Escaping banality: collecting, according to Gimmo Etro
The ‘Wunderkammer’ belonging to the entrepreneur and designer is to be auctioned at Il Ponte, with starting prices for the more than 550 lots ranging from 600,000 to 700,000 euros
Key points
There are objects that speak volumes, combining memory, aesthetics and ingenuity, revealing unexpected connections and, above all, expressing the very essence of their owners. This is certainly true of the eclectic collection of works of art, furnishings and artefacts, tastefully selected over more than 50 years by the entrepreneur and designer Gerolamo Etro, founder of the eponymous fashion house, now being offered by Il Ponte in Milan at the ‘Gerolamo Etro – A love affair’ auction on 22, 23 and 24 September.
The cups and trophies, as well as the paintings, furniture and other objects, reveal the collector’s passions and interests: from English silverware and cabinetry to sailing regattas, from golf to horse riding, and from antiques to 20th-century design.
“The common thread linking the lots we are offering at auction is precisely the personality of the person who selected them: Gimmo Etro had a knack for creating dramatic spaces around him, surrounding himself with objects that were never mundane, but always intriguing and unique in some way,” explains Marco Redaelli, head of the antique furniture department at Il Ponte.
Paintings and more
Among the paintings, the following stand out: an elegant lady portrayed with a modern touch by Vittorio Matteo Corcos, ‘La Casta Diva’ from 1903 (estimated at 22–25 thousand euros), inspired by the aria of the same name from Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma, and the ‘Portrait of Stanley Baldwin’ by Glyn Warren Philpot (1884–1937), which combines stylistic refinement with psychological detail (12–15 thousand). Also on offer is a piece commissioned by the prestigious Royal Academy in London: a mid-19th-century oval sofa with a central backrest (€4,500–5,000), crafted by the English firm Holland & Sons, which also worked for the British royal family. A large silver cup, a gift from the Italian musicians of Philadelphia to Arturo Toscanini, commemorates the legendary tour undertaken in the United States by the maestro and the La Scala Orchestra between 1920 and 1921 (12,000–15,000 euros).
In total, over 550 lots will be offered for sale, with starting prices ranging from 600,000 to 700,000 euros.
It is interesting to note that the discerning eye of the connoisseur can also be seen in works of modest financial value, or those by artists who are not particularly well-known. These range from a 1936 oil on canvas depicting a female golfer with painted nails (2,800–3,000) to a portrait of an Indian dandy, signed by the painter John Wells in 1938 (33–35,000), from the exquisitely refined embroidery by Jeanne Vicard-Mayonnade, a rare example of late Art Nouveau (three panels, each estimated at 8,000–10,000 euros) to the horses sensitively captured by the brush of Frances Mabel Hollams, an English painter specialising in depicting animals (seven ‘portraits’, each estimated at 800–1,000 euros). On the cover of the catalogue is William Henry Margetson’s ‘Picnic’ (€18–20,000) evokes a high-society outing and, alongside canvases depicting polo matches, elegant couples arm in arm and intense portraits of young men, it recalls the sophisticated atmosphere masterfully rendered by Francis Scott Fitzgerald in the novel ‘The Great Gatsby’. Among the lots, one also discovers unusual items, such as two early 20th-century shop counters, produced by Frederick Sage & Co., a supplier to Harrods department store. There is also a painting, ‘St Valentine’s Day’, by John Callcott Horsley, a Victorian-era painter famous for designing the first Christmas card intended for sale, and a bizarre two-seater armchair from around 1950, shaped like a huge handbag. In short, a sort of Wunderkammer, bearing witness to choices made without deference to passing fads, by a true connoisseur.
