Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886 – 1968) – Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine),1949.
Following the record breaking results for Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection in London this year Sotheby’s Asia will offer The Foujita Lexicon: Works from the Lewis Collection in Hong Kong on September 28. The sale brings together 15 Foujita masterpieces from a collection forming the most celebrated private collection of the artist which traces six decades of the career of a distinctive figure in the Parisian avant-garde. The estimate is US$2.3 million – $3.45 million.
Rising to prominence within the vibrant Montparnasse community of 1920’s Paris Foujita moved in the same artistic circles as Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, and counted Chaïm Soutine, Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger among his peers. His unique fusion of Japanese and European artistic traditions established him as one of the defining voices of the era. This sale is the most comprehensive Foujita collection ever offered in Asia.
An advertising print for the Dingle Peninsula by Paul Henry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 180 AT HAMMER
Over 500 lots will come under the hammer at O’Donovan’s in Newcastle West on August 29. The online only sale includes an advertising poster for the Dingle Peninsula with artwork by Paul Henry, a signed Pelé Brazil CBD jersey, a signed poster of The Pogues and a Versace exhibition poster for the V & A Museum featuring Linda Evangelista along with a selection of antiques, collectibles, vintage tools, fishing gear and collectibles. The catalogue is online.
The pistol lanyard worn by Michael Collins on the day he was shot at Beal na mBlath. UPDATE: THIS WAS PASSED
Hitler, the Titanic, de Valera, Collins – if celebrity sells then two auctions in Cork on August 29 have it in spades. The choice between Lynes and Lynes in Carrigtwohill and Marshs in Ballinhassig is entirely yours. If this poses a logistical challenge the good news is that both sales are online and they can be easily viewed separately next week.
Regular readers already know that a heart shaped pendant cherished by a Titianic survivor who lost her husband and the Mercedes used by Hitler’s Ambassador to Ireland during World War II on whom the then Taoiseach Eamon de Valera called with condolences on the death of the Fuhrer are to be sold at Lynes and Lynes and Marshs respectively.
With 472 lots in Carrigtwohill and 333 in Ballinhassig each sale offers much more than such singular collectibles.
Lynes and Lynes has Michael Collins’s pistol lanyard, given by his older sister Mary Collins Powell to Comdt. Frank O’Friel at Shanakiel Hospital exactly 104 years ago. Commandant O’Friel was part of the escort of the remains, brought to Shanakiel following the shooting of Michael Collins at Beal na Blath on August 22, 1922. The coffin was moved from Shanakiel to Penrose Quay under military escort which included Comdt. O’Friel and General Tom Ennis. The estimate on this unique piece of Collins memorabilia is €10,000-€15,000. Comdt. O’Friel’s gold medal for the Eastern Command Football Championship in 1927 is estimated at €200-€300.
A large dolls house and contents at Lynes and Lynes. UPDATE: THIS MADE 400 AT HAMMER
The sale includes lots from the estate of the well known and greatly liked Cork businessman Ted Crosbie including some Cork and Scottish silver, seascape paintings, yachting books and period furniture. Viewing for an auction which includes a wide variety of items ranging from Waterford Crystal to toys, trains, postcards and a selection of framed posters relating to Youghal in days of yore starts today.
The auction by Marshs next Saturday will jog even more memories of those bygone days. On offer here is the collection of Alan and Mary Barry of the Ramble Inn, Ballinhassig.
There are vintage tractors and lorries, original cast iron famine pots, tractor seats, horse drawn potato diggers, ploughs and thistle toppers, a 1947 flat bed truck, old railway signs, enamel advertising signs, an antique brass cash register and all sorts of agricultural memorabilia.
A Victorian antique cash register at Marshs. UPDATE: THIS MADE 200 AT HAMMER
This is an auction that will excite considerable interest, particularly at a time when the market for collectible memorabilia is so strong. The same cannot be said for the furniture market, but two lots in this auction will excite the interest of serious collectors of contemporary furniture. They are two early furniture pieces by the Riverstick based maker Joseph Walsh whose stellar reputation is now global. A Canadian cherrywood three part wall cabinet stamped December 1999 and a hand crafted cherrywood TV cabinet will be sold separately. Viewing gets underway in Ballinhassig on August 26 at 10.30 am.
The German Ambassador’s 1937 Mercedes 170V Cabriolet B Saloon, restored in 1988/99, will not be the only scene stealer at Marshs. Titanic survivor Florence Angle’s c1900 tourmaline and half pearl brooch and the sandstone heart shaped pendant she cherished will bring international attention to the sale at Lynes and Lynes there is much here to excite the attention of avid auction watchers.
A horse drawn potato digger at Marshs. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 100
A 12 place canteen of cutlery at Adam’s in Dublin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
When it comes to 21st century dining convenience is trumped by style almost all of the time. Trump is trumped by style in every single department but that is another story. The leading lot at Adam’s timed online At Home sale which closes next Tuesday (August 25) underlines the latter day supremacy of convenience. The c1937-39 Sheffield Old English pattern canteen in a mahogany George III style chest contains butter knives, sugar tongs, fruit spoons and forks, dessert spoons, a soup ladle, sauce ladles, fish knives and forks, a fish carving knife and fork set, a bone handled four piece carving set, cheese knives and cutlery for every conceivable dining occasion – except eating out of a paper bag or box.
