DEAR FRIENDS,

It is with great pleasure that we present to you the catalogue of our auction 151,

with which we began the 2013/2014 auction season: you may consult the full schedule on the the pages of this catalogue and at our website at www.cml.pt.

A special auction, covering, as usual, a large number of items of special quality, rarity and antiquity.

Such is the case of the Chinese export porcelain ewer, blue decoration with the coat of arms of D. Pedro de Lancastre, 5th Count of Vila Nova de Portimão which illustrates the cover (lot 435), that integrates a significant set of pieces with Portuguese and foreign heraldry (2nd session).

It should be noted also the seventeenth-century painting dedicated to the "Nativity", by Josefa de Óbidos (or de Ayala) – 1634 (?)-1684 (lot 193).

More recent, but equally remarkable, the pair of Napoleon III twenty-light gilt bronze chandeliers, France, 19th C. (lot 394).

Among several other pieces of exceptional quality and national and international interest, we must emphasize, once again, the ones we use to designate as Arte Lusíada.

Portuguese command art pieces from the time of the Discoveries,
from Africa to the Far East - the meeting and crossing of Portuguese Art
and culture with the art and culture, beliefs, traditions, styles and techniques
of India (Indo-Portuguese art), Ceylon (Cingalo-Portuguese), China
(Sino-Portuguese) or Japan (Namban Art) - to name only some of the
countries with which we connect more closely since the 16th Century.

Example of some of these exceptional cross-culture pieces: rock crystal salt cellar, 16th/17th C. (lot 858); Indo-Portuguese tortoise shell and silver box, 16th/17th C. (lot 860); Indo-Portuguese double stretcher table, 17th C. (lot 864).

Express reference is also due to the recent accession of Cabral Moncada Leilões to Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo - Amigos do Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis.

An occasion to publicly congratulate this meritorious Association and its dynamic direction, in the person of Álvaro Sequeira Pinto, linking us to the effort which with great success has carried out for the development of the Soares dos Reis National Museum. Learn more about the benefits of membership in http://circulojosefigueiredo.wordpress.com/

A final line to anticipate the forthcoming publication, by our subsidiary Scribe, of an outstanding doctoral thesis recently defended at the Faculdade de Letras of the University of Lisbon, whose title speaks for itself: FAKES IN ART, authored by Teresa Gonçalves. Soon in the bookstores, at our premises and at www.scribe.pt

Hoping to have the pleasure of receiving you soon,

Yours sincerely,

Pedro Maria de Alvim                            Miguel Cabral de Moncada