Reason and Revolution Part 1 photo taken at Albertine Books
The first instalment of Reason and Revolution: Extraordinary Works from a Distinguished Private Collection, a dedicated single-owner auction devoted to the history of scientific thought, takes place at Sotheby’s in New York on October 20. Headlined by first editions from Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton, alongside a rare surviving manuscript in Newton’s own hand, the sale reunites landmark works that, in several cases, have not appeared on the market in more than three decades. The October sale traces the history of scientific inquiry from Copernicus’s heliocentric model through Newton’s laws of motion; a second sale this December will turn to the founding of the American nation, with further highlights from the collection to be unveiled later.
The bucolic guests lucky enough to be invited to sit around this magnificent dining table in latter centuries would have known to pass the port to the left. With this table on board all you really need to get the party started is a company worth megabucks, a large home and plenty of trained staff. The c1810 George III table, more than seven metres long, will lead the furniture section at Sheppards three day Coolattin House, Co. Wicklow sale on October 6, 7 and 8. The table, illustrated in Great Houses of Britain, was formerly at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire, home of Frederick Fermor-Hesketh, 2nd Baron Hesketh (1916-1955). It was acquired by the present owner at Sotheby’s Easton Neston sale in 2005.
Connemara Landscape by Paul Henry UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 140,000
Paintings by Paul Henry, Jack B Yeats, Mainie Jellett and Roderic O’Conor make up the top six lots at Whyte’s sale of Irish and international art in Dublin next Monday evening (September 26). The combined lower estimate on these six works is €600,000. Whyte’s reckon their sale of 156 lots will generate around €1.7 million.
A Connemara Landscape by Paul Henry with all his classical hallmarks of thatched cottages, turf stacks and high cumulus clouds is, at €150,000-€200,000, the most expensively estimated work in the sale. Crossing the City by Jack B Yeats, which made €98,000 at Whyte’s in 2012, is on the catalogue 14 years later with an estimate of €120,000-€180,000.
Nude by the Sea by Mainie Jellett UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 120,000
A West of Ireland Road by Henry and Against the Stream by Yeats are each estimated at €100,000-€150,000. Mainie Jellett’s Nude by the Sea, the catalogue cover lot, carries an estimate of €90,000-€120,000.
The Orchard by Roderic O’Conor, estimated at €60,000-€80,000, was one of 23 works by O’Conor included in his joint exhibition with Matthew Smith in London in 1956. This was the show which marked the beginning of his rediscovery.
More recently Long Black Train by John Shinnors (€30,000-€40,000) can be traced to the level crossing installed in 2013 at Lisnagry between Limerick city and Castleconnell.
Among the international artists on the catalogue are Carl Reichert, Thomas Blinks, Francisco Sanchez Clement, Johannes Eversen and Charles Burton-Barber. There is as well a signed mint condition limited edition copy of ‘A Bigger Book’ by the late David Hockney.
Significant works by William Conor, Aloysius O’Kelly, John Lavery, Grace Henry, George Campbell, Patrick Hennessy and John Doherty feature in a selection that includes art by Markey Robinson, Arthur Maderson, Thomas Ryan, Martin Mooney, Ciaran Clear, Kenneth Webb and many other artists.
The Place collection by Ceadogán rugs, with eleven original wall hangings created in collaboration with eleven contemporary artists, will be auctioned as lots 146-156. Artists Serena Caulfield, Tom Climent, Dorothy Cross, Guggi, Paul Hallahan, Leah Hewson, Eleanor McCaughey, Gwen O’Dowd, Kathy Prendergast, The Project Twins and Maria Simmonds-Gooding were invited to unleash their creativity and explore their relationship with the natural world. Estimates range from €2,500-€6,000.
