Roderic O’Connor – Paysage, Pont Aven, 1892. UPDATE: THIS MADE £378,000
Paysage, Pont Aven, an important and vibrant example of Roderic O’Conor’s stripe pictures, comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on March 19. It was exhibited in Paris at the 1892 Salon des Indépendents demonstrating its avant-garde approach and technique. The stripe pictures are generally accepted as the artist’s most desirable period. The estimate is £200,000-£300,000.
The auction features an interior by Sir John Lavery, The Hall, Argyll House, A summer’s day (1925). Argyll House on the King’s Road was home to Sybil Colefax and her husband Arthur in 1925. Known for her exceptional taste, she founded her business in the 1930’s and in 1938 was joined by John Fowler. Her business became known as Colefax & Fowler. The estimate is £100,000-£150,000.
Sir John Lavery – The Hall, Argyll House – A Summer Day, 1925. UPDATE: THIS MADE £157,500.
Cavanagh (1974) by Louis le Brocquy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 76,000 AT HAMMER
A large, colourful and unique tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, commissioned for Setanta House in Dublin in the mid 1970’s, is the leading lot at the James Adam evening sale of Important Irish Art on March 26. The Aubusson wool tapestry produced by Tabard Freres & Soeurs is estimated at €80,000-€120,000.
The catalogue cover lot is Pont du Gard by Mary Swanzy, an oil on canvas with a definite wow factor in which the artist painted a simplified Roman aqueduct with exceptional freedom. The estimate is €25,000-€35,000.
Pont du Gard by Mary Swanzy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 40,000 AT HAMMER
The Promised Land by Colin Middleton (€20,000-€30,000) was painted in 1947 when horrifying newsreel footage of the liberation of the concentration camps was widely viewed. Deeply deeply affected by these images Middleton here depicts two isolated and anonymous figures dispossessed by war caught up in swirling tides not of their own making and in search of a new land. Sadly this theme is as apposite now as it was in 1947. Plus ca change.
A c1886 Portrait Interior with Oriental Screen by Sir John Lavery is a chance discovery made when the vendor turned up at Adams looking for a valuation with no idea who the artist was. Adams had Lavery expert Professor Kenneth McConkey take a look and he confirmed the attribution. The oil on panel, measuring 42cm x 28cm, is estimated at €5,000-€8,000.
The Promised Land by Colin Middleton UPDATE: THIS MADE 22,000 AT HAMMER
Demand for George Russell (AE) is steady and consistent and there are a number of works by the artist in the sale, headed by An Apparition from 1921, an oil on canvas that reveals the influences of Symbolism (€8,000-€12,000).
The artist Gerard Dillon experiments with geometric forms, line and colour in Abstract by Night, a large scale work in an arresting palette of colours. The lot is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
The auction offers art by John Doherty, Barrie Cooke, Camille Souter, Frank McKelvey, Lady Beatrice Glenavy, Sean Keating, Dan O’Neill, Hilary Heron, Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Cecil King, Felim Egan, Deborah Brown, Sarah Purser, James English, Pauline Bewick and many more artists among 145 lots. The sale is on view at Adams from March 21 and the catalogue is online.
William Scott (1913-1989) – Arran 1960. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This lithograph by William Scott, number 32 from an edition of 50, is at Whyte’s Spring online art sale which runs until March 24. Printed at the Curwen Studio and published by Johanna Schiessel Abstracta-Verlag, Freiberg it is estimated at €2,500-€3,500. Among the artists represented are William Orpen, Mary Swanzy, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon, Patrick Collins, William Scott, Robert Ballagh, Louise Mansfield, Harry Kernoff, John ffrench and Auguste Edouart. A set of four silhouettes by Edouart is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. The sale is on view at Whyte’s in Dublin from March 18.
Auguste Edouart (French 1789-1861) – A set of four silhouettes, three signed and dated. UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS UNSOLD
This painting by Sophie Taeuber-Arp – one of the major figures of modernity – is a highlight at Christie’s stand alone auction in Paris on April 8 of the collection Funck-Brentano. In 2021 and 2022, Living Abstraction – a retrospective organised jointly by the Kunstmuseum Basel, Tate London and MoMA in New York – and the Elles font l’abstraction exhibition at the Centre Pompidou confirmed her key role in the history of art. The power and significance of multidisciplinary work by Taeuber-Arp have had a lasting and profound influence on contemporary artists and designers. The art market has shown a keen interest and the work is rare at auction.
Completed in 1937, Relief rond en quatre hauteurswas acquired directly from the artist’s studio by Michel Seuphor, who donated it to the Funck-Brentanos in 1987, as a gesture of gratitude. It is estimated at €1.9 – €2.5 million. Ten wooden reliefs by Sophie Taeuber-Arp are known and only three are still in private hands. The record for a work by Sophie Taeuber-Arp, set in 2003 in Paris, is €1.2 million.
Born in Germany Liselotte Kahn (1929-2020) was initially stateless when she arrived in France in 1936, and found refuge in Switzerland. A childhood spent in exile led to deep-seated European convictions, which she shared throughout her life with Roland Funck-Brentano (1929-2013), whom she met whilst studying law at university in Paris. In 1954 they founded what was to become one of the leading corporate law firms in Paris, deeply involved in the internationalisation of law and specialised in the development of European Community legislation.
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).
