HOW DOES A BOWL END UP IN A MUSEUM?
2/6: The bowl from Isabella d’Este’s majolica service in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
THE CENTURY AUCTION IN PARIS (1893)
🔘: “After nothing much happened around me for four hundred years, things get quite exciting again towards the end of the 19th century. I have the great good fortune to go on a trip to Paris. And it is there that I become the focus of public attention once again.”
🔘: “That is because I am an important item in the famous collection of Friedrich Spitzer (1815–1890) when his estate is auctioned off in 1893. Born in Vienna and based since 1852 in Paris, the antique dealer travels all over Europe. He is always on the lookout for high-quality works of decorative art from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, which he puts on display in his mansion in Paris and at the World Exhibitions. His customers are international museums and wealthy private individuals. There are still more than 3,000 objects in his collection at the time of Spitzer’s death.”
🔘: “The news of the “auction of the century” goes around the world and triggers intense rivalry on the international art market. The news that I am to be sold at the auction spreads like wildfire. The people are champing at the bit to bid for me. Connoisseurs of art who want to expand their private collection are in competition with the most prestigious museums. They vie to outbid each other in this, the internationally eagerly awaited auction. The 3,000 objects are auctioned off and bring 9.1 million francs.“
A MUSEUM DIRECTOR’S SPONSORING STRATEGY
🔘: “Justus Brinckmann (1843-1915), too, the founding director of the MK&G, which opened in 1877, who was well-known for his “pottery mania”, has set his sights on me. He travels especially to Paris because of me, and does everything he can to bid for me at the auction. My reputation precedes me wherever I go.”
🔘: “Brinckmann leaves no stone unturned in his efforts to raise as much money as he can for the auction. He already starts his fundraising campaign at the end of 1891. In 1892, however, the project appears to have run into a fundamental obstacle. Due to a cholera epidemic raging in Hamburg, the government is unable to provide any special funds. But Brinckmann doesn’t give up. Besides public appeals in the newspapers he writes hundreds of letters of supplication and on top of that personally visits many Hamburg villas to petition their wealthy owners. In this way the indefatigable museum director manages to raise 50,000 francs, no small achievement.“
🔘: “Within his budget, Brinckmann bids enthusiastically, but has no chance: the others are so wealthy that they snatch everything away under his nose. He has to admit defeat.“
🔘: “Still, he at least succeeds in acquiring a few valuable scientific instruments and a small majolica plate made in Urbino for the MK&G.“
🔘: “But I am awarded to the immensely rich diamond tycoon Alfred Beit. With a final bid of 26,500 francs, I am the third most expensive lot in the auction.“
Profile: Alfred Beit
• 1853 born in Hamburg, from 1875 in South Africa
• 1888 main residence in London
• since 1898 a British national, died 1906
• German-British-South African gold and diamond trader
• Owner of a number of mines in South Africa
• Patron of the arts
• Justus Brinckmann advises Alfred Beit when buying art objects
• Wilhelm Bode, Berlin, advises Alfred Beit, too
• 1889 first donation to the MK&G
• from 1901 onwards regular endowments from Beit to the MK&G
• 1893 purchase of the bowl from Isabella d‘Este’s service at in Paris
• the bowl comes to the MK&G in 1906 as a bequest
🔘: “And so I seem to be lost to Hamburg. The fact that I eventually do land up in the Hanseatic city is due to the lucky circumstance that Alfred Beit was born in Hamburg and is a friend of Justus Brinckmann and a fan of the MK&G. The London-based diamond trader mentions me in his will and bequeaths me to the Museum. His sad demise comes in 1906 and I come to the MK&G as a bequest of the deceased by way of a donation from his mother, Laura Beit.”
Majolika-Vitrine in Ausstellung (1906) by Weimar, WilhelmMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
🔘: “Justus Brinkmann immediately orders a new showcase to display me to best advantage. At this moment, I am the most valuable object donated to the MK&G since the museum’s founding (1874). To the present day I still rank among the MK&G’s “Top Ten“.”
🔘: “Apart from me, seventeen other majolica ceramics come into the MK&G via the Beit Foundation Justus Brinckmann is over the moon, since this set of majolicas is the most valuable donation the MK&G has received since its founding. Here is a selection of majolica from the Beit Collection:”
Further chapters
1: A SERVICE FOR ISABELLA D’ESTE – A BOWL TELLS ITS STORY
2: HOW DOES A BOWL END UP IN A MUSEUM?
3: AN IMPORTANT COMMISSION FOR NICOLA DA URBINO4: A CRASH COURSE IN MAJOLICA
5: FOCUS ON THE BOWL
6: A PORTRAIT OF ISABELLA D’ESTE
