Aran Islanders by Gerard Dillon comes up as lot 7 at Sotheby’s Irish Art sale in Paris on May 2 is from a private collection in Nevada and thence by descent. Bidding is now open. In a catalogue note art historian Karen Reihill recounts how Reeves Lowenthal, Director of the Associated American Artists (AAA), travelled to Europe in 1946 to buy paintings for rota exhibitions in America. He purchased a number of Irish paintings at Victor Waddington’s in Dublin and the label suggests that this one was exhibited in New York in March of 1947. It was definitely shown at an AAA show in California in December of that year as it was illustrated in the Los Angeles Times. Gerard Dillon made his first visit to Aran in 1944 and this work dates from that period. Aran Islanders is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN
A PAIR OF GILT CIRCULAR COCKTAIL TABLES, MADE FOR THE RITZ HOTEL, PARIS. UPDATE: THESE MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
This pair of gilt circular cocktail tables custom made for the Ritz Hotel in Paris and removed when renovated in 2018 come up as lot 23 at de Veres international Art and Design auction in Dublin on April 30. They are estimated at €1,200-€1,800. The sale features chairs from the Louvre, a Golden Egg chair designed by Arne Jacobsen and Ron Arad designed chairs. The Golden Age of stylish and functional Danish design, from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, is well represented too. It remains popular today as it works in traditional and contemporary spaces. There is art by Pierre Soulages, William Scott, Felim Egan and Barry Flanagan.
A first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, a set of four 18th century armorial hall chairs and a portrait of Thomas Wyndham by the Dutch painter Simon Pietersz Verelst (1644-1721) from Christie’s sale at Adare Manor in 1982 come up at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on April 30. The auction features The Durrus Collection and includes items from the estate of Major Ian Alexander Dorling Thomson who was awarded a Military Cross in 1953. The jewellery selection includes a yellow gold pink sapphire and diamond floral ring where the central petals revolve (pictured above). UPDATE: THE RING WAS UNSOLD
A woodblock print by Hiroshi Yoshida. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
A west Cork collection of 18th century Irish and Oriental artefacts assembled by an investment banker is included in four days of sales with more than 1,800 lots at Sheppards in Durrow next week. Among the lots from west Cork is a set of Japanese woodblock prints from the series Seto inland sea by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950), a pair of 19th century Meissen parakeets and a pair of 19th century Meissen plates.
A 17th century Flemish tapestry, a pair of Chippendale elbow chairs from Malahide Castle, a 17th century silver chalice from the Tim O’Mahony Collection, Kilkenny, an Irish 18th century wake table, four 18th century Chippendale chairs from the estate of Yehudi Menuhin and a long Donegal runner supplied by Robert Kime to Clarence House, home of King Charles and Queen Camilla add considerable interest to this auction.
The Great Irish Interiors sale takes place on April 30 and May 1. Curated jewellery will come under the hammer at Sheppards on May 2 with top brands like Cartier, Boucheron and Dior and the Irish Vernacular sale on May 3 offers a c1880 three wheeled bike, dug out chairs, hedge chairs and a Penal Cross. Viewing for all these sales gets underway in Durrow today and the catalogue is online.
This blue ground with trellis panel Donegal runner at Sheppards was supplied by Robert Kime to Clarence House. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Étretat, 1939 by Tristram Hillier (1905-1983). UPDATE: THIS MADE 75,000 AT HAMMER
Quality and diversity are the hallmarks of the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin on May 1. With everything from an historic American collection, fine paintings, and lots collected during a Grand Tour to silver, bookcases, desks and collectibles this auction of 347 lots will richly reward a long curious look.
The collection of 80 lots of furniture, clocks, porcelain, glass and decorative effects from ‘Dawesfield’, a c1728 Pennsylvania farmhouse built by Abraham Dawes, is fascinating. The farmhouse served as George Washington’s headquarters during the battle of Germantown in 1777 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The connections between émigré Irish cabinet makers working in Philadelphia, such as Joseph Barry and Henry Connelly, is particularly apparent in a Federal mahogany sofa (€3,000-€5,000) with typically Irish rope twist legs. A Chippendale corner cabinet (€2,000-€3,000), a Federal dining table (€700-€1,000), a set of eight dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) and a c1775 four poster bed (€3,000-€5,000) are all from this collection. A c1775 oak schrank or South German style wardrobe might have been used by Washington during his stay and is estimated at €6,000-€10,000. By descent through the female line these pieces have been in Ireland for three decades and have never been on the market before.
Carved Siena marble architectural models of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian. UPDATE: THESE MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
Siena marble carved models of the Roman ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian are typical of the prized objects collected during a Grand Tour. The architectural models date to the 19th century and are estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
The most expensively estimated lot is a 1939 Surrealist oil on canvas by Tristram Hillier of Étretat in Normandy (€40,000-€60,000). An 18th century capriccio landscape of Dunmoe Castle, Co. Meath by Robert Carver is estimated at €30,000-€50,000 and an 18th century view of the Grand Canal in Venice from the School of Canaletto is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. There is a similar estimate on a pair of George II candleabrae and on the most expensively estimated furniture lot, a Louis XV satinwood, kingwood, tulipwood, parquetry and ormolu mounted writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807).
