A 19th century French oak pantry cupboard. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
For those hell bent on upscaling an interior and adding a touch of real individuality the sort of lots that can set the imagination soaring can be found in plenty at Victor Mee’s decorative interiors sale on April 24 and 25.
Among an eclectic selection of items are an early 19th century French oak pantry cupboard (€1,500-€3,000), a pair of Ralph Lauren brass wall sconces (€600-€1,200), a 19th century French copper bath (€600-€1,200), a life sized stuffed brown bear (€4,000-€8,000) and a Grecian urn (€450-€850).
Or how about a now rare early 20th century bronze luggage and coat rack complete with mirror (€200-€400). These were a familiar sight on all trains once so this one should jog memories.
The Grand Tour plaster cast Grecian urn on pedestal might stimulate an irresistible urge to try to compose like the Romantic poet John Keats. His famous Ode to a Grecian Urn concludes with the words:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”.
A 19th century life size taxidermy brown bear UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
A 19th century painted pine settle bed. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
There is scope for a unique and special Irish look at the Vernacular auction James Adam on April 16 at 11 am. On offer is a selection of settle beds, pine dressers, kitchen and farmhouse tables, cauldrons, deer antlers, dowry chests, rush lights, a folk model diorama of a three masted barque, hedge and sugan chairs, food cupboards, meal bins, chests and turf buckets, all more than reminiscent of the way we lived in Ireland long ago.
The term vernacular covers a multitude and this auction of 254 lots offers an interesting and collectible selection of art with work by, among others, James Dixon, Frank McKelvey, Markey Robinson, Ellen Connolly, Maurice Wilks and Charles Henry Cook. A c1800 Kilkenny black marble fireplace (€5,000-€8,000), silver dish or potatoe rings, Celtic Revival silver bowls and even a replica of the Ardagh Chalice enhance the Irish feel of this specialist sale. Among a selection of settle beds is a 19th century painted pine version with a moulded top (€800-€1,200) and a 19th century settle used as a prop in the film The Banshees of Inisherin.
John Luke – The Lock at Edenderry, 1935. Collection Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
In what is the largest ever loan from a national cultural institution in Ireland the Crawford Gallery in Cork has loaned 14 artworks to Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland. They are part of a collection of 33 new works of Irish art on display at the State Drawing Room at Hillsborough Castle until January 2027. Crawford paintings include landscapes by painters Paul and Grace Henry, Moonlight Ballyholme by Belfast-born Colin Middleton and The Locks at Edenderry by Belfast artist John Luke.
David Orr, Castle and Collections Manager at Hillsborough Castle and Gardens said: “The Drawing Room at Hillsborough Castle is a haven of Irish art, a celebration of our magnificent land and seascapes right through to incredible royal portraits by Irish artists. We are hugely proud of this new collection, and excited to work with a significant range of lenders, including our largest ever from the Republic of Ireland from Crawford Art Gallery in Cork.”
Additional lenders include NI Civil Service, Down County Museum, Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum, Co-Operation Ireland, Northern Ireland Office and King Charles III of the UK. Historic Royal Palaces is also delighted to announce the acquisition of a Thomas Lawrence portrait of Lord Marcus Hill and 51 miniature portraits of the Hill and Sandys families – known as the Ombersley Miniatures – generously gifted by the Sandys Trust.
A FINE IRISH SILVER REPLICA OF THE ARDAGH CHALICE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Irish silver replica of the Ardagh Chalice comes up as lot 40 at the Irish Vernacular sale by James Adam in Dublin on April 16. Viewing for the auction gets underway today. The replica – of traditional design with applied Celtic decoration – was made in Dublin around 1915 by Sharman D Neill and is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. The Ardagh Chalice dates to the 8th century and is one of the greatest treasures of the early Irish church. In the collection of the National Museum it is part of a hoard found in the 19th century by a young man digging for potatoes near Ardagh, Co. Limerick. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Crow Feathers by Tony O’Malley (1913-2003). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 at hammer
This 1983 work by Tony O’Malley comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art sale which runs until April 15. The gouache on card is estimated at €1,200-€1,800. The catalogue for the sale is online and it features a wide variety of art and artists among more than 450 lots from Maurice Wilks to Mark O’Neill, Basil Blackshaw to Louis le Brocquy, John Behan and Oisin Kelly.
An exhibition featuring significant gifts to Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery opens today. Sacred trust: Donations and their Legacy features significant gifts from 1908 to 2024. Highlighting recent additions to the gallery’s collection is “Wall Landline Moor” by Sean Scully, generously donated by the artist. It joins the impressive installation of “Untitled” byRichard Gorman, a series of largescale works on handmade Koso Washi Japanese paper donated by Neil Jordan and Robert Maharry. The show brings together two previously unseen works on paper by Alexander Calder “To Bambi” and “Lo Oscuro Invade” donated by Madeleine McGahern, a monumental painting “Victory” by Lawrence Carroll donated by Lucy Jones Carroll and the spectacular posthumous portrait of the first female Lord Mayor of Dublin, “Kathleen Clarke” by Brian Maguire.
