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Patrick Hennessy – The Storm Lantern UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000 AT HAMMER
Art by Colin Middleton, John Shinnors, Gerard Dillon and Donald Teskey will lead de Veres online auction of Irish art which runs until October 15. There is a good selection of work including a still life titled The Storm Lantern by Patrick Hennessy, estimated at €5,000-€8,000. This was exhibited at the RHA in 1978.
A sizzling painting by Sean Scully will lead Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction which runs until October 22. Wall Dark Green (2021) is typical of Scully’s newer works in the continually expanding Wall of Light series, which are noted for an intensity of colour. This one is estimated at €500,000-€700,000. The sale is on view in Skibbereen on October 12, 13 and 14 and at the RDS in Dublin from October 18-21. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A pair of Irish George II style carved console tables with hairy paw feet UPDATE; THESE WERE UNSOLD
Silver dinner plates from a grand house on Sackville St., a commode decorated in the neo-classical manner of Angelica Kauffman, a Wyndham family portrait from Adare Manor, an Irish Regency chiffonier almost certainly made in Cork, a very rare Huguenot silver beer mug and even a disgraced cardinal feature at Adam’s spectacular Country House Collection auction next week.
Viewing starts today for this annual auction mostly drawn from country houses in Ireland such as Doneraile, Hamwood and Mount Stewart in the splendid surroundings of Townley Hall, a Georgian country house near Drogheda. The auction will take place over two days, with an online sale on Monday October 14 and a live sale at Adams at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin on the following day.
This extra special sale is a highlight of the annual antique and fine art calendar in Ireland. With estimates from €100 to €40,000 the emphasis is on quality and rarity which underlines something always re-enforced on these pages; quality is by no means the exclusive preserve of the super rich, it is for anyone with a discriminating eye.
A 1727 Irish beer jug in the Huguenot style UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Among various highlights on offer is a set of 12 George II silver dinner plates from Drogheda House, Sackville St., Dublin made around 1737 by one of the most celebrated silversmiths of the day Robert Calderwood (€15,000-€20,000). The same estimate is on a George I Irish beer mug made by Matthew Walker c1727. The elegant style of this silver mug was introduced into Ireland by the Huguenots and there is a similar example in the Smithsonian Institution.
A 19th century demi-lune commode complete with painted roundels in the manner of Angelica Kauffman is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. So is a pair of Irish George II style marble top console tables with rectangular marble tops and terminating in block mounted hairy paw feet.
A 1671 portrait of Sir Francis Wyndham, 1st Baronet of Trent in a suit of armour by John Michael Wright (1617-1694) is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. He is associated with Adare and the Quin and Wyndham families and this painting was in the Adare Manor sale in the 1980’s. In the early 19th century the Pain brothers James and George were commissioned to begin redesigning the house into a manor. Their lasting legacy is the spectacular gallery at Adare, then considered to be the largest domestic room in Ireland.
Samuel West – Cardinal Wolsey leaving London after his Disgrace UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Cardinal Wolsey leaving London after his Disgrace by the Cork artist Samuel West (1810-1867) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1841, the British Institution in 1842 and the Cork Art Union in 1843. Samuel West was born in Cork in 1810 to a bookseller father who had moved from London and is thought to have started his art education in Cork before moving to Rome to study. The rise of the English statesman and Catholic cardinal Thomas Wolsey coincided with the accession of Henry VIII. He fell out of favour after failing to negotiate an annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, retreated to York and died of natural causes following an accident when returning to London to answer charges of treason.
Wolsey lived at the Palace of Whitehall. This was taken over by Henry as his principal residence in the capital and served as seat of English monarchs until destroyed by fire in 1698. Cardinal Wolsey was in a non canonical marriage with Joan Larke of Yarmouth and they had two children. A woman and two children are featured in the painting, now estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
An Irish Regency rosewood and brass inlaid chiffonier has a Dublin trade label but is thought likely to be a Cork piece because of features characteristic of Cork workshops in the 18th and 29th centuries. These include shaped rope twist sides, spiral reeded columns, reeded edge and bun feet. The estimate is €8,000-€12,000. A pair of Waterford oval cut glass mirrors with blue and clear glass border is also estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
If you are unable to make it to Townley Hall the catalogue for this large and impressive sale is online.
An Irish Regency chiffonier, probably made in Cork. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE (1927-2008) – Le Très Grand Ours, 2009 – CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2024
There was a world record price of $6.1 million for this bear by Francois-Xavier Lalanne at Christie’s in New York last night. The first solely dedicated sale to François-Xavier Lalanne from the collection of his daughter, Dorothée achieved nearly $59 million with 14 lots making more than $1 million and four records set. The 70-lot auction lasted more than four hours with lively bidding from phones, online, and the room. The sale made almost 300% of its low estimate, with 97% of lots surpassing their high estimates. The sale total of $58.9 million more than doubled the high estimate. There was global participation with 54% of bidders and buyers from the Americas, 15% Asia Pacific and 31% from Europe.
FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LALANNE (1927-2008) – Lapin à Vent de Tourtour, 2002 sold for a world record of $2,954,000
Gem set and diamond bracelet, Eugène Fontenay, circa 1870. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR CHF156,000
Royal jewellery from the collection of Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria (1861-1948) will highlight Sotheby’s Royal and Noble jewels sale in Geneva on November 13. With 114 lots, spanning nearly a century in the history of the family of Tsar Ferdinand of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha, the collection is testimony to Tsar Ferdinand’s exquisite taste, nurtured by his mother, Princess Clementine of Orleans, daughter of the last French King Louis Philippe – herself an avid jewellery collector.
Along with pieces owned by Tsar Ferdinand and heirlooms from his mother there ius jewellery passed down through generations of the Tsar’s immediate lineage as well as pieces made for his children – especially his daughters Princesses Eudoxia and Nadezha.
The top lot is a yellow gold tie pin with a fleur-de-lis motif set with a 2.08 carat pear-shaped Fancy Gray-Blue diamond and four coloured diamonds, including a 0.65 carat Fancy Pink diamond, a 0.52 Fancy Green diamond, a 0.47 carat Fancy Deep Brown-Orange diamond and a 0.13 carat Fancy Intense Green-Yellow diamond. The estimate is US$500,000$700,000. The bracelet illustrated above is estimated at $40,000-$60,000.
Fancy Gray-Blue diamond and coloured diamond tie pin, early 20th century. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR CHF516,000
Stephen McKenna PPRHA, 1939-2017 – City by the Lake. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
This 2006 oil on canvas by Stephen McKenna is lot 25 at de Veres Irish art sale online until October 15. The estimate is 3,000-5,000. The sale features work by Colin Middleton, Donald Teskey, Mainie Jellett, John Shinnors, Geraldine O’Neill, Gerard Dillon, Patrick Hennessy, Camille Souter, Cecil King and many more artists. There is sculpture by Cathy Carman, Sonja Landweer, John Coen, Sandra Bell, Anna Campbell, Michael Foley and Peter Killeen. Viewing is now underway at de Veres on Kildare St. in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
After more than 100 years hidden in the icy waters of Antarctica, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance has been revealed in extraordinary 3D detail. The vessel, which sank in 1915, lies 3,000m down at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. A digital scan made from 25,000 high resolution images was captured when the ship was found in 2022. The model reveals how the ship was crushed by the ice – the masts toppled and parts of the deck in tatters – but the structure itself is largely intact. Pictured here is a flare gun that’s referenced in the journals the crew kept. and fired by Frank Hurley, the expedition’s photographer, as the ship that had been the crew’s home was lost to the ice.
The Irish explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expeditn, which set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica. The mission was doomed when their ship Endurance became stuck in pack ice within weeks of setting off from South Georgia. Shackleton and his men were forced to travel for hundreds of miles over ice, land and sea to reach safety – miraculously all 27 of the crew survived. A documentary on The Endurance will premiere at the London Film Festival on October 12. It will be released in cinemas on October 14.
ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976) – Cantilever. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,028,500
The London art scene moves into full throttle this week and Bonhams will feature this perfectly balanced work by Alexander Calder in its 20th/21st century evening sale on October 10. Cantilever dates to 1973 and was acquired by the present owner from Perls Gallery, New York in 1974. The work was exhibited in 2022 at a show at the Heather James Gallery, Palm Desert entitled Alexander Calder: Painting the Cosmos. It is described as one of the finest standing mobiles to come to market and estimated at £1 million – £1.5 million.
David Hockney – L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £13,150,000
L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime by David Hockney is among the highlights of Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in London on October 9. Executed in 1968 it is part of a celebrated series inspired by the South of France which represents his first serious use of his own photographs as inspiration. The estimate is £7 million to £10 million. The sale features artworks that capture the seismic shifts that occurred in art in the latter half of the 20th century and the artists that paved a radical new mode of art-making altering the course of art history.
Andy Warhol – Eggs. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,800,000
Monumental in scale and rigorous in conceptual wit, Andy Warhol’s Eggs from 1982 is a graphically impactful and cleverly inventive expression of the artist’s perpetual experimentation within his own unique brand of imagery. The estimate is £2.2 million – £3.2 million.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTAL WAS £37,582,816
Tourus Buoyancy is the title of this unique sculpture by Michael Quane. Made this year from Bordiglio marble it is from his much anticipated solo show “Belonging” at Solomon Gallery in Dublin until October 19. His work is immensely tactile not least because of his method of tooling the surface with a claw chisel which delivers a textured result. Tourus Buoyancy will look familiar to many people because numerous public sculptures by Michael Quane are to be found in various locations around Ireland. The Crawford graduate was elected a member of Aosdana in 1998, has been an RHA since 2004 and is one of Ireland’s most highly regarded contemporary sculptors.
