A total of 21 pieces from the historic Cork Mansion House service brought in a total hammer price €11,900 at Woodwards sale in Cork today. The set, from a private collection, was broken up into 13 lots and all were sold after competitive bidding. A tureen, plate and lid made €420, a platter made €400, soup bowls made from €250-€380 and pairs of dinner plates sold for from €540-€580. The dinner service was designed by renowned Cork based architect Richard Pain (1793-1838), who was a pupil of John Nash. The service is decorated with the Cork Coat of Arms, darts and mace.
Field Marshall 1947 tractor UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,500 AT HAMMER
Aidan Foley’s sale of Agricultural Bygones in Cavan next Monday and Tuesday will attract enthusiastic collectors of a different sort. He anticipates more interest in collectible lots like vintage tractors, a four wheeled horse drawn carriage, mill stones, Coalbrookedale garden seats, nostalgic enamel signs, antique hammers, old road signs, ploughs, iron gates, scales, wringers, skillets than for much of the antique furniture at auction nowadays. Memorabilia is big business. There is a large and varied selection of 1,308 lots which long time collector Tommy Shannon has amassed over seven decades and is selling due to illness. The sale is on view at Shannon’s Yard near Killeshandra today and tomorrow and the auction is to take place at MacSeains Pub, Cornafean, Co. Cavan. The catalogue is online.
French Empire library chair at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Wonderful antique furniture, art including a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, unusual collectibles like a pair of Howdah flintlock pistols and customised guitars all feature at the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow on October 27. A late 19th century Louis XVI style inlaid commode with breccia marble top by G. Durand in the style of Jean Henri Riesener is, at €15,000-€20,000, the most expensively estimated lot. Other furniture lots include an 18th century library pole (€500-€800), a 19th century French terrestrial globe (€1,500-€2,500), a French Empire library chair (€4,000-€6,000), two George III Dublin brass bound peat buckets (€2,500-€2,500), a Regency library bookcase (€5,000-€8,000), a leather Chesterfield couch (€2,000-€3,000), a Regency rent table (€1,500-€2,500), an Irish 18th century bureau (€800-€1,200), a French bureau plat (€4,000-€6,000), various Gainsborough chairs and bureaux and plenty of other pieces to choose from.This is an auction to browse through and savour at leisure, either at viewings in Durrow which get underway today or online. On offer is 367 lots from The Smithwick Collection and other clients. A c1688 oval portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde is attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (€3,000-€5,000). Other art pieces include a folder of 24 Qing watercolours (€8,000-€12,000), four oils on canvas of a Fete Galante after Watteau (€10,000-€15,000), Irish School portraits, sporting pictures, engravings, lithographs and drawings.There are black basalt Wedgwood lamps and urns, a 17th century stucco bust of an unidentified Roman after an original from Herculaneum, Presbyterian minute books from 1734-1834, a Killarney wood specimen cabinet, mantle clocks, a c1800 pair of Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London amd a Burmese arched harp on stand.Among 69 lots of musical instruments are Froggy Bottom customised guitars and guitars by C.F. Martin and Co., Collings, Taylor and other makers. There is a concert harp by Sebastian and Pierre Errard, a Challen baby grand piano, a Paragon tenor banjo and a French violin.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 14, 2022)
Portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,700 AT HAMMER
JOHN VARDY – A Pair Of George Ii White-Painted and Parcel-Gilt Armchairs c1758. These made $1,033,200
The first in a series of four live sales and six online sales of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s in New York realised $79,408,900 with 100% of lots sold for 128% hammer above low estimate. There was lively bidding from around the globe and the auction drew nearly 2 million viewers via social media. In the hours leading up to the auction, Christie’s announced the private sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, enabled through a generous donation by Diane B. Wilsey.
Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Rightwas the top lot, bought by The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan for $7,489,000, breaking a 15 year-old record. The sale generated strong results across a wide variety of collecting categories, including English furniture and Chinese works of art. A Royal Early George III Mahogany China Cabinet by William Vile made $2,700,000 and a pair of massive Chinese Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Crane-Form Censers made $1,620,000, more than 20 times the low estimate.
L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match sold for £7,846,500
There was a new world auction record for L S Lowry when Going to the Match made £7.8 million at Christie’s in London this evening. It went to the Lowry Gallery in Salford. The painting was offered by The Players Foundation with proceeds being used to allow the organisation to continue its charitable work in, amongst other things, assisting with those who have dementia and relieving poverty amongst current or former professional players. It was painted for an exhibition in 1953, sponsored by The Football Association, where Lowry won first prize.
