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  • Archive for November, 2020

    EXTRAORDINARY KASHMIR SAPPHIRE BRACELET

    Tuesday, November 17th, 2020

    This extraordinary sapphire and diamond bracelet comes up at Christie’s magnificent jewels sale in New York on December 8. The cushion-cut 43.10 carat Kashmir sapphire surrounded by brilliant-cut diamonds is detachable and may be worn as a brooch. It is estimated at $5-7 million. The sale of over 380 lots includes signed jewels by makers including René Boivin, Bulgari, Cartier, Graff, Harry Winston, Raymond Yard, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels and Verdura. 

    UPDATE: THIS MADE $6,030,000 in a sale that realised $44.5 million.

    JAMES BOND WALTHER PISTOL AT JULIEN’S AUCTION

    Monday, November 16th, 2020

    The Walther PP pistol used by Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No, the first James Bond film to come to screen in 1962, will highlight Julien’s Icons and Idols auction in Hollywood on December 3. It is estimated at $150,000-$200,000. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR  $256,000

    GREENWICH CANDLEABRA AT CO. CORK SALE

    Saturday, November 14th, 2020

    This pair of Art Deco style silver candleabra from the Painted Hall at Greenwich in London come up Hegarty’s sale in Bandon, Co. Cork on November 15. The London 1938 five light candleabrae rest on stepped bases with the crowned monogram of King George VI and are estimated at €18,000-€20,000.  Managed by the Greenwich Foundation since the navy left in 1998 the baroque Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College has been restored and is open to the public.  The online auction features jewellery, antique furniture, coins, books, collectibles and silver.

    UPDATE: THE CANDLEABRA MADE 14,600 AT HAMMER

    A TEASING ABSTRACT BY SCOTT AT MORGAN O’DRISCOLL

    Friday, November 13th, 2020

    There is something teasingly abstract about Jug, this 1979 oil on canvas by William Scott from Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction which runs until November 23.  It is exactly what the artist intended. Scott wanted his pictures to be about something. In this work he uses a dark background to create an arresting image with the subject matter reduced to the bare minimum. “I am an abstract artist in the sense that I abstract” he explained once.  In the summer of 1953 Scott travelled to the US, met Jackson Pollock, Elaine de Kooning, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko and concluded that their version of abstract expressionism was not for him.  Instead he made his own of the simplest domestic objects, a frying pan, eggs, a plate, a fish, green beans, a bowl, a jug.  Morgan O’Driscoll has another magnificent sale coming up, with work by  Yeats, Henry, Donald Teskey, Dan O’Neill, John Shinnors, Gerard Dillon, Robert Ballagh and others.  Jug, estimated at €80,000-€120,000, is a highlight.

    UPDATE: THIS MADE 85,000 AT HAMMER

    A CHANCE TO DRESS LIKE ZIZI JEANMAIRE

    Friday, November 13th, 2020

    You might never be able to dance like Zizi Jeanmaire, but you can dress like her thanks to the online sale of her Yves Saint Laurent wardrobe at Christie’s from January 13-26. The sale will pay tribute to the performer of “Mon truc en plumes”, who passed away last summer at the ground old age of 96. Saint Laurent was by her side throughout her career. The clothes and accessories that make up this wardrobe reflect the image of the queen of music hall with jet-black hair: often black, a stunning silhouette, glitter, embroidery and feathers. The admirers of the one who “had eyes that could empty a monastery”, as Boris Vian described her, will find around 100 lots including tuxedos, jackets, dresses, trousers, shoes and accessories.

    SAINT LAURENT RIVE GAUCHE 1970s
    LARGE BELT IN BLACK SUEDE AND BUTTERFLY METAL BUCKLE
    ESTIMATE €200 – 300
     
    SAINT LAURENT RIVE GAUCHE 1970s
    BLOUSE IN BLACK SILK CHIFFON, WITH LAVALLIERE COLLAR
    ESTIMATE €300 – 500

    HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE AT LAOIS AUCTION

    Wednesday, November 11th, 2020

    This 19th century horse drawn carriage, complete with leather style deep button seating and carriage lamps, is at Sean Eacrett’s timed auction of items from various tv programmes and series which runs until November 15. There are 204 lots and the catalogue is on Easy Live Auctions. The carriage is estimated at 2,500-3,500.

