A marble figure of the Capitoline Aphrodite known as The Hamilton Aphrodite, one of the greatest Roman sculptures in private hands, sold for £18,582,000 at Sotheby’s in London today. It had been estimated at £2-£3million. Dating back to the 1st or 2nd century AD marble lays claim to being the finest single piece of ancient sculpture ever to have resided in Scotland, where it spent 144 years between 1776 and 1919, as one of the main attractions of Hamilton Palace, the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton. The Aphrodite entered the collection of Hamilton Palace in 1776, when it was purchased in Rome by Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton and 5th Duke of Brandon (1756–1799) from the Scottish neoclassical painter and art dealer, Gavin Hamilton (1723–1798, of no relation to the Duke).
It was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1920 and by the Hungarian born New York based art dealer Joseph Brummer in 1940. It was last sold at auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York in 1949.
SYLVESTER STALLONE’S ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN “ROCKY” SCRIPT PAGES
Sylvester Stallone’s original handwritten script pages for Rocky, the 1976 Oscar winning Best Picture, sold for $437,500 at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood on December 5. It had been estimated at $50,000-$70,000. His film worn Rocky III American Flag silk boxing trunks made $200,000, twenty times the original estimate. Hundreds of bidders, collectors and fans across the globe participated in person, on the phone and online in a sale of nearly 500 items from Stallone’s personal collection of costumes, movie props and memorabilia from the Rocky and Rambo movie franchises, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, The Specialist, Assassins, Escape Plan, Cop Land, and The Expendables–as well as awards, fine jewellery, furniture, and other luxury items.
The sizzling winter season of Irish art sales is on track to surpass €10 million this week. Sales at Sotheby’s, de Veres, Bonhams, Whyte’s and Morgan O’Driscoll have already achieved an aggregate of at least €9 million. A big sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam next Wednesday is certain to bring this figure racing past the €10 million post. At Whyte’s the most expensively estimated Yeats painting ever at auction – The Shouting at €1.5 million – €2 million – made a hammer price of €1.4 million (€1.74 million with fees and VAT). Women artists fared particularly well and works by Grace Henry, Letitia Hamilton and Nano Reid shot past their top estimates. The Fortune Teller by Grace Henry made €37,000 at hammer over a top estimate of just €7,000, a new world record for the artist. There was also a new world record for Graham Knuttel.
This Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy at Adams was commissioned for Setanta House. UPDATE: THIS MADE 80,000 AT HAMMER
Adams will offer major works by Yeats and Colin Middleton next Wednesday. Among the le Brocquy’s at Adams is Ancestral Head (€60,000-€80,000) and Cavannagh, an Aubusson tapestry commissioned from the artist for Setanta House (€80,000-€120,000). There is a Composition by Evie Hone (€30,000-€40,000) and Cubist Landscape, Trees, Houses by Mary Swanzy (€20,000-€30,000). The auction features three landscapes by Paul Henry headed by Cottages and Turfstacks in the West of Ireland (€140,000-€180,000) along with sculpture by F E McWilliam, John Behan, Imogen Stuart, Breon O’Casey, Rory Breslin, Cliodna Cussen and paintings by Sir William Orpen, George Campbell, Camille Souter, Dan O’Neill, Tony O’Malley, Basil Blackshaw, John Shinnors, John Boyd and Donald Teskey. This sale promises to bring a remarkable season to an exciting close.
THIS mid Victorian carved walnut Irish throne chair by Jones of Dublin made a hammer price of £44,000 at Thomas R. Callan’s auction in Ayr this afternoon. Though billed as the star lot of the sale it had been estimated at just £2,000-£3,000. Dated 1850 it was probably part of a large suite of furniture made of Irish bog yew or oak by Arthur J Jones and Son of Dublin for The Great Exhibition held in London, in 1851. Decorated to illustrate the history, antiquities, animals and vegetation of Ireland the carved decoration features a harp, oak leaves, stag and Irish Wolfhounds
The hectic pace of 2021 continues as the auction world zooms into December. A number of stunning sales in the offing next week in Ireland offer collectors a wide range of stellar choices in the fields of antiques, art and collectibles. Fonsie Mealy’s Christmas Rare Books and Collectors sale is at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan on Tuesday and Wednesday, four days of sales with amazing contents from the Cronin collection at Seafield House, Donabate, Co. Dublin get underway at Sheppards in Durrow next Tuesday and the Outstanding Irish Art sale at James Adam on Wednesday evening will follow a strong sale of fine jewellery and watches at Adams on Tuesday. And Aidan Foley will offer more than 2,000 lots at three days of online sales from tomorrow with viewing in Sixmilebridge today.
A full size replica in silver plate of the Liam McCarthy Cup at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Among more than 1,000 lots at Fonsie Mealy is a prized first edition of Ulysses by James Joyce and full replicas in silver plate of both the Liam McCarthy Cup and the Sam Maguire Cup There will be international interest in.an original engraved facsimile copy of the American Declaration of Independence issued by Order of Congress in 1823 when it was noted that the ink on the original document was fading. This particular copy has direct provenance by family descent to Charles O’Connor, the Irish American democratic lawyer who in 1872 became the first catholic to be nominated for a US Presidential election. With everything from the antiquities of Ireland to Monty Python this auction is on view at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan on tomorrow and Monday.
One of a pair of museum quality late nineteenth century satinwood bookcases at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.
