Sir Max Beerbohm – Portrait of Oscar Wilde. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,680
The refined and engaging collection of Barry Humphries (1934-2023) – best known for his characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson – comes up at Christie’s in London on February 13. Driven by knowledge, passion and curiosity his collection was built over more than half a century.
Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse by the Australian painter Charles Conder leads an auction of 250 lots with estimates from £200 to £300,000 (€240 to €360,000). The best of fin-de-siecle decadent literature features a collection of Oscar Wilde related material including a presentation copy of The Importance of being Earnest. There is a selection of 19th century European and Symbolist art with work by Khnopff, Delville and von Stuck. These feature along with examples of Impressionism and modern British art, Modern Design and highlights from Dame Edna’s personal collection from costume and glasses to caricatures.
UPDATE: THE COLLECTION MADE £4.6 MILLION WITH BIDDERS FROM 41 COUNTRIES.
Charles Conder – Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £239,400
Nearly 300 clocks from one collection will come under the hammer at Keighery’s auction in Waterford on January 13. This lifetime collection from a single estate (a bungalow) offers an impressive array of vintage and collectible clocks from prestigious Irish and English makers. Assembled over the decades it comprises 200 antique wall clocks, 28 longcase clocks, mantel clocks and pocket watches. The most expensively estimated is a lady’s Patek Phillippe watch in 18 carat gold specifically made for a client in 1882 with the original receipt (€2,000-€4,000). A c1770 longcase clock by Thomas Cahill, Waterford is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. Many lots have low estimates. Among them are a single fusee wall clock by Mangans of Cork (€250-€350), a Victorian paper mache clock with pendulum (€120-€180), a Dublin longcase clock in Chippendale style (€800-€1,200) and a marble clock and barometer retailed by Davis and Sons, London (€300-€500).
The sale includes more than 80 original advertising signs and the catalogue, with 470 lots in total, is online. Thomas Keighery said: “There is a great interest in this particular auction, we can see a new cohort of bidders from all across the world. We have bidders registered from the UK, France, and the USA all across Europe. We have bidders from all across Ireland and we are expecting a full house next Monday in Waterford – home of the Irish Museum of Time.”
Jeff Beck’s iconic 1954 Oxblood Gibson Les Paul guitar will lead the auction of his collection at Christie’s in London on January 22. The multi Grammy award winning artist worked with artists like Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Tina Turner, Mick Jagger, BB King, Nile Rodger, Carlos Santana, Stevie Wonder, Imelda May and Johnny Depp. He was twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The auction comprises over 130 guitars, amps and accessories from a career that lasted almost six decades, since joining The Yardbirds in 1965 to his last tour in 2022. The Oxblood is estimated at £350,000-£500,000 (€421,380-€601,970) and estimates are from £100 (€120) up.
UPDATE: THE GUITAR SOLD FOR £1,068,500, double the high estimate and a new world record for a Gibson Les Paul.
This white marble chimney piece of inverted breakfront design features at Mullen’s classic and contemporary interiors timed online auction at Laurel Park, Bray, which runs until January 5. The estimate is €2,500-3,500. There are 653 lots on the catalogue with 208 lots of furniture and 66 lots of art. The top furniture lot is a circular Chinese rosewood inlaid table (€3,000-4,000).
Donald Teskey RHA (b.1956) – Atlantic Swell (2015). UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,000 AT HAMMER
Atlantic Swell by Donald Teskey is at €6,000-9,000 the most expensively estimated lot at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Off the Wall online auction which runs until January 13. The catalogue features work by artists including Arthur Maderson, Mark O’Neill, Damien Hirst, Graham Knuttel, Sean Scully and Mr. Brainwash. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Skibbereen on January 9, 10 and 13.
O’Connell Bridge by Yeats was the most expensive Irish painting sold this year
The strength of the current market for Irish art is on plain view. Around €5 million worth of Irish art was auctioned at Adams, Whyte’s, de Veres and Morgan O’Driscoll in latter weeks.
This following some sterling results in November. The sale of the Hobart collection – most made up of Irish art – at Christie’s in November realised more than €7 million euro. O’Connell Bridge by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Pyms Gallery founders Mary and Alan Hobart sold for £882,200 (€1,055,890) to become the most expensive piece of Irish art at auction in 2024.
At Sotheby’s in London the previous week Sir William Orpen’s dazzling portrait of Mrs. Evelyn St. George sold for £720,000 (€866,230).
