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This Art Deco diamond and ruby target cluster ring is lot 193 at a timed auction by O’Reilly’s of Francis St., Dublin. It is centred by an old cut diamond of 0.45 carats and estimated at €2,000-€2,500. The sale of fine jewellery, watches and silver gets underway on Wednesday August 24 and runs until next Friday. There will be an online auction of jewellery and collectibles by John Weldon of Temple Bar, Dublin next August 23.
The Path to Freedom by Michael Collins published by The Talbot Press comes up at R.J. Keighery’s sale in Waterford next Monday, the 100th anniversary of the murder of Collins at Beal na Blath in Co. Cork on August 22, 1921. The 1922 book has chapters including “Advance and Use of our Liberties”, “Alternative to the Treaty”, “The Proof of Success”, “Four Historic Years”, “Collapse of the Terror”, “Partition Act’s Failure”, “Why Britain Sought Irish Peace” and “Freedom within Grasp”. Lot 306 is estimated at €80-€120. More than 600 lots of furniture, Irish art, chandeliers, jewellery, silver and collectibles will come under the hammer. The catalogue is online.
This walnut marquetry and gilt mounted credenza is one of the top furniture lots at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on September 4. This will be the opening auction of the post summer period at Adams. The 19th century piece with bowed outline has a shaped top with moulded edge, glazed rounded corners and a plinth base. It is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. A pair of French boulle marble topped side cabinets and a side table in the Irish 18th century style carry similar estimates. The most expensively estimated lot in the auction is a sapphire torque necklace. The catalogue is online.
The first civilian Victoria Cross of five to be awarded presented to Thomas Henry Kavanagh by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle – one of only two not in a museum – comes up at Noonan’s in Mayfair on September 14 with an estimate of £300,000-400,000. The famous Indian Mutiny ‘Siege of Lucknow’ Victoria Cross was awarded to Thomas Henry Kavanagh, who was born on July 15, 1821 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath.
He was employed as a clerk in the Lucknow Office prior to the Siege. In November 1857, he volunteered to leave the safety of the Residency disguised as a Sepoy (an Indian soldier serving under British or other European orders), accompanied by a Brahmin scout. The pair jostled past armed rebels through the narrow Lucknow streets and talked their way past sentries in the moonlight, crossed deep rivers, tramped through swamps and narrowly avoided capture after startling a farmer who raised the alarm. On finally reaching a British cavalry outpost Kavanagh delivered Sir James Outram’s vital despatch to Sir Colin Campbell and ably guided his column to the relief of the Residency garrison.
Oliver Pepys, Auctioneer and Medal Specialist (Associate Director) Noonans explained: “Kavanagh was decorated with the highest honour for undertaking an epic quest to escape the surrounded Residency at night, crossing enemy lines, making contact with the camp of the Commander-in-Chief, and then using his local knowledge to guide the relieving force through the city to the beleaguered garrison by the safest route.”
“The first of just five civilians to have been awarded the V.C., he was further rewarded with promotion to the gazetted post of Assistant Commissioner of Oude and was presented with his Victoria Cross by Queen Victoria in a special ceremony at Windsor Castle. A tour of England and Ireland further enhanced his celebrity while the publication in 1860 of his account of the Siege, ‘How I won the Victoria Cross’ and Orlando Norrie’s painting of him donning his Indian disguise – one of the truly iconic images of the Defence of Lucknow – ensured that he became a Victorian legend, indeed few histories of the conflict are without an image of ‘Lucknow Kavanagh’.”
A first edition copy of his book is included with the lot.
A small pencil sketch of a country fair by Jack B. Yeats is similar in size to one Aidan Foley sold recently for €2,000 at Sixmilebridge. It comes up among about 180 lots of art at Foley’s sale on August 14 including work by Mark O’Neill, Arthur Maderson, John Morris, Markey Robinson, John Kingerlee and the British born Co. Tipperary based Michael Hales. The appetite for art at auction in Ireland is undiminished and paintings will be to the fore at Foley’s sale at Kilcolgan, Co. Galway and at Hegarty’s in Bandon on August 17. Both sales are online.
