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Viewing gets underway in Dublin today for Whyte’s Spring online art auction on March 25. This is a sale of accessible art from Ireland and around the world with artists including Gerard Dillon, Seán Keating, Nano Reid, Mary Swanzy, Maurice MacGonigal, George Campbell, Pauline Bewick, Graham Knuttel, Richard Gorman and John Ffrench. Pictured here is lot 7, Clown by Markey Robinson which is estimated at €1,200-€1,800. The catalogue is online.
A Waterford Crystal replica of the Sam Maguire Cup comes up at a two day in person and online sale of 733 lots by Aidan Foley at the Castle Cinema, Oldcastle next Wednesday and Thursday, March 20 and 21. It is one of five made. One was presented to President Bill Clinton. The auction, in association with Niall Mullen, will include contents from Middleton Park House, Westmeath, formerly a wedding venue. The replica is estimated at €2,000-€4,000. Viewing is underway in Oldcastle and the catalogue is online.
In Dublin viewings get underway on March 22 for upcoming sales of important Irish art at both James Adam and de Veres. The sale at James Adam on March 27 features some of Ireland’s best loved artists with estimates of from €500 to over €60,000 for The Bog by Paul Henry (€60,000-€80,000).A number of paintings by Patrick Hennessy and Harry Roberston Craig from the collection of Pamela and George Fegan, a Dublin couple who were friends of both artists and bought directly from them, will feature. The catalogue cover lot is a 1951 painting by Patrick Hennessy, The Rebuilding of Monte Cassino, located about 130 kilometres south east of Rome and site of a major Second World War battle in 1944. This work, which has not been on the market before, is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
Eliza Doolittle in Dublin by Sean Keating (€50,000-€70,000) is the most expensively estimated lot at de Veres sale on March 26. Based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw the 1965 work depicts a daffodil seller against a background of Georgian buildings and thunderous clouds. Sean Keating, along with many others, was vociferous in his condemnation of the destruction of Georgian Dublin which got underway in the 1950’s. Among the other highlights at de Veres are John B Vallely’s Heading for the Final Sprint with a pack of cyclists in full flight and Letitia Hamilton’s Wind Blown Tree, Killary. There is a collection of works on paper by Mainie Jellett. All catalogues are online now.
St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland and if you drive to Limerick racecourse today and tomorrow you can hunt for all sorts of treasures on this long weekend of national celebration. There will be dear little shamrocks and plenty of other expensive baubles too. With its ample parking and ease of access Limerick Racecourse has proved itself to be an ideal venue for this extensive quarterly National Antiques, Art and Vintage. With its antique shops, art galleries and vintage dealers this one will welcome a selection of new dealers along with members of the Irish Antique Dealers Association and regulars like Eily Henry with vintage fashion, Weldons with collectible silver and jewellery and Treasures with Irish art. Newcomers like Rory O’Hanlon will offer a selection of metal objects in brass and bronze along with watches and Gloria Neumann offers antique furniture, porcelain and glass. The Purple Onion Gallery will bring dramatic work by acclaimed American photographer Camille Seaman who lived near Kilkee, Co. Clare for a few years. The national antique fair is a fully indoor event where you can expect the unexpected and even get a new collecting habit underway. Anyone for some colourful Murano or militaria?
A full page account of the Kilmichael Ambush carried out by a Flying Column of the West Cork Brigade comes up as lot 87 at Victor Mee’s sale on March 19. Complete with photographs and a hand drawing of the ambush site, where 36 IRA volunteers commanded by General Tom Barry ambushed and killed 16 members of the RIC in Kilmichael in November 1920 the sepia coloured broadsheet newspaper page with some staining comes up as lot 87 and is estimated at €200-€400. The Battlefields and Silver Screen auction, with 523 lots, offers military artefacts, Irish silver and film posters. A framed 19th century silk Fenian Sash is, at €2,000-€4,000, the most expensively estimated lot in a sale with everything from a Wanted poster for Billy the Kid to Georgian Irish silver sauce boats, a 19th century Dublin flintlock blunderbuss, the Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook of Easter 1916, a film poster for Jaws and original World War I enlistment posters.
A bidding battle between a telephone bidder and an online bidder saw an origin an original unseen study by Sir John Lavery of The Trial and Roger Casement sell for a hammer price of £124,000 (£155,200 with fees) at Dreweatts Modern and Contemporary art sale at Newbury in Berkshire. The final price was over ten times the original low estimate. The high-profile case against Roger Casement for treason took place in 1916 in the High Court in London and was witnessed by Lavery. The full-scale painted version of The Hearing of the Appeal of Sir Roger Casement was proposed by the presiding judge, Sir Charles Darling 1st Baron Darling, PC (1849-1936). Having commissioned the artist to paint other portraits of his family and having seen the artist’s other publicly exhibited works, he invited him to capture the court proceedings. The finished final painting of the work was produced in Lavery’s studio and completed in 1931. It remained there until the artist’s death in 1941, when he left it to the nation. It hung firstly in the Royal Courts of Justice and in 1950 at the request of Sergeant Sullivan, who had been part of Casement’s defence team, it was lent to King’s Inn, Dublin.
Lavery’s portrait of Lieutenant John Clive Darling, 20th Hussars (1887-1933), son of the Honourable Mr Justice Charles John, 1st Baron Darling sold for £8,190 against an estimate of £7,000-£10,000. A portrait of Mary Caroline Darling, mother of Major John Clive Darling, made £5,040 against an estimate of £3,000-£5,000. A Grey Day by Lavery made £32,700 against an estimate of £10,000-£15,000 and a study by Laver for a full length portrait of Minnie Plowden and her son Humphrey, painted in c. 1897 made £8,190 against an estimate of £7,000-£10,000.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 14, 2024)
There is something highly appropriate about this print by Peter Curling in this Cheltenham Festival week. Entitled Owners it comes up as lot 250 at Whyte’s Spring online art auction with an estimate of just 200-300. Numbered 139 from an edition of 500 it is one of three racing prints by the artist. The others are entitled Lads and Jockeys and all estimates are the same. The catalogue, with 284 lots, is online and bidding is underway. Viewing gets underway at Whyte’s at Molesworth St., Dublin on March 20.
A finely bound limited-edition collection of The Writings Of Oscar Wilde from 1907 is available at Sotheby’s buy now platform priced at $5,500. The Wilde collection – a set of 15 – was published by Keller-Farmer Co., 1907 and is number 75 out of a limited edition of 200 seta. Profusely illustrated throughout the set is in very good condition.
Marée Montante by Roderic O’Conor comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on March 20. The composition employs an unconventional perspective with an unusually high horizon line and a lack of traditional recession, reminiscent of the aesthetic language of Japanese wood-block prints so fascinating to fellow artistic pioneers around Pont-Aven at the time. This departure from the typical expansive landscape format plunges the viewer into a vertiginous exploration of vertical depth, evoking an awe-inspiring portrayal of the sea as a living, breathing entity. The work was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1906 and it is estimated at £100,000-£150,000.
Among many treasures at the National Antiques, Art and Vintage fair at Limerick Racecourse on March 16 and 17 are these 18th century wine glasses. They will be on the stand of Norman Allison from Annamoe Antiques of Co. Wicklow, who will bring a selection including Oriental rugs and carpets, Chinese bronze vases and antique furniture. All the wine glasses pictured here have engraved scenes but what is most remarkable to contemporary eyes is their capacity, or lack of it. Wine glasses have been getting bigger and bigger over the centuries as the world has become wealthier and more wine is being produced in more places. There will be plenty of scope at this upcoming fair – billed as Ireland’s largest – for a little bit of whatever you fancy yourself.