This interior sale draws on Irish country houses, city residences and collections with 472 lots from the 18th century to the present day. There is a selection of furniture, silver, ceramics, glass, mirrors, clocks, rugs, lighting, pictures and collectibles. The catalogue, with oodles of character, is online.
The auction by R J Keighery in Waterford next Monday includes 75 lots of Waterford Crystal including a large globe with chrome fittings among a total of 844 lots. A fully fitted Killarney wood sewing table on pod is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. A luxurious coromandel and brass lady’s travelling vanity box by Austins, the 19th century Dublin cabinetmakers, is similarly estimated.
A Killarney wood sewing table at R J Keighery in Waterford. UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
Russian silver mounted glass pot. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This rare Russian silver mounted glass pot dates to c1900 in Moscow. It was made by Gustav Klingert (1865-1916), originally from Germany who began his career working for Fabergé. It comes up at Adam’s At Home sale on August 25 with an estimate of €800-€1,200. A total of 472 lots feature in this timed online auction.
This large Waterford Crystal globe with chrome fittings on a mahogany base is the leading lot at an auction by R.J. Keighery in Waterford on August 24. The estimate is €5,000-€8,000. Over 800 lots, including 75 lots of glass, will come under the hammer at this timed online auction which is now on view. The catalogue is online. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,500 AT HAMMER
The summer exhibition of painting, print, photography, sculpture and craft the at the Lavit Gallery in Cork runs until August 29. Participating artists include Tom Climent, Johnny Bugler, Debbie Dawson, Deirdre Frost, Etain Hickey, Victor Richardson, Tim Goulding, Damaris Lysaght, John Behan, Rachel Joynt, Jo Kelley and Billy Foley.
A marble torso of a Roman Emperor probably representing Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius at Sotheby’s.
A series of auctions from an amazing single owner collection including the most important Roman Imperial sculpture at auction in over a decade will kick off at Sotheby’s in New York in October. Assembled over decades it encompasses more than 900 works ranging from Roman Imperial marble, Old Master paintings, ancient Near East ceramics, Islamic court carpets, Royal French furniture, Impressionist masterworks and 20th century design.
Probably representing Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius the commanding Roman sculpture complete with upper body armour is estimated at $8-$12 million (€6.92-€10.38 million). In one of this collectors residences it stands in a room that holds Richard Avedon’s revered portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Four Savonnerie carpets commissioned by Louis XIV for the Grande Galerie of the Louvre lie beneath furniture that once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Art includes masterworks by Canaletto, Degas, Fragonard, Guardi and Picasso. Works from a private collection expected to realise more than $60 million (€51.9 million) will be displayed across four floors of Sotheby’s new hq at the Breuer building in New York from October 17-22. There will be four New York sales on October 21, 22 and 23, with further lots at the Modern evening auction in New York in November. Prized and precious objects from a mosaic of civilisations will continue to feature at 22 sales in New York and Paris into 2027.
Over the course of half a century, the American businessman Alan Medaugh assembled one of the largest and greatest collections of woodblock prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Ohashi Atake no yudachi (Ohashi bridge, sudden shower at Atake) is a perfect example of what makes the Medaugh collection special. The image with rain falling across the page is iconic. The condition in full, unfaded color, is pristine. The impression is an early one, with the two boats beside the far shore still visible. The estimate is $50,000-$100,000.
A group of more than 600 sheets, many of the absolute greatest rarity, quality, and state of preservation focusing on the earliest impressions is to be auctioned at Christie’s in New York. The first of what promises to be a three-sale series of sales on September 17 will include more than 180 prints spanning the artist’s career. Hiroshige is especially famous for his compositions, atypical points of view, and his rich and striking use of colour. His prints helped usher in one of the greatest eras of Japanese printmaking and they changed Western art as well as they were hugely influential on 19th century European art.
Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac Wine Label 1990.
It is no secret that world renowned artist Francis Bacon was a lover of wine. In 1990 he created a formal dance about a wine-glass for the Mouton Rothschild 1990 label, distorting it to the curve of the label. A copy, still in its original white board tube with the name Chateau Mouton Rothschild and emblem in gilt along with an unused post card depicting the lithograph, will come up at a sale by Purcell Auctioneers in Birr on September 16. It is inscribed in French in homage to Bacon, who offered to Mouton one of his last works and signed both by Bacon and Baronne Philippine de Rothschild. Lot 373 is estimated at €800-€1,600.
Titled the W B Yeats sale and filled with collectible treasures the auction of 578 lots offers the libraries of the late Professor Warwick Gould and his wife Deirdre Toomey. Both prominent scholars they had a particular interest in the poetry, prose and drama of Yeats. The leading lot in the sale is a first (1726) edition of Gulliver’s Travels with an estimate of €8,000-€16,000.
