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    • Archive for the ‘AUCTIONS’ Category

    EARLY DEPICTION OF STEAM DRIVEN WARSHIPS

    Monday, November 17th, 2025

    Two 90 Gun Ships of the Line entering Cork Harbour by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale on November 24 should arouse much interest. It adorned the cover of Peter Murray’s book Maritime Paintings of Cork written to coincide with a popular exhibition of the same name at the Port of Cork hq in 2005 and is one of Atkinson’s more ambitious works.  With three masts, steam engines and single funnels these are an early manifestation of steam driven warships.  As they enter the harbour following another steamship a frigate with sails unfurled is leaving. It is flying the Blue Peter, known as the departure flag. A cutter in the foreground is possibly the Cork pilot boat.

    UPDATE: THIS MADE 25,000 AT HAMMER

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    15th CENTURY ALTARPIECE AT SHEPPARDS UPCOMING AUCTION

    Sunday, November 16th, 2025

    A  15th century Northern European altarpiece is among the highlights at Sheppards sale in Durrow on November 25 and 26. More than 1,200 lots of fine and decorative art, silver, furniture and sculpture drawn from Irish and international collections will be on offer including a Qing Dynasty silk wall hanging from Abbeyleix House.  The altarpiece is estimated at €25,000-€45,000.

    UPDATE: THIS MADE €36,000 AT HAMMER

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    IRELAND’S WINTER ART SALE SEASON NOW UNDERWAY

    Saturday, November 15th, 2025
    Mick Jagger by Andy Warhol at Art Source at the RDS.

    The winter art sale season with a feast in store is kick started in Ireland this weekend by Art Source at the RDS. With more than 200 artists and galleries this is Ireland’s largest art fair with a huge selection of affordable art. Highlights include a portrait of Mick Jagger by Andy Warhol and work by Tracey Emin exhibited by Gormleys. Expected to draw more than 15,000 visitors the event features the Irish debut of Naples based Fonderia Artistica Ruocco.

    This is a prelude to the season’s major sales of important Irish art.  An online sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on November 24 with highlights by Yeats, O’Malley, Blackshaw and George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson will be followed by Dublin auctions by de Veres and Gormleys on November 25.  Roderic O’Conor, William Leech, Paul Henry, Yeats and Mainie Jellett are at de Veres. Adams on November 26 offers art by Paul Henry, Yeats, Harry Clarke, Camille Souter, Gerard Dillon, Mary Swanzy and Hughie O’Donoghue. Among the highlights at Whyte’s on December 1 is work by John Luke, Paul Henry, Grace Henry, Frank McKelvey, Louis le Brocquy, Rowan Gillespie, Donald Teskey and John Behan. 

    Nature Morte by Roderic O’Conor at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 115,000 AT HAMMER

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    NAPOLEON’S LATEST BATTLE? A BIDDING WAR AT SOTHEBY’S GENEVA

    Friday, November 14th, 2025

    This old mine cut diamond brooch owned by Emperor Napoleon I  (c1810) sold for US $4.4 million at Sotheby’s Royal and Noble jewels sale in Geneva after a bidding battle that lasted nearly ten minutes. The estimate was $150,000-$250,000. Most likely created to adorn his bicorne hat on special occasions it centres on a large oval diamond of 13.04 carats surrounded by two rows of diamonds of varying shapes and sizes. In his haste to flee Waterloo Napoleon had to abandon some of his carriages when they got stuck on a muddy road a few miles from the battlefield. One of them contained precious personal belongings including weapons, medals, silverware, a hat and a jewellery box.  The brooch  was offered to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III on June 21, 1815, three days after the battle. It  remained in the House of Hohenzollern for many years and has been part of different private collections since. 

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    TITANIC WATCH WHICH BELONGED TO ISIDOR STRAUSS AT ALDRIDGES

    Thursday, November 13th, 2025

    A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of one of the richest passengers on the Titanic is could make £1 million at auction at Aldridges in Wiltshire on November 22. Isidor Straus and his wife Ida were among the more than 1,500 people who died in the disaster in April 1912. An 18 carat gold Jules Jurgensen pocket watch was recovered from his body in the Atlantic. Ida’s body was never found. The Bavarian-born American businessman and politician was co-owner of Macy’s department store in New York.

    The pocket watch stopped at 02:20, the moment the Titanic disappeared beneath the waves. It is believed to have been a gift from Ida to her husband in 1888 and is engraved with Straus’ initials. Returned to his family it was passed down through generations before Kenneth Hollister Straus, Isidor’s great-grandson, had the movement repaired and restored. It will be sold alongside a rare letter Ida wrote aboard the liner describing its luxury which was posted in Ireland at Queenstown (Cobh).  The letter is estimated at £100,000-£150,000, the watch at £800,000-£1 million.

    UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1.78 MILLION

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    ENAMEL QIANLONG VASE MAKES 13 TIMES TOP ESTIMATE JAMES ADAM

    Wednesday, November 12th, 2025

    A SMALL GILT ENAMEL CLOISONNE ‘TAOTIE’ MASK VASE AND COVER, MARKED QIANLONG 

    This mid Qing Dynasty gilt mask vase and cover made a hammer price of €24,000 at the James Adam sale of Fine Asian Art in Dublin today. Measuring just 8.8 centimetres high and weighing 87 grams it had been estimated at €1,500-€1,800 and the final hammer price is more than 13 times the top estimate. A taotie is an ancient Chinese mythological creature.  A pair of 20th century carved cinnabar lacquer vases made €15,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €1,500 and a blue and white porcelain Korean storage jar made €16,000 over a top estimate of €5,000.

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    THE FLUTE PLAYER BY GERRIT DOU AT CHRISTIE’S IN LONDON

    Tuesday, November 11th, 2025

    GERRIT DOU (LEIDEN 1613-1675) – The Flute Player UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR  £3,832,000 (€4,353,152).

    With an estimate of £2-£3 million The Flute Player by Gerrit Dou will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in London on December 2. Dou, like his teacher Rembrandt, was among the most successful Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, attracting patrons such as Cosimo III de’ Medici, and with works presented to Charles II of England. An early masterpiece from his relatively small and highly sought-after oeuvre, this vanitas – a still-life charged with symbolic meaning – alludes to music, learning and the brevity of life. Painted with microscopic detail and an enamel-like finish that conceals all trace of the brush, it exemplifies the extraordinary technical precision that made Dou one of the most acclaimed painters of his age. The picture has been in a celebrated English collection for 125 years, having belonged to William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort (1836–1909) at Elton Hall by 1900. It has remained in the family since.

    Christie’s achieved the world auction record for Gerrit Dou in 2023 with A young woman holding a hare with a boy at a window, which achieved $7 million in the Rothschild Masterpieces sale.

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    A 68 MILLION YEARS OLD DINOSAUR FOSSIL AT CHRISTIE’S

    Monday, November 10th, 2025

    Spike, Caenagnathid dinosaur, Late Cretaceous (c. 68 million years ago). (£3,000,000–5,000,000).

    Spike an exceptionally preserved dinosaur and one of the most complete Caenagnathid specimens ever discovered will headline Christie’s inaugural Groundbreakers: Icons of Our Time auction in London on December 11. A discovery from the 2022 field season Spike, comprises approximately 100 preserved fossil bones that tell the story of a sub-adult dinosaur that is 68 million years in the making. It has recently been determined that this family of dinosaurs were heavily feathered, and a rare marking on Spike’s wrist might be further evidence of this. Since the first Caenagnathid was published in 1940, only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have ever come to auction.

    This sale presents a curated selection of 30 lots spanning natural history, cinema, music, literature, fashion, and technology. Highlights range from personal letters by cultural icons, to rare scientific artifacts, historic musical instruments, and pioneering design pieces.

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    THE LARK SINGS BY YEATS AT BONHAMS

    Sunday, November 9th, 2025

    The Lark Sings High, an oil on board by Jack B Yeats, at Bonhams. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £95,650

    The Lark Sings High by Jack B Yeats is at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 19.  Measuring 9 x 14 inches it is from a private collection in the UK.  The estimate is £50,000-£70,000 (€57,000-€80,000).

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    LORD O’NEILL’S RAILWAYANA COLLECTION AT MULLENS

    Saturday, November 8th, 2025

    An unusually large scale model of a steam traction engine. (€2,000-€3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,200 AT HAMMER

    The enduring fascination of railways in days gone by never leaves.  The single owner collection of Lord O’Neill of Shane’s Castle, Co. Antrim, former President of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (and a stepson of Bond creator Ian Fleming), at Mullen’s of Laurel Park in Bray on November 10 is of huge interest to railwayana collectors.

    There are train nameplates, headboards, railway hotel items, original enamel advertisements, paintings  commissioned by Lord O’Neill of locomotives and travel posters including highly collectible ones designed by Paul Henry, banknotes and coins.  An unusually large scale model of a steam traction engine, the Maid of Erin, is of great interest along with a good selection of model trains and transport items.

    His railway and transport library features rare and unusual books, maps and pamphlets.  Among them is Richard Griffiths’ c1855 map of Ireland made to accompany the report of the Railway Commissioners with hand coloured plates.  The live auction with online bidding gets underway next Monday at 11 am.  The catalogue is online and the sale is on view at Mullen’s this weekend.

    The Shamrock, a train headboard (€2,000-€3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER

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