A 19th-century still life ‘in the manner of’ Edwaert Collier, estimated at €300-500, brought €30,000 on 5 September. A small copper work after Bartholomeus Breenbergh rose from €400-600 to €9,000 in the same sale. The amounts prove no new attributions, but several bidders apparently believed that the catalogue might not be telling the whole story.
The first lot is a small painting on oak panel measuring 14 by 21.5 centimetres. The auction house described it as Dutch School, 19th century, in the manner of Edwaert Collier. The estimate was €300-500, the hammer price was €30,000.[1]
It is a major result for a small painting that was offered not as a Collier, not as studio of Collier, not as a follower from his own period, but explicitly as a 19th-century imitation. And it was not the only lot that attracted attention that day.
Shortly beforehand, a small painting of Tobie et l’Ange, measuring 12 by 16.5 centimetres and painted in oil on copper, came up for sale. The auction house placed it in the Roman School of the 17th century and catalogued it as by a follower of Bartholomeus Breenbergh, with an estimate of €400-600. Bidders thought differently here too, as the work achieved €9,000 .[2] What must different bidders have seen in these objects to leave the estimates so radically behind?
Two prices for the same painting
A cautious attribution or an unknown provenance. Or a panel that appears older than expected, a composition someone recognises, or a signature that merits closer examination. Then someone is also buying the possibility that the cataloguing may later be upgraded.
The classic sleeper scenario is familiar. A work is cautiously catalogued, a dealer sees more in it, has it cleaned or technically examined, shows it to experts and then attempts to secure a stronger attribution. But €30,000 for the supposed Collier is already a substantial amount.
A Collier that, according to the catalogue, is not a Collier
The small panel bears the letters ‘EC’ at lower right. Its subject also belongs to precisely the kind of works for which Edwaert Collier (1642–1708) became known. These were still lifes in which books, instruments, globes, papers and vanitas symbolism are carefully layered across the composition.
Anyone seeking to imitate Collier reached for the repertoire by which Collier was recognisable. An ‘EC’ monogram could just as easily form part of such a historical afterlife. Yet the current small panel contains enough elements to keep a specialist occupied for longer.
Collier himself used the EC monogram. The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, for example, owns an accepted Vanitas, Still Life with Books and Manuscripts and a Skull of 1663 on panel, monogrammed and dated ‘EC 1663’.[3] Globes also recur repeatedly in his oeuvre. The difference between €500 and €30,000 suggests that at least two parties were prepared to put substantial money behind an interpretation that departed from the more cautious reading of the painting.
Why €30,000 makes the mystery even greater
Looking only at historical prices, the result is easy to explain. If the work were ever accepted as an autograph Collier, then €30,000 might have been cheap. But the market for Edwaert Collier is not actually that straightforward.
In May 2025, Lempertz sold a small, signed and dated 1676 vanitas still life by Collier, also on panel and measuring 19.5 by 17 centimetres. The work achieved €15,000 including buyer’s premium.[4] A month earlier, Dorotheum had sold a much larger vanitas still life, signed and dated 1694, for €10,500.[5]
Another small Collier at Lempertz rose to €125,000 including buyer’s premium in 2022. That painting, however, was registered with the RKD, had a historical provenance, had been exhibited and published and also carried a relevant restitution history.[6] The auction result here is therefore higher than several recent results for paintings that were offered as autograph works by Collier.
The Breenbergh is another intriguing puzzle
With Tobias and the Angel, the situation is somewhat different, because the auction house already dated the work to the 17th century. The shift is therefore not about its dating, but about its distance from Bartholomeus Breenbergh (1598–1657).
