René Magritte, Le retour (circa 1950 UPDATE: THIS MADE £6,129,000
Painted around 1950 Magritte’s dove of peace remains a powerful image for our times. There is plenty of confidence at Christie’s that his striking work titled Le Retour will spark universal interest at its Art of the Surreal sale in London on February 28. Over the course of his career Magritte became adept at converting his vision of the mysteries of the world into pictures that, through icon like simplicity, conveyed their messages in ways that are more striking.The bird is one of his poetic motifs. It first emerged in 1940. Le retour offers a dream like variation. The surrounding seascape is bathed in soft light from an overcast sky. Night is replaced by day in the body of the bird. Oliver Camu of Christie’s described this painting as a dreamscape offering a universal symbol of hope, He is confident it will whet a growing global appetite for Magritte.
A near pair of Irish late George III side cabinets, c1800
This near pair of Irish late George III satinwood and amaranth and mahogany banded side cabinets made $11,970 at Sotheby’s in New York. The c1800 cabinets were described as in good restored condition. They came up as lot 457 at Sotheby’s Hyde Park Antiques, Past Present and Future sale (Part II). They had previously been with Partridge Fine Arts in London and were last sold at auction at Christie’s in London in 2003.
This stylish pair of early 19th century heavy gates will come up as lot 469 at Fonsie Mealy’s Making Room spring sale in Castlecomer and online on February 15. Originally at Tudenham Park, Mullingar, they are estimated at €2,000-3,000. Viewing for this sale gets underway on February 13 and the catalogue is online. Most lots, from antique furniture, mirrors, lanterns, knife boxes, clocks, chairs, peat buckets and collectibles, are to be sold without reserves.
FRANCISCO JOSÉ DE GOYA Y LUCIENTES – Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés, seated on a sofa with a lap-dog; and Portrait of her mother Doña Leonora Antonia Valdés de Barruso, seated on a chair holding a fan
This double portrait smashed the previous record for Goya when it made $16,420,000 at Christie’s Old Masters sale in New York. Portrait of Doña María Vicenta Barruso Valdés and Portrait of her mother Doña Leonora Antonia Valdés de Barruso was the top lot in a sale of 49 lots which brought in $44.2 million. The grand total for Classic Week came to $92 million. Old Masters brought in $76 million across a number of sales including the collection of J.E. Safra, Masterpieces from a New York collection, Old Master and British drawings and sales of prints, paintings and sculpture.
Glow, a magical carpet hand tufted with pure wool and luminescent filament designed by Dorothy Cross made €19,000 at a charity sale by Whyte’s entitled Island. On offer was a series of 13 unique one off rugs or wall hangings by some of Ireland’s best known artists and designers. Each piece was hand tufted by Ceadogán Rugmakers at their studio in South East Wexford. Whyte’s conducted the timed on-line sale free of charge in order to maximise the proceeds for The McVerry Trust and For The Birds. The total hammer price for the 13 works was €156,000. Every one sold. Seán Scully’s Wall Fez which made €85,000.
Glow appears plain white in daylight but an image of a tangle of trees emanates as darkness falls. Dorothy Cross lives and works in Connemara, Ireland. Her work ranges from object to opera: working with sculpture, photography and video.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 25, 2023)
A pair of mahogany pedestals, urns and covers UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
A pair of George III mahogany pedestals, urns and covers will lead the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on February 14. Each six sided urn is complete with boxwood strung turned tops and finials. The estimate is €4,000-€6,000. This 494 lot auction opens with 134 lots of silver and jewellery headed by a single stone princess cut diamond ring of 2.5 carats (€4,000-€6,000). There is temptation for collectors too in a Florentine style pietra dura rectangular table top. Inlaid with various kinds of marble and hardstone with an abundance of flowers, foliage and birds it is estimated at €2,500-€4,000.
A pietra dura table top UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
One well placed eye catching piece can change the atmosphere of a room and a sale like this is the exactly the sort of place to let your imagination run riot. There is a wide range of affordable choices from a pair of polished brass amphora shaped table lamps (€300-€500), a Persian rug (€1,500-€2,500) and a pair of 19th century cut lustre candlesticks (€50-€100) to a Meiji period Japanese carved ivory okimono of a fruit vendor (€300-€400) and a 19th century ebonised Anglo-Indian fold over card table (€300-€500). There are longcase clocks, porcelain parrots, sets of prints, clock garnitures. dining chairs, bookcases, cabinets, chandeliers, brass fenders, library chairs, fire screens and an Irish silver champagne bucket. The most expensively estimated art lot is a painting of horses with domestic fowl in a farmyard by J F Herring jnr (1820-1907) (€2,500-€3,500). The sale offers some Irish School and continental landscapes, a number of portraits, genre scenes, Snaffles prints, Spy prints, busts and bronzes. The catalogue cover lot is a pair of bronze and gilt decorated busts of Ramses, the great Egyptian Pharaoh and the Goddess Isis after Pierre Eugene Emile Hebert (1828-1893) (€1,500-€2,500).
