The Pedlar’s Cart, Achill by Paul Henry at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Opportunity knocks for serious collectors at sales by Sotheby’s in London next Wednesday evening (October 14) and at Morgan O’Driscoll on October 20. A group of nine Irish paintings by Yeats, Orpen, O’Conor, Henry, Dillon and Lavery from a private collection at Sotheby’s have a combined estimate of £1.4 million (€1.6 million). Two more works are on offer for private sale. The Amateur Ventriloquist, September Gale and Galway by Jack B Yeats, Little Spanish Dancer girl in Red Shawl and Midday on the Beach by Sir William Orpen, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor, The Potato Harvest, Pedlar’s Cart Achill and A Winter Sea by Paul Henry, Boys Catching crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon and Tennis, Hotel Beau Site, Cannes by Sir John Lavery are all available.
The top seven lots at Morgan O’Driscolls sale, on view in Skibbereen until October 12 and at the RDS from next Friday until Monday October 19, have a combined top estimate of over €600,000. William Scott’s Two Pears (1977) is estimated at €80,000-€100,000. In the Market Place of Bruges by Walter Osborne, The Shower by Paul Henry and Untitled No. 9 (1982) by Sean Scully are each estimated at €70,000-€100,000. Abstract Composition by Evie Hone, Achill Cottages by Paul Henry and Reconstructed Head of a Child (1968) by Louis le Brocquy are each estimated at €50,000-€70,000. Among 172 lots on offer at Morgan O’Driscoll there is likely to be much local interest in a brilliant c1835 oil on canvas by Daniel Maclise entitled The Fortune Teller (€15,000-€25,000).
Two Pears by William Scott at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A c1765 Irish George III giltwood mirror from Hamwood. UPDATE: THIS MADE 36,000 AT HAMMER
Marvellous mirrors, fabulous furniture, super silver and a furious fight are among the alliterative delights at Adam’s annual Country House Collections at Townley Hall sale on October 13.
The annual event – one of the highlights of the Irish auction year – this year offers 604 carefully curated lots. It is on view from today and for the next three days at Townley Hall near Drogheda.
The fairest mirror on the wall comes with a price tag of around €40,000-€60,000. This is the estimate for an Irish George III giltwood pier mirror in the manner of Matthias Lock originally owned by the Hamilton family of Hamwood, Co. Meath. It is illustrated in Irish Furniture by The Knight of Glin and James Peill published by Yale University Press in 2007 and in Country Life in 2006. Hamwood was the childhood home of celebrated artist sisters Letitia (1878-1964) and Eva (1876-1960) Hamilton.
A large 18th century Irish giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. A carved and stone painted pier mirror in the manner of William Kent has the same estimate.
18th century Irish mahogany side table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 38,000 AT HAMMER
An 18th century Irish mahogany side table, similar to one illustrated in Irish Furniture, is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. A pair of 19th century carved mahogany side tables (€30,000-€40,000), a four pillar D end dining table in the manner of Gillows (€20,000-€30,000), an Irish George II architects table and bureau cabinet (€15,000-€20,000), a pair of satinwood inlaid card tables (€15,000-€20,000), a pair of 19th century Irish satinwood, harewood and marquetry commodes (€10,000-€15,000) and a pair of Irish George III carved armchairs (€10,000-€15,000) are among many lots of seriously fine furniture worthy of attention.
A pair of Irish George II silver soup tureens and covers in the rococo style by Robert Holmes, Dublin 1755 (€20,000-€30,000), a set of four Irish silver candlesticks by Jacob West, Dublin c1780 (15,000-€20,000), a c1901 Sheffield surtout de table (€10,000-€15,000) and a fine Victorian silver tea service (€8,000-€10,000) owned by Maud Gonne and a c1770 Cork silver coffee pot by John Warner (€5,000-€7,000) are not the sort of silver lots that you might happen across every day.
The most expensively estimated lot of the auction is a carved George IV white marble chimney piece and polished steel grate (€50,000-€80,000).
The Cork artist Nathanial Grogan (c1740-1807) is regarded as one of the most important Irish genre painters of the late 18th century. An oil on board by Grogan – “Fight at the Inn” – is inspired by a scene from Tom Jones by Henry Fielding published in 1749 in which a furious man hunting Mrs. Fitzpatrick has been wrongly directed to a room at an inn where Tom is entertaining Mrs. Waters. The estimate for this highly charged and comical oil on board is €4,000-€6,000.
