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Archive for the ‘AUCTIONS’ Category

IRISH DESK AND GRIERSON PAINTING AT CHRISTIE’S

Friday, August 5th, 2011

This 18th century Irish desk is at Christie's Interiors, South Kensington on August 9. UPDATE: THIS MADE £3,250

Homeward Bound by Charles Grierson at Christie's. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Among the lots of particular Irish interest at Christie’s Interiors sale in South Kensington, London on August 9 are this Irish desk a painting by the Cork born artist Charles Grierson.

The mid 18th century Irish George II mahogany kneehole desk is estimated at £1,500-£2,500. The moulded top is above a secretaire drawer above ten further short drawers.

The artist Charles MacIver Grierson was born at Queenstown in Cork in 1864. He graduated from the Cork School of Art (now the Crawford) in 1881. He was apprenticed to the architect William Henry Hill before attending the School of Art. He susquently settled in London where he studied at Heatherley’s Life School and practiced as an artist. He died in London in 1939. Homeward Bound, a pencil and watercolour which is indistinctly dated from the 1890’s, is estimated at £600-£800.

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BEST QUARTER RESULTS EVER AT SOTHEBY’S THIS YEAR

Thursday, August 4th, 2011

Venetian Guardi achieved an Old Master record. (click on image to enlarge)

SOTHEBY’S in New York has just announced their best quarter in the company’s history. Sotheby’s consolidated sales reached a record $3.4 billion in the first half of 2011. For the three and six months to June 30, 2011 net income increased by 48% and 54% to $127.2 million and $129.7 million, respectively, when compared to the prior year. This improvement is principally due to significantly higher auction and private sale commission.

Competitive pressure to win high value consignments resulted in lower commission margins. General and administrative expenses increased $7.9 million, or 24%, in the second quarter and $9.8 million, or 15%, in the first half, largely due to increased consulting fees to develop Sotheby’s strategic initiatives and unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates.

“This is the best quarter in Sotheby’s history,” said Bill Ruprecht, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Great works of art are enormously desirable to collectors from every corner of the world right now….As I look back on these extraordinary six months for our business, the global appeal of art was one of the few constants in a period of continued economic uncertainty”. He said that an exciting fall season is already taking shape: “Clients around the world can expect a number of wonderful sales and objects at Sotheby’s this autumn”.

London sales included tremendous successes. Contemporary art surpassed the high estimates. Egon Schiele’s Hauser mit bunter Waesche (Vorstadt II) made $40 million, almost double the previous auction record for the artist and Guardi’s Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon, made $42.9 million, the second highest price ever achieved for an Old Master Painting. (See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 6)

Tags: results, sotheby's
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WILLIAM CONOR’S THE RED SCARF MAKES 10,000 AT DOLAN’S, BALLYNAHINCH

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

The Red Scarf by William Conor made 10,000 at Dolan's.

The Red Scarf by the Northern Ireland artist William Conor (1881-1968) was the top lot at the Dolan’s summer Irish art auction at Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, Co. Galway on August 3. It made 10,000.

The artist is celebrated for his portrayals of working class life in Belfast. The Red Scarf, a wax crayon on paper piece, is signed and dated 1922. It was estimated at 10,000-12,000.

The Ulster Museum holds more than 50 works in crayon and watercolour by William Conor. He exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in 1921 and in Dublin at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1918 to 1967. He was awarded an OBE in 1952 and was president of the Royal Ulster Academy from 1957 to 1964.

The auction was over 80 per cent sold and the majority of the most expensively estimated lots found buyers.

See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 26.

Tags: Dolan's Irish Art, William Conor
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VICTORIAN ENGLISH IMAGES AT CHRISTIE’S INTERIORS SALE

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

There is something nostalgic and even retrospective about these two Victorian images created by English artists abroad in the 19th century. Neither work is expensive. Each one features at the next Christie’s Interiors sale at South Kensington in London on August 9.

The work on the left is by Elijah Walton (1832-1880). No prizes for guessing the title of this pencil watercolour and body colour on paper. An Alpine Landscape is estimated at just £400-600. The other work, which Christie’s have catalogued as English School 1847 is called Cypresses on the Bosphorus, inscribed and dated ‘Cyprepes – on The Bosphorus 1847’ (on the mount). It is unframed and the lot includes another image of the mouth of the Bosphous at the entrance to the Black Sea by W.B. Urmston. The estimate is £500-700. Both images are © Christie’s Images Limited 2011.

Elijah Walton's Alpine Landscape (click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £625.