Breenbergh spent many years in Italy and became one of the leading Dutch painters of Italianate landscapes. After his return to Amsterdam, Biblical and mythological subjects assumed an increasingly prominent role. Small paintings on panel and copper therefore fit precisely within his production.[7]
More relevant still is the fact that Tobias and the Angel genuinely appears around Breenbergh. In 2019, Christie’s in London offered a pair of paintings as autograph works by Breenbergh, a Tobias and the Angel and The Journey to Emmaus. Both were painted in oil on copper and measured 16.3 by 22.2 centimetres.[8]
The pair sold for £15,000 against an estimate of £12,000-18,000.[8] There is therefore an Tobias and the Angel offered as an autograph work on the same support and at a similarly small scale as comparative material.
And that may be exactly where the danger lies
In Breenbergh’s case, art history shows why visual recognition is not the same thing as attribution. The Louvre owns a drawing depicting Tobias and the Angel in a landscape with ruins. The sheet was formerly attributed to Breenbergh himself. Today, the museum catalogues it as manière de Bartholomeus Breenbergh and describes it as a copy after a drawing by Breenbergh.[9]
A work can stand close to an artist, it can follow his composition, depict the same subject, date from the same century and still not have been made by him.
An estimate without value
What the two auction results show is how quickly a low estimate can lose its function. At €300-500, an auction house can position a painting cautiously and let the market form its own judgement. But once the bidding rises, it is no longer about the cataloguing of the small painting.
Perhaps a bidder in the Breenbergh recognised a specific composition and perhaps a buyer saw characteristics in the Collier that make a 19th-century dating less self-evident. Or did the parties involved have access to comparative material that was not mentioned in the catalogue?
Two low-estimated works became very different objects during the bidding. Not because new art-historical evidence became available at that moment, but because several parties were apparently willing to place their own reading above that of the catalogue.
Do you have a particular interest in this artist or in this subject?
Do you follow this artist, or have you come across a work you would like to know more about? We regularly research works appearing on the market and are always happy to exchange views on quality, provenance, art-historical context and previous auction results. You can contact us directly via info@antonello.art.
Notes and sources
[1] Lyon Enchères, Tableaux anciens, Mobilier & Objets d’art, Lyon, 5 September 2026, lot 73, “École hollandaise du XIXe siècle, dans le goût de Edouard Collier, Nature morte au globe céleste”, oil on oak panel, 14 × 21.5 cm, estimate €300-500, hammer price €30,000.
[2] Lyon Enchères, same sale, lot 21, “École romaine du XVIIe siècle, suiveur de Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Tobie et l’Ange”, oil on copper, 12 × 16.5 cm, estimate €400-600 and a hammer price of €9,000.
[3] National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Edwaert Collier, Vanitas, Still Life with Books and Manuscripts and a Skull, 1663, oil on panel, 56.5 × 70 cm, monogrammed and dated ‘EC 1663’.
[4] Lempertz, Old Masters and 19th Century Part I, Cologne, 17 May 2025, lot 1026, Edwaert Collier, Vanitas Still Life with a Skull, Bust, Clock, Globe and Bottle, 19.5 × 17 cm, result €15,120 including buyer’s premium.
[5] Dorotheum, Old Masters, Vienna, 29 April 2025, Edwaert Collier, vanitas still life, signed and dated 1694, 74 × 62.5 cm, result €10,400.
[6] Lempertz, Alte Kunst, Cologne, 21 May 2022, lot 2096, Edwaert Collier, Vanitas Still Life with Nautilus Chalice and Bust, 30 × 24.5 cm, estimate €8,000-12,000, result €125,000 including buyer’s premium.
[7] Taco Dibbits, “Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, 1639”, in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, 2007.
[8] Christie’s, Old Masters Day Sale, London, 5 July 2019, lot 141, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, Tobias and the Angel; and The Journey to Emmaus, oil on copper, each 16.3 × 22.2 cm, estimate £12,000-18,000, result £15,000.
[9] Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts graphiques, INV 22546, Paysage avec devant des ruines Tobie et l’ange, currently catalogued as “manière de Bartholomeus Breenbergh”, formerly attributed to Breenbergh.
