Creative gems under the hammer

Emil Schweickerdt was friendly with many of the South African old masters and exhibited their works at his gallery, first in Church Street, then Queen Street, followed by the Vatika Centre in Brooklyn and finally in Lynnwood Road, Pretoria.

He had working relationships with Nils Anderson, WH Coetzer, Walter Battiss, Gregoire Boonzaier, Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, Adriaan Boshoff, Dawid Botha, Errol Boyley, George Boyes, Sydney Carter, Frans Claerhout, Gabriel and Thinus de Jongh, Henry John Dykman, Zakkie Eloff, George Enslin, Giovanni and Tittta Fasciotti, Margaret Gradwell, Michael Heyns, Otto Klar, the Koch brothers, Maggie Laubser, Wessel Marais, Erich Mayer, Hennie Niemann, Frans Oerder, JH Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Nico Roos, Coert Steynberg, Maud Sumner, Conrad Theys, Chris Tugwell, Maurice van Essche, Edoardo Villa, JEA Volschenk, Anna Vorster, Marjorie Wallace, Pieter Wenning and Walter Westbrook.

Paintings by most of these artists will come under the hammer.

Emil had such a love for art that he went as far as assisting some of the artists with transport, and he even took them on painting trips throughout South Africa. This is evident in some of the works featured, which have personal dedications from the artists.

Professor DM Joubert, former rector of the University of Pretoria, had a keen eye for promising South African art, which is illustrative of his collection – including Nico Roos, Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, Frans Claerhout and Anna Vorster.

Joubert was a friend of Bettie Cilliers-Barnard and he admired her work Gesigte, a Cubist painting from her 1951 Paris period.

A small selection of furniture, collectibles and jewellery will be sold at 4pm.

Silver and porcelain will also be on offer.

The session concludes with a selection of gold, platinum, silver and diamond jewellery, featuring antique Dutch and garnet gemstone jewellery and a Van Cleef & Arpels emerald and diamond dress ring (originally purchased in 1995 on the Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico).

Info:

> The auction takes place on September 22.

> Viewing will run until Sunday from 10am-5pm.