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Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 30 October 1932 (estimate in the region of $55 million) will highlight Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 11. One of the extraordinary series of iconic portraits that Picasso painted of his golden-haired muse during this landmark year, this monumental work is among the most stately and impressive depictions of Marie-Thérèse that the artist painted.
With everything from a wonderful landscape by John Butts to suits of armour to watches designed for the space age there is plenty to interest collectors at auctions open for online browsing in Ireland over this Easter Weekend. The library collection, a timed online sale at James Adam in Dublin running to April 14, offers art, antique furniture and bookcases, old maps, miniatures, Qing Dynasty bronzes, a carved and stained birdcage modelled as a two storey house and a pair of Georgian upholstered armchairs once at Ashford Castle in a wide ranging sale of 227 lots.
Christofle serving dishes, a Georgian style dining suite by Harrods, a bespoke silver canteen by Carrs of Sheffield, a pair of Eames chairs, sculpture and maritime art by S Francis Smitheman (1927-2016) will come under the hammer on April 7. Sean Eacrett, the Ballybrittas, Co. Laois based auctioneer will offer contents from 35 Abington, Malahide in an online sale of 383 lots.
Meantime three centuries of watches and clocks from the Age of Reason to the Age of Steam to the Space Age are on offer at a timed online evening sale by Mullens of Laurel Park, Bray on April 11. A pocket watch made in Dublin in the 1730’s by Thomas Coote, the earliest watch in the sale, is estimated at €700-€1,000. There are 12 examples of American railroad grade precision watches which came into being following an investigation into a head on collision 40 miles west of Cleveland in 1891. Nine men died when the fast mail hit the Toledo express on a single track near a siding. The investigation centred on the engineers watches, one of which was found to be four minutes slow. Space age travel with massive G forces and zero gravity presented new challenges and Max Hetzel devised the Bulova Watch Company “Accutron” win 1960, marketed as the Space Age watch. There are five of them in the sale with estimates of €80-€300.
Lot 89 at Adams, A Mountainous Wooded Landscape by John Butts (c1728-1764) is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. Influenced by Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin the Cork artist is regarded as one of the finest early Irish landscape painters. Among other more expensive lots is a c1780 Irish satinwood pier table (€10,000-€15,000), a giltwood and marble topped side table (€5,000-€8,000), a river landscape by the Dutch artist Albert Meyering (1645-1714) (€10,000-€15,000) and an Irish Regency serving table (€5,000-€7,000). A Victorian snooker score board by J. Thurston and Co. London has an estimate of €500-€800.
The maritime art of Francis Smitheman at Sean Eacrett’s sale is headed by three oils with estimates of €6,000-€8,000 and there are also some limited edition prints. The mahogany Harrods dining suite is estimated at €8,000-€12,000 and the silver canteen is estimated at €8,000-€10,000. There is a selection of Art Deco pieces, African sculptures from Cape Town, attractive garden furniture and some large terracotta urns.
The story of a fractured relationship between a portrait artist and his client lies behind the Knatchbull family portrait. Painted by John Singleton Copley in 1800 it was commissioned by Tory politician Sir Edward Knatchbull, who wanted a portrait of his second wife and ten children. His first wife was to be included so Copley depicted her as one of a group of angels. When his second wife died two years later Knatchbull married again and wanted her included. Then his pregnant wife’s child had to be added. When after three years the portrait was finally unveiled he was mortified when people laughed openly at the spectacle of past and present wives in the same painting. He had it taken down and ordered Copley to paint over the angels. The fee was to be cut too, forcing a legal dispute which the artist won. The oil sketch from the collection of Patricia Mountbatten sold at Sotheby’s for £88,200. Singleton Copley was an Irish American whose father was from Limerick and whose mother was from Clare.
There will be a three day online house clearance auction with 2,100 lots by Matthews of Kells on April 10, 11 and 12. On offer are contents from Ardlaois, Blackrock, Co. Louth, home of the late Professor Kieran Taaffe who was head of International Affairs at Dublin Institute of Technology. There is Irish and international art, old silver, antique furniture, rugs, gilded mirrors, books, oriental items and collectibles. The catalogue is online.
The Battle of the Nile is one of a number of works by the British artist S. Francis Smitheman (1927-2016) at an online Malahide house sale by Sean Eacrett on April 7. It is one of four paintings the artist made for the vendor, who first came across his work at a shop near where she then lived at St. Katherine Dock in London. The shop owner mentioned that the artist would be dropping in and they became firm friends. This is the first of the four paintings that Smitheman painted for the seller and it comes with hand written sketches explaining his approach to an artwork to celebrate Nelson’s centenary. It is estimated at 6,000-8,000. The sale features maritime art, classic furniture, Art Deco and Collectibles.
