Viewing is underway at Woodwards in Cork for the online sale on Saturday September 19 with various lots from Ballinacurra House in Kinsale and Cork city houses. Choice furniture pieces include a William IV inlaid games/work table, an Edwardian bonheur du jour and an Eileen Gray chrome table all estimated at €400-€600. There is a similar estimate on a cast iron honeycomb garden bench. Two cast iron garden vases are estimated at €1,000-€1,600.
The auction features a selection of chests of drawers, a large Victorian oak hunt table, an Irish mahogany linen press, a Victorian inlaid walnut card table, a Georgian bureau, a ten foot long dome backed settee, a pair of walnut open bookcases, a Kashan rug and an Art Deco conservatory table.
This oil on board by Markey Robinson is the most expensively estimated lot at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online auction of Irish art. The estimate is €3,000-4,000. The auction, which ends from 6.30 pm on September 14, offers a wide selection of art with 425 lots in total on offer. The catalogue is online.
The most important Mondrian offered in Europe since 2009 will come up at Christie’s in London on October 14. With an estimate of £20 million – £30 million ((€23.3 million – €35 million) Composition III was painted at a pivotal moment when the artist achieved the first breakthrough examples of his visionary Neo-Plastic style. It was 1920, a year in which Mondrian completed just eight landmark paintings. Five of them are in renowned museum collections like Tate London, MoMA New York, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome and the Wilhelm-Ha ck Museum, Ludwigshafen. At auction for the first time ever Composition III is a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale. In 2009 Mondrian’s Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir (1922) and Composition I from the legendary collections of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé were sold at Christie’s in Paris.
Leo Whelan (1892-1956) – Portrait of Bishop Thomas Grace of Sacramento at Sheppards
The summer light begins to wane and the early autumn Irish art sale season gets underway in earnest next week. Sheppards will showcase exceptional works from artists like Louis le Brocquy, William Conor, Sir William Orpen, Leo Whelan, John Shinnors, Norah McGuinness, John Behan, John Burke, Patrick O’Reilly and more at their sale in Durrow on Tuesday September 15.
The online sale of paintings, sculpture, prints, vintage posters and photography by Lot 100 of Lismore runs until next Tuesday. Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall auction of affordable art will draw to a close from 6.30 pm on September 14.
The strong sculpture selection at Sheppards is headed by John Burke’s Maquette for Kingfisher – Wilton Roundabout sculpture from the early 1980’s. Twisted Form by F E McWilliam, Emigrants by Eamon O’Doherty and Couple II by Joseph Sloan feature in a sale that includes five works by John Behan, three of Rory Breslin’s Clew Bay Masks series along with work by Mark Rode, Patrick O’Reilly, Nicholas Dolan, Michael Foley, Jarlath Daly, Oisin Kelly, Donnacha Cahill and other sculptors. Shawlie with Children, Quay St., Skerries, Co. Dublin is a rediscovered c1915 oil on canvas by William Conor while Leo Whelan’s portrait of Wexford born Bishop Thomas Grace of Sacramento was part of a commission for All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin. All catalogues are online.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976) – Untitled III, a Maeght edition lithograph from 1963 at Lot 100.
The birth of the Irish Republic by Michael Rogers showing James Connolly on a stretcher inside the GPO
An historic Edwardian bookcase salvaged from the RMS Celtic, a rare oil painting from inside the GPO in 1916 during the Easter Rising and a collection of Killarney furniture are among a series of fascinating lots at Victor Mee’s Irish Heritage sale in Cavan on Tuesday September 15.
The auction of 508 lots – more than a year in the making – brings together a selection of Irish history, craft and domestic life.
