Barges on a canal attributed to Dutch artist Jacob Maris UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
A work believed to be by one of the most influential Dutch landscape painters of the last quarter of the 19th century will highlight Woodwards special sale of Irish and English silver and paintings in Cork on April 29. The characteristic oil of sailing barges on a canal attributed to Jacob Maris (1837-1899) has been in the collection of a Cork family for three generations. Details of its acquisition have been lost. Maris, with his brothers Willem and Matthijs, belonged to The Hague School of painters and Woodwards reckon this work might sell for around €20,000.
Prime examples of Irish Provincial silver include a c1780 cream jug by Samuel Reilly, Cork (€1,500-€2,000), a c1748 Limerick tablespoon by George Moore (€500-€600) and a set of five George III tablespoons by Joseph Gibson, Cork c1790 (€500-€600). There is a c1830 Irish silver dish ring by the Dublin maker Edmond Johnson (€1,800-€2,200). A dish ring by this maker is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Among the other Irish pieces are a sugar basket by Joseph Jackson (€800-€1,200), a George III teapot by Edward Power (€500-€700) and a bright cut soup ladle by Michael Keating (€800-€1,200).
Pair of Regency wingback armchairs. UPDATE: THESE MADE 4,800 AT HAMMER
Cicero wrote that if you have a garden and a library you have everything you need. Many readers will find the words penned by the Roman statesman and philosopher as apposite today as when they were first written more than 2000 years ago. The concept of a sale devoted to furniture and collectibles associated with the libraries of grand houses in Ireland is seductive. Some pleasing and unique treasures that lie hidden within will emerge at the James Adam library sale next Wednesday April 26. Even if in 2023 many of us choose to do so online we must recognise that in our contemporary world no substitute exists for the quiet, understated comfort and tranquil atmosphere of the library of old. Rooms like that cannot be realistically recreated in most modern homes but a quiet corner can be set up, a space for contemplation where ideas and actions can be formulated and advanced and the imagination can soar. There is quite literally no limit to the areas of interest that can be pursued in a library. A really good chair is essential. It is a mystery to me why anybody would manufacture, let alone buy, a chair that is uncomfortable to sit in or difficult to get out of. Adams has a fine example of a pair of Regency hide covered wingback armchairs. The estimate of €5,000-€7,000 is steep enough but they are pretty much guaranteed to be a comfortable and stylish investment. Other chairs like a Georgian style wingback armchair together with a Victorian lady’s armchair in olive green leather are, at €600-€800, more affordable. An oak library armchair attributed to Strahan in the 19th century Mannerist style has an estimate of €1,500-2,000 and there is plenty of other examples to choose from.
A portrait of Henry Boyle by Robert West. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,500 AT HAMMER
The auction is strong in fine antique furniture and there is no shortage of stimulating pieces from silverware, books, porcelain, maps, paintings, prints, and collectibles like a small brass signal cannon or a brass binnacle with compass. There are wine coolers and cellarettes, canterburys and music stands, benches and metamorphic library steps, a hide covered chesterfield sofa and an early 19th century folio or map stand.A chalk on grisaille portrait of leading Irish politician of his day Henry Boyle (1682-1764) by Robert West (1710-1770) is estimated at €6,000-€10,000. The Knight of Glin and Professor Anne Crookshank posited that this is the only known work by West whose Drawing Academy led to the creation of the Dublin School. Boyle, whose estates were centred at Castlemartyr, Co. Cork, was Earl of Shannon and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. A portrait of an unknown young lady by Garret Morphy (1655-1715), one of Ireland’s finest Georgian portraitists, is estimated at €8,000-€10,000.
