NEW YORK CITY — La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery will present its premiere auction on Saturday, February 5, at 11 am. The inaugural auction at La Belle Epoque Auction Gallery’s two-level, 5,000-square-foot Meatpacking District/West Village location at 71 8th Avenue in Manhattan will be open to in-person auction bidders, with masks required, while being presented online through LiveAuctioneers and Bidsquare.
In-person previews for the auction will take place on Thursday, February 3, from 1 to 7 pm and Friday, February 4, from noon to 5 pm, with masks required. The auction will feature a selection of hundreds of items, including fine and contemporary art, antiques, furniture, midcentury modern decorative items and collectibles from multiple estates.
Highlights being offered in the fine and contemporary art arena will include a Byron Browne “Sunset on the Beach.” Twentieth Century Modernist Abstract painting, signed lower and titled on the verso, 19½ by 26 inches ($8/12,000); a Twentieth Century oil on canvas polychromed South African painting signed Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier (1909-2005), 24 by 35 inches ($2/3,000); and a French Nineteenth Century oil painting of Venice in gilt frame by Paul Charles Emmanuel Gallard-Lepinay (1842-1885), 18 by 28 inches ($1,5/2,000).
Also featured is a Ligue Vinicole original vintage poster, circa 1900 by Orazi (1860-1934) depicting the little cherub dipping his arrow of love in freshly squeezed wine, promoting the French guild. Printer is Charles Verneau, Paris, 40 by 55 inches ($6/9,000); a Charles Levier AKA “Villard” (French, 1920- 2003) early/mid-Twentieth Century polychromed oil on canvas of two women, 24 by 19 inches ($1,5/1,800); and an oversized photograph of Joan Crawford by George Edward Hurrell (American, 1904-1992), which has been flush mounted to archival foam board with Hurrell’s signature and edition notation 35/50 in ink on recto, printed circa 1980, 36 by 48 inches ($800-$1,200).