This c1785 demi lune table by the renowned Irish furniture maker William Moore will be a highlight at Timeless – The Irish Antique Dealers Fair at the RDS in Dublin from September 23-25. Returning after an absence this year the fair will offer a blend of antique and contemporary focussed pieces and is designed to appeal to a wide audience. Contemporary pieces include an original Brionvega RR126 record player and speaker set similar to David Bowie’s personal model. It will be displayed by Acquired and stand alongside their mid-century designs like an iconic Cameleonda sofa by Mario Bellini upholstered in green velvet mohair. The demi-lune table by William Moore will be shown by McBain and Byrne.
This 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider by Scaglietti sold for $22,005,000 at RM Sotheby’s in California. Over three days in Monterey, California, RM Sotheby’s made $239,258,340 US at auction, setting a record for the highest grossing automotive auction of all time and netting a higher total than all other Monterey Car Week 2022 auctions combined. Seven of the top ten lots were by Ferrari. Porsche also presented a strong showing, with a 2022 911 “Sally Special” becoming the most expensive factory-new Porsche ever to sell at auction at $3.6 million, while a 1937 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster by Sindelfingen was RM Sotheby’s second-highest sale of the week at $9,905,000. An impressive 180 cars were sold over the three auctions, which saw bidders from 38 different countries. Fifty-two of them sold for over $1 million.
This 19th century rank badge, embroidered with silk thread on a dark ground, comes up as lot 50 at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon. The Chinese tradition of wearing rank badges (Buzi), also known as Mandarin Squares, to demonstrate civil, military or imperial rank began in 1391 during the Ming Dynasty and continued throughout the Qing Dynasty up until 1911. A badge featuring a bird (such as the one here) identified the wearer as a civil official. It is estimated at 180-250. The sale gets underway online at 6 pm on August 31 and there are 260 lots.
This pair of silver four branch candleabra made a hammer price of €17,000 over a top estimate of €3,000 at Mullens of Laurel Park on August 28. Stamped Hull and Roskill, late Storr and Mortimer London 1873-79 they weigh 296 troy ounces. The pair is of naturalistic form with four sconces on fruiting vine branches raised on puttis with lions frolicking on a platform above a circular foot decorated with vines on scroll legs.
Thomas Henry Kavanagh VC (1821-82) being disguised as a native during the Indian mutiny at the siege of Lucknow, 9th November 1857, c.1860 by Chevalier Louis-William Desanges (c) The National Army Museum
The Victoria Cross awarded to a Mullingar civil servant for an epic and daring escape and rescue during the Siege of Lucknow comes up at Noonan’s in London on September 14. Months into the siege during the Indian Mutiny of 1857 Thomas Henry Kavanagh crept out in disguise from the surrounded Residency at night. Against all odds the Irishman, a clerk at the Lucknow office, successfully crossed enemy lines, made contact with the Commander in Chief 15 miles away at Cawnpore and guided a relieving force through the city to the beleaguered garrison by the safest route.
Even though Kavanagh was a tall man with fair hair and blue eyes he made the trip dressed as a sepoy accompanied by a Brahmin scout, Kananji Lal. This painting at the National Army Museum in London by Chevalier Louis-William Desanges shows him being disguised. The siege had begun in June and by November the situation was becoming critical. He himself devised the plan for what was to become one of the best known episodes of the defence of Lucknow. Thomas Henry Kavanagh was the first civilian to be awarded the VC, Britain’s highest honour. His wife was wounded during the siege and his youngest child (of 14) died at the Residency as a baby.
He was promoted to the post of Assistant Commissioner at Oudh, given a reward of £2,000 and granted leave to return to England. He was presented with his medal by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and became a Victorian celebrity, touring England and Ireland and publishing an account of the Siege entitled: “How I won the Victoria Cross”. A first edition copy of this book is included with the lot. Photographs of him became popular postcard images. Afterwards he continued his career in India and his spendthrift ways, which had almost cost him his job prior to the siege. Seriously in debt again by 1875 he was asked to resign. Born in Mullingar in 1821 he took ill while returning from India in 1882 and died at Gibraltar, where he is buried. His VC is estimated at £300,000-£400,000 (€353,410-€471,210).
