On Saturday, May 31st. CRN Auctions is pleased and honored to be selling, unreserved, with no additions, the contents of the estate of the late David Abbate of New York and New Jersey comprising two generations of discriminating collecting.

   David Abbate’s passion for 15th, 16th and 17th  century fine arts and furnishings was inspired by his father, Peter Abbate, himself an avid collector of Italian artifacts.  Peter was born in America in 1910 shortly after his parents emigrated from Partinico, Italy. He was both an artist and a photographer. By trade he was a commercial artist, and he owned two photography studios. During World War II he was the official photographer of the Woman’s Air Corps. A group of these photographs will be sold in the auction. Peter retired at age eighty-five, but continued to photograph from his balcony in Staten Island anything that passed by on the Hudson River. He was an active collector until the age of 100.

   When his son, David, was seventeen, he started his first collection - Japanese swords, later Japanese armor, and then all that was Renaissance.  He graduated from the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, a college of arts and design. In the early 1970’s he worked with men’s fashion designer Ron Chereskin.  His drawings were commercially used for coloring books, and toy and game packaging. He went to work in the late 1970’s for the CBS Evening News, where he worked for thirty years as a graphic artist, and then as an art director.  In addition to being a talented artist, Mr. Abbate was a master craftsman and woodworker. He gutted and personally transformed his four-story brick townhouse in Jersey City reminiscent of an Italian palazzo.  He handcrafted beams, moldings, floors, doors, window treatments, every inch, so that when you stepped inside, you were transformed back in time to Italy. He handcrafted most of the Renaissance-style frames for his collection of artwork.  He was an ardent scholar of the Renaissance…his vast library flowed into all parts of the home.  He could frequently be seen previewing at a Sotheby’s and Christie’s Auction in New York City, not only to study the objects, but also searching for a mis-catalogued work of art.

     Consisting of over 450 lots, with no additions, the sale includes Italian Renaissance and Baroque works of art, mostly Italian, but also Spanish and Latin American; a vast collection of various forms of Italian maiolica; beautifully carved walnut furniture,; metalwork; Renaissance medals; and other period-related accessories.

   An extremely eclectic collector, part two of the Abbate estate will be held in the Fall consisting his collections of Japanese armor and swords; African and Oceanic tribal art; and 14th c. Chinese Han burial artifacts.

   The auction commences with 75 lots of works of art. Several 16th and 17th Italian Renaissance schools are represented including works attributed to, or circle of, such artists as 16th c. Allesandro Casolani, 16th c. Annibale Carracci, 16th c. Paola Fiammingo, 17th c. Simone Pignoni, 16th c. Jacone, Scarsellino, 16th c. Il Giampietrino.  There are several religious paintings on copper, as well as miniature portraits on copper, and miniature portraits of the Medici family in wax.

   Mr. Abbate also collected Continental, Mexican, and Spanish Colonial paintings including a large oil, the Marriage of the Virgin, by Miguel Cabrera (1695-1768) of New Spain (Mexico). A finely painted portrait of a noblewoman is attributed to the Flemish artist Franz Pourbus the Younger (1579-1622).

A favorite of Mr. Abbate’s is a polychrome stucco freestanding statue from the school of Donatello of Madonna and Child. There are 3 early polychromed stucco reliefs, one of which is attributed to Domenico di Paris, an Italian artist active between 1443 and 1501 of which a similar example is housed in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

   Both father and son collected Renaissance maiolica pottery. There are 55 lots of primarily Italian maiolica consisting of albarelli, plates, tazzas, bottles, tondos and jars.

   Quite unusual is a seldom seen and vast collection of early Italian copper, brass and bronze household metalwork including braziers, vessels, jardinières, cisterns, and mortars, many of which will be sold in lots.

  The collection of Renaissance and Baroque walnut furniture is extensive and varied…some ornately carved, some restrained, some with various inlays, some immense, some more modest in size. There are several carved credenzas. cassones, center tables, elaborate cabinets, mirrors, table-top cabinets with wonderful interiors, armchairs and a collection of ornately carved sgabelli.  Quite rare is a large 17th century ornately carved lectern, a high-styled carved cradle on stand, and two cassapanca or hall benches.

   David Abbate was a wonderfully eclectic collector.  To be sold in a future auction in the Fall, part two of the Abbate Collection consists of Chinese Han tomb ceramics and metals; an important collection of African and tribal arts; several full suits of Japanese samurai armor, swords and helmets.

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