GUITAR SIGNED BY THE ROLLING STONES. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
A guitar signed by the Rolling Stones is among the more unusual lots at Sheppards three day Legacy of the Big House sale in Durrow on September 26, 27 and 28. The electric guitar is signed by Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Woods and Keith Richards. Lot 14 in the auction, which comes up on September 26 is estimated at €3,000-5,000. The three day auctions offers a total of 1499 lots of antique furniture, pictures and prints, Asian art, carpets, rugs, boxes, jewellery, musical instruments, arms and armour, silver and plate and various collectibles. Viewing gets underway in Durrow on September 23 and the catalogue is online.
Maurice MacGonigal PPRHA (1900 – 1979) – Autumn Fair Day, Clifden, Connemara (1972). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
Anyone of a certain age would not have too much difficulty dating this oil on board by Maurice MacGonigal. The short skirts, the cars, the tarpaulin sheets are all aids to placing this charming painting redolent of its own time sometime in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. It comes up as lot 29 at the James Adam sale of Important irish Art on the evening of September 27. Viewing gets underway at St. Stephen’s Green on September 22 and the catalogue is online.
Barbara Hepworth – Three Oblique Forms (Walk In) (1968). UPDATE: THIS MADE £5,830,000)
Barbara Hepworth’s Three Oblique Forms (Walk In) (1968) will lead Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on October 18. Standing at almost three metres in height it is one of a rare and highly important group of monumental sculptures created by Barbara Hepworth in the 1960’s. They were intended to be set in open-air surroundings and make a new understanding of landscape. Three Oblique Forms (Walk In) is on view in the garden setting of St James’s Square, adjacent to Christie’s headquarters on London’s King Street, until October 18, a unique opportunity to enjoy the work in a public outdoor space accessible to all. The piece is estimated at £6,000,000-9,000,000.
A one of a kind watch to be unveiled at Waterford’s 2nd International Festival of time next weekend will be auctioned for charity. After visiting the inaugural festival last year Swiss watchmaker Paul Gerber – recognised in The Guinness Book of Records as having created the world’s most complicated wristwatch – decided to create a unique timepiece alongside his apprentice Anny Weber. The Waterford Watch will be unveiled at the Festival, which runs from September 22-24, and later auctioned for charity by Phillips in association with Bacs and Russo of Geneva. Proceeds are to be divided in three ways with one third each for the Waterford Museum of Time (pictured here), apprentice Anny Weber and the Join Our Boys Trust, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of muscular dystrophy. Masters of watchmaking from Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the UK and Ireland will attend the festival.
A pair of Victorian brass and leaded lanterns. UPDATE: THESE MADE 850 AT HAMMER
A large Irish Georgian brass banded turf bucket, a watercolour drawing of Fisher’s Quay, Youghal by Norah McGuinness and an early Georgian walnut chest on chest are among the top lots at Lynes and Lynes sale in Carrigtwohill on September 23. With everything from a rare pair of Victorian brass and leaded hall lanterns to an old metal CIE clockwork model double decker bus in need of attention this is a sale with something for everyone. A fine pair of antique cast iron urns on bases, a set of Cork silver tablespoons by Carden Terry and Jane Williams, a pair of Birmingham Corinthian column silver candlesticks, a collection of old oil lamps, a circular dining table, a Victorian oak partners desk, an American longcase clock, a portable blacksmiths forge and The State of the County and City of Cork (1815) by Charles Smith are among the statement pieces.
A mechanical model of an old CIE bus. UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER
A 19th gold charm featuring Napoleon, courtesy of Dublin jeweller JW Weldon, will be spotlighted at Ireland’s collection of statement pieces, Timeless, the Irish Antique Dealers Fair, which takes place in Dublin’s RDS from September 15-17. Details from timelessfair.ie.
With Timeless in full swing at the RDS in Dublin today and tomorrow and a number of upcoming sales of Important Irish art in prospect the busy autumn season continues on its merry way in Ireland. The annual Irish Antique Dealers’ Fair running for the 56th time offers an eclectic blend of contemporary and antique focused exhibitors and is designed to appeal to both young contemporaries and seasoned collectors. With its eye watering results the Freddie Mercury sales at Sotheby’s this month (his Yamaha grand piano made just over €2 million) demonstrated once again the importance of celebrity and in this respect Timeless does not disappoint. Statement pieces on offer include a rare bookcase favoured both by David Bowie and Karl Lagerfeld and a 400 year old diamond ring that would once have travelled to the UK along the old Silk Road.
