THERE is as yet no estimate available on the Marie-Antoinette Suite of tapestries which come up at Bantry House on October 21. They are unlikely to be cheap. Edinburgh auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull will offer the tapestries – said to have been given as a gift to Marie-Antoinette by Louis XV on her marriage to the Dauphin of France – as individual lots.
They rose coloured tapestries are La Bascule (The Swing), La Fontaine de l’Amour (The Fountain of Love) and Le Colin Maillard (Blind Man’s Buff).
More locally there ought to be interest in a pair of portrait busts by the renowned Irish sculptor John Hogan (1800-1858) – whose best known masterpiece, The Dead Christ in flawless Carrara marble can be found in three versions at St. Finbarr’s (South) Church, Cork, St. Therese’s (Clarendon St.) in Dublin and the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Newfoundland. Hogan’s busts of Richard, the 2nd Earl of Bantry and his wife Mary are estimated at 8,000-12,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 19 and August 9, 2014).
John Hogan – Bust of Richard, 2nd Earl of Bantry (one of a pair with his wife Mary) (8,000-12,000).
The Marie-Antoinette Suite of tapestries from Bantry House to be sold as separate pieces – La Bascule (The Swing).
The Marie-Antoinette Suite – La Fontaine de l’Amour
The Marie-Antoinette Suite – Le Colin Maillard (Blind Man’s Buff).