Art News

Sotheby’s to sell the Raymond & Pierre Jourdan-Barry Collection of French 17th & 18th century silver

PARIS.- Sotheby’s announced the sale on 18 April 2012 in Paris one of the world’s most important collections of 17th & 18th Century French Silver – assembled for over half-a-century by Raymond Jourdan-Barry and his son Pierre. The superbly coherent 200-lot ensemble embodies rarity and supreme elegance. This is a collection of the highest quality – a pinnacle in the quest for ideal beauty. Each item of silverware is imbued with the spirit of the ensemble as a whole, embodying refined taste, virtuoso technique, perfect proportions and stylistic unity. And each item has its own ‘look’ – making it possible to speak of a ‘Jourdan-Barry piece.’ Pierre Jourdan-Barry is both a collector and a patron of the arts. He comes from a family of collectors who formed his artistic taste. He has invested in painting, ceramics (donating his faïence collection to the Musée Pastré in his native Marseil