ROYAL WORCESTER COVERED VASE, 1915 – SWANS IN FLIGHT
This Royal Worcester vase made a hammer price of €4,600 over an estimate of €250-€350 at Sheppards ongoing sale of contents from Kilroan House, Glanmire, Cork and other clients. It is richly decorated with raised gilt rococo scrolls and hand-painted swans in flight against a sky-blue and olive-green ground. The pierced neck and handles are decorated with gilt and blush highlights and the domed cover is surmounted by a gilt finial. The underside is printed with the Worcester crown mark, registration number 168915.
Charles Henry Clifford Baldwyn, one of the most gifted artists at Royal Worcester in the late 19th and early 20th century, specialised in bird painting. His paintings of swans in flight on vases became signature pieces. The designs were so distinctive and synonymous with his name that no other decorator was allowed to paint them during his employment at the Royal Worcester factory. Baldwyn was also allowed to sign his designs at a time when few factory artists were permitted to do so. Royal Worcester went to the trouble of registering this and other designs by Baldwyn to discourage copying by other rival factories because the style was so desirable and important for their sales. Later versions of the Baldwyn swans registered pattern could be printed in outline and then coloured in by other factory painters.
Meet the most expensive guitar ever sold. David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster – nicknamed the “Black Strat” – was played on all six of Pink Floyd’s albums between 1970 and 1983. Among them were The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. It made $14.6 million (€12.73 million) at Christie’s auction of the Jim Irsay Collection in New York where 44 lots made 373% times the low estimate. The auction brought in $84 million (€73.25 million). A piano owned by John Lennon made $3.2 million (€2.79 million). The previous record for a guitar was Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E played during Nivana’s legendary MTV unplugged performance in 1993 which sold for $6 million (€5.23 million) in 2020.
An interior view at Ardbraccan, Co. Meath. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: LOTS FROM ARDBRACCAN IN THE SALE REALISED £1.2 MILLION
Heartening to see an Irish house making waves on the international decorative arts and interiors markets. A carefully curated selection of beautiful English and Irish decorative arts from Ardbraccan House, a Palladian mansion in Co. Meath, will feature at Christie’s Collections London sale online from April 1-15. It has been home for over a decade to celebrated interior designer Serena Williams-Ellis and her partner Charles Noell.
An Irish George II side table from the mid 18th century is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 (€46,170-€69,250). A set of five mid 18th century leather fire buckets from the collection of the Dukes of Leinster at Carton House (£2,000-£3,000)(€2,308-€3,462), a portrait of Sophia Southwell, nee Campbell later Lady de Clifford by Sir Joshua Reynolds (£30,000-£50,000)(€34,630-€57,710) and a group of sporting pictures led by horse paintings by John E Ferneley Senior all feature.
Serena Williams-Ellis, who likes a house to smile, said: “The collection at Ardbraccan was organic in its formation over the years. I wished to get the balance of being grand enough for the house but in no way was it to feel austere, the all important thing was to feel as if it had always been there and was comfortable as it sat within the house. I wanted all things in our collection to have the charm factor – something of beauty or to make you smile. Ardbraccan under our tenure became a Stud Farm”.
Mid 18th century Irish George II side table from Ardbraccan Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: THIS MADE £76,200
Reflections by Paul Henry. UPDATE: THIS MADE 150,000 AT HAMMER
Reflections by Paul Henry at Adams evening sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 25 is enough to give us all pause for thought. The catalogue cover lot is not typical of Henry’s work. The focus of the painting is the lake.
Paul Henry is celebrated for his treatment of clouds, rapidly changing skies and the quality of light in the west of Ireland. Painted in the 1930’s Reflections is redolent of that Ireland then, but this work is different. The lake takes centre stage, the water dominates and the sky is a mere narrow band. In this particular artwork, estimated at €100,000-€150,000, you get a reflected sky. It shimmers on the lake surface.
From the photo realism of John Doherty to a volumetric composition by Mary Swanzy the 124 lots with estimates from €300 to €150,000 in this live and online auction hold a mirror to the many pathways that Irish artists have chosen to reflect their surroundings.
Cathedral, Semur by Mary Swanzy UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER
Swanzy’s Cathedral Semur (€20,000-€30,000) displays the influence of Cezanne both in the colour scheme and the perspective. Everything moves upwards towards the 14th century gothic cathedral elevated above the town centre. The Maxol Family by John Doherty (€7,000-€10,000) is an acrylic on canvas with a set of blue petrol pumps on the side of the road, a once familiar scene now vanishing from our townscapes. As if to underscore this a second work by Doherty – titled Abandoned in Bantry – depicts a no longer in use red petrol pump abandoned at a derelict site. The acrylic on paper has an estimate of €1,500-€2,000.
Child Scarecrow/Falling Kite by John Shinnors (€10,000-€15,000) shows themes the Limerick artist has revisited and drawn inspiration from. The Sermon on the Mount by Evie Hone (€1,000-€1,500) is a watercolour from the estate of Leo Smith of the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. There are abstract works by William Scott and Felim Egan, landscapes by Frank McKelvey and Charles Lamb and the auction offers works in bronze by Melanie le Brocquy, John Behan and Imogen Stuart. The catalogue is online and bidding starts at 6 pm on Wednesday.
The Maxol Family by John Doherty UPDATE: THIS MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER
Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,500 AT HAMMER
Elijah and the Ravens by Sean Keating (€10,000-€15,000) dates to 1940. It is a particular take on the Biblical story where Elijah was supposed to be protected and fed by ravens. In this work it seems as if Elijah is being attacked by the ravens. It is in fact a metaphor for the new Irish State which had offered so much protection and promise and had, in Keating’s view, achieved the exact opposite by its lack of support for the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. This painting was lent by its then New York owner to the major Keating retrospective at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin opened by Eamon de Valera in 1963.
