JOHN VARDY – A Pair Of George Ii White-Painted and Parcel-Gilt Armchairs c1758. These made $1,033,200
The first in a series of four live sales and six online sales of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s in New York realised $79,408,900 with 100% of lots sold for 128% hammer above low estimate. There was lively bidding from around the globe and the auction drew nearly 2 million viewers via social media. In the hours leading up to the auction, Christie’s announced the private sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, enabled through a generous donation by Diane B. Wilsey.
Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Rightwas the top lot, bought by The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan for $7,489,000, breaking a 15 year-old record. The sale generated strong results across a wide variety of collecting categories, including English furniture and Chinese works of art. A Royal Early George III Mahogany China Cabinet by William Vile made $2,700,000 and a pair of massive Chinese Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Crane-Form Censers made $1,620,000, more than 20 times the low estimate.
L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match sold for £7,846,500
There was a new world auction record for L S Lowry when Going to the Match made £7.8 million at Christie’s in London this evening. It went to the Lowry Gallery in Salford. The painting was offered by The Players Foundation with proceeds being used to allow the organisation to continue its charitable work in, amongst other things, assisting with those who have dementia and relieving poverty amongst current or former professional players. It was painted for an exhibition in 1953, sponsored by The Football Association, where Lowry won first prize.
Frying Pan Still Life by William Scott made £765,000 at the Modern British and Irish art evening auction, which achieved a total of £20,564,100. Bidders from 11 countries across four continents registered for the sale.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 4, 2022)
ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM VAN DER HAGEN (FL. 1720-1745) King William III off the coast of Ireland, June 1690, with an English Royal Yacht and the Lord High Admiral’s First-rate Flying the Royal Standard
THIS oil painting attributed to William Van der Hagen sold for a hammer price of 32,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections auction today. Dating to around 1730 it had been estimated at 20,000-30,000. What was expected to be the top lot of the sale, an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker, failed to find a buyer. The Ploughman by Francis Wheatley made 36,000, a portrait of Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller made 32,000, a pair of Venetian oil on canvas views by JMW Turner and an Irish mahogany side table each made 26,000, a portrait of Thomas Fane, 8th Earl of Westmorland by Thomas Frye made 18,000; a French carved wood model of the Madonna and Child, probably 16th century, made 16,000; a set of four c1750 George II Irish silver cast candlesticks mark of George Hill made 14,500; a silver model of the Battle of the Boyne obelisk made 12,000; an Irish yewwood library table by Arthur Jones and Co. of Dublin and a family scene in the style of Johan Zoffany each made 11,000; a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks and a bronze banded short barrel cannon each made 10,000; a suite of 14 George II London silver serving dishes made 9,500; a pair of Neo Classical half circular side tables made 9,000 and a pair of Irish bird and flower pictures by Samuel Dixon made 7,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, October 12 and October 8 2022)
This pair of c1800 full size “The Land we Live In” decanters made a hammer price of €1,000 on day one of the James Adam Country House Collections sale today. The opening day is an online only sale. An Empire window seat made €1,700, a compact club fender made €1,600, an Irish George III mahogany square piano made €2,200, seven 1796 aquatints of Views of the River Lee after Nathanial Grogan made €2,600, a Nocturnal Scene by Edward Charles Williams made €5,000, an Aubusson pattern wool rug made €2,200 and a monumental Irish Regency cheval mirror made €1,000.
The live Country House Collections at Townley Hall sale with lots 300-830 takes place at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and online tomorrow.
JMW Turner – The Canale della Guidecca, Venice, 1840
Visual treats for art lovers in Ireland right now include Turner playing with light at the National Gallery and Corban Walker playing with perspective at the Crawford.
Turner: The Sun is God offers visitors a rare opportunity to see 89 artworks from the Tate Collection in London never before displayed in Ireland. Oil paintings filled with dramatic contrasts of light and dark and highly impressionistic weather effects abound in a must see exhibition which runs in Dublin until February 6. These marvellous paintings were created half a century before Impressionism. The show covers a range of themes including memory, imagination, nature, light and atmosphere.
A wonderful collection of Turner watercolours are displayed by the gallery every year in January.
As far as I can see is the title of a show by the internationally acclaimed Irish artist Corban Walker at the Crawford Gallery in Cork until January 18. The artist, who is around four feet tall, is known for installations, sculpture and drawing that relate to perceptions of scale and architectural constructs. At the Crawford his distinctive sculptural and installation works in the Gibson and Long Room galleries disorientate and reorientate perceptions. Part of the Pace Gallery stable in New York he has just joined Solomon Fine Art artists in his native Dublin.
