This c1730 George II Galway octagonal waiter or small salver sold for a hammer price of £16,000 at Gorringes of Lewes, East Sussex on March 30. It was made by Mark Fallon, whose work is exceptionally rare, and it will be a worthy addition to any collection. There are marks consistent with wear but the hallmarks are clear. It had been estimated at £6,000-£9,000. The hammer price will incur fees of 23% plus VAT. If it is to be brought back to Ireland there will, in addition, be importation fees of 13.5%.
A tiara passed down for 150 years through the Royal Family of Italy will highlight Sotheby’s sale of Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels in Geneva on May 11. The natural pearls and diamonds tiara from the House of Savoy is estimated at $1-$1.5 million. A new instagram filter available from today on the @Sothebys handle and @SothebysJewels enables followers to virtually try on the tiara and take a photograph of themselves wearing it against a 360 degree background of an Italian palace in Turin. Sotheby’s report an increasing interest in and demand for tiaras. No less than 96% of tiaras offered by them last year found a buyer, with 83% breaking the top estimate. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR CHF 1,472,000
THE global series of 20th century auctions at Christie’s in March brought in a combined total of £361,428,211. The auction house reports that the season saw registered bidders from 69 countries. The depth of bidding across platforms, time zones and geographies demonstrates global market is active and expansive according to the auction house. New registrants accounted for 24% of registered bidders in March. Tens of millions of viewers tuned in to watch and participate in the March sale series, through Facebook, You Tube, We Chat, Weibo, Artron, ArtPro, Yitao, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™
The underbidder on Banksy’s Game Changer placed a final bid of £14,300,000, the highest bid to date on Christie’s LIVE™. No less than 30 artists records were set.
Picasso’s Femme nue couchée au collier (Marie-Thérèse), 1932 sold for £14,582,500
A spectacular parure of sapphires and diamonds from the collection Stephanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (1789-1860) come up at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva on May 12. The nine pieces, including a tiara, one collier, one pair of earrings, two pendants and brooches as well as one ring and one bracelet will be offered as individual lots. A total of 38 sapphires originating from Ceylon were used to create this parure in the early 1800s. Stephanie was the adoptive daughter of Emperor Napoléon I (1769-1821), the 200th anniversary of whose death occurs in May.
Napoleon I married Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796. She was Stephanie’s aunt. Stephanie was born in 1789, unfortunately and after the death of her mother two years later she spent her early years with the nuns in the French country side. Soon after her aunt’s marriage to Napoléon I she joined them and grew up in Versailles and Paris. A month before her own wedding, she was adopted by Napoléon and became Her Imperial Highness Princess Stephanie Napoléon and was therewith able to marry into the Baden family.
The collection also includes the important sapphire crown of Maria II Queen of Portugal, set with a remarkable Burmese sapphire in the centre.
Early 19th century sapphire and diamond necklace, property of a royal familyCourtesy CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2021. UPDATE: THE NECKLACE MADE CHF 437,500
The 150 lot Irish art auction at de Veres next Tuesday on March 30 offers opportunities for collectors in the €1,000-€10,000 bracket with major Irish art names. There is work by William Crozier, Letitia Hamilton, Gerard Dillon, Peter Collis, Liam Belton, Tony O’Malley, Evie Hone, Patrick Scott, Hughie O’Donoghue, Barrie Cooke, Ciaran Lennon, Neil Shawcross and many other artists. The catalogue is online.
Anthony Scott RUA, b.1968 FOAL (bronze, edition 1/9) (3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
This George III ormolu mounted white marble and biscuit porcelain clock by royal clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy was made around 1791. One of the richest and most sophisticated examples of Vulliamy’s known work is described by Christie’s as a tour de force of English Neo-Classical design. From the collection of Mrs. Henry Ford II, who died aged 80 last year, it comes up at Christie’s in New York on March 30. The porcelain figures are by John Deare, the pedestal by Thomas Brownley and it is estimated at $250,000-$400,000. The collection of Kathleen Ford is to be offered at two sales in New York and London. Contents from the Palm Beach home come up in New York while contents from her mansion flat at Eaton Square, London and residence at Turville Grange in Oxfordshire come to auction on April 15. She married Henry Ford II (1917-1987) in 1980 and was his third wife while he was her second husband.