A pair of c1755 Dublin silver soup tureens and covers by Robert Holmes. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
The auction offers a variety of collectibles from a pair of monumental timber doric columns and green painted obelisk garden planters to portrait miniatures, a sketchbook by George Petrie, a c1830 Worcester Flight Barr and Barr dessert service, a 17th century Antwerp tortoiseshell and marquetry table cabinet and a 19th century giltwood and pietra dura Florentine circular table.
This is not just an auction for the super rich. Among a plentiful selection of lots for under €500 is a Victorian brass postal scales, a Georgian library chair, a lion’s mask door knocker, a stick barometer, a Victorian papier maché tea caddy, Edwardian steamer trunks and a set of five Victorian copper and brass pans.
The live and online sale gets underway at 11 am on October 13 at Adam’s at St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin.
A pair of green painted obelisk garden planters. UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
Though not the once fashionable variety these tiles made from ancient rocks typical of local geology are pure Cork. During a residency at the National Sculpture Factory in Cork funded by the EU the artist Tanja Haramincic collected local rocks. These were then crushed and powdered, applied to ceramic tiles and fired to high temperatures in an electric kiln. For the final artwork Haramincic made a composition of 96 tiles amounting to a geological map of the Cork area demonstrating a variety of material possibilities. Time spent in Cork encouraged the Croatian artist and architect based in Milan to see the value of landscape and geology and understand their place within deep time. “By acknowledging geological processes that stretch far beyond human existence I approached the use of foraged materials not as something to control but as something to collaborate with, while creating an artwork that tells a story about circularity and time”, she explained. Wow!
Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903) – In the Market Place of Bruges (1882). UPDATE: THIS MADE 75,000 AT HAMMER
This 1882 oil on canvas by Walter Osborne is one of the leading lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction on October 20. Exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1884 it is estimated at €70,000-100,000. The auction of 172 lots offers many highly collectible works. It will be on view in Skibbereen from October 9-12 and at the RDS in Dublin from October 16-19. The catalogue is online.
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) – Das bunte Leben, 1907 (The colourful life) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £31,560,000
This monumental canvas by Kandinsky, exhibited to critical acclaim at the Salon d’Automne, is a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century London evening sale on October 14. Restituted to the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermannin in 2023 Das bunte Leben is widely regarded as the defining achievement of Kandinsky’s formative years. The sale will feature an exceptional group of masterpieces by Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky and Andy Warhol, alongside key highlights by David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Paul Signac, Alexander Calder, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Cy Twombly, Flora Yukhnovich, Lucian Freud, Josef Albers, August Macke and Auguste Rodin, coming from international private collections.
Building on the strong results achieved in the first half of the year, Christie’s will present seven evening, day and online auctions this season, led by Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection, the highest-value single-owner collection ever offered at Christie’s London. Presented across three dedicated auctions, this exceptional collection of nearly 200 lots from the renowned businessman Peter Simon traces the evolution of 20th-century art, bringing together works that connect the St Ives School with European Modernism, Abstract Expressionism with Op Art, and the School of London with contemporary painting from around the world. Highlights include masterworks by Francis Bacon, Joan Miró, Bridget Riley, Fernand Léger, Hurvin Anderson, Beatriz Milhazes and many others.
Francis Bacon – Study for a Figure c1945 from the Peter Simon Collection UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £17,185,000
David Hockney – 21st April 2021, Yellow Flowers in a Small Milk Churn 42/50. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £38,400
20 Flowers from Normandy is the title of the David Hockney sale at Sotheby’s in London on October 16. It offers 20 lots, each estimated at £25,000-35,000, of late works painted during the spring of 2021 while the world was in lockdown. The artist got into a routine at his Normandy farmhouse that spring and began painting flowers on the same table from the same seat. The 20 still lives dated from January 30 and April 21 blossomed from a fixed vantage point from late winter to full spring. The iPad paintings on wove paper are from an edition David Hockney died in June, having mastered mediums spanning canvas and paper to iPad. This series now reads as part of a late testament to his never ending creativity and artistry.
PAIR OF ANGLO-INDIAN CARVED TABLES. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
This pair of Anglo-Indian carved tables on carved dragon legs are at the timed online sale currently running at Adams Blackrock in Dublin. The estimate is €700-900. Online only sales of antiques and furniture, Irish paintings and jewellery and watches will all end from 7 pm on October 7.
The Parisian residence of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani. UPDATE: THE OPENING AUCTION BROUGHT IN €7.3 MILLION
It ain’t much but its home doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to the Parisian residence of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani. Located in the heart of the 7th arrondissement and overlooking the Eiffel Tower this is one of Paris’s most remarkable private interiors, shaped over decades by His Highness and his longstanding creative collaborator, the legendary decorator Alberto Pinto. Architecture, decoration and collecting come together here to create a deeply personal artistic universe, conceived room by room and object by object, reflecting an exacting eye and distinctive vision of beauty.