Sheppards have a pair of museum quality 19th century satinwood bookcases from the collection of Cork businessman Liam Cronin. There is a Mannerist Mannerist painting of The baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, once owned by Augustine Roche, Lord Mayor of Cork. His dispersal sale by Marshs, Cork in 1916 had to be postponed from April to July because of the Easter Rising. This is an online sale of 1,637 lots with everything from a Chinese Meiping vase to a 19th century neoclassical overmantle. The auction is on view in Durrow on today, tomorrow and Monday.Adams will offer lots of diamonds, as well as rubies, sapphires, emeralds and all sort of gemstones at their fine jewellery sale in Dublin at 4 pm next Tuesday. Viewing for this dazzling sale is now underway in Dubin.
The Adams sale next Wednesday is particularly strong in mid 20th century art. Through the Streets to the Hills by Jack Yeats from 1950 is a view of Fitzwilliam St., Dublin where Yeats lived from 1919 until he retired to the Portobello Home. It is estimated at €100,000-€150,000. There will be much interest too in a contrasting work, Portrait of Lucian Freud in Patrick Swift’s Hatch St. (€20,000-€30,000) which depicts the young artist in Dublin.Other Modernist works include Edward McGuire’s Barn Owl (€6,000-€8,000) and How Many Miles to London Town (€30,000-€50,000), Trojan Horse (€15,000-€20,000) and Abstract with Toy Train (€20,000-€30,000) all by Colin Middleton.
Ortelius (Abraham) “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”, folio, Antwerp (Aegidius Coppenius Diesth) 1570, First Edition (Second Issue)
With maps of America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Ireland and Britain this 1570 first edition of the atlas of Abraham Ortelius comes up as lot 761 at Fonsie Mealy’s Christmas Rare Book and Collectors’ Sale in Dublin on December 7. From Antwerp in 1570 there are 53 double page engraved maps with contemporary hand colouring and manuscript notes. Billed as The Atlas that Changed the World it is estimated at €40,000-60,000. The auction of 1,030 lots will be held at the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan. There will be viewing on December 5 and 6 and Covid certificates and face coverings will be required. UPDATE: THIS MADE 96,000 AT HAMMER
KENNETH WEBB (B.1927) – Spring Meadow. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 AT HAMMER
Spring Meadow by Kenneth Webb comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online sale of Irish art. The small oil on canvas is estimated at €1,200-€1,800. The catalogue for this sale of 450 lots is online. The auction runs to the evening of December 6.
Patrick Swift (1927-1983) Portrait of Lucian Freud in Patrick Swift’s Hatch Street Studio. UPDATE: THIS WAS SOLD FOR 19,000
Meet the young Lucian Freud as seen by the Irish artist Patrick Swift. Between 1948 and 1956, when he was a frequent visitor to Ireland, Freud developed a friendship with Patrick Swift, whose studio on Hatch Street he regularly shared. During this time, the two artists observed one another’s work closely; both were interested in portraiture and, to a lesser extent, still lifes. Swift was still in the early stages of his career while Freud had been critically lauded and celebrated in London with a string of acclaimed solo exhibitions. His work had been added to public collections in England and the US before he was selected to represent Britain (with Francis Bacon and Ben Nicholson) at the Venice Biennale in 1954.
Swift’s first solo exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries in Dublin in 1952 was met with critical acclaim. He was, by now, part of a more-or-less bohemian set of artists and writers that included Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, Nano Reid, and John Ryan; he was also connected to the art dealer Deirdre McDonagh. Freud was introduced to this cultural network through the artist Anne Dunn on his first visit to the city in the late 1940s. On his regular visits to Dublin thereafter, Freud participated in this artistic milieu.
This portrait of Freud at Swift’s studio in Hatch St., Dublin comes up at the James Adam sale of Imporant Irish Art in Dublin on December 8 with an estimate of €20,000-€30,000.
Currency Commission, Bank of Ireland, specimen £20, 5 September 1978 (fictitious date), serial number 00ZK 000000, Brennan and Gargan signatures, three cancellation holes and black SPECIMEN overprint
An extremely rare Bank of Ireland specimen £20 ‘Ploughman’ banknote made £52,800 -16 times its pre-sale estimate – at the latest auction of British, Irish and World Banknotes at Dix Noonan Webb in London. From the collection of the late Gus MacAmhlaigh, Dublin, it had been estimated at £2,600-£3,200.
Andrew Pattison, Head of Banknote Department at Dix Noonan Webb, explained: “This beautiful ‘Ploughman’ specimen £20 is the first to appear at auction in many years, and attracted a huge amount of interest. Bank records show beyond doubt that all issued £20 notes were redeemed and destroyed, which means specimens like this one are the only way collectors are able to acquire one. Two very serious Irish collectors, both based abroad, evidently felt that this was going to be very difficult to acquire another example, and despite a modest estimate of £2,600-£3,200, the hammer came down at £42,000″. The hammer price attracted a buyers premium of 24%.
Inlaid marble chimney piece in the Bossi manner. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
THIS inlaid marble chimney piece comes up as lot 450A at Victor Mee’s two day Christmas decorative interiors sale in Co. Cavan today and tomorrow. It is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. The auction of more than 1,000 lots is online only.
This late Georgian Sienna marble and Carrara marble chimney piece made 13,000 at hammer. An early 19th. century Carrara marble chimney piece made 4,000 at hammer