Michael Hales, whose abstract art is gathering a growing band of admirers, has his studio at Emly and cites Bridget Riley, Gerhard Richter and Sean Scully as influences. His work can be seen as part of a group show at the Kenmare Windows exhibition until August 28 where exhibitors are displayed in the windows of local businesses and Kenmare Butter Market as well as the Carnegie Arts Centre. He has had various shows around Tipperary, at Cahir, Cashel and Tipperary Town and was recently at the Royal Ulster Academy’s 140th annual exhibition.
If art is hot the same cannot be said for much of the antique furniture that surfaces at sales like Aidan Foleys. The auctioneer is offering a mahogany four drawer chest tomorrow that would fit in any house or apartment. It will, he predicts, go for €100 or less. Demand for lots like Georgian drop leaf tables, a cross banded Victorian pembroke table, cheval mirrors and rosewood card tables, all of which feature in the sale tomorrow, remains weak even though antique furniture is the ultimate buy for those who want to go green and save the planet.
Noted for the naturalness of his drawing and his play on light and shade the British watercolourist Samuel Prout (1783-1852) is credited with elevating the art of architectural drawing to new heights. Among his pupils was the critic John Ruskin who once remarked: “Sometimes I tire of Turner but never of Prout”. A definitive collection of over 60 works by Prout as well as by his son Samuel Gillespie Prout (1822-1911) and his nephew John Skinner Prout (1805-1876) will kick off the sale at Hegarty’s on Wednesday. One of the more expensively estimated works by Samuel Prout is The Mill, a watercolour which depicts a house and watermill overlooking a stream. It is estimated at €2,500-€4,500. There are many less expensively estimated works by the Prout family from €300 up. A Quayside Scene by Samuel Prout is estimated at €300-€600 and a watercolour of Ratisbon Cathedral (modern day Regensberg) by Samuel Gillespie Prout is estimated at €500-€700. The Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery holds a collection of work by Samuel Prout. Among other lots of note at Hegarty’s is a portrait of a young female by John Butler Yeats (1839-1922) from the Yeats family collection. It is thought to be of his daughter Lily who often sat for her father and is estimated at €1,000-€2,000. Poppies in Sunlight by Kenneth Webb is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Kenneth Webb is to be the subject of an exhibition at Gladwell and Patterson, Beauchamp Place, London next month.
Hold ’em or fold ’em a collection of the GRAMMY® award-winning Country and Pop music icon Kenny Rogers will come up at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood from October 21-23. The three day live and online sale of more than 1,200 lots from the estate of the renowned actor, philanthropist, businessman and photographer will feature memorabilia, awards, jewellery, wardrobe and personal items from “The Gambler’s” six-decade career. He was one of the best selling artists of all time with 120 million records sold worldwide.
“The Gambler” became Rogers’ signature story song, persona and one of his five consecutive hit singles to go to No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Music chart. It was a multiple-genre smash hit making the Top 10 across the pop and easy listening charts which earned him his second GRAMMY® Award. A portion of the proceeds of the auction will benefit Music Health Alliance.
Sotheby’s biannual Banksy sale opens for bidding online today. This much-anticipated auction surveys the activist’s groundbreaking work with a selection of prints from his initial foray into screen printing to one of his more recent editions, Banksquiat. The auction of 34 lots runs until August 17.
Interest in and demand for rare Irish whiskey’s is growing according to Niall Dolan of Galway based Dolan’s art auction house. He will offer 38 rare Irish whiskeys in a timed summer online auction of Irish art, whiskeys and antiques which runs until August 15. The sale of rare Irish whiskeys draws clients from around the world. There is a good selection of art by well known Irish artists in this auction of 275 lots. The catalogue is online.
