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This antique Irish silver dish ring comes up as lot 78 at Matthews two day live online auction from Kells, Co. Meath with jewellery silver, gold and collectibles on November 2 and antiques and collectibles on November 3. It is estimated at 1,000-1,500. Lots 1-571 will be sold from 6 pm on November 2 and lots lots 601-1126 come up at 2 pm on November 3.
In Dublin there is viewing from 1 pm to 5 pm today and tomorrow, from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday and from 10 am to noon on Tuesday for the James Adam Mid-Century Modern sale which kicks off online at 2 pm on November 2. The centrepiece of this sale is Lilium II by Joseph Walsh. Too large for the auction room and too pricey for most of us it will be on view instead at the Throne Room in Dublin Castle. This marvellous intricate ash piece is estimated at €100,000-€150,000. The AdamsLive platform can be used for bidding at a sale which includes a good selection of mid 20th Century furniture by well known Italian and Danish makers, modern and contemporary paintings, lamps, mirrors, armchairs, desks and tables.
This Chinese lacquered wedding cabinet kicks off Sheppards two day sale at Barrettstown House, Newbridge, Co. Kildare online on November 2 and 3. There will be viewing at Barrettstown this weekend. Lot 1 of 788 has a fall front inset with foliate and figural panels, above a signed elongated ornithological panel. It opens to a series of shelves and is furnished with heavy brass carrying handles. The estimate is 1,400-1,800.
Following an eighteen-month conservation and research project generously supported by Bank of America, Lavinia Fontana’s celebrated painting The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon was today unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland. Part of the Gallery’s permanent collection, it is the largest surviving painting by one of the most renowned woman artists of the Renaissance. Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project.
Lavinia Fontana was one of the most successful female painters in the history of Western art. The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon is widely recognised as Fontana’s most ambitious painting. On the occasion of the unveiling, the Gallery is delighted to also announce Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker – a large-scale exhibition opening in the Gallery’s Beit Wing in May 2023. Exploring the artist’s extraordinary life through her paintings and drawings, it will be the first monographic exhibition of Fontana’s work in over two decades.
The conservation treatment of The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon addressed structural issues as well as aesthetic ones. Research into the artist’s materials and techniques revealed fascinating details about the painting and its production. Cracking and instability in the over 400-year-old structure has been arrested so that the painting can be safely displayed and enjoyed for generations to come. After the painstaking removal of layers of dull and yellow varnish, many previously obscured details were uncovered during the conservation treatment. This included an inscription, dated 1599, on the base of an ornamental clock held by one of the figures in the composition. Scientific analysis has identified the pigments Fontana used and given new insights into her workshop practice.
THIS oil on board by Rowland Hill of Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal is lot 14 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of affordable art on November 1. It is estimated at 500-750. There is art by Simeon Stafford, Cecil Maguire, Louis le Brocquy, John Kingerlee, Jack Butler Yeats, Mainie Jellett, Michael Gemmell, Barrie Cooke, Norman McCaig, Mark Rode, Siobhan Bulfin, Padraic Reaney and many others. The catalogue for the auction of art and sculpture is online, and the sale is on view in Skibbereen.
This Victorian walnut inlaid credenza comes up at Hegarty’s October Homes and Interiors auction on October 30. The catalogue is online and offers more than 400 lots of antique furniture, silver, jewellery, art and collectibles. Among the is a Dublin Tunbridge wall clock, an antique Persian Kashan rug, a Burmese ruby ring and an Art Deco console table. The credenza is estimated at 3,500-5,500.
More than 160 lots of vintage and storied guitars, iconic fashions, unique synthesizers, production equipment and rare cars from the collection of legendary and multiple GRAMMY-winning composer, producer, arranger and guitarist Nile Rodgers will be sold by Christie’s in New York on December 16. His renowned productions for artists such as David Bowie, Diana Ross and Madonna have sold over 500 million albums and 75 million singles worldwide, while his trendsetting collaborations with Daft Punk, Avicii, Keith Urban, Disclosure, Sam Smith and Lady Gaga reflect the vanguard of contemporary music. Proceeds will benefit We Are Family Foundation, a non-profit organisation co-founded by Rodgers and Foundation President, Nancy Hunt, that promotes cultural diversity while nurturing and mentoring the vision, talents, and ideas of young people who are positively changing the world.
Viewing at Barrettstown House, Newbridge, Co. Kildare takes place on October 30 and 31 for Sheppards sale of 788 lots online on November 2 and 3. Government covid regulations will be strictly enforced for the viewing. Meantime the catalogue is online. Among the more unusual lots is a Chinese Qing Dynasty Imperial Court silk robe. Embroidered with nine gold dragons chasing the flaming pearl of wisdom and truth it is estimated at 3,000-5,000. UPDATE: The hand made Chinese carpet in the image above made a hammer price of 2,000 and the Imperial silk robe made 3,200 at hammer.
The first Penny Black postage stamp comes up at Sotheby’s Treasures sale in London on December 7. The world’s first postage stamp is part of a unique document from the archive of British postal reformer Robert Wallace. It is dated April 10, 1840 and estimated at £4-£6 million.
This small Penny Black – a pristine impression, unused, and from plate 1a (the very first printed sheet) and lettered A-I – represents the birth of a device that would be central to the birth of mass communications across the globe for more than a century and a half and that still has not been completely supplanted by newer technologies. Rediscovered nearly three decades ago but not fully recognised until much more recently, the stamp’s identification began when British businessman and philatelist Alan Holyoake came into the possession of The Wallace Document, to which the stamp is attached, almost ten years ago. Holyoake was to instigate a three-year research project – which culminated with the document being issued with certificates of authenticity from The Royal Philatelic Society, London (2016) and The British Philatelic Association (2015), and its subsequent exhibition at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington DC.
‘The Wallace Document’, which will be offered for sale at Sotheby’s, is considered the most important piece of philatelic history in the world. It is from a now dispersed personal scrap-album assembled by MP Robert Wallace, and brings together two highly important philatelic artefacts: the Penny Black and a proof of the ‘Mulready Stationery’ that had been commissioned by the government as an alternative means to prepay postage. Both were given to him in thanks by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Francis Baring, for everything that Wallace had done to overhaul the postal system and bring these innovations to fruition.
Renowned Irish and international figures including Dorothy Cross, Gottfried Helnwein and Eilis O’Connell are among 300 artists who have donated post card size artwork to raise critical funds for Lismore Cathedral, one of Ireland’s most historic buildings. A total of 900 cards go on sale anonymously on November 6 at Verso Art. With restoration funds in short supply, a local community group led by Julia Keane has been working on an intriguing way to help to keep the roof on St Carthage’s Cathedral which has been a place of learning and worship since 635AD.
The idea is simple – anyone can buy one of the 900 or so postcard sized artworks donated to the project, but you don’t know who the artist is until after you’ve bought it. As a bonus, every €50 spent will be matched by the Tomar Trust up to the sum of €30,000.