Next month Sotheby’s will present a series of five auctions with more than 1,400 works with contents from this hôtel particulier spanning old masters, decorative arts, silver, antiques, furniture, paintings and design, revealing a richly layered dialogue between history, art and collecting. Highlights include a remarkable series of paintings by José Maria Sert, a unique group of portraits by Bernard Boutet de Monvel, and a pair of Italian carved giltwood settees from the Galleria Dorata, Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi. The house of Al Thani is the ruling family of Qatar.
Ope, there goes gravity is a show of new work by sculptor Eilis O’Connell at Solomon Gallery in Dublin. The title derives from “Lose Yourself” by Eminem which she often finds playing in her head as she works. Gravity is something that O’Connell is constantly concerned with while developing work. She must adapt her thinking to the limitations of materials while pushing the parameters of the craft to new heights.
A founder member of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork Eilis O’Connell is internationally acclaimed. Her work can be found in numerous high profile public locations in London (Canary Wharf and London Docklands Development Corporation), Cardiff, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Southampton, Milton Keynes and in Dublin, Belfast, Dundalk, Mallow and Cork. Other privately commissioned works can be seen in Lismore Castle, Waterford, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chatsworth and in private gardens in France and Spain. The show continues until October 24.
An Irish George II secretaire cabinet c1740-50. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The early October sale for all seasons by Sheppards next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (October 6, 7, and 8) is from remarkable collections assembled over various lifetimes. It brings together 18th century Irish furniture, paintings, silver, porcelain, tapestries, clocks, scientific instruments and sculpture.
Irish and European art, furniture and decorative objects are at the heart of Sheppards Coolattin House auction with a super selection of almost 1,600 lots.
Fine Irish antique furniture features strongly throughout. Highlights include an Irish George II mahogany secretaire-cabinet; a Killarney yew wood and arbutus davenport finely inlaid with a view of Muckross Abbey; a sideboard attributed to the distinguished Dublin firm of Mack, Williams & Gibton; Irish silver tables; peat buckets; carved giltwood mirrors; and furniture by Strahan and Hicks of Dublin.
An early 19th century Worcester dinner service. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An early 19th century Worcester dinner service with 110 pieces should draw some attention and not just because it was once in the collection of the internationally celebrated singer Roger Whittaker. He lived in Ireland for a number of years before retiring to France in 2012 where he said his last farewell in 2023.
The dinner service – redolent of the traditions of fine country house dining – would admirably suit the leading furniture lot in the auction. The George III dining table extending to more than seven metres featured here on September 27 was formerly at Easton Neston in Northhamptonshire and is illustrated in Great Houses of Britain. It is estimated at €30,000-€50,000.
Or how about a 17th century verdure tapestry with birds among luxuriant foliage and trees with a distant castle? Tapestries like this were both highly decorative and functional as they helped to keep a house or castle warm. This one is enclosed by an elaborate border of flowers, fruit, birds and classical ornament.
A 17rth century verdure tapestry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,500 AT HAMMER
Decorative highlights include a French Empire-period cut crystal and gilt bronze mantel clock, a Vienna one-year-duration wall clock, monumental chandeliers and richly mounted French furniture. There are early maps of Ireland by Gerard Mercator and John Speed, a terrestrial globe dated 1859, marine chronometers, sextants, barometers and early phonographs.
Leading art lots include an 1828 portrait of Mrs. Issy Redmond by Sir Martin Cregan, founding member and later president of the Royal Hibernian Academy where this portrait was exhibited in 1829. There are portraits by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, William Etty and the studio of John Hoppner, animal art and bronzes.
A substantial London 1860 silver flatware service of 123 pieces, an Irish Nugent family flatware service dating to around 1840 and a four piece Rococo Revival silver tea and coffee service are all on offer. A19th century 96 piece Ashworth ironstone dinner service is stamped for the Dublin retailer Thomas Higginbothan of Wellington Quay.
The auction is drawn from distinguished houses and collections including Temple House, County Sligo; Luggala, County Wicklow; Emo Court and Ballyfin House, County Laois and Dromoland Castle, County Clare.
Three days of viewing get underway today (October 3) at Coolattin House, Shillelagh, Co. Wicklow. The auction will be held at Sheppards headquarters in Durrow, Co. Laois and it will be a live and online sale.
A 19th century Killarney library table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 13,000 AT HAMMER
