An Italian 1970’s mobile cocktail trolley. UPDATE: THIS MADE 360 AT HAMMER
f you are dreaming of outdoor summer drinks in warming up Ireland then a striking mobile cocktail trolley on casters might fill the bill. The selection of vintage mid century modernist furniture at the online art and design auction at de Veres until July 15 includes a retro Italian 1970’s mobile cocktail bar which with little effort could be wheeled to a patio in the heat. The estimate is just €400-€600.
A 1960’s rosewood Italian sideboard with an estimate of €800-€1,200, a pair of Magis Bombo aluminium bar stools (€400-€600), a pair of French space age floor lamps (€400-€600), a burr walnut dining table attributed to Willy Rizzo (€600-€900) and a circular table by Arne Jacobsen (€200-€300) all feature at de Veres. There is no in person viewing thugh lots can be viewed by appointment. The auction of 242 lots features a large selection of artworks and the catalogue is online.
A 1960’s rosewood Italian sideboard. UPDATE: THIS MADE 650 AT HAMMER
Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, conducting the sale of the Lewis collection.
Cool art generated real heat in the midst of a scorching London heatwave. All sorts of records were broken at Sotheby’s night to remember sales of the Lewis Collection and Modern and Contemporary art.
Four auctions realised £420,488,006 (€487,177,483), the highest total for any season of sales ever staged in Europe.
Sotheby’s sales were led by Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection where 25 paintings made £296 million (€342.95 million). Modigliani’s Seated Nude with Necklace sold for £48.2 million (€55.84 million) and led the nine works which sold for over £10 million (€11.59 million). Among them was art by Picasso, Klimt, Egon Schiele, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Amedeo Modigliani – Nu assis au collier sold for £48.2 million (€55.84 million).
Competitive and deliberate bidding from around the world lasted for nearly two hours. This was the most valuable single owner sale in London’s auction history. Bidders came from 45 countries. Asian collectors accounted for over one third of the value of the sale.
The collection was assembled over more than two decades by 89 year old former Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis, noted for his significant impact on the art market through his extensive collection and strategic transactions, and his daughter Vivienne. The Lewis collecting philosophy is centred on assembling museum quality masterpieces. Lewis sold his stake in Christie’s, where he was the largest single shareholder, to Francois Pinault in 1998 after a share price surge. Committed to the avant-garde painters of today the Lewis family intend to continue their collecting journey into the future.
Claude Monet – Nymphéas sold for £40.8 million (€47.27 million).
Fuelled by stellar works by Monet, Rothko, Hockney and Kandinsky the Modern and Contemporary auction which followed the Lewis auction brought in another £97 million (€112.38 million). Bidding was again deliberate as opposed to speculative and 40 lots took two hours to sell. The top lot was Monet’s Nymphéas (water-lilies) which made £40.8 million (€47.27 million) to become the most valuable Impressionist work sold at auction in Europe in over a decade.
The combined total of £393.4 million (€455.79) for the two sales set a new single night auction record for Europe. Next day the Modern day auction including art from the Lewis collection totalled £17.7 million (€20.51 million) and the Contemporary day auction added another £9.3 million (€10.77 million).
Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Gertrud Loew sold for £36.1 million (€41.83 million)
The extraordinary Lewis collection traced a line from Viennese portraiture to the painters from the School of London with modern figurative painting at its core. The overall total of 47 works sold from the collection came to £306.6 million (€355.23 million). Together with the £35.8 million (€41.48. million) for the four School of London works sold at Sotheby’s in March led by Francis Bacon’s 1972 self portrait the combined total for the Lewis collection sold at Sotheby’s this year is £342.4 million (€396.7 million).
These sales continued an emerging trend where growth in the global art market is concentrated at the top. Single owner collections of museum quality works continue to be the market driver.
Pamela Leonard (B.1940) – Evening in Howth Etching 18/30. UPDATE: THIS MADE 150 AT HAMMER
This etching by Pamela Leonard is lot 89 at Adam’s timed online picture auction which runs until July 14. The estimate is 300-500. The sale of 230 lots features a wide variety of artists including Oisin Kelly, Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Nano Reid, Barry Cooke, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Scott and Tony O’Malley and many more at very affordable prices. The catalogue is online.
A Currency Commission Royal Bank of Ireland Ploughman’s note dated May 6, 1929. UPDATE: THIS MADE £6,500 AT HAMMER
Noonan’s of Mayfair say that three extremely rare banknotes at their sale on July 8 are arguably the finest set of Irish notes ever offered at auction. The trio of extremely special notes – a set of Ploughman notes (£10, £5 and £1) issued by the Royal Bank of Ireland, all bearing serial number 000001 are expected to fetch £8,000-10,000; £6,000-7,000 and £4,000-5,000 respectively. Lots 405-407 all bear the serial number 000001. They will be among the highlights of Noonans auction of British and Irish Banknotes.
