At
the auction house VendueHuis der Notarissen in The Hague
Jaap
of Delta 98 Den Haag, once saw an extremely charming and beautiful
carved sculpture. Not on exhibition or on sale, no, it stood on a
shelf in the back of the auction house office.
For
several months.
Being
investigated, as they said.
Finally,
in the fall of 1996, it came up for auction. We bought it.
Shortly
after our purchase we made a shop window display with seven
white stands, all had a female sculpture on it, all ladies were covered
with white, semi-transparent textile, except one, the centrepiece, was
uncovered.
Nele unveiled.
This Nele was made between 1894
and 1898 of ivory and fruitwood with an art nouveau appearance, on a wooden
stand by Paul Hankar (1859-1901), by the Belgium sculptor:
Charles Samuel (1862-1938, Brussels)
A reservation
was made on it within a day by an Amsterdam dealer.
The
next day, Mr. Frits Scholten, curator at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam came by on
his bike, stopped, looked in our window, came in, asked us about one of the
covered statues, looked at that one, told us something of it's history and
then he asked about Nele. Sorry, we said, it already has a
reservation. Mr. Frits Scholten was clearly disappointed. Because he
always had been so kind, had bought several items in the past, always shared
knowledge (to a certain extent), I gave him a small present, a silvered
bronze plaque I had in my medal collection, also made by Charles
Samuel, just to cheer him up.
This
medal depicts Charles Samuel 's deceased wife:
the
French pianist Clotilde Kleeberg-Samuel (1866-1909), daughter of Martin
Kleeberg (1838-1913) and Henriëtte Cahn (1839-1909) Mr. Scholten donated the plaque
to the Rijksmuseum.
For
the happy ending: the sculpture of Nele was offered for sale at Christie's
Amsterdam in 2004 and purchased by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Nele
revealed, now for everybody.
In
2013 I was able to purchase an other Nele;
a
pewter plaque, with a diameter of 23 cm,
dated
1895 and signed Ch.Samuel.
It
also has a stamp in the form a collection or money tin with the text:
la
feuille d’etain enfants pauvres Bruxelles,
of
the philanthropical organisation La Feuille d’Etain, which sold items to
able them to buy shoes and clothes for the poor children of Brussels
For
again a happy ending and for the memories:
we
still have this plaque in our collection.
For documentation see:
Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, jaargang 56, 2008 - nummer 1-2,
the ten page article, starting on page 192,
written by Frits Scholten:
" Charles Samuels Nele, model, fragment, cliché "
tekst: Marx Warmerdam
pictures: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and archive Delta 98 Den Haag
