Nele, not only a favorite of Till Eulenspiegel / Tijl Uilenspiegel, Charles Samuel and Delta 98 Den Haag

At the auction house VendueHuis der Notarissen in The Hague

Jaap of Delta 98 Den Haag, once saw an extremely charming and beautiful carved sculpture. Not on exhibition or on sale, no, it stood on a shelf in the back of the auction house office.

For several months.

Being investigated, as they said.

 

 Finally, in the fall of 1996, it came up for auction. We bought it.

Shortly after our purchase we made a shop window display with seven white stands, all had a female sculpture on it, all ladies were covered with white, semi-transparent textile, except one, the centrepiece, was uncovered.

Nele unveiled.

This Nele was made between 1894 and 1898 of ivory and fruitwood with an art nouveau appearance, on a wooden stand by Paul Hankar (1859-1901), by the Belgium sculptor:

Charles Samuel (1862-1938, Brussels) 

A reservation was made on it within a day by an Amsterdam dealer.

The next day, Mr. Frits Scholten, curator at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam came by on his bike, stopped, looked in our window, came in, asked us about one of the covered statues, looked at that one, told us something of it's history and then he asked about Nele. Sorry, we said, it already has a reservation. Mr. Frits Scholten was clearly disappointed. Because he always had been so kind, had bought several items in the past, always shared knowledge (to a certain extent), I gave him a small present, a silvered bronze plaque I had in my medal collection, also made by Charles Samuel, just to cheer him up.

 

This medal depicts Charles Samuel 's deceased wife:

the French pianist Clotilde Kleeberg-Samuel (1866-1909), daughter of Martin Kleeberg (1838-1913) and Henriëtte Cahn (1839-1909) Mr. Scholten donated the plaque to the Rijksmuseum.
 

For the happy ending: the sculpture of Nele was offered for sale at Christie's Amsterdam in 2004 and purchased by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Nele revealed, now for everybody. 
 

In 2013 I was able to purchase an other Nele;

a pewter plaque, with a diameter of 23 cm,

dated 1895 and signed Ch.Samuel.

 

It also has a stamp in the form a collection or money tin with the text:

la feuille d’etain enfants pauvres Bruxelles,

of the philanthropical organisation La Feuille d’Etain, which sold items to able them to buy shoes and clothes for the poor children of Brussels

 

For again a happy ending and for the memories:

we still have this plaque in our collection.

 

 

For documentation see:

Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, jaargang 56, 2008 - nummer 1-2,

the ten page article, starting on page 192,

written by Frits Scholten:

 " Charles Samuels Nele, model, fragment, cliché "

 

 

 



tekst: Marx Warmerdam

pictures: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and archive Delta 98 Den Haag



Following a sold piece: the Pianolamp designed by J.J.P. Oud, provenance Delta 98 Den Haag

Sometimes we are really proud when a piece is bought by a nice person, or a well known collector, or a museum, or sold at an auction with nice result, but also when it goes from hand to hand, proving it's importance.

 

 

Especially when the provenance is documented as:

Provenance: Delta 98 Den Haag

 

In 1992 we bought this pianolamp from the estate of

Willem Retera (1890-1955)

 

We knew what it was, a so called Gispen Pianolamp, designed by J.J.P. Oud. After thorough research and a visit to study a similar piece and the original drawings of the design in the collection of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam we could conclude that it was a first edition piece, from 1927. Only a few were made because Oud started a lawsuit against W.H.Gispen who started to produce this design without permission by Oud. Eventually they reached a settlement and in the years after Gispen excuted several types, known as the Giso 404, of these lamps. But thoose all differ from the original design and the first few executed.

In the years following nobody in Holland was willing to pay the price we asked for it. Dutch Gispen and design collectors thought we were mad. Because of that, and because a similar piece was already in a Dutch museum, we offered it in 1999 to Mark (-), a well-known dealer from New York on his yearly visit to The Netherlands, together with a so called Dames Bureau Lamp, Ladies Desk Lamp produced by Gispen in 1928. And the deal was done.

Shortly after Mark offered the pianolamp to Christie's New York, and they placed it in their important auction: Masterworks 1900-2000, in June 2000.

 

 

In the catalogue, not only a beautiful picture of the lamp, a picture of J.J.P.Oud the designer himself, a short textual illustration on Oud, Gispen and the lamp, but also a provenance:

Galerie Delta 98 The Hague.

Nice !

  

                          

The price realized was nice too !  We were really proud !

 

Three years later we received a Sotheby's catalogue and there it was,

"our" pianolamp, now presented at the Sotheby's Auction:

  Collection Karl Lagerfeld, Arts Decoratifs Du XXe siecle, Paris, Mai 2003.

The next lot was probably "our" desklamp !

 

Again a nice price was realized ! Proud again !

Thank you Mark, thank you Christie's, thank you Karl Lagerfeld, thank you Sotheby's and thank you New Owner !

We will always refer and remember this super object.

Penningen, the dutch word for Medallic Art or Art Medals, a part of the collection of Delta 98 Den Haag

My collection. Art medals. How did that start ?

About 20 years ago a colleague, Mr. Doesberg, offered us a medal, it was beautiful art deco, by a famous dutch designer and the subject was theatre. I was blown away, all I loved was within that little gem.

 

silver medal by / zilveren penning door: Chris van der Hoef,  Antigone 1921 Arnhem - Den Haag

 

At that moment Jaap found the price to high. So no deal.

Mr. Doesberg drank his regular tea and perhaps two more and left with the medal.

Bye bye!

The moment he shut the shopdoor behind him, I shouted out loud:

"Why didn't you buy that medal ! I wanted that medal ! You miser !"

Jaap responded very calm: "It's just a coin. What do we need a coin for ?"

Me: "It's not a coin !!! It's a medal, a piece of art, it's art deco, it's by Chris van der Hoef, it's theatre !!!"

Sob sob.

 

About 3-4 weeks later it was my birthday, Jaap came to our shop, he gave me a present and it was the medal.
Kiss kiss.

Of course he had to pay a lot more, because Mr. Doesberg had already sold it on and Jaap had to buy it from that other dealer.

Tough, tough.

 

 

 

 

Shortly after that I saw an other art medal and bought it, 2 - 10 - 40 and so on.

Jaap kept saying: "What do you want to do with thoose coins?"

After several years, I had collected about 100, and then I decided the collection was good and big enough to show. I sold some and bought some more.

It's not wise dealership, there are only a few collectors,

but it's love love love and very very very nice to do.

 

 

     silver art medal by / zilveren penning door: Gerrit Rietveld, 1926, Horemheb - Ichnaton

 

Always I just wanted to collect only dutch medals, made by well known dutch designers, artists and sculptors, starting at 1900 up to the present. Just to keep in an area I can learn and know about a lot.

 

Sometimes though an extremely beautiful piece can make me decide to go abroad

 

      silver medal by Louis Oscar Roty, Death of Sadi Carnot, assassinated president of France 1894

 

There are so many wonderful art nouveau medals from France, Belgium and Germany, designed by great sculptors, for example Roty, Charpentier, Dupuis, Dubois, Coudray, Chaplain, Pillet, etc.

 

After the art nouveau period the art deco began, and to my opion, the most beautiful, powerful, topdesigned art deco medal ever made is American:

designed in 1933, by Norman Bel Geddes (1893-1958) for the 25th anniversary of General Motors:

  

 

 

 

More medals can be seen on our site: www.delta98.nl

 

 

 

pictures: delta 98 den haag archive

tekst: Marx Warmerdam