Frying Pan Still Life by William Scott made £765,000 at the Modern British and Irish art evening auction, which achieved a total of £20,564,100. Bidders from 11 countries across four continents registered for the sale.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 4, 2022)
Irish 18th century silver mounted marine ivory scrimshaw
This Irish 18th century silver mounted marine ivory scrimshaw made a hammer price of £1,400 at Warren and Wignall Auctioneers sale in Lancashire today. It had been estimated at £200-£300. One side is decorated with a galleon and inscribed ‘St Claire’. There is a sailor on the other side. It is dated 1798 with Dublin marks and an MK makers mark. This is the mark of Michael Keating who had a shop at Cole Alley, Castle St., Dublin. It is scheduled to go on display at the Waterford Irish Silver Museum early in 2023.
The handle to the side is the giveaway. This is what an antique washing machine looks like. This one comes up at the sale of the Tommy Shannon Collection by auctioneer Aidan Foley in Co. Cavan on October 24 and 25. On offer is a collection of farm machinery gathered over the last seven decades and farm implements used to tend the land in bygone days in Ireland feature. They will all be on view at Tommy Shannon’s Yard at Killeshandra from October 20-23. The auction 1,310 lot by Aidan Foley will take place at MacSeains pub in Cornafean, Co, Cavan and online. He anticipates enormous interest from collectors from right around the country. The washing machine is estimated at €100-€200.
ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM VAN DER HAGEN (FL. 1720-1745) King William III off the coast of Ireland, June 1690, with an English Royal Yacht and the Lord High Admiral’s First-rate Flying the Royal Standard
THIS oil painting attributed to William Van der Hagen sold for a hammer price of 32,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections auction today. Dating to around 1730 it had been estimated at 20,000-30,000. What was expected to be the top lot of the sale, an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker, failed to find a buyer. The Ploughman by Francis Wheatley made 36,000, a portrait of Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller made 32,000, a pair of Venetian oil on canvas views by JMW Turner and an Irish mahogany side table each made 26,000, a portrait of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland by Thomas Frye made 18,000; a French carved wood model of the Madonna and Child, probably 16th century, made 16,000; a set of four c1750 George II Irish silver cast candlesticks mark of George Hill made 14,500; a silver model of the Battle of the Boyne obelisk made 12,000; an Irish yewwood library table by Arthur Jones and Co. of Dublin and a family scene in the style of Johan Zoffany each made 11,000; a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks and a bronze banded short barrel cannon each made 10,000; a suite of 14 George II London silver serving dishes made 9,500; a pair of Neo Classical half circular side tables made 9,000 and a pair of Irish bird and flower pictures by Samuel Dixon made 7,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, October 12 and October 8 2022)
This pair of c1800 full size “The Land we Live In” decanters made a hammer price of €1,000 on day one of the James Adam Country House Collections sale today. The opening day is an online only sale. An Empire window seat made €1,700, a compact club fender made €1,600, an Irish George III mahogany square piano made €2,200, seven 1796 aquatints of Views of the River Lee after Nathanial Grogan made €2,600, a Nocturnal Scene by Edward Charles Williams made €5,000, an Aubusson pattern wool rug made €2,200 and a monumental Irish Regency cheval mirror made €1,000.
The live Country House Collections at Townley Hall sale with lots 300-830 takes place at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and online tomorrow.
JMW Turner – The Canale della Guidecca, Venice, 1840
Visual treats for art lovers in Ireland right now include Turner playing with light at the National Gallery and Corban Walker playing with perspective at the Crawford.
Turner: The Sun is God offers visitors a rare opportunity to see 89 artworks from the Tate Collection in London never before displayed in Ireland. Oil paintings filled with dramatic contrasts of light and dark and highly impressionistic weather effects abound in a must see exhibition which runs in Dublin until February 6. These marvellous paintings were created half a century before Impressionism. The show covers a range of themes including memory, imagination, nature, light and atmosphere.
A wonderful collection of Turner watercolours are displayed by the gallery every year in January.
As far as I can see is the title of a show by the internationally acclaimed Irish artist Corban Walker at the Crawford Gallery in Cork until January 18. The artist, who is around four feet tall, is known for installations, sculpture and drawing that relate to perceptions of scale and architectural constructs. At the Crawford his distinctive sculptural and installation works in the Gibson and Long Room galleries disorientate and reorientate perceptions. Part of the Pace Gallery stable in New York he has just joined Solomon Fine Art artists in his native Dublin.
