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This 18th century Irish side table sold for £19,500 today.
An 18th century carved mahogany side table, described by Stockport auctioneers Capes Dunn as “probably Irish” sold for a hammer price of £19,500 against an estimate of £300-500 today.
The table has a rounded rectangular top above a cross grain moulded frieze, on acanthus capped straight cabriole legs with claw and ball frieze, tied by a deep apron.
The front is carved with leaves from a meandering vine and centred by a grotesque mask.
Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXI 1976 $25/35 million
More than 500 works spanning the period from antiquity to contemporary art from the collection of A. Alfred Taubman are to come up at Sotheby’s in New York. They will be sold in a series of dedicated auctions beginning in the autumn. The sales are estimated at more than $500 million, making this the most valuable private collection ever offered at auction. Represented in the broad-ranging collection are an impressive number of iconic artists including: Mark Rothko and Frank Stella; Pablo Picasso and Egon Schiele; Winslow Homer and Charles Burchfield; and Albrecht Dürer and Raphael.
Alfred Taubman, who passed away in April at the age of 91, immersed himself in the arts throughout his life – from his early training as an architect, to critical roles as a founder of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, a board member of the Whitney Museum of American Art and longtime Chairman of the Arts Commission of Detroit, the entity which oversaw the Detroit Institute of Arts. A self-made man he launched The Taubman Company in 1950 with a $5,000 loan. He revolutionized the retail experience, creating many design innovations considered standard today. In 1983 he acquired Sotheby’s. He set about changing the way Sotheby’s did business opening it up beyond the dealers who were its historic mainstays and helping to create the stunning growth of the international art market.
Under his stewardship, sales such as The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor (1987), The Andy Warhol Collection (1988), and the Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1996) were presented.
In the early 2000s, an investigation into alleged price-fixing between Sotheby’s and Christie’s led to a confession by Sotheby’s ceo Diana Brooks of a price fixing scheme. In a plea bargain arrangement prosecutors offered to keep her out of prison if she agreed to implicate Taubman. She did. Taubman was convicted in a jury trial of price fixing. He was fined $7.5 million sent to jail for ten months. After his release in 2003 he continued to insist on his innocence. Works from his collection will be presented at sales of Masterworks on November 4, Modern and Contemporary Art on November 5, American Art on November 18 and Old Masters on January 27, 2016.
Thomas Gainsborough, The Blue Page c1770 $3/4 million
Martin Johnson Heade, The Great Florida Sunset 1887 $7/10 million
Four ceramic bowls by John ffrench (50-80 each).
John ffrench wall charger with blue bird motif (100-150).
John ffrench unique hand painted egg (40-70).
Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining Nude) painted in 1917-18. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015. UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR $170,405,000
Amedeo Modigliani’s masterpiece Nu couché (Reclining Nude) – estimated to exceed $100 million – comes up at Christie’s in New York on Monday, November 9. The painting, executed in 1917-18, will be the centerpiece of a special curated evening sale of 20th century art focused on the theme of “The Artist’s Muse”.
It is one of a series of great female nudes made for Léopold Zboroswki that famously caused a scandal nearly a century ago when they were exhibited at Modigliani’s first and only one-man show at the Galerie Berthe Weill in Paris. Outraged by the content of this show — which caused a crowd to form outside the gallery window where one of Modigliani’s nudes was openly on display — the police demanded the immediate closure of the exhibition.
This is the first time this portrait has come to auction. It is poised to break the standing world auction record of $70.7 million for any work by Modigliani, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
Early drawings by Paul Henry (1876-1958) unseen in this country since the 1940’s will be a highlight at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale of Irish and International art at the RDS on September 14. The two drawings, Boy with a Flute (1910) and Woman with Fagots (1904) were acquired directly from the artist and have been in New Zealand since the 1940’s. Each one is estimated at 15,000-25,000.
There is sculpture by John Behan and others, an original screen print by Robert Motherwell and Old Time Dance by Dan O’Neill which depicts a night time scene and a couple dancing. The sale of 110 lots will be on view at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Skibbereen offices from September 4-7 and in Dublin at the RDS Minerva Suite from September 11.