UPDATE: THIS MADE £930,000 – A WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A V.C.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 18, 2022)
An AA Crosshaven road sign at Aidan Foley’s sale (€100-€200). UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
From antique wooden butter churns,Tilley lamps and antique weights to vintage tools, old road signs, petrol pump tops and tractor seats the Aidan Foley online sale of the John Smith Collection at noon on August 30 will be a memory jogging exercise for many. The auction, in conjunction with Niall Mullen antiques, features 672 lots of hardware and collectible kit. There is a vintage Ford tractor (€4,000-€6,000) and some cast iron ploughs (€200-€400) along with a fully restored horse trap, some cartwheels and a selection of milk churns.
A mahogany table in the Irish 18th century manner at Adams (€3,000-€5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
Silver, antique furniture, jewellery, artworks, porcelain, rugs, chandeliers, mirrors, lamps and even an elmwood shovel feature at the James Adam At Home sale Dublin on September 4. The selection from 518 lots is wide ranging and appetising. If your mind is turning towards autumn home renovations and style changes, or if you are seeking singular inspiration, then this sale is an ideal place to start.The most expensively estimated lot, at €7,000-€8,000 is a sapphire torque necklace. Furniture, like a 19th century tilt top circular mahogany tea table €200-€300) or a lady’s rosewood writing desk (€300-€500), offers good value. There is Oriental porcelain, Meissen, Dresden, Worcester and Sevres pieces and a Satsuma tea set and silver wine jugs in Italian contemporary or George IV London 1788 style. The catalogue is online.
Masterpieces by Botticelli, Renoir, Cezanne, Hockney and Lichtenstein from the collection of the late Paul Allen, co founder of Microsoft, will be sold by Christie’s in November. What promises to be the largest art auction in history is expected to realise around $1 billion. Proceeds will go to charity, as Seattle born Allen, who died aged 65 in 2018, had wished. Among many highlights of a collection that ranges from Old Masters to giants of Contemporary art is a large Cezanne painting of Mont Saint Victoire, a recurring subject of the artist. It is expected to make more than $100 million. The sale of 150 lots is expected to surpass the sale of the Macklowe Collection ($922 million) which concluded at Sotheby’s earlier this year and David Rockefeller’s Collection ($835 million) at Christie’s in 2018. Final details of exactly which works are to be offered are not yet available.
PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906) La montagne Sainte-Victoire Painted in 1888-1890 Estimate in excess of $100 million. Courtesy of the Paul G. Allen Estate. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR A RECORD $137,790,000
18th century Beauvais Tapestry The Emperor’s Voyage
Some contents of the legendary Four Seasons George V Hotel in Paris will be auctioned by Artcurial on September 7 and 8 next. It is part of an ongoing drive to embellish the interiors of this iconic palace. More than 800 lots of art, furniture and objects are to be sold including items from the Imperial and Royal suites and Le Cinq, the three star restaurant. One of the most important lots is this tapestry depicting the Chinese Emperor Kangxi. Lot 733 is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. The majority of the lots on offer, including headboards, chairs, lamps, curtains, porcelain and tables are estimated at under €1,000.
The largest single owner collection dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora will be held at Christie’s in London on October 13. The sale of Robert Devereux’s Sina Jina Collection, which will include around 70 pieces, will raise funds to support environmental and arts charities. Sina Jina is Swahili for a place with no name and the founding principle of the collection is supporting artists to continue to create pioneering art. The sale will offer works by El Anatsui, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Nicholas Hlobo, William Kentridge, Marcia Kure, Elias Sime, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and others and is expected to realise around £2 million. The selection ranges from installations, sculpture and painting to photography. The auction will be held alongside the 20th/21st Century evening sale and will be part of Christie’s Frieze Week programme.
Robert Devereus began acquiring works for the Sina Jina Collection in the early 2000’s. This coincided with a seminal show, Africa Remix curated by Simon Niami, which toured to the Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and Hayward Gallery, London.
