Lingering Sun, O'Connell St., once in the collection of John Huston was the most expensive Irish artwork sold at James Adam in 2010.
Yeats, le Brocquy, Dillon, Lavery and Henry are all in the top ten of Irish artworks sold by James Adam in 2010. Ireland’s largest auction house reported today that the total hammer price for the Irish art sales in their salesrooms was 4,873,030 in 2010, a 52 per cent increase over the 2009 figure of 3,216,150.
The top ten Irish artworks sold at Adams last year are: Jack B. Yeats “Lingering Sun,O’Connell Bridge,Dublin”, 140,000 on 6/12/10; Louis Le Brocquy “Adam & Eve” (Aubusson Tapestry), 100,000 on 6/12/10; Louis Le Brocquy “Allegory” (Aubusson Tapestry), 80,000 on 6/12/10; Gerard Dillon “Mending the nets, Aran”, 80,000 on 2/6/10; Sir John Lavery “Portrait of Mrs Arthur Franklin”, 75,000 on 2/6/10; Paul Henry “The Bog Road” 72,000 on 13/10/10; Gerard Dillon “Italian washer women” 68,000 on 6/12/10; Mary Swanzy “A hilltop town in the South of France” 66,000 on 6/12/10; Colin Middleton Opus 1 No. 41 Esmeralda (1942) 62,000 on 2/6/10 and Daniel O’Neill “Figures on a beach,Newcastle 1928” 60,000 on 6/12/10.
James Adam reports that the demand for high quality artworks was very strong. “Many purchasers were encouraged back into buying by the apparent good value and the increasing supply of quality, well provenanced and new to the market pieces”.
They say: “We took the view, early on, that it is vital for vendors to forget the bloated excesses of the height of the market and accept the new realities of life in 2010/ 2011. Those that did accept this advice were well rewarded as pieces with conservative estimates generally exceeded expectations. This phenomenon was confirmed by the very high sales rates which on average were 82% which is significantly higher than any other auction house”.
The auction house reports that demand for ‘Blue Chip’ artists’ work is increasing while the demand for more contemporary artists’ work is definitely softening. The years highlight was the sale of artworks from the Bank of Ireland collection.
See antiquesandartireland.com posts for December 6 and November 30.
