This pair of c1835 Irish William IV giltwood caned armchairs in the manner of James Del Vecchio come up at Sotheby’s online sale of silver, furniture and ceramics this month. The auction runs at Sotheby’s in New York from April 10-22 and among the lots are some silver and antique furniture from Ireland.
Del Vecchio was a firm of carvers and gilders, looking glass sellers and manufacturers of composition ornament active in Dublin from 1797 to c.1860. The firm was run by Giacomo (James) Del Vecchio and his son James Jr, immigrants from Moltrasio on Lake Como in Northern Italy. They formed part of the thriving furniture trade in early 19th-century Dublin along with Mack Williams and Gibton, Robert Strahan, George Gillington and Joshua Kearney. James Del Vecchio Sr. later established an outpost of the family firm in New York. The chairs are estimated at $6,000-10,000.
Jeff Koons is one of the world’s most expensive living artists. His work deals with popular culture. Led by Rabbit which made $91.1 million in New York last May his balloon animals in stainless steel with mirror image surfaces have sold for vast sums. Three limited edition works by Koons feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online auction on April 14. The sale was originally scheduled to take place at the RDS in Dublin later this month, after viewings in London and New York, but was brought forward and moved online only.
Among the 159 lots are Koons’ Balloon Rabbit (Red), Balloon Monkey (Blue) and Balloon Swan (Yellow). All date to 2017. They are all from numbered editions of 999 in porcelain painted with chrome and published by Bernaudaud, Limoges, France with signature, title and date on the underside. Each one is estimated at 15,000-20,000.
JEFF KOONS (B.1955) Balloon Rabbit (Red) (2017). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The Dublin auctioneering firm de Veres, which postponed a planned Irish art sale and opened the catalogue to offers instead, plans to run a large charity auction in June. They are looking for donations of art and sculpture and anything of quality that could be sold at auction. Bidding will all take place online it will be assembled remotely. Private collectors, artists, galleries and corporate donors are the target. As a result of the lockdown many charities are facing a major shortfall. de Veres ran successful charity sales after the Omagh bombings, the tsunami tragedy and Haiti.
Opening the catalogue of their proposed sale to offers resulted in a huge influx of enquiries and bids. The auction brought in more than 100,000. There were numerous bidders and vendors coujld decide whether or not to accept the final bid. Sixty five lots were sold.
This pair of Italian silver plated pheasants is the first lot in Hegarty’s timed online only auction which runs on easyliveauction.com until 8 pm on Sunday April 5. There are 80 lots of art, antiques furniture, collectibles and jewellery at reasonable estimates. The timed sale at Easy Live auctions will be operated through a bidding page as distinct from a live online sale. Bidders need to register in advance. The Bandon auctioneers say that lots won’t be dispatched until after current restrictions around movement have been lifted. The table decoration pheasants are estimated at just €40-80.
UPDATE: THEY SOLD FOR €195 AT HAMMER IN AN AUCTION THAT WAS AN OVERALL SUCCESS.
Creating images of Ireland that are both memorable and iconic, Paul Henry’s depictions of landscapes have served for generations to remind people of the natural beauty of the West of Ireland, art historian and curator Peter Murray writes in the catalogue note to Mountain Landscape with lake and road. It comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction on April 14. The auction would normally take place at the RDS in Dublin with viewings in both London and New York. It has gone online instead at a time of pandemic.
Henry…. “delighted in capturing the colours and textures of distant mountains, turf ricks, quiet lakes and winding roads; elements of landscape that are everyday sights in rural Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Kerry” Murray writes. “Henry wove these into deceptively simple works of art that combine a sense of abstraction and painterly skill, qualities that brought him fame as one of Ireland’s leading artists of the twentieth century. Irrespective of whether their ancestry was Irish, collectors in America were often drawn to Henry’s work. This small painting was evidently exhibited in New York, probably in the 1940’s. Although now re-framed, the original light frame bore on the back a stamp, ‘Gramercy Book Shop Inc., 122 East 19th Street’. Founded in 1940 by Robert and Lorraine Wilbur, this well-known bookshop, specialising in European writers and also publishing prints by artists, later moved to Union Square.” This small work is estimated at €15,000-25,000.
