Spike, Caenagnathid dinosaur, Late Cretaceous (c. 68 million years ago). (£3,000,000–5,000,000).
Spike an exceptionally preserved dinosaur and one of the most complete Caenagnathid specimens ever discovered will headline Christie’s inauguralGroundbreakers: Icons of Our Time auction in London on December 11. A discovery from the 2022 field season Spike, comprises approximately 100 preserved fossil bones that tell the story of a sub-adult dinosaur that is 68 million years in the making. It has recently been determined that this family of dinosaurs were heavily feathered, and a rare marking on Spike’s wrist might be further evidence of this. Since the first Caenagnathid was published in 1940, only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have ever come to auction.
This sale presents a curated selection of 30 lots spanning natural history, cinema, music, literature, fashion, and technology. Highlights range from personal letters by cultural icons, to rare scientific artifacts, historic musical instruments, and pioneering design pieces.
The Lark Sings High, an oil on board by Jack B Yeats, at Bonhams. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £95,650
The Lark Sings High by Jack B Yeats is at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 19. Measuring 9 x 14 inches it is from a private collection in the UK. The estimate is £50,000-£70,000 (€57,000-€80,000).
An unusually large scale model of a steam traction engine. (€2,000-€3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,200 AT HAMMER
The enduring fascination of railways in days gone by never leaves. The single owner collection of Lord O’Neill of Shane’s Castle, Co. Antrim, former President of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (and a stepson of Bond creator Ian Fleming), at Mullen’s of Laurel Park in Bray on November 10 is of huge interest to railwayana collectors.
There are train nameplates, headboards, railway hotel items, original enamel advertisements, paintings commissioned by Lord O’Neill of locomotives and travel posters including highly collectible ones designed by Paul Henry, banknotes and coins. An unusually large scale model of a steam traction engine, the Maid of Erin, is of great interest along with a good selection of model trains and transport items.
His railway and transport library features rare and unusual books, maps and pamphlets. Among them is Richard Griffiths’ c1855 map of Ireland made to accompany the report of the Railway Commissioners with hand coloured plates. The live auction with online bidding gets underway next Monday at 11 am. The catalogue is online and the sale is on view at Mullen’s this weekend.
The Shamrock, a train headboard (€2,000-€3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
A 1914 Buick Tourer at Lynes and Lynes. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An eyecatching turquoise tourer, rare antique jade pieces and a walnut chest on chest are among the choices available at auction now. The chest on chest is at Woodwards in Cork today (November 8) with an estimate of €1,000-€1,500). A carved walnut breakfast table with a similar estimate is also on offer here.
The 1914 Buick Tourer in fine condition is among the leading lights at Lynes and Lynes sale in Carrigtwohill on November 15. Contents from several Cork residences and two newly closed businesses, Canty’s Garage and the Cotton Ball pub ensure that there will be no shortage of local interest in this sale.
With everything from stuffed moose heads with antlers (€100-€200) to a bottle of Midleton Whiskey from the old West Cork Bottling Company in Bandon (€200-€300), a large old Murphy’s Stout and Porter sign and The Cork Cup from 1925, a greyhound trophy, there is plenty for collectors to browse over.
A pair of Satsuma vases at Lynes and Lynes. UPDATE: THESE MADE 550 AT HAMMER
The auction offers jewellery, clocks, mirrors, Cork dining chairs and other furniture, a selection of antique oil lamps, two five branch Waterford Crystal chandeliers, a pair of Satsuma vases and a 1940 portrait of the Cork businessman and founder of Sunbeam Wolsey William Dwyer (1887-1951) by Sean O’Sullivan.
Along with the Buick (€15,000-€20,000) rarities include two old Lady Lavery £10 notes from 1972 with printing errors. The estimate is €3,000-€4,000. Viewing from 10 am to 5 pm daily gets underway today (November 8).
A rare pale and black jade bear at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
With estimates from €80 (for an ashtray netsuke stag horn) to €80,000 for a large Buddhist temple painting or thangka the sale of fine Asian art at James Adam next Wednesday (November 12) is now on view in Dublin. There are rare antique jades like a celadon tiger face from the Western Zhou dynasty c1100-771 BC (€1,000-€1,200), lots of porcelain, enamels, cloisonne wares, fans, paintings, furniture, carpets, bronze plaques, carved ornaments and ivory, pendants, folding screens and masks among more than 400 lots.