Ted Edmunds, banknote specialist at Noonans commented: “Given the rarity, condition and serial number, we believe this set of £1, £5 and £10 are arguably the finest set of Irish notes ever offered at auction.” Describing it as about uncirculated and a fantastic banknote in scarcely believable condition the catalogue description continues: …a glorious example of a £10 Ploughman with an incredible serial number 1, a joy to see one of the most iconic banknotes in the world in all its glory, magnificent!
UPDATE: The three banknotes made a combined hammer price of £34,500 (€40,482). They had been estimated in the region of £20,000 (€23,470). Noonans said they were all bought by the same overseas buyer.
Pelé’s 1962 World Cup winners medal will come under the hammer at Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles on July 9, just ten days before the current World Cup final. The estimate is $200,000-$400,000. From Pelé, Diego Maradona, and Lionel Messi to LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Serena Williams, and Roger Maris, Sports Legends: The Pitch To The Court at Julien’s traces the evolution of athletic greatness through museum-worthy pieces connected to defining eras and unforgettable moments across soccer, basketball, tennis, football, and baseball. Nearly 350 pieces spanning generations of the greatest athletes offered in this auction form an extraordinary collection of match-worn jerseys, historic awards, signed memorabilia, tournament programmes, and personal effects tied to some of the most celebrated names in sports history.
A Kylian Mbappé match worn 2022 Paris St Germain jersey is estimated at $3,000-$5,000, a Lionel Messi signed Argentina jersey has an estimate of $2,000-$3,000. Diego Maradona’s match worn 1978 Argentinos Junior rookies year jersey and Baldocchi’s 1970 Brazil World Cup winners medal are each estimated at $10,000-$20,000. A game worn LeBron James signed rookie year Cavaliers jersey is estimated at $300,000-$500,000.
[BRONTË, Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849)] Wuthering Heights. A Novel. By Ellis Bell. – Agnes Grey. A Novel, by Acton Bell. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847 sold for £1,206,500/ €1,399,540 setting a new world auction record for the author, as well as the highest price ever achieved for 19th-century literature and for any printed book by a woman.
A truly exceptional first edition of Wuthering Heights in the original cloth binding and of Agnes Grey by Brontë sisters Emily and Anne sold for £1.2 million at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London today. Preserved within the same historic house library since shortly after publication in 1847, it is perhaps the finest example remaining in private hands of a masterpiece of English literature. No textually complete copy has appeared at auction in the publisher’s cloth binding since 1908.
Although both Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey were written and accepted for publication before Charlotte had completed Jane Eyre, it was the latter work which was published first, in October 1847. The immediate and enormous success of Jane Eyre prompted Thomas Cautley Newby to bring forward the release of the present works in order to capitalise on the phenomenon. The exact number of copies printed is unknown, but it was suggested by Charlotte that the run was limited to just 250. Of these, examples preserved in any form of publisher’s binding are exceedingly scarce, with those in full cloth being the rarest of all.
The original working text for Alcoholics Anonymous is at Christie’s in New York on July 1 with an estimate of $1 million – $2 million. The Big Book – which launched the 12 steps movement – changed countless lives, became one of the most influential works of the 20th century, sold more than 30 million copies and was classified by the Library of Congress as one of the 88 “Books that Shaped America”. The document, complete with extensive handwritten notations and edits by authors Bill Wilson (1895-1971) and Hank Parkhurst (1895-1954), is from the collection of late billionaire and ceo of the Indianapolis Colts Jim Irsay. Wilson was a businessman who by 1934 had lost his career on Wall St., his reputation and his health. Parkhurst was a former Standard Oil executive and gifted organiser who met Wilson in New York in 1937 after getting sober. Proceeds from the sale of this lot will go to charitable causes supported by Jim Irsay.
A rustic timber summer house from Kilkenny Castle. UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,000 AT HAMMER
A square timber summer house purchased at the dispersal sale at Kilkenny Castle in 1935 is among the rarities at Sheppards annual Glantelwe Gardens sale in Durrow next Tuesday (June 30) and Wednesday. It was designed to revolve on an iron wheel mechanism to follow the course of the sun throughout the day. The roof is now absent, steeply pitched gable ends have survived. The estimate is €3,000-€5,000.
The top lot is an impressive architectural garden folly. The circular carved stone temple is estimated at €15,000-€25,000. The sale offers everything from weathered staddle stones and 19th century turnstiles converted to tables to bronze fountains, garden seats, gazebos, stone piers, troughs, gates and architectural salvage sourced from private collections, country houses and gardens. Sheppards say that this popular annual event is Ireland’s only auction presented in a garden setting. The live and online auction with 749 lots is on view in nearly three acres of gardens from today (June 27).