PAUL HENRY (1876-1958) Mountain Landscape with Lake and Road. UPDATE: THIS MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER
In these times of uncertainty there is an inclination to look back through rosy tinted spectacles. A stark reminder of darker days past is contained in a lot at Sotheby’s. Unapproved Road, NR. 2 by Willie Doherty is among the lots at Sotheby’s contemporary art online auction which runs until April 8. Executed in 1995 it is Number 1 from an edition of 3. Exhibited at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1996 it was acquired by the present owner from Peter Kilchmann Galerie, Zurich. It is estimated at £1,000-1,500.
A collection of Irish Music posters from the personal library of Lyric FM DJ Lorcan Murray is to be included in Aidan Foley’s two day live internet sale from Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare on April 13 and 14. They will come up on day one of the sale along with a large collection of rare vinyl records, musical instruments and collectible musical ephemera.
The sale on April 14 will feature 40 lots of rugs including Persian handwoven carpets and runners, 60 lots of Irish art from artists including Arthur Maderson, Markey Robinson, John Butler Yeats and Annie Robinson, 100 lots of antique furniture and collectibles and 50 lots of jewellery and silver. Around 300 lots will come under the hammer on each day. The catalogue is under preparation and online bidding will be through Easy Live Auctions.
This portrait miniature of Edward Smyth (1749-1812) is by John Comerford (1773-1832). An architect Smyth worked with James Gandon on most of his major projects including The Four Courts, the House of Lords and the King’s Inns in Dublin. It sold for £2,875 at the sale of the collection of his descendants John and Pauline Comerford at Chiswick Auctions in London last week. Their collection of 121 works demonstrates the evolution of miniature painting in Ireland, Britain and Continental Europe from the late 16th to the 19th century. The entire collection was bought privately and will be displayed at the Silver Museum of the Waterford House of Treasures due to open later this year.
Property from the estate of Doris Day will be sold online by Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood on April 4 and 5. Here is a video preview with Martin Nolan from Doris Day’s home in Carmel by the sea. There will be no public exhibition but the sale will be on julienslive.com
UPDATE: The sale smashed the top estimate of $600,000 and brought in just over $3 million.
A private collector in Ireland acquired The Comerford Collection of predominantly Irish Miniatures at Chiswick Auctions in London last week and has offered it for display at a Waterford Museum. The collection of 121 lots achieved a total of £98,000 and attracted strong interest from Irish collectors. It was compiled over forty years by the late John and Pauline Comerford, who descended from the Irish miniaturist John Comerford (c.1770-1832).
The couple’s love of the art form led them to source works by some of the leading Irish miniaturists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The entire collection of 121 lots sold, achieving a total of £98,000.
The collection was studiously added to over many years and demonstrates the evolution of miniature painting in Britain, Ireland and the Continent from the late 16th to the 19th Century. It features the work of some of the greatest exponents of the portrait miniature art form including Christian Friedrich Zincke, Jean Andre Rouquet, Nathaniel Hone, Jeremiah Meyer, Charles Robertson, George Engleheart, Abraham Daniel, William Wood, John Smart and Richard Cosway. It will go to the Waterford Museum House of Treasures and be displayed in the new silver museum. This had been scheduled to open in late May in Waterford and will now open sometime in the autumn. The collection was bought under the guidance of the curator by a private buyer.
Specialist in charge of the sale Suzanne Zack commented: “We were delighted with the results of this first stand-alone sale of Fine Portrait Miniatures, which included the spectacular Comerford Collection. Good results throughout the sale show that the portrait miniature market is very much alive.”
Highlights included lot 143, a portrait of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Holman Hunt by Edward Robert Hughes, which sold for £9,375 against a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-12,000. Other high prices were achieved for a fine portrait miniature of a dashing Officer (lot 18), dating from circa 1765/70 by Jeremiah Meyer R.A. (British 1735-1789), which achieved £4,500 and a portrait miniature of an unknown Lady, circa 1790 (lot 36), by Horace Hone A.R.A. (Irish 1754/6-1825), which sold for £4,125.
The Pre-Raphaelite painter Holman Hunt by Edward Robert Hughes,
