Fine European Ceramics Including the Heinrich Rothberger Collection New Bond Street, London | Thursday 3 December 2020 Fine European Ceramics Including the Heinrich Rothberger Collection New Bond Street, London | Thursday 3 December 2020 at 2pm VIEWING ENQUIRIES CUSTOMER SERVICES IMPORTANT INFORMATION Sunday 29 November Nette Megens Monday to Friday 8.30am to 6pm The United States Government 11am to 3pm Head of Department +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 has banned the import of ivory Monday 30 November +44 (0) 20 7468 8348 into the USA. Lots containing ivory are indicated by the 9am to 4.30pm [email protected] PHYSICAL CONDITION OF symbol printed beside the Tuesday 1 December LOTS IN THIS AUCTION Ф 9am to 4.30pm Sebastian Kuhn PLEASE NOTE THAT ANY lot number in this catalogue. Wednesday 2 December Department Director REFERENCE IN THIS 9am to 4.30pm +44 (0) 20 7468 8384 CATALOGUE TO THE PHYSICAL REGISTRATION Thursday 3 December [email protected] CONDITION OF ANY LOT IS IMPORTANT NOTICE 9am-12pm FOR GENERAL GUIDANCE REGISTRATION Sophie von der Goltz ONLY. INTENDING BIDDERS IMPORTANT NOTICE SALE NUMBER Specialist MUST SATISFY THEMSELVES Please note that all customers, 26283 +44 (0) 20 7468 8349 AS TO THE CONDITION OF irrespective of any previous [email protected] ANY LOT AS SPECIFIED IN activity with Bonhams, are CLAUSE 14 OF THE NOTICE TO required to complete the Bidder CATALOGUE BIDDERS CONTAINED AT THE Registration Form in advance of £25.00 END OF THIS CATALOGUE. the sale. The form can be found at the back of every catalogue BIDS As a courtesy to intending and on our website at www. +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 bidders, Bonhams will provide a bonhams.com and should be written indication of the physical returned by email or post to the To bid via the internet please condition of lots in this sale if a specialist department or to visit bonhams.com/26283 request is received up to 24 the bids department at bids@ hours before the auction starts. bonhams.com Please note that bids should This written Indication is issued To bid live online and / or leave be submitted no later than 4pm subject to Clause 3 of the Notice internet bids please go to on the day prior to the sale. to Bidders. www.bonhams.com/auctions/ New bidders must also provide 26283 and click on the Register to proof of identity when submitting bid link at the top left of the page. bids. Failure to do this may result in your bid not being processed. Telephone bidding will only be accepted on lots with a low estimate in excess of £1,000. Live online bidding is available for this sale Please email [email protected] with ‘live bidding’ in the subject line 48 hours before the auction to register for this service Bonhams 1793 Limited Registered No. 4326560 Registered Office: Montpelier Galleries Montpelier Street, London SW7 1HH +44 (0) 20 7393 3900 +44 (0) 20 7393 3905 fax Sale Information BIDS COLLECTION AND STORAGE 44 (0) 20 7447 7447 AFTER SALE To bid via the internet please visit All sold lots will remain in www.bonhams.com Bonhams New Bond Street Collections department free PAYMENTS of charge until 5.30pm Wednesday Buyers 23 December 2020 +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 Lots not collected by then will SELLERS be returned to the department. Payment of sale proceeds storage charges may apply +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 Please note that Bonhams will VALUATIONS, be closed from 1pm Thursday TAXATION & HERITAGE 24 December 2020 until 9am +44 (0) 20 7468 8340 Monday 4 January 2021. +44 (0) 20 7468 5860 fax [email protected] The following symbol is used to denote that VAT is due on CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS the hammer price and buyer’s To obtain any Bonhams catalogue premium or to take out an annual subscription: Subscriptions Department † VAT 20% on hammer price +44 (0) 1666 502 200 and buyer’s premium +44 (0) 1666 505 107 fax [email protected] * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on SHIPPING hammer price and the For information and estimates prevailing rate on buyer’s premium on domestic and international shipping as well as export Y These lots are subject to licenses please contact Alban CITES regulations, please Shipping on +44 (0) 1582 493 099 read the information in the [email protected] back of the catalogue. Payment in Advance (Telephone to ascertain amount due) by: cash, cheque with banker’s card, credit or debit card. Payment at time of collection by: cash, cheque with banker’s card, credit, or debit card European Ceramics London Sebastian Kuhn Department Director Nette Megens Head of Department Sophie von der Goltz Specialist The Heinrich Rothberger Collection Heinrich Rothberger (1868-1953) was part of the great pre-War generation of cultured, knowledgeable and wealthy central European collectors that flourished between the end of the 19th century and the rise to