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  • Archive for October, 2022

    VORTEX VESSELL AND AN OLD WATERMILL

    Sunday, October 30th, 2022
     Vortex Vessell – Orange/Red by Grainne Watts at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER

    An arresting double walled thrown porcelain bowl with velvet underglaze by Grainne Watts sits comfortably among the sculptures at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International art sale.  Titled Vortex Vessel – Orange/Red it is by an artist who has undertaken a number of public commissions.  Work by Watts is represented in the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland collection and at the OPW.  With highlights by Paul Henry and Jack B. Yeats the sale, which runs until November 1 is on view at the RDS in Dublin this Bank Holiday weekend.  The catalogue is online.

    A lost piece of Cork industrial history features at Fonsie Mealy’s Irish and International art sale at Castlecomer next November 16.  A c1810 watercolour of a watermill attributed to Henry Brocas senior has been identified as likely to be the five storey mill that once stood in the village of Blarney beside the River Martin.  The flax mill, owned by James B. O’Sullivan, flourished for several decades.  Little remains of it today as it was demolished to make way for the Blarney Woollen Mills. Among more than 400 lots in the upcoming sale is a design by Daniel MacLise for a Cork Art Exhibition Medal in 1852.

    Watermill thought to be O’Sullivan’s Mill at Blarney attributed to Henry Brocas at Fonsie Mealy

    DESIGN SALES AT DE VERES AND ADAMS

    Saturday, October 29th, 2022
     Touch Vessels by Niamh Barry at Adam. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD

    With notable exceptions like Eileen Grey and Joseph Walsh Irish designers tend to get overlooked when it comes to auctions of design. Upcoming timed online sales of  design at de Veres in Dublin on November 1 and at Adams on on November 8 feature the sort of  designer pieces from the middle of the last century and later that are increasingly in vogue here.

    There is a wide selection of Danish, Italian and French work available but where are the modernist Irish designers?  Artists like Felim Egan and Cecil King, couturier Sybil Connolly whose designs were used on porcelain by Tiffany and Co. and craft makers like the Dixon Carpet Company of Oughterard, established as V’Soske Joyce in 1957 were ahead of the curve. Did they flourish in isolation?  Hardly.
    We have designers, craftspeople and innovators in plenty who remain relatively  unknown or overlooked.  Half a century ago, when the Kilkenny Design Workshops was in its infancy, the international view was that the Irish produced only remarkable writers and poets.  That theory has been debunked enough to make one wonder whether as yet unheralded Irish designers are waiting to be discovered. Innnovative designers of every sort feature at crowd pulling events like the annual Crafts Fair at the RDS – the next one runs from November 30-December 4.

    Intrusion by Cecil King at de Veres. UPDATE; THIS MADE 2,200 AT HAMMER

    One of the most expensive pieces at Adams is from an Irish artist that few of us have heard of. Niamh Barry’s “Touch” vessels – hand raised, mirror polished, patinated and brushed solid bronze – are estimated at €20,000-€30,000. After graduating in ceramics from the NCAD in 1991 Niamh Barry turned to metalworking and began translating the natural landscape into metal forms. After decades of perfecting her craft critical acclaim followed her representation by Todd Merrill, the Manhattan dealer in 20th century design. Then her debut at Art Basel Switzerland led to a steady stream of commissions. Her work has been exhibited in London, New York, Switzerland, Dubai, Toronto, Miami and at a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland.The catalogues for the sales at Adams and de Veres feature stylish design pieces for every nook and cranny of the contemporary home and are online.  There will be viewing at de Veres this Bank Holiday weekend and viewing gets underway at Adams on November 5.

    MORGAN O’DRISCOLL ART AUCTION NOW ON VIEW IN DUBLIN

    Friday, October 28th, 2022
    WILLIAM SCOTT (1913-1989) – Blue and Brown Still Life with Knife (1975). UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER

    Viewing gets underway at the RDS in Dublin today for the Irish and International online art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 1. Pictured here is Blue and Brown Still Life with Knife, a gouache and pastel on paper by William Scott from 1975. It is estimated at 20,000-30,000. In a catalogue note to the work Dr. Peter Murray said: “Since the early 1930s, perhaps more than any other Irish artist of the twentieth century (apart from Jack Yeats), Scott’s work has been exhibited worldwide. In 1953, as well as showing at the Sao Paul Bienal, he was introduced by Martha Jackson (at whose New York gallery he had several exhibitions), to Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. Five years later, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, and showed also at galleries in Turin, Milan, Munich and other cities.”

    The sale is led by Village by the Marsh, a classical Paul Henry landscape, and there is art by Yeats, Lavery, Crozier, Shinnors and many more leading artists. The catalogue is online.

    SWEDISH FURNITURE AND PERSIAN RUGS AT BANDON AUCTION

    Thursday, October 27th, 2022
    ANTIQUE OAK CARVED JACOBEAN CHAIR. UPDATE: THIS MADE 110 AT HAMMER

    This oak Jacobean chair comes up at the fine interiors sale at Hegarty’s online in Bandon on November 1. The estimate is just 100-200 and includes cushions and covers in upholstery fabric from Haggastrand, Sweden. The online auction features Swedish furniture and Middle Eastern rugs from the private collection of a Swedish diplomat who retired to Ireland after serving in several countries in Asia, the Middle East and in the US and items from a Cork collection.

