The sale also includes a magnificent pair of Regency-period armchairs upholstered in rare Beauvais tapestry (€12,000 – 18,000) , formerly in the collection of Baron Nathan James Edouard de Rothschild at his Paris residence on Rue de Friedland, together with an elegant Régence commode (€25,000 –40,000), attributed to Charles Cressent, the leading cabinet-maker of the Régence period.

The collection also includes a group of 16th-century Limoges enamels and works in silver, reflecting the Rothschild family's longstanding fascination with the spirit of the Kunstkammer. Highlights include a 16th-century Limoges enamel dish by Pierre Reymond (€5,000 – 7,000) and a pair of grisaille enamel tazze by Jean de Court depicting scenes from the Old Testament (€20,000 – 30,000).

Among the most remarkable Old Master paintings is Portrait of a Woman with a Black Dog, known the Portrait of Madame de Tencin, by François-Hubert Drouais, dated 1756 (€30,000 – 50,000).  
Formerly in the collection of Charlotte de Rothschild, the painting was displayed by her grandson Henri on the ground floor of his hôtel particulier at 33 Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, where he devoted an entire floor to the Old Master paintings inherited from his grandmother. Both through its subject and its provenance, the painting embodies a taste for eighteenth-century French painting that was passed down from one generation to the next. The Age of Enlightenment is further represented by works by Watteau de Lille and Nicolas-Bernard Lépicié. 

The sale also includes several paintings by Francesco Guardi, an artist much admired by Charlotte de Rothschild, who passed on her love of Venetian capricci to her grandchildren. Several works by Francesco Guardi, including Architectural Caprice with Figures in the Lagoon, Venice – an oil on panel of remarkable delicacy – passed through the collection of Henri de Rothschild’s sister, Jeanne Charlotte, before being bequeathed to him in 1926 (€40,000 – 60,000). Further acquisitions made by subsequent generations have added to this precious legacy, such as Fishing Boats on a Shore beneath a Stormy Sky, a delicate seascape by Jan van Goyen (€50,000 – 70,000). 

The grandson of the collector at the heart of this sale, Henri de Rothschild (1872–1947) was one of the most remarkable figures of his time. He supported Marie Curie’s research, founded his own car brand, commissioned the construction of a theatre and, under the pseudonym André Pascal, wrote some thirty plays that were successfully staged in Paris. From an early age, he assembled a collection of autographs, which he later bequeathed to the Bibliothèque nationale de France. His library, inherited from his father, ranks among the most significant ever assembled. In his various residences – the Hôtel Perrinet de Jars on Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, the Château de la Muette and the Abbaye des Vaux-de-Cernay – he displayed collections of great coherence and remarkable refinement. The sale includes a copy of Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey (€1,800 – 2,000), in its remarkable edition printed by Didot on large vellum paper in Year VII (1799), enhanced with engravings printed on blue paper and an original watercolour from the period.  

Henri de Rothschild was a direct descendant of four of the five brothers who founded the various branches of the Rothschild family. In 1899, his grandmother Charlotte bequeathed her collection of paintings to him, except for those works that belong to the Louvre. In 1903, he inherited from his uncle Arthur. In 1926, he received the estate of his sister Jeanne, Baroness Léonino, who had died without issue. In 1931, he inherited from his mother Thérèse, daughter of Baron Mayer Carl von Rothschild of the Frankfurt branch. This accumulation of distinguished provenances, combined with Henri's own discerning taste, gives the collection to be offered on 22 September a truly exceptional character. The works of art, paintings and books brought together here are more than expressions of elegance and culture: they embody the living memory of more than two centuries of the Rothschild family's passion for the arts.