Barbara Dawson, Director of Hugh Lane Gallery said: “Since its foundation in 1908, Hugh Lane Gallery has been fortunate in receiving significant donations that add to the wealth and depth of this national collection of modern and contemporary art. In Sacred trust: Donations and their Legacy, we celebrate that legacy with a new generation of supporters whose gifts align with our strategic vision in the 21st century. These artworks will be conserved and enjoyed for generations to come”.
Composition by Evie Hone made a hammer price of €125,000 over a top estimate of €70,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International Art sale on April 9. It was the top lot at the sale. At the centre of Hone’s richly-coloured composition, framed within arcs and segments of yellow, green, light brown and red, is an intricately juxtaposed colour pattern that suggests a Madonna and Child. Villas near the Sea (Cassis) by Roderic O’Conor made €70,000, Dock St., Belfast by L.S, Lowry made €46,000, Master of Money and Mirrors by Conor Harrington made €40,000, Estuary Forms by John Shinnors and Portrait of Mrs. Jessie Wertheimer by Sir William Orpen each made €32,000 at hammer, The Final Furlong by Liam O’Neill made €30,000 and Portrait of a Lady by Genieve Figgis and Union Hall, West Cork by Donald Teskey each made €29,000.
See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 5, March 30 and March 29, 2024
THE NEW ORLEANS ARMCHAIR (1999), Pigmented polyester, gel coat and fiberglass UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Ron Arad first constructed the Big Easy chair in 1988. “I was thinking about an overstuffed club chair”. he said. It was among the first pieces of contemporary design added to NOMA’s decorative arts collection.” Arad later released this moulded-polyester version called NEW ORLEANS where he daubs colour inside a mould before pouring in the polyester, imprinting the chair with the element of painting, the effect combining art and sculpture to create something unique. This version comes up as lot 30 at de Veres International Art and Design Auction in Dublin on April 30. The chair is a powerful statement on volume and illusion and fully blurs the distinction between furniture and sculpture.
An assemblage portrait of Tony Bennett by David Hockey. UPDATE: THIS MADE $22,750
He might have left his heart in San Francisco but millions of people everywhere took singer Tony Bennett to their own hearts. His extraordinary life and career will be celebrated at a live and online sale by Julien’s Auctions in New York at Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame in Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 18 and 19. With everything from a 1965 letter of appreciation from Martin Luther King (for his performance at the 1965 Selma march) to acclaimed original sketches and signed sheet music duets the sale tracks how his life mirrored American cultural, social and political history over many decades.
There is an assemblage portrait of Bennett by David Hockney, art by Willem de Kooning and LeRoy Neiman, a sketch by Tony Bennett of Princess Grace signed by her and letters from Presidents Ford, Carter, Clinton and Bush, Martin Scorsese, Madonna, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Barbra Streisand, Al Pacino are testament to how much he was loved.
In 2007 he was inducted into the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame for his lifelong activism and work in social justice. He won 20 Grammys, recorded more than 70 albums and sold 50 million records. He recorded with K.D. Lang, Stevie Wonder and Billy Joel and next generation superstars like Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga. He scored three Guinness Book of Records entries, for the oldest performer to reach No. I, the longest time between the release of a recording and the re-recording of the same single by the same artist and for being the oldest person to release a new album. Tony Bennett died aged 96 last July.
UPDATE: The white glove sale made a total of over $2.1 million, four times the pre-sale estimate. Collectors came together from countries all over the world including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Spain, Singapore, Switzerland, Australia and more, garnering nearly 14,000 bids. The “75th Birthday Book of Extraordinary Letters,” which contains over 100 Pieces written by Martin Scorsese, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Madonna, Elton John, and more, sold for $19,500, two times its estimate of $8000. The letter from Martin Luther King about the Selma march sold for $78,000.
A sketch by Tony Bennett of Princess Grace signed by Grace UPDATE: THIS MADE $2,275
Adams will offer 254 lots headed by an oil painting of the Cutty Sark by the Tory Island artist James Dixon in their Irish Vernacular auction on April 16. There is art including an oil on card of an Irish Farmer by the Bandon artist Charles Henry Cook, silver, country furniture including a settle bed, a set of Irish deer antlers, some Carrigaline pottery and many other items of interest to collectors. Viewing gets underway in Dublin on April 12 and the catalogue is online. UPDATE: THIS MADE 36,000 AT HAMMER