    ANN AND GORDON GETTY COLLECTION MAKES MORE THAN $150 MILLION

    Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
    JEAN-ANTOINE WATTEAU (1684-1721) – Three head studies of a girl wearing a hat made: $3,420,000

    With global participation the sale of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s made more than $150 million. This firmly established the collection, sold across ten auctions which concluded in New York yesterday among the top three fine and decorative art sales at Christie’s. It ranks alongside the collections of Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Berger and that of Peggy and David Rockefeller. Records were set for Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Right ($7,489,000); Jacques-Émile Blanche’s Vaslav Nijinsky in ‘Danse Siamoise’ ($2,700,000); Jules Bastien-Lepage’s Portrait de Sarah Bernhardt ($2,280,000) and Jean-Antoine Watteau, Three Head Studies Of A Girl Wearing A Hat (work on paper) ($3,420,000).

    $3,420,000

    GREATEST COLLECTION OF BAROQUE MASTERPIECES ASSEMBLED IN RECENT TIMES

    Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
    Sir Peter Paul Rubens – Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, c.1609 ($25,000,000 – 35,000,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE $26,926,600

    A key early Rubens masterpiece from the greatest private collection of Baroque paintings assembled in recent times will come up at Sotheby’s in New York next January. Collected with passion and rigor over three decades, the Fisch Davidson collection distills the essence and power of Baroque art between 1600 and 1650, comprising some of the very finest paintings in private hands by Guercino, Bernardo Cavallino, Valentin de Boulogne, Orazio Gentileschi and above all Sir Peter Paul Rubens.

    No less than ten works from the collection will headline Sotheby’s Master’s Week auctions, led by Sir Peter Paul Rubens’ Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist.   It is estimated at $25-35 million. In advance of the sale Sotheby’s will tour highlights to Los Angeles, Hong Kong and London.

    Keith Christiansen, Curator Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York said: “What distinguishes the Fisch Davidson collection is the sustained level of quality of the paintings, combined with a willingness to embrace powerful subjects that lesser collectors might find “difficult”. There is nothing shy about these pictures…. These are baroque paintings that speak with a contemporary voice. Their modernity lies in their probing, psychological dimension combined with dramatic flair, realised with brilliantly descriptive brushwork.”

    UPDATE: THE SALE OF THIS COLLECTION MADE $49,587,600

    QING WATERCOLOURS AT SHEPPARDS NOW ON VIEW IN DURROW

    Wednesday, October 26th, 2022
    One of a set of eight Chinese Qing watercolours. UPDATE: THESE MADE 32,000 AT HAMMER. THE FOLDER MADE 27,000.

    Lot 290 at Sheppard’s Gentleman’s Library sale online at in Durrow on October 27 is a set of eight Qing watercolours. They depict figures at various pursuits within a walled garden. The set is estimated at €8,000-12,000. Lot 289 is a folder of 24 Qing watercolours depicting indigenous peoples. There is a similar estimate on this. The sale, which is on view in Durrow today, offers 368 lots in total with an afternoon session devoted to musical instruments headed by some Froggy Bottom guitars.

    (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 22 and October 14, 2022)

    PORTRAIT OF WALTER OSBORNE AT FONSIE MEALY SALE

    Tuesday, October 25th, 2022
    Portrait of Walter Osborne – Augustus Burke RHA (1838-1891). UPDATE; THIS WAS UNSOLD

    Meet Walter Osborne. We are more accustomed to seeing the artists work than the artist himself. This oil on canvas head and shoulders portrait by his friend Augustus Burke comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Irish and International art sale in Castlecomer on November 16. It most likely dates from the late 1880’s. George Osborne was born in 1859 and died of pneumonia aged 43. Augustus Burke served professor of painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy before moving permanently to England.

    VINTAGE TRACTOR PROVES TO BE A BIG DRAW

    Monday, October 24th, 2022

    This MKI Massey Ferguson 65 tractor made a hammer price of 4,100 at Aidan Foley’s two day sale of agricultural bygones in Co. Cavan on October 24. A 1947 David  Brown tractor made 3,100. There was much competitive bidding for agricultural implements and memorabilia of all sorts gathered over seven decades by Tommy Shannon. The second day of the auction of 1,354 lots continues tomorrow. 

    HENRY, YEATS, LAVERY, SCOTT, CROZIER AND SHINNORS AT IRISH ART SALE

    Sunday, October 23rd, 2022
    Village by the Marsh by Paul Henry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 210,000 AT HAMMER

    A classical Paul Henry landscape leads an Irish and International art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 1 which also boasts significant works by artists varying from Jack B. Yeats and Sir John Lavery to William Scott, William Crozier and John Shinnors. An impressive canvas by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson features a three masted frigate off Haulbowline in Cork Harbour in 1846 with a rowing boat in the foreground and a small paddle steamer in the background.  It is estimated at €25,000-€35,000.

    Village by the Marsh by Paul Henry is estimated at €200,000-€300,000.  My River (1950) and Through the wood to the sea (1951) by Jack B Yeats are estimated respectively at €60,000-€80,000 and €50,000-€70,000. The auction is on view in Skibbereen today and tomorrow and at the RDS in Dublin from next Friday until October 31. The catalogue is online.

    Seascape, Large Frigate off Haulbowline, Cork Harbour (1846) by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson. UPDATE: THIS MADE 32,000 AT HAMMER