The centre table with 17th century pietra dura top attributed to the Castrucci workshop in Prague which made €300,000 (£256,410) in Osenat’s auction of the collection of Raymond and Suzanne Fischof-La Foux.
Raymond, who died in 1980 at the age of 74, started as an engineer, went on to own an advertising agency, acquired the trade magazine Le Moniteur and became a property developer and adviser to François Mitterand.
Suzanne, who died last year at the age of 102, was his second wife.
The couple, who married in 1950 at the George V hotel, summered each year in Monaco at the Hôtel de Paris, becoming friends with Princess Grace and Roger Moore.
Raymond was passionate about jewellery, objets d’art and luxury cars. Suzanne shared his love of jewellery and was a loyal customer of Van Cleef and Arpels and the Maison Gérard.
In her will in 2007 Suzanne requested that her jewellery and furniture be sold at auction using the proceeds to create a Fondation Raymond & Suzanne Fischof-La Foux.
She bequeathed her estate to the Fondation des Petits Frères des Pauvres to administer the foundation with a view to supporting charitable causes (guide dogs, accommodation for the elderly and medical research into degenerative illnesses).
Another of the top lots in day one, leaving behind a €3000-5000 guide to take €140,000 (£119,660) at Osenat’s auction of the Fischof-La Foux collection, was this pair of 12in (32cm) high Chinese Jiaqing period baluster vases. They are decorated in gold on a powder blue ground with various motifs and emblems including bats and carp along with ruyi heads and have a jaiqing mark in zhuanshu to the base.
On February 21-22 Osenat (25% buyer’s premium) held a two-part auction in Paris of works from the couple’s collections.
The first day was devoted to items from their Paris apartment on the Avenue Foch to include furnishings, works of art and paintings. The second was given over to 100 pieces of Suzanne’s jewellery, each engraved with the name Fischof-La- Foux. The auction viewing was held appropriately at the George V where they were married.
The event garnered a total of €6m for the Foundation.
Top lots
The convertible diamond necklace by Maison Gérard which led the Osenat auction of the Fischof-La Foux collection on €880,000 (£752,135) .
Suzanne’s jewellery made a major contribution to this figure with several pieces selling for six-figure sums. They were led by an impressive diamond necklace convertible to a brooch and two bracelets made by Maison Gérard which realised €880,000 (£752,135).
There were also some notable results from the paintings and furniture offered on day one.
Among the best-sellers, eclipsing a €20,000-30,000 guide to take €300,000 (£256,410), was a 2ft 8in (80cm) wide centre table in ebony veneer on a giltwood base that had a 17th century pietra dura top decorated in a rich variety of hardstones with a landscape.
It was attributed to the Castrucci workshop. Cosimo Castrucci, an Italian goldsmith and pietra dura artist, was employed by the Emperor Rudolph III at his court in Prague to set up a pietra dura workshop like that of the Medici in Florence.
The workshop employed three generations of the Castrucci family in the late 16th and 17th century: Cosimo, his son Giovanni and his grandson. The Castruccis’ work favoured landscape subjects often derived from paintings by northern Flemish masters such as Pieter Breughel and Paul Bril.
Moise Kisling’s 21in x 2ft 1in (54 x 65cm) oil on canvas Mimosas from 1947 sold for €200,000 (£170,940) at Osenat’s auction of the Fischof-La Foux collection.
Among the paintings in the auction was a group of four works by the artist Moise Kisling (1891-1953).
He was a close friend of the couple and these included a signed portrait of Suzanne with a dedication to her as well as the oil on canvas pictured here of a vase of Mimosas from 1947, again signed and dedicated à mon ami Raymond Fischof, which was the most expensive of the group at €200,000 (£170,940).
