Smaller paintings by anonymous artists give buyers more bang for their buck—and charm does not require a boldfaced name, as this diminutive Still Life with Two Cep Mushrooms prooves. The 18cm by 22cm oil on canvas laid on board, by an unknown 19th-century painter of the German school, is “enticing, simple and focused”, according to Toby Campbell of Rafael Valls, the gallery bringing it to Tefaf. Campbell describes the work as “a 19th-century version of an Adriaen Coorte”, the Dutch Golden Age still-life painter. The piece comes from a private collection in Germany. £3,500
This small, 23.5cm-high cloisonné enamel vase, with a gentle wave motif on the front, is stamped “jungin” (pure silver) and bears the seal of Japan’s prestigious Andō workshop, which produced official state gifts. Decorated in silver wire and musen (wireless) enamels with a semi-transparent glaze, the vessel was made during the Shōwa period (1926-89, the reign of the Emperor Hirohito). The vase, brought to Tefaf by Gregg Baker Asian Art, retains its original box in paulownia wood, which is inscribed Andō shippōten kinsei: “humbly made by Andō workshop”. €3,000
J.G. Crace, part of a family firm of interior decorators, has been totally eclipsed by Augustus Pugin, the architect. Both worked on the decoration of the UK’s Houses of Parliament, but the “ideas man” took the credit. The “M” stitched into the velvet of these curtain ornaments (brought to Tefaf by Blairman), which were made around 1850 by Crace after a Pugin design, is thought to stand for Myddelton, as they come from the estate of Robert Myddelton Biddulph. £2,400
Scraping in at the top of the price bracket are four gold pendants by the Paris-based Argentinian cartoonist, painter, illustrator and sculptor Antonio Segui. Produced in an edition of 24 in 2002 by Stephane Klein, and available from artist jewellery specialist Didier, they all depict a suited man in a bowler hat— a memory from Segui’s middle-class upbringing in Cordoba. £5,000 each
Smaller paintings by anonymous artists give buyers more bang for their buck—and charm does not require a boldfaced name, as this diminutive Still Life with Two Cep Mushrooms prooves. The 18cm by 22cm oil on canvas laid on board, by an unknown 19th-century painter of the German school, is “enticing, simple and focused”, according to Toby Campbell of Rafael Valls, the gallery bringing it to Tefaf. Campbell describes the work as “a 19th-century version of an Adriaen Coorte”, the Dutch Golden Age still-life painter. The piece comes from a private collection in Germany. £3,500
Tefaf Maastricht wishlist: five works for under £5,000
From the death of Seneca to a mycological still-life, our pick of the more affordable works on offer at the fair
