18TH-CENTURY MAHOGANY CONSOLE TABLE. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,300 AT HAMMER
This 18th century console table with gadrooned rectangular top comes up at Sheppards Gems in the Attic sale on February 4. The estimate is €1,500-€2,500. The auction is on view in Durrow from February 1. There are 667 lots in total and the catalogue is online.
Peter Collis (1929-2012) – Still Life with Fruit and Flowers. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,200 AT HAMMER
This still life by Peter Collis is from Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online auction of Irish art. The oil on canvas is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. The sale runs until the evening of January 27 and offers a wide selection of 255 lots including Irish artists like Donald Teskey and Mainie Jellett and international artists like Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Skibbereen on January 23, 24 and 27.
Sine MacKinnon (1902-1996) – Surreal Landscape. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This pastel and crayon by Sine McKinnon is lot 9 at the timed online James Adam picture auction which runs until January 22. The estimate is 300-500. There is art by Cecil King, Richard Gorman, Jane O’Malley, Markey Robinson, Patrick Scott, Catherine Delaney, William Conor, Anne Madden, Elizabeth Rivers and many more artists on offer.
The first Irish solo exhibition by Julian Opie – one of Britain’s most renowned contemporary artists, has just opened at Gormley’s in Dublin. These new pieces extend his exploration of abstraction and human identity into new dimensions in a range of works, including large-scale portraits, sculpture, reliefs and screenprints. The show runs until February 8.
Rebecca Salsbury James (1891-1968) – Happy Home: Bowl of Vegetables
This luminous depiction of root vegetables piled into a bowl showcases Rebecca Salsbury James’s signature style: exacting, hard-edged, and flat. It was among the top acquisitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. A resident of Taos, New Mexico (living not far from her close friend Georgia O’Keeffe), James focused on reverse glass painting, a challenging medium explored by a number of modernists, although none mastered it to the same extent as James. Happy Home: Bowl of Vegetables is one of her largest and most elaborate works, and demonstrates her precise technique of layering color in pristine compositions.
Aidan Foley will offer this Bentley at Ashford auction. UPDATE: THIS MADE 26,000 AT HAMMER
Not every kitchen clear out yields a Bentley, the bronze front doors once at Harrods and lithographs by Miro, Picasso and Dali. But Ashford Castle is not your average kitchen and all these lots will be included in Aidan Foley’s online auction of contents from the kitchens and lodge there on January 20 and 21.
The luxury hotel is carrying out a refit. Among masses of catering equipment and rare once off collectibles is a pair of plate glass doors in their bronze surround originally at Harrods. The large doors were acquired for Ashford Castle as part of a scheme that was never realised. Each one is a single plain glass panel.
The Bentley is estimated at €10,000-€20,000 and there is significant interest in it already. There is a Porsche too. A selection of around 50 lithographs by Miro, Picasso and Dali will whet the appetites of collectors. Around 700 lots will come under the hammer. The catalogue is online and the auction is on view for three days from January 17 in Cong, Co. Mayo at the Old Mill just outside the back gate of the castle.
A Miro woodcut from Ashford Castle. UPDATE: THIS MADE 220 AT HAMMER
MARGO BANKS – STILLNESS (MIXED MEDIA)
An exhibition of new work by Margo Banks at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin until February 1 includes a range of mixed media studies of Irish wildlife. The artist strives to capture the freedom, autonomy and sense of otherness enjoyed by creatures of the wild like the hare, fox, deer and crow. The show features a new work in bronze as the artist revisits her sculptural practice. Her work is included in the OPW Collection, Enterprise Ireland and Cill Rialaig Arts Centre and in private collections in Ireland, the US, UK and Holland.
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Tain Series – Metamorphosis (1969). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800 AT HAMMER
This lithographic brush drawing from Louis le Brocquy’s Tain Series kicks off Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until the evening of January 13. Numbered 61/70 and from a private collection it is estimated at 1,500-2,500. The catalogue for the sale is online and bidding gets underway at 6.30 pm.
Sir Max Beerbohm – Portrait of Oscar Wilde. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,680
The refined and engaging collection of Barry Humphries (1934-2023) – best known for his characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson – comes up at Christie’s in London on February 13. Driven by knowledge, passion and curiosity his collection was built over more than half a century.
Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse by the Australian painter Charles Conder leads an auction of 250 lots with estimates from £200 to £300,000 (€240 to €360,000). The best of fin-de-siecle decadent literature features a collection of Oscar Wilde related material including a presentation copy of The Importance of being Earnest. There is a selection of 19th century European and Symbolist art with work by Khnopff, Delville and von Stuck. These feature along with examples of Impressionism and modern British art, Modern Design and highlights from Dame Edna’s personal collection from costume and glasses to caricatures.
UPDATE: THE COLLECTION MADE £4.6 MILLION WITH BIDDERS FROM 41 COUNTRIES.
Charles Conder – Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £239,400
Detail from A Meeting by Harry Clarke at the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Dublin
Cork’s loss is Dublin’s temporary gain as an exhibition of Harry Clarke stained glass windows from the closed for refurbishment Crawford Gallery are on show at the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History at Collins Barracks, Dublin for at least the next two years. Harry Clarke’s Stained Glass brings together six panels – three from the Crawford – which have not been previously shown together. On display are: The Consecration of St. Mel, Bishop of Longford by St. Patrick; The Meeting of St. Brendan with the Unhappy Judas: The Godhead Enthroned; The Unhappy Judas: A Meeting and Richard Mulcahy.