    SCOTT SMASHES TOP ESTIMATE AT SOTHEBY’S TODAY

    Tuesday, November 10th, 2020

    Deep Blues by William Scott sold for £837,800 over a top estimate of £500,000 at Sotheby’s re-scheduled sale 44 Fitzwilliam Square – Works from the Estate of the Late Patrick Kelly, in London today. Lockdown failed to put a stop to the gallop of this sale of contents from the Dublin home of the late property developer. There was huge interest online and on the telephones as the auction was in progress. It had been scheduled to take place on March 18 and postponed due to lockdown.

    Achill Sound by Paul Henry sold for £207,900 over a top estimate of £100,000. Young Men, The Showground Revisited and Early Morning, Glasnevin all by Jack B. Yeats each sold for £176,400, A View of Killarney with the Passage to the Upper Lake by William Ashford sold for £252,000 and Still Life, Fruits by Roderic O’Conor sold for £100,800. A c1760 Irish Georgian mahogany side table sold for £30,240, a pair of Irish clear blue and oval glass mirrors sold for £56,700, a George III style Irish oval hall mirror sold for £25,200 and a pair of mottled pink marble pedestals sold for £13,860. The sale total was £3.3 million.

    Deep Blues by William Scott

    THE SPIRIT OF THE ROSE AT SOTHEBY’S, GENEVA

    Monday, November 9th, 2020

    AN exceptionally rare 14.83 carat Fancy Vivid Purple-Pink, Internally Flawless, Type IIa diamond comes up at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 11. Named ‘The Spirit of the Rose’ after Vaslav Nijinsky’s legendary ballet, Le Spectre de la rose, the diamond was mined, cut and polished in Russia. It is the largest Purple-Pink diamond to ever appear at auction. It was cut from the largest pink crystal ever mined in Russia. It is estimated at CHF 21-35 million or $23-38 million US. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $26.6 MILLION

    ITALIAN DESIGN RECORD AT SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK

    Monday, November 9th, 2020

    There was a record for any work of Italian design at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in New York when a unique dining table by Carlo Mollino sold for $6.2 million.  This was more than double the $3 million high estimate. From the Brooklyn Museum it was designed in 1949 and executed by Appelli and Varesio in Turin for the travelling exhibition Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today. This groundbreaking event, hosted initially by the Brooklyn Museum in 1950, set out to expose Italian art and design to an international audience in an attempt to stimulate Italy’s economy after World War II. Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) was an architect pushing the boundaries of design whose passions included skiing, poetry, racecar driving, photography and flying stunt planes.  He developed the technique of bending and moulding plywood and his name became synonymous with complex, sinuous lines and forms.

    STUNNING IRISH LOTS AT SOTHEBY’S

    Saturday, November 7th, 2020

    A stunning array of Irish pictures from the 18th to the 20th centuries as well as Georgian and Regency furniture and decorative arts will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London on November 10. If there is a certain sense of deja vu about the auction of contents from 44 Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin it is because this sale was first scheduled to take place in London last March.  The first lockdown landed and it was re-scheduled to November just in time for lockdown number two to take off. Things are different this time round, the auction world has adjusted spectacularly well to the online model and there is a zoom boom. 

    Irish art has fared very well in times of pandemic and this sale offers an exceptional William Scott and five works by Yeats. The paintings by Yeats include The Showground Revisited, painted in 1950 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000) and Young Men, painted in 1929 (£150,000-250,000 / €170,000-282,000).  The Scott, entitled Deep Blues,  has an estimate of £300,000-500,000 / €339,000-565,000.There is  art by Daniel Maclise, George Barret, Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor, George Mullins,  James Arthur O’Connor, John Butts, james Humbert Craig, Jeremiah Hoad, Louis le Brocquy, Erskine Nichol, William Sadler, William Ashford, Douglas Alexander, Nathaniel Hone, Harry Kernoff and others including a set of 25 Views of Dublin by James Malton.
    These were all shown in Dublin a year ago as a curtain raiser to the November 2019 Irish art sale at Sotheby’s. Serious punters who viewed them then will have no trouble vividly remembering them now.  
    The elegant Dublin townhouse, home to the late property developer Paddy Kelly, was a wonderful setting for these paintings and antique furniture pieces like a pair of Irish mirrors and a pair of demi lune side cabinets in the manner of the Dublin maker William Moore. On offer too is a c1820 Irish Regency serving table, a set of four Irish hall chairs c1815 and a matched pair of table globes by Cary. A Victorian silver gilt replica of the Ardagh Chalice has an estimate of £3,000-£5,000.  An avid collector, Patrick Kelly (1942-2011) recognised the tradition of Irish painting from the eighteenth century through to the twentieth, complemented with fine Georgian and Regency furniture, silver and decorative arts, amassed from auctions and dealers over three decades. 

    An interior view of 44 Fitzwilliam Square