The sale kicks off with four figures of seated Buddhist lions. From the Yongzheng period in China c1725 they are estimated at just €200-€300. The auction has already been on view in Paris. It is on weekend view at Adams at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin from 1 pm to 5 pm today and tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday and Tuesday.
In Cork Woodwards has a good selection of antique furniture including a harlequin set of Cork chairs, a Victorian secretaire, a Georgian inlaid cellarette, a French bonheur du jour and a Victorian three tier dumb waiter. There is a set of 17 portraits of figures from The Rising by Rod Coyne. Other lots of note include a large Kashan carpet, a mounted Greenland goose and a large cast iron garden seat. All catalogues are online.
A Georgian walnut chest on chest at Woodwards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 525 AT HAMMER
AN exhibition entitled These Walls: Landmarks + Rising Conversations opens today at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and runs until January 6. The exhibition, in partnership with Dublin Gallery Weekend which continues until November 9, revisits a pivotal chapter in Irish art history: the ROSC exhibitions of 1984 and 1988, held at the Guinness Hopstore.
Sotheby’s new galleries inside the legendary Breuer building on Madison Avenue will open this weekend in New York. Longtime admirers of the Breuer which opened in 1966 as the original Whitney Museum will find lead architects Herzog & de Meuron have preserved everything that makes the building glorious. The lobby lights, the bluestone floors, the bush-hammered concrete walls, the trapezoidal windows – they’re all there, revitalised.
Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Sotheby’s will unveil the stunning art coming up in the New York Sales which will run from November 18-21 with the Leonard Lauder collection leading the way with a trio of masterworks by Klimt. The Breuer opening will culminate a banner year for Sotheby’s which has just completed the best third quarter in its 281-year history. Recent art sales in London and Paris totalled over $325m, with a 95% sell through rate and 74% of lots selling above the high estimate.
This c1855 map of Ireland is at Mullen’s auction of the Lord O’Neill collection of railwayana live and online auction on November 10. It was made by Richard Griffiths to accompany the report of the Railway Commissioners and shows the principal physical and geological structure of the country. Hand coloured and in a period leather slipcase the map is in fine condition and rare. The estimate is €1,000-€2,000. More than 730 lots will come under the hammer. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
This pair of c1770 cast, chased and engraved Dublin George III candlesticks by the Dublin maker Richard Williams made a hammer price of €40,000 at auction in Germany on November 1. They were sold at Auktionshaus Owl at Bielefeld. The richly decorated baluster shafts feature disc nodes, vase-shaped sockets, and round bases on square, slightly profiled plinths. Each candlestick is lavishly decorated with acanthus leaves, palmettes, fluting, oblique lines, meander bands, and beaded edges and bears the seated Hibernia mark, the Dublin city mark of a crowned harp, the date letter “X,” and the maker’s mark “R·W” on the rim. The bases are engraved with weights in ozs “42-19” and “41-12,” respectively. Each candlestick measures 34.2 cm in height.
A 19th century mural thangka UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
More than 400 lots of fine Asian art including some real rarities will come under the hammer at James Adam in Dublin on November 12. A 19th century Tibetan thangka or Buddhist temple painting leads the sale. The work on silk shows a four armed deity Padmapani, a personification of compassion in Buddhism. Most likely created for enshrinement on the wall of a large and significant monastery it is estimated at €60,000-€80,000. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Designed by Dublin based Heneghan Peng architects so that the visitor moves through a sequence of spaces to gradually transition from the contemporary world back into the world of the Pharaohs the Grand Egyptian Museum opens fully in Cairo on November 4. The world’s largest archaeological museum is packed with some 100,000 artefacts covering some seven millennia of the country’s history from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras. It displays the entire contents of the intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, with its spectacular gold mask, throne and chariots shown together for the first time since its discovery by British Egyptologist Howard Carter. The vast museum complex – about the size of 70 football pitches – is expected to attract up to eight million visitors a year, giving a huge boost to Egyptian tourism. The grand staircase culminates with a view of the pyramids and allows visitors to navigate the museum. Located near the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza at the edge of the desert plateau between the pyramids and Cairo the exterior is covered in hieroglyphs and translucent alabaster cut into triangles with a pyramid shaped entrance.