A c1780 side table attributed to William Moore UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,000 AT HAMMER
A collection of 16th and 17th century seal spoons, used to seal letters and important documents and a map of Ireland by Abraham Ortelius was published in 1579 will interest collectors. A c1780 Irish inlaid side table, attributed to William Moore, is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Mirrors, desks, oil lamps, Oriental rugs, Donegal carpets and a collection of African, Australasian, Pacific Islands, Inuit and other ceremonial masks and figures put together by Paddy McEntee S.C. all figure. The most expensively estimated piece out of a total of 444 lots is a set of Great Irish deer antlers and skull (€25,000-€35,000). Lot 172 is a death mask of Patrick Kavanagh by Seamus Murphy, signed and dated 1967. The poet and sculptor were contemporaries and first met in Cork in 1943. It is one of only three casts known to exist, with one at the Kavanagh Centre in Co. Monaghan, the other in the Dublin Writen’s Museum. The estimate is €3,000-€5,000
MAJELLA O’NEILL COLLINS – Calm Seas, Sherkin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
Calm Seas, Sherkin by Majella O’Neill Collins comes up as lot 34 at Morgan O’Driscolls current off the wall online art auction. It is estimated at 2,000-3,000. The auction is on view in Skibbereen today and again on Monday, April 24, the day of sale. The catalogus is online and bidding starts to close from 6.30 pm.
Sonja Landweer, 1933-2019 – SEED. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
This unique bronze comes up at de Veres at the studio auction of Sonja Landweer and Barrie Cooke, now open for viewing at de Veres on Kildare St. in Dublin. Lot 34 is estimated at 1,500-2,500. The sale includes works from the studios of the two artists and is comprised of 75 works by Sonja, 30 paintings by Barrie Cooke, as well as pieces collected and items from the studio. The couple established themselves at Jerpoint in Thomastown Co Kilkenny where they fostered a hugely creative community, co-founding the Kilkenny Arts Festival. The timed online auction takes place on April 25 from 6 pm.
Sean Scully’s Raval Rojo made a hammer price of €580,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale this evening. It had been estimated at 400,000-600,000. Among other top hammer prices were Still Life on White with Beans by William Scott (€160,000) and A Western Landscape by Paul Henry (€75,000), George Barret Landscape with Figures and the Ruins of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire (€52,000) and Sir William Orpen’s Portrait of Mary, Lady Gerard in a Green Dress made €23,000. The highly successful sale saw top prices achieved for a number of contemporary Irish artists.
Still Life on White with Beans (1978) by William Scott. UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER
The high end of the art and antiques market continues to perform strongly and this augurs well for Morgan O’Driscoll’s scorching Irish and International online art sale which runs until the evening of April 18. There is a wealth of desirable art in this, his most expensively estimated sale yet, on view at the RDS this weekend and on Monday. With 180 lots on the online catalogue headed by internationally acclaimed painters like Sean Scully, Bridget Riley, William Scott, Paul Henry, Andy Warhol and Sir William Orpen this is an exciting sale. Plenty of internationally known names feature alongside Irish artists on the catalogue.
Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A 1986 screenprint of Teddy Roosevelt by Andy Warhol is estimated at €50,000-€70,000, Homage to Degas, an etching by Alex Katz, is estimated at €7,000-€10,000 and a woodcut in colours by Damien Hirst has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.The most expensively estimated lot is a dramatic oil on linen by Sean Scully. Raval Rojo (€400,000-€600,000) is signed and dated 2004 and was purchased by the present owner at the Kerlin Gallery in 2005. An oil on canvas by William Scott from 1978, Still Life on White with Beans is estimated at €100,000-€150,000 and Paul Henry’s brooding Western Landscape has an estimate of €80,000-€120,000. These three widely differing works demonstrate the broad range and creativity of Irish art at the highest levels.
Untitled (1972) by Bridget Riley UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An untitled 1972 gouache and pencil on paper by the acclaimed British artist Bridget Riley is estimated at €60,000-€90,000. A signed and numbered artist print by Andy Warhol of Teddy Roosevelt, number 31 from a run of 50 artist proofs, is estimated at €50,000-€70,000. There is a similar estimate on an oil on canvas by George Barret of A Landscape with Figures and Ruins of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire. There are classical works by Dan O’Neill, Donald Teskey, Evie Hone, Gerard Dillon and Sir William Orpen and some highly collectible work by artists from John Shinnors and Hughie O’Donoghue to Norah McGuinness, Evie Hone and Tony O’Malley. The sculpture section is headed by Seated Dog (1967) by the late British artist Lynn Chadwick (€20,000-€25,000) and there is work by Elisabeth Frink, Imogen Stuart, John Behan, F.E. McWilliam and others. Many of the works on offer, like a 1945 view of Glengarriff from Garnish Island by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€3,000-€5,000), Evening Field by William Crozier and Washing Line by Basil Blackshaw, each estimated at €4,000-€6,000 are more afffordable and would enhance any collection.