UPDATE: The New York sale totalled $4.7 million. The top lot was a pair of c1770 lacquer cabinets attributed to Joseph Baumhauer which made $846,000 over a top estimate of $600,000. The clock was unsold.
Antique jewellery, furniture and silver are among a total of 370 lots at an online auction at Hegarty’s in Bandon, Co. Cork on March 28. Among them is this c1790 Georgian demi lune side table of large proportions. Lot 2 is estimated at 500-1,000. The catalogue is online. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 1,450
This portrait of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), the Archbishop of Canterbury, by a follower of Hans Holbein the Younger soared to £189,000, more than 75 times its estimate of £2,000-3,000 at Sotheby’s sale of the family collection of Patricia Mountbatten. Over 1,400 participants from 55 countries drove the total to £5,620,798 over three times the pre-sale estimate with 98% of lots sold. The eldest daughter of Britain’s last Viceroy of India Louis Mountbatten, Patricia Knatchbull was the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, great niece of Russia’s last Tsarina and first cousin to Prince Philip. A Jaguar 420 commissioned by Lord Mountbatten in 1967 made £126,000 over an too estimate of £20,000; a group of four pieces of mourning jewellery belonging to Queen Victoria made a combined total of £100,800, more than doubling their estimates; a c1905 Lacloche Frères pig-shaped evening bag sold for £109,620 over a top estimate of £3,000; a rare pale celadon jade teapot, Qing Dynasty sold for £176,400, eighteen times its estimate; The Banks Diamond, a late 18th century brooch with a cushion-shaped yellow diamond given to explorer and botanist Joseph Banks by his eccentric sister Sarah around the time of his marriage in 1779 sold for £138,600 and a Fabergé gold-mounted cigarette case and Imperial enamel timepiece bought by the last Tsar and Tsarina as gifts for the parents of Louis Mountbatten, both soared above their estimates, selling for £47,880 and £81,900 respectively.
THIS c1905 Lacloche Frères pig-shaped evening bag sold for £109,620
UPDATE: THE BASQUIAT WARRIOR SOLD FOR £30,265,619. PICASSO’S Femme assise dans un fauteuil noir (Jacqueline) sold for £9,659,000
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior (on the right above) will launch the Christie’s 20th Century Art sale from Hong Kong today. Picasso’s Femme assise dans un fauteuil noir (Jacqueline) (1962) on the left above is one of two Picasso portraits in the sale. The live stream of the 20th Century Art evening sale and The Art of the Surreal from London begins at 9pm Hong Kong / 1pm London / 9am New York on Tuesday March 23.
UPDATE: THE auction realised £198,716,619, selling 93% by lot, 97% by value and 128% hammer above low estimate. The series of consecutive sales was launched from Hong Kong with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior (1982), which set a new record, becoming the most expensive western artwork ever sold in Asia at HK$323,600,000. Warrior saw competition from bidders in London, New York and Hong Kong, before ultimately selling to an Asian buyer on the phone in Hong Kong. Banksy’s painting Game Changer (2020), a tribute to international frontline workers during the global pandemic, achieved a world auction record following 14 minutes of bidding. Proceeds of more than £16,000,000 from the sale of the artwork will be used to support the wellbeing of University Hospital Southampton staff and patients as well as benefitting associated health organisations and charities across the UK
Lemons by Georges Braque (1882-1963). UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,200 AT HAMMER
This etching with aquatint by Georges Braque dates to 1929 and is No. 3 from an edition of 50. It comes up at Whyte’s online sale of Irish and International Art this evening with an estimate of 2,000-3,000. The virtual auction of 153 lots features work by sculptors John Behan and Rowan Gillespie, paintings by Jack B. Yeats, Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry, Patrick Scott, Camille Souter, William Crozier, James Humbert Craig, Gladys Maccabe, Dan O’Neill and international artists Tracey Emin, Bob Dylan and Damien Hirst.
