control of the papal administration and could therefore be more innovative and experimental in technique.

Tempesta was extremely productive and successful as a printmaker and, alongside the highly animated and increasingly large Battles and Hunts, he made a twelve-sheet Plan of Rome, a magnificent record of the city’s architectural history, which continued to be printed until late into the eighteenth century, as well as illustrations for Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the Deeds of Alexander the Great and the great 200-print series of Old Testament scenes. A member of the Accademia di San Luca, he associated with contemporary painters such as Domenichino (1581–1641), Carlo Saraceni (c. 1579–1620) and Baglione and is mentioned by Caravaggio (1571–1610) as one of the few ‘valent’uomini’ among painters in Rome. In his last years, his printed output slowed down somewhat but his work was still much sought after by collectors and patrons, an example being the Barberini family whose account books list numerous acquisitions from the artist. Tempesta’s influence continued well beyond his immediate contemporaries; Jacques Callot (1592–1635), Stefano della Bella (1610–1664), Pietro Testa (1612–1650) and even Salvator Rosa (1615–1673) all looked to his techniques for inspiration and his prints were used as models by artists as preeminent as Rubens (1577–1640), Rembrandt (1606–1669), Velázquez (1599–1660), Poussin (1594–1665) and Giordano (1634–1705).6

The first recorded owner of this work was the Gavotti family, a branch of which became established in Rome in around 1570. Originally from Savona and are recorded there from the middle of the fifteenth century. Their palaces became focal points for Ligurians in Rome as the family maintained contacts with the Genoa and Savona nobility while entering the heart of Roman society. As significant collectors of art, the Gavotti Verospi family associated with many of the artists and patrons active in Rome in the seventeenth century; the Abbot Giovan Carlo Gavotti was in regular contact with Reni (1575–1642), Albani (1578–1660) and Guercino (1591–1666) and the Gavotti family chapel in the church of San Nicola da Tolentino, was decorated by Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669). The Gavotti and Verospi families were united when Alessandro Gavotti married Virginia Verospi, daughter of Gerolamo Verospi (d. 1775). Paintings from the Gavotti Verospi collections are in various museums and public collections, including Ribera’s Resurrection of Lazarus at the Prado, Madrid, and works by Dirck van Barburen (c. 1594/5–1624) and Giovanni Lanfranco (1582–1647) now at the Fondazione Longhi in Florence. 

The present picture may be the one referred to in an inventory made on the death of Ottavio Gavotti, dated 26 August 1709, which lists as painting number 24, ‘a small picture which shows a battle scene with the figure of Moses with his hands raised’. A more definite reference can be found in the inventory of 1849, in the archives of the Lante family, into which the Marchese Angelo Gavotti Verospi (1781–after 1855) had married in 1806, which lists as number 18, a ‘Passaggio del Marrosso in pietra del Cavalier Tempesta’ located in the anticamera ‘del setino rosso’ of the palazzo di via delle Muratte. The inventory was compiled by the painter and Academician Tommaso Minardi, who also specified that the listed paintings were ‘contrassegnati a tergo’, (‘marked on the back’) with the coat-of-arms of the Gavotti and of that of Angelo Gavotti Verospi, both in red wax. In addition, another earlier valuation of 1838–40 of the Gavotti Verospi paintings, made by Nicola Sessi and G. Trampolini, describes a ‘Sommersione del Faraone del Tempesta, scudi 120’.

Buick Skylark Convertible 1954, Estados Unidos

Buick Skylark Convertible 1954, Estados Unidos
Motor: 322/200HP
Exterior: Preto (Carlsbad Black)
Interior: Vermelho e Preto
Fotografia

Series 100. 200 bhp, 322 cu. in. OHV V-8 engine, two-speed Dynaflow automatic transmission, independent coil-spring front suspension, live rear axle with semi-elliptical leaf springs, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 122 in.

Buick’s Skylark became its own separate series for its second year in 1954, resulting in a sort of corporate hot rod that was based on the 122-inch wheelbase Special/Century chassis but with the “hot” Roadmaster engine. Yes, Buick called the result a “sports car.” Its bodywork was substantially redesigned, the rear fenders were bobbed and sloped gently downward, and large chrome taillight nacelles were added. A wraparound windshield was shared with other 1954 Buicks, but the wheel cutouts, which had been enlarged, elongated, and had their inner wells painted a contrasting color to the body, were exclusive and unusual.
At $4,355, the Skylark continued the tradition of being the most expensive Buick offering, as it was priced at more than $400 above the priciest Roadmaster. It was also the most exclusive, as only 836 sports cars were produced in 1954.

The Skylark offered here is a well-presented, high-quality, older restoration, finished in Carlsbad Black with a full red interior, including correct “waffled” leather upholstery and a black vinyl top. The exterior finish is in good condition overall, and the paint retains a deep, rich shine. The body underneath is straight, and all panels fit properly. The car is equipped with power steering, brakes, and windows; an AM radio; and the standard Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels, shod in radial whitewall tires for improved drivability. At the time of cataloguing, it had recorded just over 71,000 miles.

A 1954 Skylark is an essential part of any collection of 1950s American automobiles, and this would be a wonderful example to cruise down Woodward—or take Back to the Bricks in Flint—this summer.

Fonte: https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/sj15/motor-city/lots/r185-1954-buick-skylark/180458