Late 19th century Irish elm brass bound military chest UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER
An 18th century lacquered two door Chinoiserie cabinet on stand, a still life attributed to Dutch animal painter Melchior d”Hondecoeter (1636-1695) and an oval Louis XVI table by Jean Pierre Dusautoy (1719-1800) are among the main lots at Fonsie Mealy’s country house contents sale at Borleagh Manor near Gorey on Tuesday April 18. The sale, with 556 lots, offers a large selection of antique furniture, paintings, prints and collectibles. It is being conducted on behalf of the executors of the late Malachy McDaniel Stone and other important clients. Viewing is at Borleagh Manor tomorrow and Monday and the sale will be at the Amber Springs Hotel in Gorey. The catalogue is online.
Borleagh Manor has a fascinating history. It was acquired in 1771 by Henry Quin, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Generations of his family lived there for nearly 200 years. Hollywood actor Richard Green, immortalised for playing Robin Hood in the long running tv series, bought it in 1963 and entertained many famous guests including Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant and Richard Burton. Greene became a noted horse breeder and Master of the Wicklow Hunt, In the 1980’s Malachy McDaniel Stone bought it and bred sport horses including a number of RDS winners. He sold it to UK racehorse trainer Sue Bramall in 1998, bought it back from her in 2004 and lived there until his death in 2016. Borleagh has now been sold to Tara Studios and will become a film and TV production facility, with a number of studios to be built on the land.
Paul Gauguin: Nature morte avec pivoines de chine et mandoline (1885). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $10,444,700
Four works from the collection of Ambroise Vollard, one of the most important art dealers in Paris during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, will come up at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York in May. The group is highlighted by a major still life by Paul Gauguin, one of the most significant by the artist to appear at auction, which hung on the walls of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris for almost 40 years since its founding in 1986. Following years of legal proceedings, during which the heirs of Ambroise Vollard were represented by lawyers including François Honnorat, a French court recently ruled that ownership of the works would be returned to Vollard’s descendants. The collection includes works by Renoir and Cezanne.
PAUL HENRY (1876-1958) – A Western Landscape (1919). UPDATE: THIS MADE 75,000 AT HAMMER
There is a slightly ominous air about this 1919 Western Landscape by Paul Henry. It comes up as lot 20 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale. The sale takes place on April 18. Viewing at the RDS in Dublin gets underway tomorrow and will run until 5 pm on Monday April 17. This work was painted at a time when Henry and his first wife, Grace, were considering abandoning Achill Island, which had been their base since 1910, and moving eastwards. Grace was delighted with the prospect of the move, but Paul was downcast, for he remained enchanted with Achill. According to a note by the late art historian Dr. Brian Kennedy: “The heaviness of this scene, therefore reflects the artist’s mood at the time and, although he was not then to know, the period also represented the beginning of a decade of financial and domestic difficulties that eventually ended in his separation from Grace in 1930. This picture, therefore, was painted at a turning point in Henry’s life.” The estimate is €80,000-120,000.
Air Jordan XIIIs worn by Michael Jordan during the 1998 NBA Final
Meet the priciest sneakers in the world. Michael Jordan’s signed Air trainers made $2.2 million at Sotheby’s to become the most expensive shoes ever sold. Jordan, considered the greatest athlete of all time, has become the most valuable athlete at auctions of sportswear memorabilia. Last year a jersey he wore at the 1998 NBA finals made $10.1 million. Jordan had the size-13 shoes on when he scored 37 points in Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals series, carrying the Bulls to a 93-88 victory over the Utah Jazz.
