Kite Over Clare Island I by John Shinnors sold for a hammer price of €36,000 over a top estimate of €20,000 at de Veres Design Auction in Dublin today. The oil on canvas laid on a board is signed and inscribed verso. From a private collection it was purchased at Carlow Arts Festival in 1997. Study for Homerton by Albert Irvin made €8,000, an Italian 1960’s wall of mirrors in six sections made €7,500, a Barcelona day bed by Mies van der Rohe made €6,000, Departure (White Water) by Hughie O’Donoghue made €10,000 and Disengage by Mark Francis made €9,000.
A carved marble head of a philosopher made €32,000 at hammer over an estimate of €1,000-€1,500 at the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin today. It was described in the catalogue as possibly Roman period. The proportion is life size. It has been in a private collection in Ireland since the 1940’s. A carve marble stele on a shallow stepped based and with Latin text from the same collection made €20,000 at hammer. A 19th century Carrara marble carved bust of Julius Caesar on a pink marbled column made €9,500.
A letter written by a Titanic passenger days before the ship sank has been sold for a record-breaking £300,000 at auction. Colonel Archibald Gracie’s letter was purchased by an anonymous buyer at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire on Sunday, at a price five times higher than the £60,000 it was expected to fetch.
Dated 10 April 1912, the day he boarded the Titanic in Southampton, it was posted when the ship docked in Queenstown, Ireland, on 11 April 1912. It was also postmarked London on 12 April. The letter had attracted the highest price of any correspondence written onboard the Titanic.
Col Gracie’s later wrote the book The Truth About The Titanic, recalling his experience onboard the doomed ocean liner. He survived by scrambling onto an overturned lifeboat in the icy waters. More than half the men who had originally reached the lifeboat died from exhaustion or cold, he wrote. Col Gracie survived the disaster but his health was severely affected by the hypothermia and physical injuries he suffered. He fell into a coma on 2 December 1912, and died two days later.
A silver Celtic Revival tea/coffee pot at Hegarty’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
From a finely crafted Celtic Revival silver pot to an advertisement for Rory Gallagher at the Carlton Cinema in Dublin in 1974 and Boehm porcelain hand painted plates and Waterford Crystal upcoming sales at Hegarty’s in Bandon, O’Donovan’s in Newcastlewest and Keighery’s in Waterford respectively offer a wide array of choice in a post Easter burst of auction activity.
Jewellery, silver, art and collectibles will come under the hammer at Hegarty’s online from 11 am on April 30. At O’Donovan’s in Newcastlewest a private collection of music memorabilia and contents from three pubs in an online only sale from 6 pm on April 28. One hour later, at 7 pm, the timed sale of porcelain, Waterford Crystal and collectibles at Keighery’s will draw to a close.
Rory Gallagher poster at O’Donovans. UPDATE: THIS MADE 140 AT HAMMER
Mahogany and brass mounted country house letter box at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
Lots and lots of all types of lot will come under the hammer in Ireland next week with rare collectibles leading the charge.
With everything from a mahogany and brass mounted country house letter box that would not be out of place at Downton Abbey to a vintage alligator Gladstone bag the annual library collection sale at James Adam in Dublin on April 29 offers a selection of 344 lots with something of interest to most of us.
An old AA road sign at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS MADE 330 AT HAMMER
Vintage road signs are popular collectibles and feature at several sales. There is bound to be local interest in an old AA mileage sign for Blarney and Cork at Victor Mee’s sale at Belturbet on April 29 and 30. The online only auction offers advertising materials and a mix of nostalgic items. Among them are enough Irish carnival and fairground pieces from Warrenpoint in Co. Down and Buncrana in Co. Donegal to keep any keen restorer busy for months.
A vintage Italian bar at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,800 at hammer
A 1970’s vintage chrome and gilt Italian bar is not something you come across everyday. This one, complete with tinted mirror front and stainless steel counter, is at de Veres timed online design auction which runs until April 29. The auction is a mix of classic design pieces by Eileen Gray, Arne Jacobsen, Gianfranco Frattini and Gianni Versace and art by John Shinnors, Albert Irvin, Cecil King, Tony O’Malley, Felim Egan and Mark Francis.
A full length portrait photograph of Michael Collins with moustache on a balcony in London will create interest at Fonsie Mealy’s rare book and collectors sale in Castlecomer on April 30 and May 1. More than 700 widely varied lots will come under the hammer here over two days. These range from rare sporting memorabilia like Kerry’s first All Ireland football championship winners medal from 1903 to a limited edition illustrated volume of The Vatican Frescoes of Michelangelo and a scarce limited edition copy of Squarings, Twelve Poems by Seamus Heaney with four lithographic prints by Felim Egan signed by both author and artist.