A circular stone temple or garden pavilion at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS MADE €8,500 AT HAMMER
The Mayor Gallery, London shows Minding his own Business by Patrick O’Reilly at Treasure House.
From Old Master paintings, antiquities, sculpture and rare books to a prehistoric woolly mammoth head and Galileo’s first drawing of the moon the incredible London season now in full swing continues on its merry way.
London’s flagship Treasure House Fair continues at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea this weekend, it is Classic Week at Christie’s and Sotheby’s offerings next week include Scene in Braemar by Sir Edwin Landseer, a little known sister painting to The Monarch of the Glen.
In Ireland summer online sales of much more affordable art will be held at Whyte’s on Monday June 29 and Morgan O’Driscoll on Tuesday June 30. It all adds up to a very healthy market for art and collectibles.
The trove of masterpieces at Treasure House includes a 25,000 year old woolly mammoth head, drawings by Gallileo, a luxurious dog house made for Marie Antoinette’s favourite pet, a pair of commodes owned by Madame du Pompadour, jewels from the era of Henry VIII and Shakespeare, an exhibition of contemporary British women artists, a show of British Surrealism and a sculpture walk with monumental artworks by Eduardo Paolozzi, Elizabeth Frink, Ron Arad, Nicola Anthony and Patrick O’Reilly.
Sir Thomas Lawrence – Portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £9,670,000 A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Christie’s has an estimate of £8 million – £12 million (€9.22 million – €13.83 million) on Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. In this portrait painted after Wellington’s defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo the artist succeeded in penetrating Wellington’s aura of heroism to capture the essence of the man. The Old Master’s sale takes place next Tuesday evening (June 30). Sales during Classic Week feature art from antiquity to the 21st century.
Sir Edwin Landseer – Scene in Braemar at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £5,946,000 A NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
The estimate for Landseer’s Scene at Braemar at Sotheby’s on the following evening (July 1) is £3 million – £4 million (€3.46 million – €4.61 million). Painted in 1857 the nearly nine foot canvas is a darker sister painting to the iconic and renowned Monarch of the Glen.
Rosaleen Brigid Ganly (1909-2002) – Stargazer Lily at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 150 AT HAMMER
There is a good selection of affordable art at Whyte’s summer online art auction which gets underway at 6 pm next Monday (June 29). The catalogue features 241 lots and includes work by Jack Butler Yeats, Walter Osborne, Estella Solomons, Eva Hamilton, Harry Kernoff, Dan O’Neill, Henry Moore, James Brohan, Liam Treacy, Banksy, Nelson Mandela, Brigid Ganly and many more artists. The most expensively estimated lots are Fishing Boats by James Brohan an d Self Portrait by Eva Hamilton, each estimated at €2,500-€3,500. The Tennis Court, a signed lithograph by Nelson Mandela from his Robben Island series, is estimated at €2,000-€3,000.
Majella O’Neill Collins (b.1964) – Returning home to Sherkin Island at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE €2,000 AT HAMMER
Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online sale of affordable art is on view in Skibbereen next Monday and Tuesday. It gets underway at 6.30 pm on Tuesday (June 30) and the catalogue is online. An oil on board of Montpellier by Arthur Maderson carries the highest estimate of €4,000-€6,000. There is art by a wide variety of artists including William Crozier, Paul Henry, Damien Hirst, Robert Ballagh, Shepard Fairey, Andy Warhol, Jack B Yeats, Jim Sheehy, George Campbell and John Behan.
Pablo Picasso – Baigneuses, sirènes, femme nue et minotaure sold for £7,044,000
June sales of Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection and Modern & Contemporary art at Sotheby’s in London realised £420,488,006 across four auctions. This is the highest result for any season of sales ever staged in Europe. There was spirited activity from around the world, with bidding from 45 countries and particularly strong participation from Asian collectors, whose purchases in The Lewis Collection evening auction accounted for over a third of the total value of the sale.
The season was led by Masterpieces from the Lewis collection. The 47 works sold in Sotheby’s rooms this week brought in £306.6 million, the highest total for any single owner sale ever staged in London. Together with the £35.8 million realised for four School of London works offered from the same collection in March, the combined total for works sold from the Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s this year now stands at £342.4 million. The Lewis evening auction realised £296.3 million for 23 work with nine breaking the £10 million barrier. La Loge, a pastel by Degas, did not find a buyer during the sale but was sold immediately afterwards to a private collector.
The contemporary day auction totalled £9.3 million and the modern day auction, with masterpieces from the Lewis collection, brought in £17.8 million.
