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Meet Walter Osborne. We are more accustomed to seeing the artists work than the artist himself. This oil on canvas head and shoulders portrait by his friend Augustus Burke comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Irish and International art sale in Castlecomer on November 16. It most likely dates from the late 1880’s. George Osborne was born in 1859 and died of pneumonia aged 43. Augustus Burke served professor of painting at the Royal Hibernian Academy before moving permanently to England.
A classical Paul Henry landscape leads an Irish and International art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 1 which also boasts significant works by artists varying from Jack B. Yeats and Sir John Lavery to William Scott, William Crozier and John Shinnors. An impressive canvas by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson features a three masted frigate off Haulbowline in Cork Harbour in 1846 with a rowing boat in the foreground and a small paddle steamer in the background. It is estimated at €25,000-€35,000.
Village by the Marsh by Paul Henry is estimated at €200,000-€300,000. My River (1950) and Through the wood to the sea (1951) by Jack B Yeats are estimated respectively at €60,000-€80,000 and €50,000-€70,000. The auction is on view in Skibbereen today and tomorrow and at the RDS in Dublin from next Friday until October 31. The catalogue is online.
Wonderful antique furniture, art including a folder of 24 Qing watercolours, unusual collectibles like a pair of Howdah flintlock pistols and customised guitars all feature at the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow on October 27. A late 19th century Louis XVI style inlaid commode with breccia marble top by G. Durand in the style of Jean Henri Riesener is, at €15,000-€20,000, the most expensively estimated lot. Other furniture lots include an 18th century library pole (€500-€800), a 19th century French terrestrial globe (€1,500-€2,500), a French Empire library chair (€4,000-€6,000), two George III Dublin brass bound peat buckets (€2,500-€2,500), a Regency library bookcase (€5,000-€8,000), a leather Chesterfield couch (€2,000-€3,000), a Regency rent table (€1,500-€2,500), an Irish 18th century bureau (€800-€1,200), a French bureau plat (€4,000-€6,000), various Gainsborough chairs and bureaux and plenty of other pieces to choose from.This is an auction to browse through and savour at leisure, either at viewings in Durrow which get underway today or online. On offer is 367 lots from The Smithwick Collection and other clients.
A c1688 oval portrait of James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde is attributed to Sir Godfrey Kneller (€3,000-€5,000). Other art pieces include a folder of 24 Qing watercolours (€8,000-€12,000), four oils on canvas of a Fete Galante after Watteau (€10,000-€15,000), Irish School portraits, sporting pictures, engravings, lithographs and drawings.There are black basalt Wedgwood lamps and urns, a 17th century stucco bust of an unidentified Roman after an original from Herculaneum, Presbyterian minute books from 1734-1834, a Killarney wood specimen cabinet, mantle clocks, a c1800 pair of Howdah flintlock pistols by Charles Moore of London amd a Burmese arched harp on stand.Among 69 lots of musical instruments are Froggy Bottom customised guitars and guitars by C.F. Martin and Co., Collings, Taylor and other makers. There is a concert harp by Sebastian and Pierre Errard, a Challen baby grand piano, a Paragon tenor banjo and a French violin.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 14, 2022)
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 Right was 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.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 3, 2022)
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