Le Loing at Sundown by Roderic O’Conor at Chorley’s of Cheltenham.
A spectacular work by Roderic O’Conor, Le Loing at Sundown, comes up at auctioneers Chorley’s of Cheltenham on October 18. From the collection of connoisseur Lt Colonel Murray Victor Burrow Hill, DSO, MC (1887-1986) and his descendants it is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 (€45,490-€68,230). It was sold at the O’Conor studio sale at Hotel Drouot in Paris in 1956 and exhibited in London in 1957, 1971 and 1994.
Cork Mansion House service tureen. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420
About 300 lots of Cork and Irish silver and the biggest collection of Cork Mansion House mayoral service plates to come to auction for many years feature at Woodwards special auction of silver, art and collectibles on October 22. It is part of a feast of rare and collectible pieces due to come up at auction in Ireland in the coming week. Not least of these is a set of six Arts and Crafts dining chairs given by Michael Collins as a wedding present to his sister Mary which comes up at the Collector’s Cabinet sale at Mullen’s in Laurel Park today (€1,800-€2,200).
A rare pair of Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors with Celtic lettering is lot 282 at Victor Mee’s pub memorabilia sale on October 18 and 19 with an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. And collectors will be offered a wide range of appetising choices of quality antique Irish furniture, art and collectibles at the annual James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall near Drogheda next Monday (online) and Tuesday (live in Dublin). Viewing at Townley Hall is now underway.
One of a rare pair of 19th century Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Matthews Auctioneers of Kells will hold a two day sale next Tuesday and Wednesday with 1,338 lots of antique furniture, jewellery, art and collectibles.
Woodwards will feature the collection of Lt. Col. Michael C Nolan of Cork. Prime lots of silver include a c1750 Cork silver cream jug by Croker Barrington (€1,200-€1,600), a silver sugar bowl by Matthew West (€800-€1,200) and a silver strawberry dish by William Egan and Sons (€500-€700). Other Cork silver pieces include a sugar tongs by James Salter, a pair of tablespoons by Isaac Solomon, four dessert spoons by William Reynolds and a fish server by Richard Garde and there are examples from Cork makers like Samuel Green, Carden Terry and Jane Williams and John Nicholson.
More than 20 pieces from the old Cork Mansion House service – designed by the renowned Cork based architect Richard Pain (1793-1838) who was a pupil of John Nash – are included in the sale. The service was designed for the elegant old mansion house, now the Mercy Hospital. There is a tureen with a lid and plate, a large platter and a selection of dinner plates and soup bowls. Selling as individual lots or pairs they are expected to make from €500-€1,200 per lot. There is an interesting selection of art at Woodwards headed by Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats and The Mountain Pool by Patrick Hennessey. Each of these works is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. There is art by Kenneth Webb, Anne Yeats, Peter Curling, Gladys Leach, Douglas Alexander, Norman Teeling, John Schwatschke, Marie Carroll and others.
Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,800
Francis Bacon – Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £24,300,000
Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes sold for £24,300,000 in London last night. The Now and Contemporary auctions achieved a total of £96.1 million in the highest grossing Frieze Week evening sale at Sotheby’s since 2015. Gerhard Richter’s 192 Farben (192 Colours) sold for £18,287,800. There was a new record for Frank Auerbach whose Head of J.Y.M. made £5,648,800 and new records were set for Caroline Walker, Julien Nguyen and Kiki Kogelnik. Nobody Put Baby in the Corner by Flora Yukhnovich made £1,608,000, Cecily Brown’s Beautiful Not Realistic made £1.8 million over a high estimate of £800,000 and Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (QOTP:) made £3.4 million.
In London the National Gallery said that Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is covered with glass and was not damaged when protestors threw tins of Heinz Tomato Soup at it today. There is some minor damage to the frame of the work, painted in 1888. The two climate activists in Just Stop Oil T-shirts opened the tins and threw the contents on the masterpiece before gluing their hands to the wall. The Metropolitan Police said two people had been arrested.
Louis XVI style gilt bronze tulipwood and bois satine marquetry inlaid commode. UPDATE: THIS MADE 28,000 AT HAMMER
After a model by Jean Henri Riesener this Louis XVI style gilt bronze tulipwood and bois marquetry inlaid commode with breccia marble top is the most expensively estimated lot at Sheppard’s Gentleman’s Library sale in Durrow on October 27. Dated to the last quarter of the 19th century it is stamped G Durand (Gervais Maximilien Eugene Durand) and estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The auction offers 367 lots from the Smithwick collection and other clients. Among them is a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, a set of eight Qing watercolours, a portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller, an 18th century library pole and a pair of c1800 Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London. The catalogue is online.