Against the Stream (1945) by Jack B Yeats. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 125,000
Endymion by Harry Kernoff UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 2,900
A timed online auction by Dolan’s draws to a close from 6.30 pm next Monday evening (September 28). Along with work by artists like Harry Kernoff, John Shinnors, Arthur Maderson, Susan Cronin, William Conor, Mark O’Neill, Kenneth Webb and Eileen Meagher this auction offers some rare Irish whiskeys, Moorcroft pottery and collectibles.
Endymion by Harry Kernoff depicts a Dublin character described in Ulysses by James Joyce. It was the nickname of an eccentric named James Farrell born in Dublin in 1851. He worked for a time as an excise officer before falling into a brewery vessell and inhaling the fumes therein. All the myth and lore of this character, who set his watch by the ballast clock and saluted it with a drawn sword every day and whose bowler hat was too small, are incorporated into Kernoff’s painting.
Vintage leather Scandinavian sofa UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A Scandinavian vintage leather three seater sofa, a French bleached oak kitchen cupboard, an Art Nouveau ceiling light, s large bronze model of Buddha and a selection of garden gazebos and fountains will come under the hammer at Victor Mee’s September decorative interiors online auction from 2 pm next Monday (September 28).
Among 815 lots are an Italian red leather corner sofa, some Arras style garden chairs, a 19th century pine kitchen table on square legs, a 19th century lions mask door knocker, a selection of carpets and rugs, a cast iron model of a meditating rabbit, a Victorian inlaid mahogany and satinwood work table and a circular specimen table. The catalogue is online and estimates are reasonable.
Circular specimen table on a fluted column base UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Paul Henry RHA RUA (1877-1958) – Errigal, Co. Donegal made €95,000 at hammer
This striking 1929 oil on board by Paul Henry made a hammer price of €95,000 over a top estimate of €70,000 at Adams sale of important Irish art in Dublin this evening. The sepia monochromatic conception is especially significant in its rarity. Henry’s debt to James McNeill Whistler was profound: having travelled to Paris in 1898, he studied at the Académie Julian before attending Whistler’s Académie Carmen. Whistler’s insistence upon tonal harmony, restraint and the subordination of local colour to mood left a lasting impression on the younger artist. This painting of cottages beneath Mount Errigal was selected as the frontispiece to the 1932 Saorstát Éireann: Irish Free State Official Handbook, edited by Bulmer Hobson.
Other top hammer prices at the sale include the following: Cattle on a road by Gerard Dillon (€46,000); View of Pullough Bay by Paul Henry (€42,000); Kerry Interior by Sean O’Sullivan (€38,000); Roundstone by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€36,000); Connemmara Quayside with fishermen by Gerard Dillon (€30,000); The rake by Jack B Yeats (€22,000); Still Water by William John Leech (€22,000); After the Meal by Dan O’Neill (€20,000) and Design for St. Maculind window by Harry Clarke (€19,000).
Susan Cronin – Waiting. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 5,200
This oil on canvas by Susan Cronin is lot 10 at Dolan’s timed online auction which runs until September 28. The sale offers art, rare Irish whiskeys, Moorcroft pottery and collectibles and the catalogue is online. Artists in the sale include John Shinnors, Arthur Maderson, Harry Kernoff, Susan Cronin, William Conor, Charles Harper, Mark O’Neill, Maurice Wilks, Kenneth Webb, Gaetano de Gennaro, Flora Mitchell, Eileen Meagher and many others. This work by Susan Cronin carries an estimate of €2,800-€3,500.
PAIR OF IRISH PROVINCIAL SILVER SAUCE BOATS, POSSIBLY BY HENRY DOWENS, LIMERICK
This pair of Irish provincial oval sauceboats made a hammer price of £8,500 over an estimate of £600-800 at Dreweatts in Newbury, Berkshire today. On each one the marks are partially obscured. Dreweatts described them as possibly by Henry Dowens, Limerick c1780. Provincial Irish silver by Henry Dowens is exceptionally rare. The sauceboats are engraved with a crest and PH beneath. This is the crest and motto associated with the arms of the Lowry family of Pomeroy House, Co. Tyrone, descended from Robert Lowry (1660-1729) of Pomeroy House, Ahenis, Co. Tyrone.