In December 1928 just short of a century ago the White Star liner Celtic foundered on rocks off Co. Cork near Roches Point. Passengers were rescued, the ship was scrapped and there was a salvage operation. This imposing four door bookcase was taken from the wreck a year later. Complete with decorative glazing, marquetry panels and a brass letter box for post at sea it is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
A bookcase complete with post box salvaged from the White Star liner Celtic
The Birth of the Irish Republic is an oil on board by Michael Rogers, an Irish Volunteer who fought inside the GPO in 1916. At 54 he was one of the older Republicans. His painting shows James Connolly on a stretcher with Padraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Joseph Plunkett looking on. Rogers was released due to his age and subsequently reassigned to protect Pearse’s mother. The estimate is €8,000-€12,000.
Around 50 pieces of Killarney wood with estimates ranging from €40-€60 (for two page markers) to €10,000-€15,000 (for a davenport) are on offer. There are sewing tables, a games table, a mirror, a rare nest of three tables and a big selection of Killarney boxes for various purposes.
The Irish heritage auction offers a selection including Irish vernacular furniture including an early 20th century pine hedge chair made by a Lough Neagh boat builder. There is bog oak, Coalisland pottery, a ticket for the infamous Bloody Sunday game at Croke Park in 1920 and a prison art harp made in Long Kesh in the 1970’s. The sale is on view this weekend and the catalogue is online.
The National Gallery of Ireland has unveiled a new portrait of Adam Harris, Founder of AsIAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity. The portrait is by Amanda Dunsmore, winner of the AIB Portrait Prize in 2024. We are neurodiverse, but not every human being is Neurodivergent is a mixed media work and is now a permanent part of the National Portrait Collection. It is on display in Room 23 for all visitors to see. Amanda Dunsmore was born in England, and has lived and worked in Ireland and Northern Ireland for over 30 years. She currently lives in Co. Clare and is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art & Design, TUS.
In November 2026 Adam Harris will start his new role as ceo of Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. He founded AsIAm based on his own experiences growing up as an autistic person in Ireland. In 2020 he was appointed to the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and serves as an executive council member for Autism Europe. He has sat on, and advised many government consultative and policy committees on disability rights and inclusion, which have helped shape national policies for a more inclusive society.
Richard Smith (1931-2016) – Times Square Remembered III
This lithograph with collage by Richard Smith, who represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1970, is from the current online sale of 20th and 21st century art by Lismore based Lot 100. From an edition of 42 it is estiamted at €500-€700. The auction, with 106 lots in total, runs until September 15.
19TH CENTURY DINING ROOM SUITE UPDATE: THE CLOSING BID WAS 1,000
Even if there is not much interest nowadays in fine dining at home this 19th century dining suite at Mullen’s evening timed online interiors and modern art auction at Laurel Park in Bray on September 13 must represent spectacular value. With 12 Chippendale style dining chairs including two elbow chairs and a rectangular dining table with seven loose leaves the estimate for lot 602 is just €1,000-€1,500. There is a similar estimate on an Irish Georgian longcase clock. The catalogue, with 858 lots, is online.
18CT WHITE GOLD DIAMOND BANGLE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This diamond and gold bangle is lot 10 at a sale of jewellery and watches by Adams Blackrock which runs until September 9. It is composed of a row of channel set round brilliant cut diamonds with an approximate weight of 2.20 carats. The estimate is €3,000-€4,000. There are 704 lots on offer in this timed online sale, running concurrently with auctions of antiques and furniture and Irish paintings. The starting time for all three sales is 7 pm.
This maquette for Kingfisher was created by John Burke (1946-2006) in preparation for his large outdoor sculpture at the Wilton Roundabout in Cork city. Commissioned by Clayton Love and Seamus Gallagher to commemorate the Cork 800 festival the Wilton sculpture is 25 feet in height and weighs eight tons. Fabricated using plates of steel welded together the sculpture was installed in December 1984. The smaller bright blue painted maquette is a delightful sculpture in its own right. From the collection of Frances Lynch it is 117 cm high, 127 cm wide and 57.5 cm deep. John Burke generally painted his sculptures in bright colours using, for example, Red Cardinal for the monumental Bank of Ireland piece (now the Department of Health) on Baggot St. in Dublin. Estimated at €30,000-€50,000 the maquette is the leading lot at Sheppards sale of important Irish art on September 15.
