Koopman Rare Art

Hello and welcome to Coop & Rare Art. Here we are in the middle of Bayfair which has been a big transition for us after nearly 60 years in Chancery Lane working on top of the silver vaults. We have a beautiful new gallery. Here we're showing a huge range of English silver which we're famous for. English silver ranging from 1600 through to the 20th century. We now include a beautiful range of 20th century jewellery with all the big names Cartier, Van Cleef and of course our little secret passion which is gold boxes from the 18th and 19th century. We now find ourselves in what we call at Coop & Rare Art our VIP room. It's kind of the inner sanctum where we have some of the more important and precious pieces that we own. One of the things that we have decided to highlight today is the most magnificent soup tureen which is made in London in 1736. Now the Rococo period is obviously one of the most interesting periods of English silver. There was this freedom where artists could work in a way that had never been seen before. The very hard-line Queen Anne design or George I design as it's recognised was very different to what we see here. This is a piece by Christian Hillan. It shows unbelievable skill in chasing, unbelievable imagination in the applied work that's put onto the silver and the body and the chasing are in absolutely pristine condition so we get a feeling of the way it was presented and the way it looked in 1736. The Coopman name is obviously famous for dealing in so much Paul Storr and Regency English silver. It's what we hold a huge stock of and what everyone expects to find. What you don't expect to find is this great piece of French silver. This is French Empire silver made by the most important silversmith of the day Jean-Baptiste Claudodio. This was made for the mother of Napoleon, Madame Mare and was presented to her son. One of the things that every good mother does is includes a portrait of herself so that you never forget who gave you the inkstand. It has letters that relate to that particular gift which are still intact. This is one of the greatest pieces of silver, Empire silver to exist and I first bought this in 1982. I was sent by Jack Coopman who was my teacher and my mentor who started really dealing in the very high-end silver and he had me go and buy it in Mayfair when we were in Chancery Lane, sent me with a signed cheque and said go and do the best deal you can. Since then it's been in one of the most famous collections, the Altagier collection and this was put together by the Coopman and we continue to work with them from the late 1970s.