Boy with a Flute by Paul Henry (15,000-25,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 15,000 AT HAMMER
Woman With Fagots by Paul Henry (15,000-25,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 14,000 AT HAMMER
The Pig Market by Charles Henry Cook (3,000-5,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
Old Time Dance by Dan O’Neill (15,000-25,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,500 AT HAMMER
The finest private collection of books relating to the polar explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton will come up at Sotheby’s in London on September 30. The auction is 100 years on from Shackleton’s epic “Endurance” expedition, considered the final great voyage of the “heroic” age of Antarctic exploration. Pioneering publishers and writers, they produced some of the most outstanding and rare of all travel books, recounting their great feats of adventure, ill-fated voyages, daily lives and discoveries in the South Pole.
Highlights including the first book printed in Antarctica, Shackleton’s Antarctic handbook and a facsimile of the South Polar Times (the newspaper produced by Scott’s men in the Antarctic). The collection is from the library of Franklin Brooke-Hitching. He has assembled the most magnificent private collection of English language books charting the discovery of the world over 40 years.
The motor car in soft snow after the return of the ship. (Taken during the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909.
The Hut in Summertime
National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. Album
Inscription in George Murray’s Antarctic Manual (1901)
The Titanic lunch menu photo credit: Lion Heart Autographs UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR US$88,000
Artefacts including a lunch menu dated April 14, 1912 recovered from Titanic’s infamous Lifeboat No. 1 are to be sold in an online auction on September 30. Lion Heart Autographs will offer three very rare pieces from the lifeboat. Lifeboat No. 1 was lowered from the Titanic with just five wealthy passengers and seven crew members, who quickly rowed away without trying to rescue anyone else. The three lots are an original Menu from the last luncheon served aboard the Titanic ($50,000-$70,000); one of only four known printed tickets from Titanic’s Turkish Baths weighing chair ($7,500-$10,000) and a letter and envelope written by Lifeboat No. 1 survivor Mabel Francatelli (1880-1967) on New York’s Plaza Hotel stationery six months after the disaster ($4,000-$6,000).
Francatelli was a First Class passenger who survived the sinking of the Titanic by boarding Lifeboat No.1 with her employer, fashion designer Lucy Duff-Gordon (1863-1935), her husband, wealthy Scottish nobleman Cosmo Duff-Gordon (1862-1931) and two other passengers, including Abraham Lincoln Salomon (1868-1959), the letter’s recipient. Cosmo Duff-Gordon who, with his wife, were the only passengers interrogated by the British Inquest into the ship’s loss, had been rumored to have bribed the seven crewmen to row away from the crippled Titanic, leaving more than 1500 to drown in the icy water. Francatelli reports:
“We do hope you have now quite recovered from the terrible experience. I am afraid our nerves are still bad, as we had such trouble & anxiety added to our already awful experience by the very unjust inquiry when we arrived in London”
The Rare Titanic Artifacts from Lifeboat No. 1 & Other Historic Autographs Auction will take place September 30, 2015 through www.invaluable.com and www.eBayliveauctions.com online bidding platforms with other bidding opportunities on www.auctionzip.com, France’s www.lefigaro.fr and China’s www.epailive.com. The auction will have no buyer’s premium. Never before has Titanic material of this caliber been offered exclusively on the internet. September 1, 2015 marks the 30-year anniversary of the discovery of the RMS Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.
A pair of French designed polished steel and leather standard lamps and a 19th century Italian faience miniature violin are among the highlights at Sheppards first ever attic sale in Durrow on September 1. The auction of more than 600 lots from the attics, stables and storerooms of important clients offers collectors at all levels a chance to acquire one of a kind treasures. Estimates are reasonable. The lamps are estimated at 300-500, the violin at 220-300. The catalogue is online.
A pair of French design standard lamps
A 19th century Italian miniature faience violin
The Ormonde Money gold pistole.
A rare Irish gold coin could make up to £100,000 at Dix Noonan Webb in London on September 15. The Ormonde money gold pistole – Ireland’s only gold coinage – dates from the Great Rebellion of the 17th century. Only 11 are known to have survived and nine of these are in museums and public collections. Issued by the Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, they were used to pay the Royalist garrison in Dublin. The coins were minted using foreign currency, bullion, rings and chains. Ormonde was the representative of Charles I in Ireland.
