To mark the start of the centenary year of its centenary, Karl & Faber is auctioning off art by the Old Masters and the 19th century. The offer on 365 May includes 25 lots, including market-fresh treasures such as Aertgen Claesz van Leyden's "Nativity" painted around 1530, which was privately owned for decades. Now the picture, which shows the red-robed Joseph prominently in the foreground, estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 euros, is back on sale.

Also available again after a long time is a "Baptism of Christ" by Jacopo Zanguidi, called Bertoja. Around 1570, the Mannerist created the scene, enriched with quotations from Raphael and Michelangelo, in a landscape influenced by Flemish painting (estimate 120,000 to 180,000 euros). In Flanders itself, more precisely in the circle of the Antwerp carver Matthieu van Beveren, the catalogue locates the origin of a fully sculptural ivory corpus Christi, which, with the exception of the loincloth, consists of one piece – a rarity for objects that, like this one, measure more than 50 centimetres (30,000/40,000).

"Private property of Sr. Majesty of King Frederick August III" informs an adhesive label on the back of Ernst Ferdinand Oehme's "Mill in Plauenschen Grund" from 1830. The nature observation of a roaring stream under a dramatic cloudy sky was one of many paintings that Oehme delivered to his Saxon king. About twenty years ago, the Wettins parted with the mill painting, which is now expected to bring in 90,000 to 120,000 euros. It is part of a wide range of landscape paintings by German artists of the 19th century. This is complemented by vedutas such as Friedrich Nerly's nostalgic view over the Bacino of San Marco in Venice, Nerly's adopted home (250,000/300,000). Michael Neher placed a family of fishermen in his Italian street scene in front of the Alban Mountains (28,000/35,000).

Change of gaze with a roebuck

In 1902, Franz von Stuck painted Cupid riding a flute-playing centaur. In its magnificent original frame, the work costs between 100,000 and 150,000 euros. Carl Spitzweg is amused by a "Sunday hunter" who eats his chicken with his cheeks full, allows himself a red wine from the bottle and looks at the roebuck, which suddenly appears right next to him, just as surprised as the roebuck looks at him (200,000/300,000). Spitzweg describes a sign guard "Auf der Bastei" in a similarly humorous way. You can see a heartily yawning soldier who pushes his boring duty in peace, while a sparrow builds its nest in the cannon (160,000/260,000). Oil sketches by Wilhelm Busch focus on the North German peasant genre, but also on a "Bavarian boy" with a red waistcoat and floppy hat (12,000/15,000). Adolph Menzel painted the portrait of the painter Paul Meyerheim, which can be offered in agreement with the heirs of the former owners Abraham Adelsberger and Alfred Isay (25,000/35,000).

In the rich section with art on paper, Johann Georg von Dillis' watercolour of a "Mule Caravan on the Way through the High Alps" (3500/4500) shines, while Johann Adam Klein's "Cavalry under Cloudy Sky" captivates with delightful nonfinito: Under a colourful watercolour cloudy sky, drawn with a pen, the riders line up (40,000/50,000). Once again, Karl & Faber will be able to present white plant silhouettes by Philipp Otto Runge, for which the company has raised up to 80,000 euros in the past. This time there is a "cornflower" (16,000/ 18,000) and an "oak branch" (15,000/17,000). The print catalogue presents a large selection of famous Dürer works such as the "Galloping Horseman" (22,000/24,000). With 42 etchings, Rembrandt also performs excellently, so the "Great Descent from the Cross" is available in a newly discovered early intermediate state, estimated at 40,000 to 50,000 euros.