Fast cars, beautiful women and no less than six James Bonds over a 60 year span add up to exciting sales with much to entice and little not to like at Christie’s. If your taste runs to Aston Martin stunt cars, a gold-plated and Swarovski-encrusted prop egg commissioned from Asprey in the style of Fabergé, a Q Jet boat or a five night stay at Goldeneye, Ian Fleming’s Jamaican villa, then these are the auctions for you. Villains, temptresses and heroes don’t come cheap but it is all for worthy causes with no less than 45 charities set to benefit.
To mark the 60th anniversary of the James Bond films, Christie’s and EON Productions will hold an official two-part charity sale next month and into October. There will be 60 lots to mark the sale of Sixty Years of James Bond.The cream of the crop is at a live auction of 25 lots on September 28. This will be by invitation only to bid in person in the room with fans and collectors able to bid online or on the telephone. The auction will comprise vehicles, watches, costumes and props associated with the 25th film No Time to Die. The final six lots will celebrate each of the six actors who have played Bond: Sir Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Each lot will be sold to benefit a charity chosen personally by the respective actor or their estates. An online sale opens for bidding on September 15 and will run until James Bond Day on October 5. This will comprise 35 lots from the 25 films including posters, props, costumes, memorabilia and experiences.
A silver birch Aston Martin DB5 stunt car, one of eight stunt replicas built for the film No Time to Die and fitted with ‘Q Branch’ modifications is the top lot. As the only DB5 stunt car to be released for sale this ultimate Bond collector’s prize is estimated at £1,500,000-£2,000,000 (€1.79 million-€2.38 million). Proceeds will benefit The Prince’s Trust in its work with young people and the Prince of Wales charitable fund support for former members of the three intelligence agencies and UK special forces.Two further No Time to Die Aston Martins come up, a 1981 V8 driven by Daniel Craig and a DBS Superleggera special edition. Two Land Rover Defenders and a Range Rover from the film will be offered along with a Jaguar XF featured in stunt scenes. Memorabilia includes Omega watches, Primo’s bionic eyeball, a Tom Ford dinner suit worn by Craig to a SPECTRE party, a Navy tactical costume worn by Lashana Lynch as Nomi.A clapperboard signed by Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Daniel Craig, Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, Ana de Armas, David Dencik, Dali Benssalah, Naomie Harris, Linus Sandgren, Billy Magnussen, Hans Zimmer, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell will be sold to benefit Medecins Sans Frontiers. It is estimated at £5,000-£7,000 (€5,952-€8,333).The online sale includes an otherwise unobtainable Champagne Bollinger experience celebrating a 40 year partnership of Bollinger as the official champagne of 007. Eurostar to Paris, lunch at the former home of Madame Bollinger hosted by her great nephew Etienne Bizot, an overnight stay at the Hotel le Bristol in Paris and a 1985 poster for A View to a Kill.There is sheet music signed by Sir Paul McCartney for Live and Let Die, a drax crew belt buckle from Moonraker, a cello case sled from The Living Daylights, a Michael Kors satchel used by Naomie Harris as Moneypenny, a Day of the Dead Aztec skeleton puppet from Spectre and a clock used by Judi Dench as M with a nuclear locator card. The last three official Christie’s 007 auctions have raised over €6 million for charity.
Lot 547 at Matthews sale online at Kells, Co. Meath on August 7 is this antique marquetry decorated ormolu mounted table. It is estimated at 1,200-1,800. The most expensively estimated lot at this jewellery, gold and antique sale is a gentleman’s Rolex wristwatch (6,000-8,000) (UPDATE – 6,100 AT HAMMER). The sale is comprised of 560 lots of jewellery, gold and silver and nearly 200 lots of antique furniture, mirrors, rugs, pictures and porcelain. The catalogue is online and viewing gets underway in Kells A at noon on August 5.
