 |
 |
THIS rosewood sideboard by Arne Hovmand Olsen comes up as lot 37 at the James Adam Mid Century Modern sale in Dublin on November 8. The c1960 model for Mogens Kold, Denmark is titled MK 5II. The estimate if 5,000-8,000. This is a timed online sale which features furniture, art and collectibles and the catalogue is online.
A pair of George III marquetry and giltwood side tables probably supplied to the Earls of Kerry in 1770 and attributed to Ince and Mayhew will be a highlight at Christie’s sale of the collection of Lord and Lady Weinstock in London on November 22. Estimated at £100,000-£150,000 (€116,230-€174,340) the tables are among a selection of works with strong Irish provenance in the sale. Arnold Weinstock was a leading businessman who transformed GEC into one of the most successful companies of the post war era. A keen racehorse owner he maintained strong Irish connections through Ballymacoll Stud in Co. Meath, which he owned, and where his 1979 Derby winning horse Troy was bred.
Among lots with Irish links are a set of four George IV gilt bronze wine coolers almost certainly commissioned by John Browne, 1st Marquess of Sligo, is estimated at £20,000-£30,000 (€23,000-€34,000); a pair of silver tazze by Joseph Walker, Dublin 1792 (€3,500-€5,700) and a pair of Irish giltwood mirrors (€23,000-€34,000).
This continental specimen table comes up as lot 356 at Mullen’s timed Classic and Contemporary Interiors sale which runs until November 6. The top is inlaid with Breccia, Verona, Lapis-Lazuli, Malachite, Blue John various other examples above a concave spreading column on a platform base. The estimate is 4,000-6,000. The catalogue for the sale of 833 lots is online and it will start to finish from 6 pm.
With notable exceptions like Eileen Grey and Joseph Walsh Irish designers tend to get overlooked when it comes to auctions of design. Upcoming timed online sales of design at de Veres in Dublin on November 1 and at Adams on on November 8 feature the sort of designer pieces from the middle of the last century and later that are increasingly in vogue here.
There is a wide selection of Danish, Italian and French work available but where are the modernist Irish designers? Artists like Felim Egan and Cecil King, couturier Sybil Connolly whose designs were used on porcelain by Tiffany and Co. and craft makers like the Dixon Carpet Company of Oughterard, established as V’Soske Joyce in 1957 were ahead of the curve. Did they flourish in isolation? Hardly.
We have designers, craftspeople and innovators in plenty who remain relatively unknown or overlooked. Half a century ago, when the Kilkenny Design Workshops was in its infancy, the international view was that the Irish produced only remarkable writers and poets. That theory has been debunked enough to make one wonder whether as yet unheralded Irish designers are waiting to be discovered. Innnovative designers of every sort feature at crowd pulling events like the annual Crafts Fair at the RDS – the next one runs from November 30-December 4.
One of the most expensive pieces at Adams is from an Irish artist that few of us have heard of. Niamh Barry’s “Touch” vessels – hand raised, mirror polished, patinated and brushed solid bronze – are estimated at €20,000-€30,000. After graduating in ceramics from the NCAD in 1991 Niamh Barry turned to metalworking and began translating the natural landscape into metal forms. After decades of perfecting her craft critical acclaim followed her representation by Todd Merrill, the Manhattan dealer in 20th century design. Then her debut at Art Basel Switzerland led to a steady stream of commissions. Her work has been exhibited in London, New York, Switzerland, Dubai, Toronto, Miami and at a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland.The catalogues for the sales at Adams and de Veres feature stylish design pieces for every nook and cranny of the contemporary home and are online. There will be viewing at de Veres this Bank Holiday weekend and viewing gets underway at Adams on November 5.
This oak Jacobean chair comes up at the fine interiors sale at Hegarty’s online in Bandon on November 1. The estimate is just 100-200 and includes cushions and covers in upholstery fabric from Haggastrand, Sweden. The online auction features Swedish furniture and Middle Eastern rugs from the private collection of a Swedish diplomat who retired to Ireland after serving in several countries in Asia, the Middle East and in the US and items from a Cork collection.
With global participation the sale of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s made more than $150 million. This firmly established the collection, sold across ten auctions which concluded in New York yesterday among the top three fine and decorative art sales at Christie’s. It ranks alongside the collections of Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Berger and that of Peggy and David Rockefeller. Records were set for Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Right ($7,489,000); Jacques-Émile Blanche’s Vaslav Nijinsky in ‘Danse Siamoise’ ($2,700,000); Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Portrait de Sarah Bernhardt ($2,280,000) and Jean-Antoine Watteau, Three Head Studies Of A Girl Wearing A Hat (work on paper) ($3,420,000).