Horsemen by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Vincent O’Brien at Adams
There was excitement around the sale of the Jacqueline and Vincent O’Brien collection at Adams at the beginning of the month. Horse paintings by Yeats from the collection of Ireland’s greatest trainer seemed a seductive mix. Even though Adams had plenty of interest at viewings in London, Belfast and Dublin the top lots failed to sell on the night.
What happened? Had Yeats’s horse paintings put a stop to the gallop of the market for Irish art? The market held its breath, for a long moment. Until the announcement by Adams the following day that the four top paintings from the collection had been sold after the auction. They made a total of €1.3 million at hammer prices.
Horsemen and He Reads a Book each made €400,000. Two other works by Yeats, The Window with a view of the town and Willie Reilly made €250,000 and €100,000 respectively. And Orpen’s Old John’s Cottage from the O’Brien collection sold for €250,000.
Sir William Orpen – Old John’s Cottage
There is a poignant story to the latter work, painted by Orpen in 1907 in the interior of the Connemara cabin of Sean and Maire Geoghegan. The grief they felt over the departure of their granddaughter for New York is evident. This is an American wake. She would enter domestic service and never be seen again.
Paul Henry’s Killary Bay, Connemara, made €210,000 at Whyte’s this month, Old Road, Cahirciveen by Yeats made €160,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll and The Sleeping Sea by Yeats made €100,000 at de Veres.
Killary Bay, Connemara by Paul Henry
The top lot at Bonhams latest Irish sale was a South of France landscape by Mary Swanzy which made €43,520. Snow on the Hills, Rockbrook, Co. Dublin by Norah McGuinness made €20,480 and the collection of 20 lots by the artist consigned by her family was entirely sold. Letitia Marion Hamilton’s Ca d’Ora, Venice made €33,280 over a top estimate of €7,000.
These leading Irish artworks are finding buyers in a market where a lot of works by Yeats, Orpen, Lavery and Paul Henry have made recent appearances. It seems as if volume, rather than dampening demand, is stimulating it.
The market is expanding. Our economy is growing and Irish art is getting more international exposure than ever before. Collectors in England, USA, Hong Kong, China, Italy and Spain were among the bidders at Whyte’s most recent sale and there was worldwide interest in the O’Brien collection at Adams. Our art market is relatively conservative and much more immune to the speed bumps that have hit the international contemporary art market. The indicators are all facing in the right direction.
19th century padauk gallery back side table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 550 AT HAMMER
This profusely carved 19th century padauk side table with gallery back comes up at Sean Eacrett’s timed New Year auction which runs until January 5. The estimate is €500-€800. It is lot 737 in a sale of more than 1,300 lots which includes Lady Lavery £100 notes, furniture, jewellery, Oriental rugs, art and collectibles. The catalogue is online.
GEORGE II CORK SILVER JUG. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
Watches, jewellery and a Cork silver jug are among feature lots at Hegarty’s live online auction on January 8. A total of 350 lots, among them this c1750 cream jug by George Hodder (€2,400-€3,400) will come under the hammer. A yellow gold acquamarine and diamond ring and a diamond and ruby cluster ring are each estimated at €2,500-€3,500 and the sale will feature some antique furniture, art, silver and collectibles.
The Joachim-Ma Stradivarius. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $11,250,000
The Joachin-Ma Stradivarius, one of the world’s finest violins, will come up at Sotheby’s in New York next February with an estimate of $12 million – $18 million (€11.34 million – €17 million). Crafted in 1714 by Antonio Stradivari during his renowned “Golden Period” it is being offered by the New England Conservatory with all proceeds dedicated to student scholarships. Before it was gifted to NEC it belonged to the late Si-Hon Ma, a violinist and pedagogue who graduated from NEC in the 1950s. It was given to the school with the provision that it could one day be sold to provide student scholarships. Before Ma, the violin was owned by Joseph Joachim whose collaborations with composers like Johannes Brahms shaped the course of classical music. It is likely that this violin premiered the Brahms Violin Concerto in 1879 asJoachim was one of the most influential violinists of the 19th century. What sets theJoachim-Ma Stradivarius apart according to Sotheby’s is its exceptional sound—rich, complex, and full of depth. The tone is both sweet and rounded.
SANDRO BOTTICELLI – The Virgin and Child Enthroned
The Virgin and Child Enthroned by Sandro Botticelli was the top lot at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th century painting sale in London. Itmade £9.9 million. (€11.95 million).