There are all sorts of highlights at these sales. The Dedication of the Temple of Solomon by Franz Ludwig Hermann at Adams is monumental and depicts a fantastical view of the temple. Sacrifices to mark the dedication are said to have included 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep. A painting by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson depicts a crowded harbour with paddle steamers.
A child’s carousel ride at Victor Mee will evoke many memories along with several antique puppets and a 1970’s tinplate fairground motorcycle.
A full length portrait photograph of Michael Collins in London by La Fayette at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE €600 AT HAMMER
A prototype of the Liam McCarthy cup, by tradition the sample maker Edmund Johnston of Grafton St. in Dublin presented to the committee for the Liam McCarthy, is at Fonsie Mealy. In the event a variant was chosen. Choices here include is a first (1955) edition of Moonraker, the third James Bond novel by Ian Fleming; a painting of George Best in action by the British artist Tom Croft, approved by Best and originally intended to be made into a limited edition print run, a plan that was abandoned when Best fell ill; five volumes of The Georgian Society records of 18th century domestic architecture in Dublin and an official Adidas Argentina team jersey signed by Diego Maradonna. Treasures abound everywhere….
Irish Georgian peat buckets. UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
This matching pair of mahogany Irish Georgian peat buckets with their original carrying handles are at Victor Mitchell’s country house heirlooms sale in Roscrea on April 30. On offer is the estate of the late Mabel Wallace of Ballinacor, Shinrone and various lots from other clients. Among 606 lots on offer are an antique pair of 19th century walnut carved pedestals, a pier mirror in the style of Booker and a rare group of 95 leather bound publications from the Jockey Club from 1786 to 1886. The peat buckets are lot 320 and estimated at €1,500-€2,000.
There is a shameful history in this set of seven very rare original mounted photographs at Fonsie Mealy’s rare book and collectors sale in Castlecomer on April 30 and May 1. Mostly taken by T O’ Connor of Limerick they show evictions at the Vandeleur estate in Co. Clare in the late 1880’s. There are photographs of the police, battering rams, those who were evicted.
In the 1840’s it is estimated that up to 1,000 people were evicted from the Vandeleur estate. The evictions of 1888 do not compare in scale but they are the best remembered. By 1888 eviction was resisted in most instances, large crowds went along to watch, tenants had legal representation and were organised. In the famine years Captain Kennedy, the Poor Law Inspector in the area, calculated that over 6,000 people had been evicted in Kilrush Union between July and early December 1848. Less than a year later Mr. Poulett Scrope, a British M.P. who visited West Clare, estimated that 20,000 had been evicted in Kilrush Union in the previous two years-and that the greater number of these had died in the meantime. Not all were Vandeleur tenants. At Fonsie Mealy’s sale these photographs are estimated at €400-€600.
IRISH GEORGE III CARVED GILTWOOD WALL MIRROR. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Irish George III carved giltwood wall mirror is at The Library Sale at Adams in Dublin on April 29. Fitted with plain glass and complete with a depiction of a castle within a scroll cartouche flanked by opposing ho-ho birds it is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. The auction will be on view in Dublin from April 25 and the catalogue is online.
MAURICE SENDAK (1928-2012) – Where the Wild Things Are [New York]: Harper & Row, 1963 First edition, first state, from the author’s library Estimate: $6,000-9,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE $5,670
An unprecedented opportunity to explore the images and ideas that fed the imagination of one of the most beloved picture book artists in history, Maurice Sendak, is coming to Christie’s New York. The Maurice Sendak, Artist, Collector, Connoisseur sale will run as a live auction on June 10 and online from May 29-June 12. His books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. The sales will present more than 100 works by artists who inspired Sendak and almost 30 original works by Sendak himself.
Sendak’s taste ranged across the past 500 years and from textiles, to toys, to Chinese ceramics. The sale offers some of the great names in art history: Dürer, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Hockney with a special emphasis on British artists, including William Blake, but also George Stubbs, Henry Fuseli, and Samuel Palmer. There are works by children’s authors including Beatrix Potter and Eric Carle, as well as objects featuring Sendak’s lifelong inspiration, Mickey Mouse.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTAL WAS $4.8 MILLION
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)Songs of Innocence Printed by the author, 1789. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000. UPSDATE: THIS MADE $1,260,000
Glasswork by Maresa Edwards and Irises by Barbara Cullen on exhibition at the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin
The impact of global warming is highlighted in an art exhibition at the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin until April 27. Unquiet Earth – Variants in Nature showcases paintings, ceramics and glass by artists Barbara Cullen, Annemarie Durcan, Colette Edwards, Maresa Edwards, Colette O’Connell and Niamh Synnott.
