Collection of banker and connoisseur Bernard Kelly offered at upcoming auction
03 January 2025 Among the most notable single owner collections being offered early in 2025 is that of the banker and financier Bernard Kelly (1930-2022).
Among the pieces of furniture in the Kelly collection is this Italian giltwood and pietra dura centre table. Dated to the 18th century, it features a shaped rectangular top with various specimen marbles centred by a floral bouquet and butterflies, as well as a rococo gilt base. The estimate is £1000-1500. View the catalogue entry for this Pietra dura table.
The 314-lot sale at Lyon & Turnbull on January 15 offers an eclectic mix of art antiques ranging from Old Master paintings and bronzes to modern furniture and 20th century British art.
Bernard Noel Terence Kelly was born in Brussels, the elder son of Belgian aristocrat Comtesse Renée Marie Noele Ghislaine de Vaux and Sir David Kelly, a British Foreign Office diplomat. Kelly trained first as a London City lawyer but in the 1960s turned to banking. He made his name as the Square Mile became the centre of the Eurobond and Eurodollar markets and spent several years in Monaco before assuming the vice chairmanship of financial services company Lazard Brothers.
Kelly’s long collecting odyssey existed parallel to his interest in business.
“The collection of Bernard Kelly is in many ways the quintessential connoisseur’s collection, demonstrating a lifelong passion for art,” comments L&T specialist Simon Hucker. “It is not bounded by time or particular place; works that are obviously very significant sit happily side-by-side with those of much lesser-known artists; the value is always aesthetic, rather than monetary, and everything is worthy of care and attention.”
Ahead of the auction, here we pick out five lots to give you a flavour of what’s on offer.
1. Orientalist bronzes
Among an impressive group of allegorical bronzes is a pair of Orientalist figures of Turkish princesses by French sculptor Adrian Etienne Gaudez (1845-1902). Offered together, the estimate at Lyon & Turnbull is £15,000-25,000. View the catalogue entry for these Gaudez bronzes.
2. Roger Fry’s dancers
Bernard Kelly bought many of the Modern British pictures in his collection at a time when the early 20th century British art could be acquired very reasonably. He acquired Dancers by Roger Fry, an oil on board from c.1910, from London gallery Sandra Lummis Fine Art in November 1987. At Lyon & Turnbull, the estimate is £5000-7000. View the catalogue entry for this Roger Fry painting.
3. John Piper mural study
Kelly was already a fan of John Piper (1903-92), when he purchased a Fulham flat in the Piper Building, the former Watson House laboratory for the North Thames Gas Board that had provided Piper with one of the most important public commissions of his career. Original preparatory works for the giant ‘Spirit of Energy’ murals that adorn the building’s entrance include the gouache and wax resist on paper Two Studies for Watson House Murals which is estimated at £2000-3000. View the catalogue entry for this John Piper gouache study.
4. Pietra dura table
5. Table casket
This continental ebony, ebonised and white metal mounted table casket is estimated at £800-1200 at the sale of the Kelly collection. Dated to the 19th century, it has a moulded hinged top opening to a blue velvet lined interior. The sides have repouseé silver plaques with mythological scenes depicting the Birth of Venus, Triton and Amphritite, Europa and the Bull, and Apollo chasing Daphne. View the catalogue entry for this table casket.
View the full catalogue for the sale of the Bernard Kelly collection