$3,420,000
Lot 290 at Sheppard’s Gentleman’s Library sale online at in Durrow on October 27 is a set of eight Qing watercolours. They depict figures at various pursuits within a walled garden. The set is estimated at €8,000-12,000. Lot 289 is a folder of 24 Qing watercolours depicting indigenous peoples. There is a similar estimate on this. The sale, which is on view in Durrow today, offers 368 lots in total with an afternoon session devoted to musical instruments headed by some Froggy Bottom guitars.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 22 and October 14, 2022)
Wonderful antique furniture, art including a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, unusual collectibles like a pair of Howdah flintlock pistols and customised guitars all feature at the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow on October 27. A late 19th century Louis XVI style inlaid commode with breccia marble top by G. Durand in the style of Jean Henri Riesener is, at €15,000-€20,000, the most expensively estimated lot. Other furniture lots include an 18th century library pole (€500-€800), a 19th century French terrestrial globe (€1,500-€2,500), a French Empire library chair (€4,000-€6,000), two George III Dublin brass bound peat buckets (€2,500-€2,500), a Regency library bookcase (€5,000-€8,000), a leather Chesterfield couch (€2,000-€3,000), a Regency rent table (€1,500-€2,500), an Irish 18th century bureau (€800-€1,200), a French bureau plat (€4,000-€6,000), various Gainsborough chairs and bureaux and plenty of other pieces to choose from.This is an auction to browse through and savour at leisure, either at viewings in Durrow which get underway today or online. On offer is 367 lots from The Smithwick Collection and other clients.
A c1688 oval portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde is attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (€3,000-€5,000). Other art pieces include a folder of 24 Qing watercolours (€8,000-€12,000), four oils on canvas of a Fete Galante after Watteau (€10,000-€15,000), Irish School portraits, sporting pictures, engravings, lithographs and drawings.There are black basalt Wedgwood lamps and urns, a 17th century stucco bust of an unidentified Roman after an original from Herculaneum, Presbyterian minute books from 1734-1834, a Killarney wood specimen cabinet, mantle clocks, a c1800 pair of Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London amd a Burmese arched harp on stand.Among 69 lots of musical instruments are Froggy Bottom customised guitars and guitars by C.F. Martin and Co., Collings, Taylor and other makers. There is a concert harp by Sebastian and Pierre Errard, a Challen baby grand piano, a Paragon tenor banjo and a French violin.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 14, 2022)
The first in a series of four live sales and six online sales of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s in New York realised $79,408,900 with 100% of lots sold for 128% hammer above low estimate. There was lively bidding from around the globe and the auction drew nearly 2 million viewers via social media. In the hours leading up to the auction, Christie’s announced the private sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, enabled through a generous donation by Diane B. Wilsey.
Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Right was the top lot, bought by The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan for $7,489,000, breaking a 15 year-old record. The sale generated strong results across a wide variety of collecting categories, including English furniture and Chinese works of art. A Royal Early George III Mahogany China Cabinet by William Vile made $2,700,000 and a pair of massive Chinese Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Crane-Form Censers made $1,620,000, more than 20 times the low estimate.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 3, 2022)
THIS oil painting attributed to William Van der Hagen sold for a hammer price of 32,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections auction today. Dating to around 1730 it had been estimated at 20,000-30,000. What was expected to be the top lot of the sale, an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker, failed to find a buyer. The Ploughman by Francis Wheatley made 36,000, a portrait of Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller made 32,000, a pair of Venetian oil on canvas views by JMW Turner and an Irish mahogany side table each made 26,000, a portrait of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland by Thomas Frye made 18,000; a French carved wood model of the Madonna and Child, probably 16th century, made 16,000; a set of four c1750 George II Irish silver cast candlesticks mark of George Hill made 14,500; a silver model of the Battle of the Boyne obelisk made 12,000; an Irish yewwood library table by Arthur Jones and Co. of Dublin and a family scene in the style of Johan Zoffany each made 11,000; a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks and a bronze banded short barrel cannon each made 10,000; a suite of 14 George II London silver serving dishes made 9,500; a pair of Neo Classical half circular side tables made 9,000 and a pair of Irish bird and flower pictures by Samuel Dixon made 7,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, October 12 and October 8 2022)
