This early Penal Cross made a hammer price of €2,900 over a top estimate of €1,200 at Usher Auctions sale in Kells on July 7. Irish Penal Crosses are a survival from the 18th and early 19th centuries when religious practice for catholics was forbidden by the Penal Laws. These devotional objects were often carried by people at a time when public displays of catholicism was suppressed and catholic mass was held in secret. The small size of the cross meant that it could be carried by a priest up his sleeve.
Margaret Stokes (1916-1966) – Twilight, Merrion Square, Dublin. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,536
This oil on canvas by Margaret Stokes is at Bonhams sale of Modern British and Irish Art at Knightsbridge in London on July 16. The artist was a pupil at The Royal Hibernian Academy School and won the Purser Griffin Scholarship which she used to attend the Glasgow School of Art and later went to the Edinburgh College of Art. Her first influence was her cousin Mainie Jellett who gave her art lessons from an early age. This work is estimated at €800-€1,200.
Sean Scully has just turned 80 and to mark the occasion the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg is mounting a comprehensive retrospective. Sean Scully Stories , which runs until November 2, features artworks spanning over six decades, with large scale paintings, works on paper, sculpture and photographs. The retro format highlights how the acclaimed Dublin born artist continuously explores new forms of expression and re-interprets abstraction. For him nothing is truly abstract, his art is an expression of self-perception and photos in the show reveal the visual sources of his inspiration. Sean Scully now lives and works between New York, London and Mooseurach in the south of Germany.
This group of gold US Indian Head coins made €10,000 at hammer at Adams.
All that glisters is not gold is an aphorism that collectors need to be aware of always, especially now. In these uncertain times there is nothing remotely uncertain about the strong demand for a precious metal that is a long term hedge against inflation and falling values.
Always a safe haven for money in a stormy climate gold – headed by a group of nine American gold eagle ten dollar Indian head coins from 1926 – made up no less than eight of the top ten lots at Adams Jewellery Box sale in Dublin on June 24. They were the top lot of the auction and made €10,000 at hammer. A collection of 26 gold half sovereigns made €7,500, a group of 12 gold sovereigns made €6,500, 23 Victorian half sovereigns made €6,000 and other gold coins in the top ten made hammer prices of €6,000, €5,500 and €5,000.
A 1913 centrepiece by West and Son with Celtic Revival detailing at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Where all that leaves everything else on the auction market in Ireland right now is an open question. All sorts of collectibles are selling well, Irish art continues to be a mainstay, demand for antique furniture remains pretty much in the doldrums and demand across the board can best be described as variable.
House sales are always a draw. Sheppards will offer contents from a classic Victorian house at 6 Royal Terrace in the leafy suburbs of Dun Laoghaire on July 15 and 16. There will be much interest in the collection of lawyer Philip Murphy who died last year. His father J.T. Murphy served as a Labour Party TD for west Cork from 1923 until his sudden death in 1949 at which point he was Minister for Local Government in the John A Costello government.
Philip Murphy and his late wife Constance were collectors of everything from Killarney ware and antique clocks to silver, Arts and Crafts carpets and oriental art. Among the prime lots in the sale are an 18th century Irish ebonised bracket clock by Graydon, Dublin (€4,000-€6,000), a Donegal runner by C.F.A. Voysey (€3,000-€6,000), a Guangxu lime glazed bowl (€3,000-€6,000), a pair of Ottoman flintlock pistols (€2,000-€3,000), a West and Son Irish silver Celtic Revival centrepiece from 1913 (€2,000-€3,000), a Killarney games box (€1,400-€1,800), two Killarney writing boxes and a Killarney ware box, each estimated at €800-€1,200 and a 19th century marine chronometer by Thomas Roberts, Liverpool (€4,000-€6,000).
A Warming Glow by Mark O’Neill at Aidan Foley’s auction.
Art by Mark O’Neill, Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Louis le Brocquy and John Butler Yeats will feature at Aidan Foley’s auction at 6 pm on both next Monday and Tuesday evening (July 7 and 8). This is a sale of art, antique furniture, garden statuary and collectibles offering everything from a Georgian oak coffer and a Killarney wood trinket box to Victorian games, tea and dining tables and Oriental rugs and runners.