A late 18th century oak and mahogany banded mule chest. UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER
An unlikely to be repeated ever opportunity to unleash the mule and sit on Cromwell arises at at Fonsie Mealy’s Making Room spring sale on February 15. The late 18th century oak and mahogany banded specimen at the sale in Castlecomer has everything you would want in a mule chest. This character full lot comes with a hinged top above one long and two short drawers and two mock drawers. In the 17th century mule chests were used to store clothes, linens, wools and valuables. They always came with a key. This one is estimated at €400-€600.
The 468 lots on offer at affordable estimates range from heavy cast gates originally at Tudenham Park, Mullingar to artworks, rugs, tables, sideboards, display cabinets, longcase clocks, collectibles and chairs. Among these is a set of 12 sturdy 19th century Cromwellian style chairs with crested carved tops and cream hide seats. The style was popular during the Puritan period. Whether such chairs are favoured in Ireland today remains to be seen. The catalogue is online.
Three from a set of 12 Cromwellian style chairs UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,080 AT HAMMER
THIS early 19th century Irish Regency dining table originally acquired for Bantry House in west Cork comes up at Christie’s in London on February 9. The estimate is £60,000-£90,000. It was probably acquired by Richard White, 1st Earl of Bantry (d. 1851) or his son, Viscount Berehaven, later 2nd Earl of Bantry (1800-1868). The table remained in Bantry House for many year before being sold anonymously at Christie’s in 2006 for £96,000.
Bantry House has been the home of the White family and the Earls of Bantry since c1765. From about 1816 the 1st Earl (1767-1851) preferred to live at his shooting lodge, styled as a cottage orné in nearby Glengariff. After the death of his wife in 1835 he lived there permanently. It was around this time that Bantry House was made over to his eldest son, Viscount Berehaven (1800-1868), later 2nd Earl of Bantry.
Viscount Berehaven was a collector, who travelled much of Europe and transformed Bantry House to what is seen today. He furnished the house with great opulence, which included such an outstanding array of items that Bantry House became known as ‘the Wallace Collection of Ireland’. The alterations to the house took place in the 1840s, and it is therefore possible that this table was acquired by either the 1st or 2nd Earl.
The table comes up as lot 105 in a sale entitled An Opulent Aesthetic: An Important Private Collection from an English Country House. There are 266 lots in the sale including 19th century paintings, Old Masters and sporting art, antique furniture and decorative arts.
JOSEPH WILLIAM CAREY (1859-1937) – R.M.S. Baltic UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER
This early painting of an historic liner by Joseph William Carey comes up as lot 54 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online sale of Irish art which runs until February 7. The watercolour on paper of the RMS Baltic is estimated at €400-600. Until May 1906 this White Star Liner, built at Harland and Wolff in Belfast, was the world’s largest ship and served the Liverpool-New York route. In 1909 she came to the rescue of the Republic and the Florida when they collided. All passengers were saved. In April 1912 she picked up distress signals from Titanic, but was too far away to intervene. She carried troops between 1915 and 1918 and brought the first American soldiers to Europe with General John Pershing on board. She continued commercial service in the 1920’s and was finally replaced in 1932 and scrapped in Osaka the following year.
UPDATE: Illustrations by Jack B Yeats for The Turf Cutter’s Donkey by Patricia Lynch sold particularly well at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale this week. The Turf Cutter’s Donkey made €27,000 at hammer, Look at the showdown by the red rock made €24,000 and How did you get here made €9,000. Two Pears by William Scott made €60,000 at hammer.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 30, January 21 and January 12, 2023)
Part of a single owner collection of Irish Tokens made a hammer price of almost £20,000 at Noonans. The collection amassed by the late Barry Woodside is being dispersed in a series of auctions.
The top lot was a rare Londonderry copper farthing for Broadway Bar on Duke Street which made £1,700 against an estimate of £150-200. It went to a private collector. A copper token from Michael Donoghue of Dublin dating from 1853-8 made £1,600 over an estimate of £300-400.
Only three examples of the free ticket for the Grandstand of the Isle of Man Race are known. The one at Noonans made £1,400, almost three times its top estimate.
