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These tables come up as lot 39 at Sotheby’s sale of the collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung in London on December 8 with an estimate of £12,000-£18,000. The pier tables are believed to have belonged to the Earls of Grandison, and if indigenous to their estates at Dromana, Co. Waterford were likely supplied to George Mason-Villiers, 2nd Earl Grandison PC (1751–1800). The 2nd Earl died without sons and thus the title became extinct in 1800.
This 1928 painting of the Dublin Horse Show by Sir John Lavery was once gifted by Hazel Lavery to the Irish playwright Lennox Robinson. It is among the highlights at de Veres timed online auction of Outstanding Irish Art which begins to close from 6 pm today. The auction features a collection of Irish 18th Century Landscape paintings including works by Sir William Ashford, George Barrett, James Arthur O’Connor and Natahaniel Grogan as well as five Irish side tables from a private collection in Cork.
UPDATE: It was a successful evening at de Veres. Among the top hammer prices were: Paul Henry – Cottages by the Lake (€75,000); Roderic O’Conor – Landscape with a view to the sea (€70,0000; Jack B Yeats – The train through the woods (€60,000); William Ashford – Rocky River Landscape (€55,000); William Scott – Deep Blues (€50,000); Sean Keating – Unloading the turf (€50,000) and landscapes by George Barrett, James Arthur O’Connor and James Coy each made €40,000.
This fine wool carpet from central Iran, circa 1920, is among the top lots at the James Adam sale of the Collection of Mahmut Balkir in Dublin on November 23. The central field is woven with a large flowerhead medallion in blue, red, brown, and navy tones, against a cream ground. It is contained within a broad red ground border decorated with floral vignettes and flowerheads, with guard stripes. The estimate for lot 168 is €15,000-20,000. A third generation rug dealer Mahmut Balkir runs The Oriental Rug Company on Francis St. in Dublin.
An original copy of The Cork Examiner from 1848 with a front page full of auction advertising, a large collection of old GAA hurling and football programmes including the iconic Thunder and Lightning All Ireland hurling final of 1939 (played on the day Britain declared war on Germany), an 18 carat gentlemans Rolex watch and a London 1928 crocodile vanity case with tortoiseshell fittings are among the highly collectible lots at Lynes and Lynes on November 26.
There is a Victorian dining table, a set of Cork 11-bar chairs, some Georgian Cork dining chairs, two large Waterford chandeliers, a selection of jewellery, a collection of old motoring posters, art and a selection of terracotta garden pots. The auction will be online and viewing is underway in Carrigtwohill. A large variety of more than 500 lots will come under the hammer so the sale will start earlier than usual at 10 am.
Collectors of Irish art have an array of choice across all price levels in the run up to Christmas. The fun gets underway on Tuesday as timed online Irish art sales at Sotheby’s and de Veres get underway with artists and sculptors from F.E. McWilliam, Rowan Gillespie, Roderic O’Conor, Patrick Scott and William Crozier at Sotheby’s to Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Donald Teskey, Sir John Lavery and Colin Middleton at de Veres.
The selection at de Veres includes a collection of Irish 18th century landscapes and Irish Georgian tables from a private Cork collection as well as oils by Paul Henry, Jack Yeats, Roderic O’Conor and many eminent artists.The online sale at Sotheby’s will introduce a strong representation of contemporary Irish artists and sculptors to worldwide clients.
Irish highlights at Sotheby’s sale of Modern British and Irish art in London next Wednesday include two early oils by Yeats, Going to the Races, 1917 (€230,400-€345,600) and Sunday Morning, 1921 (€172,800-€288,000) and The Fisherman’s Cottage c1950 by Gerard Dillon (€92,170-€138,300).
Viewing for Whyte’s evening sale of Important Irish Art on November 28 gets underway in Dublin next Wednesday. There are major works by Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy, Mainie Jellett, Walter Osborne, Sean Keating, Mary Swanzy and Roderic O’Conor. Morning Prayer, Cottage Interior, County Cork, 1901 by James Brenan (1837-1907), headmaster at the Cork School of Art in the 1860’s, is the only known oil painting to show a canopy bed with a boarded, canted roof. The art historian Dr. Claudia Kinmonth reports that these highly functional beds endured throughout Ireland well into the 20th century as they enabled poor families to huddle together and stay warm. At a time when TB was rampant they were condemned by medics. Lot 6 is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
Artists from Kenneth Webb and Norah McGuinness to Sean Scully and Mainie Jellett will feature among the highlights at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online sale of Irish art. This continues until November 29 and like all the sales mentioned in this piece, the catalogue is online. The appetising selection includes work by Ciaran Clear, Martin Gale, Charles Harper, George Campbell and Arthur Maderson.
The autumn/winter art selling season will draw to a close with an evening sale of important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on December 7. There are 144 lots in total with two works by Yeats and an important triptych by John Shinnors entitled Line. This is a response by the Limerick artist to a painting by the British post impressionist Frank Bramley entitled Domino at the Crawford Gallery in Cork.
