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These five books come up at lot 102 at the sale by Purcell Auctioneers of Birr of the libraries of Conor Cruise O’Brien, his wife Maire Mhac an tSaoi and her father Sean MacEntee on April 27. The estimate for the lot is 40-80. There will be 608 lots in total and the catalogue is online. The sale kicks off with a set of four volumes of The Annals of Ulster, followed by The LIfe and Work of Sigmund Freud.
Property from the life and eight decade spanning career of legendary actress Betty White comes up live and online at Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills on September 23, 24 and 25. On offer is a collection of over 1,500 lots featuring awards, scripts, wardrobe and memorabilia from iconic television shows and films, as well as furnishings, artwork, fine jewellery, household and personal items from her homes in Brentwood and Carmel, California. Irish fans of the actress who died just short of her 100th birthday last December 31 will have a chance to see the collection at the Museum of Style Icons at Newbridge, Co. Kildare from August 1 to September 11.
Highlights include White’s original director chair from The Golden Girls set; the first draft script, a production script used for the finale of the series signed by Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, a large number of production scripts from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a goodbye plaque from the cast and crew of The Betty White Show and numerous awards and nomination certificates including Emmy award nomination certificates for The Golden Girls, Saturday Night Live and Hot in Cleveland.
UPDATE: THIS WAS A WHITE GLOVE AUCTION IN WHICH EVERY LOT SOLD. A director’s chair used by Betty White during the production of The Golden Girls sold for an incredible $76,800, seventy-six times its original estimate of $1,000.
Memories of a pre-digital age, a time when devices like the phone had just one function, will be stirred by a two day sale of vintage advertising and printed ephemera at Sheppards in Durrow onApril 12 and 13. The collection of over 600 lots from a world when less was thrown away before plastic became ubiquitous, on view from today in Durrow, is instructive too. Lot 186, for instance, dates to a time before the baby of recycling was thrown out with the bathwater of progress. Waste not want not is the stern instruction on a vintage drinks advertising showcard from the Irish soft drinks and bottling industry – an appeal for the return of empty bottles.
Nothing promotes the husbanding of resources better than scarcity and price, as we are all rapidly coming to know again now. In those not so distant days all resources were seen as precious. The practice of recycling as we understand it was widespread then even if recycling in that world most likely meant re-tracing a route taken on a bicycle to recover what had been inadvertently dropped. A bright enamel sign advertises an agent for McKechnie’s Cork, Dyers, Cleaners and Hat Renovators (who knew you could get your hat renovated?). Lot 378 comes with an estimate of €400-€600.In a world where wonder was fuelled by nature a poster for J. Marsh of Oxford advertised: “A Great Novelty!! (Which May Be Seen Alive!!)”. A wonderfully large pig – the largest pig ever seen – which has won numerous prizes was temporarily billeted at the Star Yard. Admission to view this creature was 2d, or 1 d for children and schools. The poster on card is estimated at €100-€150.
On a slightly similar theme lot 294 is three vintage plexiglass signs for Bacon Rolls, Teas and Coffee. This was the world before the heart stopping jumbo breakfast roll had been invented. More than a century later it will come as news to many of us, courtesy of lot 124 a circa 1900 poster for Morrogh’s Tweeds, Douglas Mills, Cork, that this was the first tweed mill to make Irish Volunteers uniforms. In the days before so many businesses were swallowed up by mergers and takeovers breweries and distilleries were numerous throughout Ireland. There are advertising mirrors for many forgotten Irish enterprises. One of the more expensively estimated lots is an advertising mirror for the Phoenix Brewery special porter and O’Connells Dublin Ale. Enclosed in a mahogany bar back it is estimated at €2,500-€3,500. Lot 84 is a set of five antique pewter measures by Austin and Co. Cork (€200-€300). Sheppards sale with all its memories of the way we were is divided into three sessions and the catalogue is online.
Banksy’s Diamond In The Rough, 2010 ($3,000,000 – 5,000,000) comes up as a highlight at Christie’s 21st Century evening sale in New York City next May. A brilliant combination of readymade surfaces and Banksy’s instantly recognisable style it leverages perceived notions of rebelliousness attached to street art. Its ingenuity lies both in the artist’s seemingly simple choice of subject matter and its ability to spark conversation about the art form as a whole. A cultural statement itself Diamond In The Rough stands as testament to the place of street art in the canon juxtaposed with society’s inability to completely extract it from its perceived history.
