5 November 2025 | Paris | full auction details

Beginning the series of auctions dedicated to The Manny Davidson Collection: A Life in Treasures and Benevolence, the evening sale gives an insight to the extraordinary depth and quality of the collection which has been so lovingly and painstakingly assembled over decades. A polymath in his collecting, with an innate understanding and a passion for acquiring works across a broad range of disciplines, the sale includes the finest examples of Manny's collection of Old Master paintings including Sir Peter Paul Rubens rediscovered, Head study of a boy, originally part of a larger study the other part of which hangs in the Louvre, Paris. Thomas de Keyser's portrait of the celebrated silversmith Christian van Vianen was particularly admired by Manny given his deep passion for early English and European silver which is represented in the sale and includes highlights such as the rare set of eight Royal German table candlesticks made for the wedding of Maria-Josepha of Saxony and Louis, Dauphin of France in 1747, and items by the celebrated Paul de Lamerie.

Important sculpture and works of art enriched the interiors of the homes created by Manny and his wife Brigitta, the gilt-bronze Tritons after the models by Gianlorenzo Bernini and the bust of the young Marcus Aurelius attributed to Tullio Lombardo stand alongside important Italian maiolica and Limoges enamels included in the sale. Gently chiming in the background are a number of superlative English clocks from the 'Golden Age' of English clock-making with examples by Thomas Tompion, Joseph Knibb and George Graham and a fantastic, bejewelled automaton clock by James Cox. The delicacy and refinement exhibited in the James Cox clock is mirrored by Manny's love of eighteenth century gold boxes, exquisitely decorated with enamel, jewels or hardstones including two formerly in the collection of Baron Gustave de Rothschild.

An elegant set of dining chairs by Thomas Chippendale almost certainly supplied to the Earl of Shelburne for his house on Berkeley Square and a bold giltwood bench designed by William Kent for Wanstead House are highlights of the English furniture, elegantly combining with a renaissance tapestry creating warm and sumptuous interiors in which to enjoy these many treasures that surround one