In eight days of art sales in New York Christie’s has so far achieved $2 billion. The 20th Century evening sale and the 21st Century evening sale which ran consecutively at Christie’s in New York last night made $421,976,700. When combined with the results of the Paul Allen collection the total reached an unprecedented $2,044,226,200.
The 20th Century sale made $307,945,300 and was 96% sold by lot and 88% by value. Mark Rothko’s Untitled and Amedeo Modigliani’s Beatrice Hastings each sold for $17,565,000. Additional highlights included works by notable female artists. A massive canvas by Joan Mitchell made $14,130,000, and a rare self-portrait by Frida Kahlo made $8,634,000.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sugar Ray Robinson, was the top lot at the 21st century sale and made $32,679,000. Results for female artists and artists of colour were strong. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Minjung Kim, Noah Davis and Rashid Johnson all set new records.
UPDATE: The two weeks of sales concluded having achieved $2,170,537,204 over seven live auctions and one online.
Strike Twice, a 2022 acrylic and spray paint on canvas by Maser comes up at Sotheby’s Irish art sale online which is open for bidding from November 16-22. It is estimated at £6,000-£8,000. There are 74 lots on offer with a combined pre-sale estimate of £708,700 – 1,069,000 / €816,500-1,231,600. There is sculpture by Rowan Gillespie, F.E. McWilliam, Patrick O’Reilly, Linda Brunker, Orla de Bri, Conor Fallon and John Behan and paintings by Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor, Evie Hone, Gerard Dillon, Walter Osborne, Frank McKelvey, William Crozier, Louis le Brocquy, Colin Middleton, Gerard Dillon, Peter Curling and many other artists.
There was a new auction record for Piet Mondrian at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York last night when an iconic abstract painting – Composition No. II – made $51 million. Made by the Dutch artist in 1930 it was last auctioned in 1982 when it sold for a then record of $2.15 million. This time around it was sold to a collector in Asia.
Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman, Europe said: “There are few artists who have staked such an audacious claim in the history of Modern art as Piet Mondrian, whose grid-style of abstract painting is a truly singular achievement in painting history.”
Viewing begins in Castlecomer today for Fonsie Mealy’s Important Irish and International art sale on November 16. There are 417 lots on offer including works by Jack B Yeats, Sean Keating, Michael O Nuallain, William Sadler, Augustus Burke, Maurice MacGonigal, Evie Hone, John Shinnors, Pauline Bewick and John Behan. The catalogue is online.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for November 6 and October 25, 2022)
A feast of Irish art will be celebrated at Sotheby’s this month. Jack B Yeats and Gerard Dillon will headline the Irish side of the Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 23. An online sale of Irish art at Sotheby’s from next Wednesday will run until Tuesday, November 22 and a selection from these sales is on view at the RHA in Dublin this weekend. The introduction of relatively unknown artists to the world and important rediscoveries like The Fisherman’s Cottage by Gerard Dillon combine to offer Irish art an important shot in the arm.
The global reach of Sotheby’s, the Irish diaspora, the fact that art lovers everywhere will find these sales relatively affordable compared to the stratospheric prices now achieved at the top, the presence in the catalogue of feted British artists like Barbara Hepworth, L.S. Lowry and William Nicholson and the support of an international marketing campaign make this November a very good month indeed for Irish art and artists.
There is much more than a sense of onwards and upwards at play. The two atmospheric early Yeats oils Going to the Races, 1917 and Sunday Morning, 1921 and the fantastic rediscovery of The Fisherman’s Cottage, a c1950 Dillon from a private collection, have a combined value of £430,000-£670,000 (€495,000-€772,000). Dillon’s first encounter with Connemara in 1939 was a revelatory moment and this painting, set on Inishlacken looking across to Roundstone, ranks among the finest examples of his portrayals of the west of Ireland.
It is impossible not to be enthusiastic about the 74 diverse lots in an online sale with a range of paintings, drawings and sculpture from the 19th century to the present day. The combined estimate is €816,500-€1,231,600. There is a Gerard Dillon – Village on the Hill, a lively Paul Henry – The Entrance to Killary Bay – John Lavery’s last painting – Gypsies in Ireland and Last Bastion of the Old Theatre Royal by Harry Kernoff. This second Theatre Royal closed its doors in 1934 and was demolished soon after. There are 18 works from the collection of the late Irish American Brian P Burns, who amassed one of the greatest collections of Irish art in private hands.
Contemporary artists and sculptors represented include Rowan Gillespie, Linda Brunker, John Behan, Patrick O’Reilly, Maser, Joy Gerrard, Diana Copperwhite, Richard Hearn, Blaise Smith and Melissa O’Flaherty and there are early works by Erskine Nicol and James Arthur O’Connor. There will be artists talks at the RHA at noon today by John Behan, Melissa O’Flaherty and Maser and at noon tomorrow by Diana Copperwhite, Richard Hearn and Blaise Smith.
