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  • Archive for March, 2011

    MALLOW CASTLE CONTENTS AUCTION BY MEALY’S

    Thursday, March 17th, 2011
    Mealy’s will have a one days sale of contents from Mallow Castle at the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow on April 5.  It will feature around 800 lots including portraits, paintings, tapestries, furniture, glass, silver, plate, rugs, mirrors, books and garden furniture.
    Viewing will be at Mallow Castle on Sunday, April 3 and Monday, April 4.  The sale at the Hibernian Hotel will start at 10.30 a.m. on April 5.

    FROM BABAR TO PETER RABBIT AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, March 17th, 2011
    From Babar to Peter Rabbit, some of the most beloved children’s characters and stories will feature at a single owner sale of original illustration art at Sotheby’s in New York on April 11.  The sale of the collection of Kendra and Allan Daniel will present a selection of original illustrations.
    It features original artwork featuring characters such as Babar, Madeline, the Brownies, Christopher Robin and Raggedy Ann. Artists represented include Arthur Rackham, Edmund Dulac, Peter Newell, Kate Greenaway, Beatrix Potter and Jessie Willcox Smith, Dr. Seuss, George Henry Boughton and Rose O’Neill.

    CHINA SURGES IN ART AND ANTIQUES MARKET

    Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
    China is now the second largest art and antiques auction market according to a report by economist Clare McAndrew for The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF).  According to her calculations auction sales in China rose to nearly 6 billion Euros to account for 23 percent of the global market in 2010.
    The USA maintained its lead with 34 per cent, but the UK slipped into third place with 22 percent, down five percent since 2006.
    Meanwhile Bonhams is mounting a campaign to uncover hidden, lost, or unrecognised Chinese or Japanese works of art, bronzes, jades, sculpture, ceramics, pictures or screens in private collections in Northern Ireland. Bonhams specialists Ian Glennie and Katherine Wright will visit the North on the week beginning April 4. A number of Chinese artefacts found in Northern Ireland have already made high prices at Bonhams. A jade hat finial made over £12,000 and a pair of cloisonné vases from the same collection made over £6,000. Anyone interested is asked to get in touch with Bonhams.

    EARLY OSBORNE PONT-AVEN OIL AT ADAMS

    Sunday, March 13th, 2011

    The Pont-Aven work by Walter Osborne.

    AN early oil on panel by Walter Frederick Osborne is included in the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on Wednesday, April 6.  It was painted when the artist was visiting Pont Aven in Brittany in 1883.

    The work is from the family of Dublin solicitor F.X. Murray, who was a significant collector in the 1940’s/’50’s.  This is the first time it has been on the market.  The estimate is 10,000-15,000.

    IMPORTANT JEFF KOONS COULD MAKE $30 MILLION

    Saturday, March 12th, 2011

    Pink Panther by Jeff Koons. (click on image to enlarge)

    Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale in New York on May 10  will include one of the most important works by Jeff Koons ever at auction. Pink Panther from 1988 draws on many of the themes that have come to define Koons’ output.
    The porcelain sculpture is the artist’s proof from an edition of three with the other examples in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and a prominent private American collection.  It is part of the artist’s iconic Banality series that includes Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Bear and Policeman and Ushering in Banality. Pink Panther is estimated to fetch $20/30 million.

    A MONET BY RENOIR AT TEFAF

    Friday, March 11th, 2011
    This painting, Femme cueillant des Fleurs (Woman picking flowers) depicts Camille Monet, first wife of Claude Monet, who died young.  The work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) features at The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) at Maastricht. It is being sold through Dickinson by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in the United States in order to strengthen other areas of its collection.
    Important early Impressionist paintings are increasingly rare on the market. This one is a poignant reminder of a story of fierce jealousy involving Monet’s first and second wives. Camille Doncieux was 18 years old when Monet met her in 1865. She became his lover and the model for a number of  works in these early years. Monet’s father refused to accept her into the family because of her humble origins. Despite this the couple married in 1870.
    The lifelong friendship between Monet and Renoir was at its closest between 1866 and 1875. The two men often painted together. Camille was depicted in a number of their paintings including Femme cueillant des Fleurs, which dates from this period in the development of Impressionism.  A year after Renoir painted this picture, Camille became ill and in 1879 she died aged 32 , her already poor health worsened by the recent birth of her second son Michel.
    Monet’s second wife Alice Hoschedé destroyed all the material that she could find relating to Camille. Only one photograph survived the purge.
    TEFAF runs at Maastricht in The Netherlands from March 18-27.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for January 6 and Janaury 13.

    CORK SILVER FREEDOM BOX AT LIMERICK NATIONAL FAIR

    Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

    The Cork Freedom Box presented to Admiral Whitshed. (click on image to enlarge)

    The inscription on the base. (click on image to enlarge)

    A 200 year old Cork silver freedom box, made by Carden Terry and Jane Williams and presented to Admiral Sir James Hawkins Whitshed, is to be a feature at the Weldon’s stand at  the National Antique and Fine Art Fair in Limerick over the weekend of March 19/20.