A double weight Vienna wall clock in walnut is estimated at just €200-€400, as is an 18th century oval drop leaf dining table and a Victorian parquetry inlaid side table. Tribal art is always of interest and a large carved African mask is estimated at just €60-€100. Choices range from a coromandel wood games box ((€60-€80) and a vintage Babycham dish for nibbles (€40-€80) to a pair of large blue and white platters (€200-€300) and a Tiffany style table lamp (€200-€250). The auction is on view in Doneraile on today, tomorrow and Monday.
A selection of the jewellery on offer at Matthews in Kells.
Should you decide to go in search of gold you will find it at Matthews sale in Kells on tomorrow and Monday. Lot 538 is a US Liberty double eagle 1903 gold 20 dollar coin (€1,500-€2,500). A Queen Elizabeth II gold sovereign is estimated at €400-€700 and a 1905 half sovereign is estimated at €200-€300. The top lot is an Art Deco diamond link bracelet mounted in platinum (€20,000-€30,000) and the sale offers a wide selection of desirable pieces.
Bluebell Walk, Boyne Valley by Henry McGrane at the Lismore fair
There will be a fine selection of everything from Irish art to antique furniture, vintage fashion and collectibles at the annual Lismore antique, art and vintage fair on July 6. Dealers from around the country will attend.
Treasures Irish Art of Athlone will bring a selection by Henry McGrane who paints in genres including landscape, still life and portraiture. Antique Irish glass and porcelain will feature on the stand of Brian Hurley of Kinsale and Jim Hyde Books will offer editions on local history, first editions, books by the world renowned Lismore travel writer Dervla Murphy and a big selection of fiction and non-fiction. The ever popular stand by Eily Henry will offer vintage hats and accessories. The fair will be open from 11 am to 6 pm.
A selection of vintage fashion from Eily Henry at the Lismore fair
Yvonne Jammet (1900-1967) – Rue de Joules. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
This oil on board by Yvonne Jammet kicks off a timed online online picture sale by James Adam in Dublin on July 16. The painter and sculptor spent her career in Ireland, was a member of the White Stag Group in the 1940’s and exhibited portraits, still lifes and landscapes at Victor Waddington’s Gallery in Dublin in 1943. She carved The twelve tribes for the Jewish synagogue in Terenure, Dublin. After the rebuilding of the Cross to St Michael’s church in Dun Laoghaire following a fire Jammet donated carved stations of the cross. She moved to Dublin with her husband Louis Jammet in 1928 to take over the running of his father’s restaurant. Restaurant Jammet was celebrated by Dubliners and popular with artists, writers and actors. The catalogue for the sale is online and the first 18 lots in the auction are by Jammet. Rue de Joules is estimated at €2,000-3,000.
The Gladstone Missal, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, Padua, 1420. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £151,200
The medieval and Renaissance manuscript section at Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts auction in London on July 9 is led by a sumptuous Paduan Missal, lavishly illuminated in 1420 for the Bishop of Padua, Pietro Marcello, from the library of Prime Minister William Gladstone. It is estimated at £200,000-300,000. It will feature alongside Books of Hours, humanist texts and two compelling examples of English medieval culture: a copy of Magna Carta and a 13th-century tally stick from the Royal Exchequer. The autographs open with a Nelson letter written three days before the Battle of Trafalgar and run to a 1962 love letter from John Lennon to Cynthia, written from the Beatles’ Star Club residency.
GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768) – VENICE, THE RETURN OF THE BUCINTORO ON ASCENSION DAY
A masterpiece by Canaletto – Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day – was the top lot at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London this evening. It made £31,935,000, a world record price for the artist. It was once in the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. The sale brought in £55.2 million, selling 87% by lot and 99% by value.
This breathtaking view of the Feast of Ascension Day has been largely inaccessible to scholars, having appeared at auction only twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993. Falling on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday, the Feast of the Ascension of Christ was the most spectacular of all Venetian festivals and was frequently commented upon by visitors and travellers who witnessed it. It was on this day exclusively that the Bucintoro, the official galley of the Doge of Venice and a symbol of the Serenissima, was used. The model depicted here, the last to be made at the Arsenale, was designed by Stefano Conti and decorated by the sculptor Antonio Corradini, identifiable by the lion – symbol of the city of Venice – on the prow and the figure of Justice. Accompanied by the city’s officials, the doge would sail out to the Lido on the Bucintoro and cast a ring into the water, a symbolic act representing the marriage of Venice to the sea. It was a ceremony that brought the entire city together and remained a key date in the Venetian calendar until the fall of the Republic in 1797.
See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 2, 2025.