power of the Nazis. Berlin and Vienna were the centres of this golden age, during which the best collections were formed with great knowledge and refined taste, rather than just an excess of wealth i . i This introduction is based on the comprehensive and fascinating history of pre-War collecting in Vienna, the Rothberger family, their collections, and their fate before, during and after WWII published by Christina Gschiel, Ulrike Nimeth and Leonhard Wiedinger, schneidern und sammeln Die Wiener Familie Rothberger, Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 2 (2010). See also Leonhard Weidinger, The Viennese “Porcelain Scene” The Museum and Private Collections, in C. Thun-Hohenstein/R. Franz (eds.), 300 Jahre Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur/ 300 Years of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (2018), pp. 93-99, for an excellent survey of pre-War porcelain collecting in Vienna. The historic photographs depicting members of the Rothberger family and the porcelain vitrines in Heinrich and Ella Rothberger’s apartment on the Stephansplatz in Vienna, which mostly date to the first decade of the 20th century, courtesy of the family of Mrs Bertha Gutmann. 4 | BONHAMS The Rothberger Family Heinrich was born into a prosperous mercantile family in fin-de-siècle The largely secular Rothberger family was rapidly assimilated into Vienna: a city that was both the centre of the traditions of the old Em- the Viennese upper-class and, in a reflection of this status, Jacob pire, as well of the intellectual and artistic avant-garde. His father, Jacob Rothberger moved into an apartment in one of the most prestig- Rothberger (1825-99), was born in Hungary in humble circumstances ious blocks in Vienna, the newly-built Philipphof (built in 1883-84 and probably arrived in Vienna in the 1840s, where he established next to the Albertinum and close to the Hofburg). His sons thrived himself as a tailor. The city of Vienna grew rapidly in the second half of in this flourishing intellectual and business climate: Moritz (1865- the 19th century and Jacob Rothberger prospered to the extent that, 1944), Heinrich and Alfred (1873-1932) entered the family business, in 1861, he was able to move his business to one of the city’s most while Carl Julius (1871-1945) pursued a highly successful career in prestigious and central addresses: the Stephansplatz, directly opposite medicine, becoming a world-renowned pathologist and, from 1912, St. Stephan’s cathedral. Rothberger introduced the practice whereby Professor at the University of Vienna. In addition to their business customers could trade in their old clothes in return for a discount on careers, Moritz and Alfred were talented artists (the former was also purchases, as well as prêt-à-porter, and his business was continued a distinguished collector of both contemporary art and pre-historic to prosper. By the mid-1890s, the Rothberger department store had and antique objects) and Carl Julius a keen amateur photographer. expanded across three buildings facing the cathedral. Members of the family and their business had occasionally been the subject of anti-semitic hostility, which became more overt during the 1930s. Carl Julius, for example, was passed over for the position of Director of the Institute of Pathology and in 1936 was forced into early retirement. Following the ‘Anschluss’ on 13 March 1938 the Rothberger family, along with all those defined by the Nazis as Jewish, 6 | BONHAMS Alfred, Heinrich and Carl Julius Rothberger (l. to r.) in Heinrich and Ella Rothberger’s apartment in Vienna on the Stephansplatz in 1901. FINE EUROPEAN CERAMICS | 7 were subject to ever increasing restrictions and persecution. In Spring and assets altogether and their rights were successively diminished; 1938, Carl Julius was briefly arrested and the elder son of Heinrich both Moritz and Heinrich were forced to sell their collections. Some and Ella Rothberger (1878-1964), Johann Jacob, known as ‘Hans’ family members fled the country, including Heinrich and Ella, who left (1899-1987), was arrested and sent to Dachau and then Buchenwald Vienna at the beginning of November 1941 for Cuba, where they were concentration camps before being released in February 1939. He was obliged to remain during the war, after which they were able to join their effectively held hostage to put pressure on his family to relinquish their two sons in Canada. At the end of November 1941, all Jews no longer assets. From the end of April 1938, Jewish citizens were required to in the German Reich were stripped of their citizenship and forfeited their declare their assets to the authorities and in July the process of ‘ary- assets. Moritz and Carl Julius were able to remain in Vienna with their anisation’ of the family firm commenced and the family members were families: the former died in 1944 and Carl Julius and his wife, Leopol- forced to relinquish their shares.