    A friend of Lord Nelson, and a pallbearer at his funeral, Whitshed was Commander-in-Chief at Cork between 1807 and 1810, when he was promoted to admiral, and was later Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, 1821 to 1824. He became Admiral of the Fleet in 1844.
    Born in 1762 he entered the Navy in 1773 on board the sloop Ranger on the Irish station. He was awarded a gold medal for his conduct at the battle of Cape St.Vincent in 1797. Promoted Rear-Admiral in 1799 he served under Lord St.Vincent in the Mediterranean. In 1803 he was promoted Naval Adviser to the Viceroy of Ireland and Vice-Admiral from 1804. He was responsible for the protection of the Irish coasts, for the building of Martello towers and organising the Sea Fencibles against threat of French invasion and organising the defences of Dublin Bay.
    The rectangular box, which weighs just four ounces, is centred by the arms of the City of Cork.  The inscription on the base reads: The Freedom of the City of Cork was unanimously voted by the Mayor, Sheriffs & common Council to Vice Admiral Whitshed for his great attention to the important duties of his station & their high respect for his public & private character. Thos. Harding Mayor, Josh. Leycester, Geo. S. Waggett Sheriffs, W.James T.Clerk
    The venue for the National Antiques and Art Fair is the South Court Hotel.   Weldons are just one of a number of members of the Irish Antique Dealers Association who will participate in this fair.  There will be more than 70 stands. Opening times are from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days.

    GREATEST COLLECTION OF 20TH CENTURY BRITISH ART EVER ON MARKET

    Monday, March 7th, 2011

    Henry Moore Rocking Chair No. 3 estimate £800,000-1,200,000 (click on image to enlarge)

    Sotheby’s today announced the sale of the greatest collection of 20th-Century British Art ever to come to the market.  The Evill/Frost Collection comprises the largest group of paintings by Stanley Spencer ever on the market, in addition to works by Lucian Freud, Henry Moore, Dame Barbara Hepworth, Graham Sutherland, Edward Burra and Patrick Heron, amongst many others.

    The collection, estimated to fetch in excess of £12 million, will be offered at a three part sale starting on Wednesday, June 15 and continuing over two sessions the following day. It will be sold by the executors of the Honor Frost estate in order to benefit charitable causes relating to marine archeology.
    The paintings and sculptures, collected by Wilfrid Evill between 1925 and 1960 represent a window into a past world.  A London solicitor his choices when he held a ten-year tenure as a buyer for the Contemporary Arts Society ensured the acquisition of masterpieces for museums and galleries throughout Britain. His own collection demonstrates an unparalleled vision of the achievements and talent of some of the most accomplished British artists in the period just before and after World War II.
    When he died in 1963 he bequeathed his estate to his long-time ward Honor Frost.  She shared his love of the arts and studied at the Central School of Art in London, and the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford.  She went on to work as a designer for the Ballet Rambert and then became director of publications at the Tate Gallery, before becoming a marine archaeologist, for which she is renowned.
    The sale offers paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures.  Evill had access to a younger generation of artists working in the post-war period. These included the young Lucian Freud, John Craxton and Patrick Heron. The sale will also include a selection of furniture and ceramics, a highlight of which is a Sèvres tea service contained within a kingwood parquetry carrying box (est. £10,000-15,000), formerly in the collection of the great actor, director and theatre manager David Garrick (1717-79).

    VIEWING FOR SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE MOVES TO DUBLIN, BELFAST AND LONDON

    Sunday, March 6th, 2011

    Sunlit Landscape by Mary Swanzy at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £91,250.

    FRESH from a successful view which drew hundreds of people to Lismore Castle Arts this weekend Sotheby’s 17th annual Irish sale now goes on view in Dublin, Belfast and London.

    Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s in Molesworth St., Dublin from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 8 and 9.

    The paintings will be seen at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 11 and 12.

    Viewing in London gets underway at Bond St. on March 24 and the sale is on March 29.

    Among the exceptional masterpieces on offer is this one by Mary Swanzy, one of the most important female Irish artists. Sunlit Landscape is a dazzling modernist painting by one of the first artists in Ireland to embrace the experimental and innovative cubist style. It is estimated at £60,000-80,000 (€70,000-93,500).

    See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for February 23, February 16 and February 2.

    EMIGRATION THEME OF JAMES BRENAN WORK AT WHYTE’S

    Saturday, March 5th, 2011

    The Finishing Touch by James Brenan. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE; IT MADE 22,000

    James Brenan RHA (1837-1907) was headmaster at the School of Art in Cork. Emigration – one again a timely issue in recession torn Ireland – was a subject that captured his imagination in the 19th century. It is the theme of this 1876 work in a farmhouse setting.
    Entitled The Finishing Touch, it tells the story of a young woman on the eve of her departure for America. Her father takes centre stage. The title refers not only to his hand on the emigrant’s box, but also to the painter completing work on the green box on which the words O’Connor, New York can be deciphered.
    This picture was exhibited in the year it was painted at the Royal Hibernian Academy. It features at Whyte’s Irish and British art sale at the RDS in Dublin on March 14.  The work is estimated at 15,000-20,000.
    UPDATE  IT SOLD FOR 22,000