The Memphis Milano Carlton bookcase offered by Acquired was designed by Ettore Sottsass and once graced a Florence palazzo. Its ground breaking form challenged existing rules, something immediately recognised by fashion and rock icons Lagerfeld and Bowie, both of whom had one. It is priced at €17,000. J.W. Weldon will offer a 17th century diamond ring crafted in England, the oldest ring they have ever handled. It is priced at €3,950. Among other rarities is a 9th century French charm from a bracelet which features a cannon and a statue of Napoleon and a folding travelling silver chess set designed in 1972 to commemorate the Fischer-Spassky world championship. “The best of the past is also best for the future”, Garret Weldon, president of the IADA remarked. “Our trade is the original sustainable industry and helps the planet through a reduction in manufacturing and waste”.
On a Western Quay by Jack B Yeats at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 110,000 AT HAMMER
Important Irish art sales are in the offing at James Adam on September 27 and at Whytes on October 2. A 1923 oil on panel by Yeats – On a Western Quay – is a highlight at Adams and estimated at €100,000-€150,000. It depicts pilot Michael Gillen, who guided ships along the Garavogue River to the Sligo quayside, and who appears in several paintings and drawings by Yeats. Another top lot with a similar estimate in this auction of 158 lots is Evening by Paul Henry c1924-25. It comes from a private collection in Cork. The sale offers highly collectible art by artists like Louis le Brocquy, Gerard Dillon, William Conor and Rowan Gillespie. Viewing gets underway on September 22 and the catalogue is online.
The Currach, Kilronan by Gerard Dillon at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 50,000 AT HAMMER
Still Waters by Sean Keating and The Currach, Kilronan by Gerard Dillon, each estimated at €60,000-€80,000 are highlights at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art on October 2. Lord George Hell by Sir William Orpen is based on a Regency reprobate, the principal character in Max Beerbohm’s 1896 story The Happy Hypocrite. Hell sets out to woo dancer Jenny Mere with whom he has fallen in love wearing a mask to cover his pock marked face. When he succeeds and removes the mask his face has miraculously healed and become “saintly”, such is the power of love. The story was dramatised into a one act play and in his oil on canvas Orpen set out to create the impression of a late 18th/early 19th century print (€10,000-€15,000). Viewing at Whyte’s gets underway on September 25 and the catalogue is online.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) – Peinture (Femmes, lune, étoiles). UPDATE: THIS MADE €20,750,000
Peinture (Femmes, lune, etoiles), a museum quality Miro, will headline Christie’s Avant Garde sale in Paris on October 20. Painted in 1949 it has been displayed in the La Colombe d’Or at St. Paul de Vence since its acquisition from the nearby Galerie Maeght in 1950. Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque and Calder were among the artists invited to leave work in lieu of payment at this inn where the food is as legendary as the art. Peinture (Femmes, lune, etoiles) has been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, the Fondation Maeght, The Fundacio Miro, the Grand Palais in Paris and the Fondation Pierre Gianadda. Founded in 1920 La Colombe d’Or is now run by the third generation of the Roux family. Paul Roux’s passion for painting was the starting point for what is one of the most prestigious 20th century art collections in the world. The sale of this work will help the family expand the collection further. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €20,750,000
Paula Rego, Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (1995, estimate: £2,200,000-3,200,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE A WOLRD RECORD PRICE OF £3,065,000
Paula Rego’s 1995 work Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ (1940) will come to auction for the first time at Christie’s 20th / 21st Century evening sale in London on October 13. With an estimate of £2.2-3.2 million it is expected to set a new auction record for the artist. Executed upon two monumental panels this is the finest and most complex in this extraordinary series. Formerly part of the Saatchi Collection, Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ was created for the Hayward Gallery’s exhibition ‘Spellbound: Art and Film’ in 1996 and has been prominently exhibited over the past three decades including at Tate Liverpool (1997); The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (2007-08); Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris (2018-19) and Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover (2022-23).
ANNEMARIE BOURKE (B.1957) – Lily Pond. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
Lily Pond by Annemarie Bourke is lot nine at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction. The oil on canvas is estimated at £800-£1,200. The catalogue for the sale, which runs September 18, is online and viewing gets underway today in Skibbereen.
THE top estimate was £600 but Freddie Mercury’s silver moustache comb sold for a whopping £152,400 at the final day of the Queen frontman’s series of online sales at Sotheby’s in London yesterday. The little comb by Tiffany and Co. ignited the public interest at the month long exhibition at Sotheby’s before the series of Freddie Mercury sales.
