A set of four espresso cups and saucers, the decoration designed in 1996 by the renowned South African artist Cecil Skotnes for La Perla restaurant in Cape Town (see additional text below the photographs). It is known as 'The La Perla Skotnes Collection'. Each saucer has the signature of Cecil Skotnes and the date. The set, made for La Perla by Continental China in Kuils River, is in its original packaging. Condition of cups and saucers very good; box slightly worn. Size: (cups) rim diameter 60 mm; height 50 mm; (saucers) diameter 120 mm.
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La Perla
Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery (SMAC) officially opened in November 2006, but has been a work in progress for much longer. SMAC was created by the Sandri family who own La Perla in Sea Point, a restaurant which has had an association with European and South African art for more than fifty years.
Since the start of the original La Perla, Emiliano Sandri used mobiles designed by Alexander Calder and relationships and friendships with many artists were forged. These include Irma Stern (for whom he organized an exhibition in the fifties), Jean Welz (who did a number of portraits and paintings of Emiliano Sandri), Alexander Rose-Innes (whom he assisted to produce a book), Cecil Skotnes, Edoardo Villa, Vladimir Tretchikoff (whom he commissioned to do a portrait of the visiting French singer Francois Hardy, in the sixties), Carl Buchner, Erik Laubscher, Charles Gassner and many more. . . .
In December 2004, Sandri organized a large and very successful exhibition for his old friends, Edoardo Villa and Cecil Skotnes in Stellenbosch. This event, together with the acquisition and redevelopment of the historical De Wet Centre, led the second generation of the family to open SMAC.
