PAIR 19TH-CENTURY FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD & MARQUETRY SIDE TABLES. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
Viewing gets underway in Durrow today for the re-scheduled Paradigms and the Unexpected auction by Sheppards from March 18-20. The auction was to have been held this week but it was postponed after the unexpected death of Sheppards director Philip Sheppard. Pictured here is lot 331, a pair of 19th century French side tables. They are estimated at €4,000-€6,000. More than 1700 lots will come under the hammer and the catalogue is online.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish – Blue Dove with Flowers. UPDATE: THIS MADE 300 AT HAMMER
This lithograph by Picasso is lot 89 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which finishes this evening. Signed on the plate and numbered 605/1000 it is after a 1961 drawing. The litho was published by SPADEM in 1983 on watermarked Arches paper. The estimate is €300-€500.
Antique Mahal rug from west Persia from the Peter Linden collection at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
With no less than three online sales next week James Adam will offer a selection to suit many tastes. Emeralds, diamonds, topaz, sapphires, pearls, gold, coral, lapis lazuli and aquamarine will feature in various settings at The Jewellery Box sale of 275 lots from 11 am on March 11.
The Peter Linden rug collection comes under the hammer on Wednesday. Sadly Ireland’s leading specialist in antique carpets, kilims, rugs and tapestries, who established his business here in 1980, died in 2024. His collection will be headed by a semi-antique Kashan carpet with an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. Estimates at the timed online sale which starts to close at 2 pm on March 12 are from €50 up
An online picture sale at James Adam next Thursday will include works from the studio of Fergus O’Ryan along with artists like Rowland Hill, Cathy Carman, William Conor, Harry Kernoff, Anne Yeats, Basil Blackshaw, Barbara Warren, Muriel Brandt and Tony O’Malley. All catalogues are online and there is viewing across the weekend and next week at Adams, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin.
The Scarecrow by Fergus O’Ryan (1911-1989). UPDATE: THIS MADE 110 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford mirrors. UPDATE: THESE MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford oval mirrors of a type prized by collectors with alternating blue and clear crystal faceted cabochons will feature three days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow from March 18-20. True collectors items like this don’t come cheap and the estimate is €15,000-€25,000.
Viewing for the Paradigms and the Unexpected sale gets underway in Durrow on March 15. The most expensively estimated of over 1700 lots is a south Dublin collection of luxury watches headed by a recently serviced Rolex day date president with square cut diamonds representing the hour marks (€25,000-€35,000). There is a similar estimate on a Franck Muller conquistador watch. Both of these will come up on Wednesday, the mirrors on Tuesday afternoon.
The most expensive paintings in the sale, with top estimates of €15,000, are Sea Green Mood by Nano Reid, Boats in the Bay, Greatmans Bay, Galway by Charles Lamb and Bathers by the Pier, Waterfoot, Antrim by James Humbert Craig. Among the many artists represented are Sean Keating, John Behan, William Crozier, Gerard Dillon, Anthony Scott, Grace Henry, Kenneth Webb, Mainie Jellett, Percy French and there is a complete set of Malton Views of Dublin.
A private collection of guitars will include Canadian rocker Fred (C.F.) Turner’s 1968 Fender Precision green bass guitar (€5,000-€8,000). Other collectibles include a 1999 Late Late Show music script signed by Gay Byrne on his last show (€1,500-€2,500) and an Everlast boxing glove signed by Mohammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and George Foreman (€4,000-€6,000) and selections of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.
Among a large selection of furniture is a Black Forest hat and coat tree, a Killarney work table, Dublin furniture by Hicks, Art Deco mirrored pieces, a signed Maple and Co. kneehole desk, a 17th century Tibetan monastery trunk and an Irish Vernacular tree dugout cabinet.
Black Forest hat and coat tree. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
JEWELLERY GROUP LOT. UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
This group is lot 33 at Adams Jewellery Box timed online sale which runs until March 11. It comprises an 18 ct gold ring, a smokey quartz fob seal pendant, a 9 ct gold Claddagh ring, a gold bracelet, a shell cameo bracelet, a gold ring, an emerald and diamond ring, a swivel fob pendant and a nine carat gold chain. The estimate is €700-900. The auction is on view in Dublin from today and the catalogue is online.
Irish 19th Century mahogany Bureau stamped J.Kerr & Co., No. 68931. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,500 AT HAMMER
THIS Irish bureau with an estimate of €1,000-€1,500 sold for a hammer price of €9,500 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Castlecomer today. The high price achieved was driven by a celebrity connection to Sir Winston Churchill. By family tradition it was gifted by Churchill to Sir Bindon Blood. Churchill had served under Blood at the North West Frontier in 1897 and dedicated his first non-fiction book – The Story of the Malakand Field Force – to him.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 19, 2025).
Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012) – Playboy of the Western World. UPDATE: THESE MADE 850 AT HAMMER
This set of six lithographs by Louis le Brocquy of The Playboy of the Western World comes up as lot 18 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current off the wall online art auction. Framed as one they are estimated at €700-€1,000. Synge’s Playboy of the Western World is one of a number of plays produced during the period of the Anglo-Irish revival which has as a theme the rejection by the people of a deliverer from oppression. It has been described as the most vigorous dialogue written for the stage since Shakespeare. The play met with a storm of protest culminating in the Playboy Riots which took place in Dublin in 1908 and received similar treatment in the theatres of New York and Philadelphia. The auction runs until March 10 and the catalogue is online.
19th century giltwood mirror by R.W. Clarke, Cork. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
With everything from a circular giltwood mirror by Clarkes of Cork, an Irish bureau gifted by Winston Churchill and a set of lithographs of Egypt and Nubia to antique pottery from the Della Robia Studio, Birkenhead, a modern home bar and an ebonised Italian dining set Fonsie Mealy’s two day sale in Castlecomer on March 5 and 6 is of wide appeal. UPDATE: THE SALE HAS BEEN RE-SCHEDULED TO MARCH 18-20.
More than 700 lots will come under the hammer over two days. The 19th century bureau (€1,000-€1,500) was, by family tradition, a gift from Churchill to General Sir Bindon Blood. Churchill served under Blood at the North West Frontier in 1897 and dedicated his first non fiction book – The Story of the Malakand Field Force – to him. There will be local interest in a 19th century circular leaf decorated mirror and original plate by R W Clarke of Cork (€200-€300) and collectors will be taken by three terracotta blue and white relief panels attributed to the Harold Rathbone Della Robia Studio in Birkenhead (€800-€1,000).
Collectors of a different sort have lots to choose from like a modern formica glazed and padded home bar, matching shelves and four high stools (€500-€700); a five piece ebonised Italian dining set by Molteni (€1,500-€2,000); four leather armchairs by Rolf Benz (€800-€1,000) and a modern L shaped designer couch (€500-€600).
The excitement surrounding the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II in the Valley of the Kings – the first finding of a Pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamun over a century ago – adds interest to lot 542, a set of 20 lithographs of Egypt and Nubia (€800-€1,200). These are by Louis Haghe, maple framed in landscape and portrait form and dated 1838. The selection of art includes work by Sean Keating and Fergus O’Ryan and there is a selection of antique furniture and collectibles,
Viewing continues in Castlecomer next Monday and Tuesday from 9.30 am to 5 pm on each day and the catalogue is online.
A modern J shaped home bar. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420 AT HAMMER
Sean Scully – Raval 7 (1996) (€3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
The Fishing Village by Colin Middleton leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale which ends from 6.30 pm next Tuesday. It is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. There is art by Liam O’Neill, Felim Egan, Stephen McKenna, Arthur Maderson, Sean Scully, Mark O’Neill, Graham Knuttel, Kenneth Webb, Dan O’Neill and a wide variety of other popular artists.
The auction kicks off with an untitled (1973) gouache on paper by Tony O’Malley. Vividly coloured it is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. This is followed by a gouache of a Lily Pond by Mainie Jellett (€1,200-€1,800).
Colin Middleton (1910-1983) – The Fishing Village. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Mary Swanzy – La Route UPDATE: THIS MADE 36,000 AT HAMMER
A total of 129 lots of Irish art, headed by a trio of works from Paul Henry, will lead Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art at Freemason’s Hall, Molesworth St., Dublin next Monday evening (March 3). The top lot is Lake and Mountains, Connemara (€250,000-€350,000), described by Whyte’s as an exceptional example of Henry’s later work. It dates to 1933-36.
West of Ireland Landscape (€150,000-€200,000) is thought to be of Moyteogue and Achill head from the Keel to Dooagh road. Cottages Connemara (€80,000-€120,000) is a fine illustration of the harsh reality of life in the locality during the era when Henry was painting.
In the 1920’s the celebrated Irish artist Mary Swanzy was fortunate to be not overburdened with financial constraints. She travelled widely to central and eastern Europe, Canada, Hawaii and Samoa, returning to Paris to exhibit. La Route at Whyte’s is similar to other French 1920’s scenes by Swanzy. With flattened perspective re-enforced by the road it shows the influence of Cezanne. The work was included in her celebrated 2018-19 retrospective in Ireland and is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.