A set of 23 c1700 etchings of the Invalides in Paris last came to auction in 1925 at the Carton House sale. Estimated at €1,000-€1,500 they are from the library at Carton, for 700 years home to the Dukes of Leinster and Earls of Kildare. The estate was lost to the Fitzgeralds when the third son of the sixth duke sold his birthright to Lord Brockett to pay off immense gambling debts. Viewing gets underway this afternoon and the catalogue is online.
A Louis XV writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Barrie Cooke (1931-2014) – Summer Knot, Study. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,826
Summer Knot, Study, an acrylic on canvas by Barrie Cooke which dates to 1991, comes up as lot 29 at Sotheby’s timed online auction of Irish Art in Paris. The estimate is €4,000-€6,000. This is the third instalment of Irish Art in Sotheby’s Paris following the sales’ success in 2022 and 2023, with bidding coming from not just Irish collectors but also from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, France, Austria, and other European countries. Estimates range from €600 to €80,000 and the catalogue is online. Bidding opens today and closes on May 2. The Irish art on offer is now on exhibition at Sotheby’s in the heart of Paris at 76, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
Collection of 10 Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys. UPDATE; THIS MADE 5,600 at hammer
This appetising whiskey collection ranging from 2016-2024 comes up as lot 1 at Dolan’s. current timed online auction. The sale of Irish paintings and rare Irish whiskies is now live and continues until the evening of April 29. All ten bottles pictured here are accompanied by their certificates and the lot is estimated at €7,000-€9,000. Almost 100 bottles in total will come under the hammer along with art by Letitia Hamilton, Flora Mitchell, Mildred Anne Butler, James le Jeune, Charles Harper, Susan Cronin, Arthur Armstrong, Peter Curling and many other Irish artists.
This unfinished portrait of Fraulein Lieser by Gustav Klimt comes up at im Kinsky in Vienna on April 24 with an estimate of up to €50 million. It was begun by Klimt in 1917, a year before his death. Lost for over 100 years it is believed to depict one of the daughters of either Adolf or Justus Lieser, who were brothers from a wealthy family of Jewish industrialists. The fate of the painting after 1925 is not known and the identity of the Austrian sellers has not been revealed. It is being sold on their behalf and on behalf of the successors of the Lieser family according to the Washington Principles – an international agreement to return Nazi looted art to the descendants of the people they were taken from. UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR 30 MILLION EURO, THE LOW END OF THE ESTIMATE, WITH ONLY ONE COMMISSIONED BIDDER IN CONTENTION.
John Lennon’s long-lost Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar, used in the recording of The Beatles’ Help! album and film and many other seminal hits from the 1960’s will headline Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons two-day auction event at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York on May 29 and 30. Considered the most important Beatles guitar ever to come to market it is expected to exceed its estimate of $600,000 – $800,000 and set a new world record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar. The guitar can be heard on “Help!” “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”, “It’s Only Love” and “I’ve Just Seen A Face” and more. The Framus Hootenanny 12-string can also be heard on the The Beatles’ recording of “Girl” during the Rubber Soul sessions and on the rhythm track for “Norwegian Wood” played by George Harrison. By the mid to late 60s, the famous Framus was in the possession of Gordon Waller of Peter & Gordon, who later gave the Hootenanny 12-string guitar to their road managers. It was recently discovered in an attic in the rural British countryside where it had lain forgotten and unplayed for over 50 years.
A c1960 diamond tiara by Chaumet. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 241,300 CHF (€246,035)
This elegant diamond tiara was formerly in the collection of Anne Gunning Parker, Lady Nutting (1929-1990). It comes up at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction in Geneva on May 14. Anne Gunning Parker was a renowned British-Irish fashion model of the 1950’s, born in Southern Rhodesia. In the early 1950’s she became a house model for Irish designer Sybil Connolly and modelled a Connolly ensemble on the cover of Life Magazine in August 1953. She frequently collaborated with photographer Norman Parkinson for Vogue, most notably for a series of fashion photographs shot on location in India.
In 1961, Anne Gunning married the British diplomat and Member of Parliament Sir Harold Anthony Nutting, third Baronet Tiverton (1920-1999). He had served in the cabinets of Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. The Nutting family furthermore owned estates in Scotland and England. After retiring from politics he became active as an author and lecturer. This elegant diamond tiara was created by Chaumet in 1960. Lady Nutting had modelled a Chaumet tiara of similar design in a photo by Henry Clarke published in the May 1953 edition of Vogue France which focused on the upcoming coronation of Queen Elizabeth II later that year. It is estimated at $120,000-$180,000 (CHF 110,000-160,000).