It is at the online Irish Art Auction at de Veres on March 24, on view now at Kildare St. in Dublin. There is art by Gerard Dillon, Dan O’Neill, Peter Curling, Barbara Warren, Liam O’Neill, Kenneth Webb and Mary Swanzy.
Bank of Ireland £1 note from 1831 UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A spectacular Irish £1 note issued in 1831 in Newry, Dublin and Armagh comes up at Noonan’s auction of British and Irish banknotes in London on March 25. The specialist auctioneers say that it is a remarkable new discovery and the first note ever seen of this type, though it had been known to exist. They estimate lot 301 at £8,000-£10,000.
Cecil King (1921-1986) – UNTITLED (THRESHOLD SERIES) UPDATE: THIS MADE 750 AT HAMMER
This oil on paper from Cecil King’s Threshold series is lot 103 at Whyte’s Spring online art sale which runs until the evening of March 30. Signed in pencil on the lower right it is estimated at €800-€1,200. Bidding is open for this auction which is on view at Molesworth St. from March 23. There are 235 lots on the catalogue with estimates from €80 to €4,500 and it is online now.
RICHARD LONG – UNTITLED 2003. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This lithograph from Richard Long’s Artists Against Torture portfolio is at the Spring online sale by Lismore based Lot 100 auctions which runs until March 24. From an edition of 150 it is estimated at €1,200-€1,400. Bristol born Long remains the only artist to have received four Turner Prize nominations, winning in 1989. He received the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 1990, was elected a Royal Academician 2001, and in 2009 was the recipient of the Praemium Imperiale for sculpture from Japan.
David Hockney, Autour de la maison, été (2019). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
David Hockney’s monumental Autour de la maison, été (2019) measuringan astonishing 12 metres in length will headline Christie’s Contemporary Edition London sale from March 17-31. The estimate is £200,000-300,000. Printed on a single sheet of paper, it is one of the largest works ever created by the artist, and his largest editioned print. It depicts Hockney’s home in Normandy, France, with his garden in the height of summer, the vibrant greens of the grass, trees and hedgerows in contrast with the architecture of the medieval barns and contemporary elements such as a swing set, treehouse and parked vehicles.
A large antique Caucasian rug. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
Antique Persian rugs, furniture and decorative objects sourced at auctions in the 1960’s, ’70’s and ’80’s at Kilroan House in Glanmire will come under the hammer at Sheppard’s on March 24 and 25.
Some of the rugs were acquired at the dispersal sale of Malahide Castle in the mid 1970’s and there is furniture from Adare Manor and other prominent Irish and English country houses from when their contents came to market.
Kilroan is brimful of lots collected with discrimination over many decades along with family heirlooms that reach way back. Viewing gets underway at the former family home of Mrs. Rosemary Punch and her late husband John in Glanmire on March 21. After three days of viewing in Cork the live and online auction will be held over the following two days in Durrow.
An 18th century oak longcase clock by James Aickin, Cork UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Auctioneer Michael Sheppard describes this as an exceptionally layered collection. Many of the Persian rugs were acquired at Malahide Castle. Sturdy oak furniture in the house has a timeless appeal. Carved oak pieces offer ultimate sustainabilty and versatility. The selection available here is plentiful and ranges from panelled oak coffers and trunks to armchairs, a court cupboard and refectory tables. Oak is sought these days both by traditionalists and those seeking to make modern minimalist interiors.
At Kilroan,which has been sold, furniture was selected for quality and character. Practical 18th-century oak and mahogany pieces sit comfortably alongside more unusual and expressive objects like a metamorphic library pole which is both functional and a statement piece, a Regency crossbanded sofa table, a yew wood library table, a Regency inlaid cellarete and a Regency ebony and parcel gilt open bookcase. Among the rare early books is a 17th-century translation of Homer’s Iliad along with books on gardening and early maps of Ireland. An iron-bound oak rent box is a 17th century piece. The collection of clocks includes an 18th century oak longcase clock by James Aickin, Cork and an 18th century longcase clock by Maddock of Waterford. There are plenty of clocks to choose from including a 19th century boulle inlaid bracket clock, a 19th century French gilt and marble figural mantel clock, a skeleton clock and a19th century barograph.
Map: The Harbour of Corke sold by Mount and Thos. Page at Tower Hill, London. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Decorative garden ornaments, seats and urns, accumulated over many years, are available along with an exceptional group of terracotta rhubarb forcers.
The late John Punch’s workshop is largely as he maintained it. There are engineering and woodworking machines including a Myford Super 7 centre lathe, an earlier Drummond Bros metal lathe, a Meddings pillar drill, and a Scheppach planer–thicknesser. These are presented along with tools, fittings and sections of old panelling salvaged from the dismantled RMS Celtic which foundered off Roches Point in December 1928.
Silver on offer includes provincial Cork silver, and fine 18th-century Dublin silver. Two 19th-century portraits, traditionally believed to depict John Punch and his wife, have long presided over the dining room. A painting of Dublin Bay by Nathaniel Hone the Younger is accompanied by a presentation plaque recording that it was gifted to a John Punch in the 1840s.
This is a comprehensive dispersal auction with an across the board appeal to all sorts of collectors. The catalogue lists more than 1,300 lots from the Punch collection and other clients.
Looking out at Fountainstown by Anna O’Hara UPDATE: THIS MADE 220 AT HAMMER