Fine and decorative art from the collection of entrepreneur, collector and philanthropist Sydell Miller will come up at Christie’s two marquee weeks in New York. A selection of 20 works of art will highlight the 20th and 21st Century Week from May 11-14, and a dedicated auction on June 10 entitled will feature masterworks of 18th Century French furniture and Design. Her Palm Beach ocean front house called La Rêverie was a true achievement in collecting – a vision of art and design that was the result of Mrs. Miller’s avant-garde eye and connoisseurship, complemented by the renowned talent of interior designer Peter Marino. The collection in total is estimated to exceed $30 million. Sydell Miller and her late husband Arnold Miller co-founded Matrix Essential, which became the largest manufacturer of professional hair and beauty products in America. Mrs. Miller devotes much of her time and energy to philantrophy, chiefly the Cleveland Clinic. The Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute houses the heart hospital on the main campus in Ohio.
THE global series of 20th century auctions at Christie’s in March brought in a combined total of £361,428,211. The auction house reports that the season saw registered bidders from 69 countries. The depth of bidding across platforms, time zones and geographies demonstrates global market is active and expansive according to the auction house. New registrants accounted for 24% of registered bidders in March. Tens of millions of viewers tuned in to watch and participate in the March sale series, through Facebook, You Tube, We Chat, Weibo, Artron, ArtPro, Yitao, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™
The underbidder on Banksy’s Game Changer placed a final bid of £14,300,000, the highest bid to date on Christie’s LIVE™. No less than 30 artists records were set.
The 150 lot Irish art auction at de Veres next Tuesday on March 30 offers opportunities for collectors in the €1,000-€10,000 bracket with major Irish art names. There is work by William Crozier, Letitia Hamilton, Gerard Dillon, Peter Collis, Liam Belton, Tony O’Malley, Evie Hone, Patrick Scott, Hughie O’Donoghue, Barrie Cooke, Ciaran Lennon, Neil Shawcross and many other artists. The catalogue is online.
This George III ormolu mounted white marble and biscuit porcelain clock by royal clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy was made around 1791. One of the richest and most sophisticated examples of Vulliamy’s known work is described by Christie’s as a tour de force of English Neo-Classical design. From the collection of Mrs. Henry Ford II, who died aged 80 last year, it comes up at Christie’s in New York on March 30. The porcelain figures are by John Deare, the pedestal by Thomas Brownley and it is estimated at $250,000-$400,000. The collection of Kathleen Ford is to be offered at two sales in New York and London. Contents from the Palm Beach home come up in New York while contents from her mansion flat at Eaton Square, London and residence at Turville Grange in Oxfordshire come to auction on April 15. She married Henry Ford II (1917-1987) in 1980 and was his third wife while he was her second husband.
UPDATE: The New York sale totalled $4.7 million. The top lot was a pair of c1770 lacquer cabinets attributed to Joseph Baumhauer which made $846,000 over a top estimate of $600,000. The clock was unsold.
This portrait of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), the Archbishop of Canterbury, by a follower of Hans Holbein the Younger soared to £189,000, more than 75 times its estimate of £2,000-3,000 at Sotheby’s sale of the family collection of
Patricia Mountbatten. Over 1,400 participants from 55 countries drove the total to £5,620,798 over three times the pre-sale estimate with 98% of lots sold. The eldest daughter of Britain’s last Viceroy of India Louis Mountbatten, Patricia Knatchbull was the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, great niece of Russia’s last Tsarina and first cousin to Prince Philip. A Jaguar 420 commissioned by Lord Mountbatten in 1967 made £126,000 over an too estimate of £20,000; a group of four pieces of mourning jewellery belonging to Queen Victoria made a combined total of £100,800, more than doubling their estimates; a c1905 Lacloche Frères pig-shaped evening bag sold for £109,620 over a top estimate of £3,000; a rare pale celadon jade teapot, Qing Dynasty sold for £176,400, eighteen times its estimate; The Banks Diamond, a late 18th century brooch with a cushion-shaped yellow diamond given to explorer and botanist Joseph Banks by his eccentric sister Sarah around the time of his marriage in 1779 sold for £138,600 and a Fabergé gold-mounted cigarette case and Imperial enamel timepiece bought by the last Tsar and Tsarina as gifts for the parents of Louis Mountbatten, both soared above their estimates, selling for £47,880 and £81,900 respectively.