Painted on a steel and glass truck door the artwork employs extant graffiti as the backdrop for a young girl rendered in Banksy’s signature stencil mode, positioned at the bottom of the frame. Her hand cradles a glowing gem with shine lines emanating on all sides, reminiscent of the playful compositions of Keith Haring. A direct predecessor of Banksy, Haring also famously engaged public transit as his canvas decades prior, prefiguring some of Banksy’s own work.
This bronze by the Irish Ukrainian artist Vadim Tuzov made a hammer price of 4,800 over a top estimate of 3,000 at the white glove James Adam sale of collectors and artists for Ukraine organised by Suzanne MacDougald in Dublin today. All 36 lots sold and made over €90,000. When some generous cash donations are added the sale generated €116,000 for the Irish Red Cross Ukrainian Appeal.
The top lot of the day was another piece of sculpture, ‘Liffey Oar Boat’ made and donated by John Behan RHA. It made €10,000. Rowan Gillespie’s diminutive ‘Kneeling Girl’, a bronze from 1982 and donated by a Co. Meath collector, sold for €6,500 while Orla de Brí’s ‘Cross Bearer’ made €4,600.
The top price for a painting was shared by two works – Colin Davidson’s ‘Study of Seamus Heaney’ and Markey Robinson’s West of Ireland Landscape, both of which made €6,500.
(See post on antiqueandartireland.com for March 31, 2022)
Rodin’s most iconic sculpture The Thinker will highlight a sale at Christie’s in Paris on June 30. With an estimate of €9-14 million will highlight an auction entitled Le Grand Style : An apartment on the Quai d’Orsay designed by Alberto Pinto. The powerful presence of Rodin’s emblematic masterpiece was a central feature in a breath-taking apartment overlooking the river Seine on the Quai d’Orsay.
The Thinker, was first conceived around 1880 as part of the famous and monumental Gates of Hell inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. It was only in 1904, when it is exhibited for the first time at the Salon de Paris, that it became a work on its own. It was immediately met with extraordinary enthusiasm and when a public appeal for funds was launched, donations poured in with the sculpture becoming the property of the City of Paris and the colossal bronze taking pride of place in front of the Pantheon in 1906.
The work will go on a world tour of exhibitions from New York to Hong Kong and London before arriving back in Paris for one week of viewing from June 23 prior to the auction on June 30.
THIS Killarney davenport made a hammer price of 11,000 at Aidan Foley’s sale in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare, today. The 19th century piece is inlaid with yew and arbutus wood profusely decorated with shamrocks and an Irish Harp, a deer and an eagle. A Victorian mahogany serving table made 2,500 and a pair of satinwood commodes made 2,200.
Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XXI will come up as a highlight at Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York in May. Estimated in in excess of $20 million the painting is fresh to the market and has been in the same private collection for more than 30 years. It was painted in de Kooning’s studio in East Hampton in 1977, a year when he turned out a group of radiant, large-scale abstractions that had a new level of mastery about them. Art historians regard 1977 as a highpoint of his career, his annus mirabilis, or “miraculous year,” as the British critic David Sylvester wrote. The art market has confirmed that view: three of de Kooning’s top four highest prices achieved at auction were for paintings from 1977.
This silver soup tureen and cover, made more than two centuries ago by Richard Sawyer, comes up at Sotheby’s sale of European furniture, silver and ceramics in New York from April 7-12. It is estimated at $8,000-12,000. Weighing 169 ozs the tureen is engraved with a key pattern collar between bold dolphin handles. The lower body is chased with vertical stiff leaves and engraved with talbot’s head crest. Other Irish silver lots in the sale include a two handled cup by Ambrose Boxwell, Dublin 1779 ($1,500-2,500) and a pair of large sauce boats by William Hughes c1775 ($1,500-2,500). UPDATE: The two handled cup made $1,008, the sauceboats made $2,772.
The Collection of Anne H. Bass featuring a selection of 12 magnificent artworks by leading 19th and 20th century artists including Degas, Monet, and Rothko will come up at Christie’s in New York during Marquee Week in May. The most important American collection to arrive on the market this season comes to Christie’s directly from the interior of Mrs. Bass’s impeccably designed New York City home. These 12 works form a singularly compelling narrative that speaks to both the power of connoisseurship and the enduring relevance and radicality that characterize the greatest works of art. Presented as a dedicated single-owner evening sale, The Collection of Anne H. Bass is expected to exceed $250 million.