A set of nativity figures by Bernardi of Cork UPDATE: THESE MADE €1,850 AT HAMMER
In Doneraile Aidan Foley will conduct three online evening sales next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (September 21, 22 and 12) with 924 lots from country houses including antique and vintage furniture, Persian rugs, a set of large scale nativity figures by Bernardi of Cork and Hornby train collections. With everything from a cast iron boot scraper and a silk top hat by Henry Heath of London in its original leather travelling case to a vintage tabletop pinball game, garden and outdoor furniture and a painting by the recently deceased John Schwatschke the auction these sales will appeal to all sorts of collectors.
Paul Henry – Gubellaunaun from the Bog at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
What’s not to like? From west of Ireland landscapes by Paul Henry to Cantaloupes by Andy Warhol and a shimmering nude by Mainie Jellett the early autumn art auctions by Gormley’s, Adams,Whyte’s and de Veres are brimful of goodies.
Paintings by Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry and Gerard Dillon make up the top six lots at Adam’s evening sale of important Irish art next on September 23. Paul Henry is the sort of artist people invest in. HIs paintings are sought after and expensive. At Adams the offerings this season are small scale works. Painted at a momentous moment for the artist Gubbellaunaun from the Bog at Adams measures just ten and a half by fifteen and a half inches and is estimated at €50,000-€80,000. “The currents of life had carried me to this remote spot (Achill Island) and there seemed no current strong enough to carry me away” Henry wrote in his autobiography. “I made another of my quick decisions, which I never regretted and taking my return ticket to London out of my pocket tore it into small pieces and scattered the fragments into the sea which foamed round the rocks of Gubellaunaun”.
The 126 lots on the catalogue at Adams caters to a wide variety of tastes, styles and prices. They range from Hot Spots III, an oil and mixed media on canvas by Tim Goulding, an abstract figural bronze sculpture by Leo Higgins and a coloured pencil drawing of Figures, Coconut and other Trees, Samoa by Mary Swanzy to a large oil on canvas, Woman (1960) by Louis le Brocquy, A Connemara Quayside by Gerard Dillon and An Early View of Pullough Bay, Achill by Paul Henry.
Maurice MacGonigal (1900-1979) The Tailor’s House, Clifden, Connemara at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Fascinating works like the Tailor’s House, Clifden by Maurice MacGonigal, which somehow calls to mind The Little Street by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, expose a surprising commonality between a quiet street in Delft during the Dutch Golden Age and an Irish street in Clifden in the mid 20th century.
At Gormley’s online auction of 125 lots of Irish and international art – now on view at Francis St. in Dublin – there is work by Dan O’Neill, Patrick Scott, Colin Davidson, Markey Robinson, Harry Kernoff and Mildred Anne Butler alongside art by internationally acclaimed luminaries like Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Anish Kapoor.
Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I by Andy Warhol at Gormley’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
The most expensively estimated lot is by the Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes. Moonlit Carriage by a River carries an estimate of €30,000-€50,000. Andy Warhol’s screen print from 1979, Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I (FS II.20I) is estimated at €12,000-€18,000.
This evening auction is on September 22. The Jellett nude is a Whyte’s on September 28. The sale by de Veres is on October 6.
Art is for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. With estimates from €400 up these sales offer a feast for the eyes without necessarily breaking the bank. Be warned. Most true collectors will sooner or later fall in love with a painting they must have at all costs. The habit of collecting can be both a gift and a curse. Personal banks are occasionally broken for the sake of art. What of it. Where is the art of living if we never ever over extend?
These sales offer far more than mere opportunities to stretch the budget. There is art here to be savoured long into an unknowable future, a chance to enhance a collection or to get one started.
The Fourth Day by Patrick Scott at Gormleys. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000 AT HAMMER