Cypresses on the Bosphorus (click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS MADE £850

Tags: Christie's, Interiors
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WEST CORK NO RESERVES ART AUCTION 100% SOLD

Monday, August 1st, 2011

THE Morgan O’Driscoll no reserves art sale of work by west Cork based artists on July 31 was 100 per cent sold. The top lot was Martin Stone’s oil of Ballydehob, which made 1,600. In general the 111 works sold for prices which were generally under the low estimate. There was a big attendance at the Skibbereen viewing and sale. The no reserve auction demonstrated a strong appetite for value in the market in the teeth of Ireland’s continuing recession.

See antiquesandartireland.com posts for July 15 and July 28.

MARTIN STONE'S BALLYDEHOB WAS THE TOP LOT. IT MADE 1,600.

This 1984 photograph of Al Pacino by John Minihan sold for 225.

Tags: Morgan O'Driscoll, Skibbereen
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MAGNIFICENT PIECES FROM THE SAFRA COLLECTIONS

Friday, July 29th, 2011

The French commode and Russian vases pictured below will feature at the four day sale of the Lily and Edmond J. Safra Collections at Sotheby’s in New York in October. Of interest to connoisseurs worldwide the sale offers lots that Sotheby’s say are at the pinnacle of their respective collecting categories.

The six dedicated sales of the collection from October 18-21 are expected to realise more than $40 million. A two day sale of the Safra collections at Sotheby’s in 2005 brought in $49 million.

UPDATE: The group of French 18th century lacquer furniture headed by the lacquer commode pictured which made $6,914,500 brought in a total of $12.5 million. The four day sale realised $45,900,064.

(See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 10, 2011.)

A pair of Imperial Porcelain Vases, decorated with portraits of Alexandra Fedorovna and her father, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, after the portrait by Franz Krüger now in the 1812 Gallery of the Hermitage (est. $1.5/2.5 million). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD.

: A Louis XVI Ormolu-Mounted Japanese lacquer commode with secretaire en suite, attributed to Adam Weisweiler (est. $5/7 million). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6,914,500

Tags: new york, Safra, sotheby's
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AUCTION OF WORK BY WEST CORK BASED ARTISTS

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

THE west Cork artists no reserves auction in Skibbereen on Sunday, July 31 is arousing considerable interest. The sale of 111 lots by locally based artists is wide ranging and timed to coincide with the August Bank Holiday weekend height of the holiday season in the area. It follows two no reserves studio sales by Morgan O’Driscoll already this year. Each one of these proved to be popular and demonstrated that, even in the teeth of a major recession, Irish people will purchase the work of artists if the price is considered to be right.

Here is some more of what is on offer on Sunday (see antiquesandartireland.com post for July 15):-

John Minihan (b.1946) 'Al Pacino Photographed at the Duke of York Theatre, London, 1984' is estimated at 800-1,400. UPDATE: THIS MADE 225

John Minihan (b.1946) 'Pierre Cardin Photographed Outside Maxims, Paris, 1985' (800-1,400). UPDATE: THIS MADE 275

John Desmond (b.1950) 'Magic of Colour' (est. 300-500). UPDATE: THIS MADE 140

Anne Marie McInerney (20th/21st Century) 'Heir Island, Cottages' (est. 350-550). UPDATE: THIS MADE 300

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RARE STAMPS FROM STEINBERG COLLECTION AT SOTHEBY’S

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

Australia Kangaroo issue, 1913-14. (est. £15,000-20,000)(click on image to enlarge)

RARE stamps of distinction will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s next September. The Philatelic Collection of the Northern Irish peer Lord Steinberg is unique as it contains only mint blocks of four or larger multiples from 74 countries of the British Empire. Highlights include Australia with many rare Kangeroo blocks; the British Solomon Islands block; classic Ceylon; Falkland Islands with the 1933 Centenary set in marginal blocks of four; Hong Kong; India; Newfoundland with the unique 1927 De Pinedo airmail block of four and the 1932 DO-X airmail block of four with the surcharge inverted, and a selection of Rhodesian Double Head issues.

They will be offered in a series of sales on September 6-8 and on September 21. The three day sale is of British Empire multiples, the sale on September 21 will feature Great Britain exclusively. Altogether 2,068 blocks will be offered in a sale expected to realise £4 million.

Lord Steinberg was the grandson of immigrants who turned a single unlicensed betting shop at the back of his father’s Belfast milk counter into the Stanley Leisure Group, a chain of 640 betting outlets and 45 casinos which employed 7,000 people. He became a peer, deputy treasurer of the Conservative Party and president of Lancashire County Cricket Club. The business was founded in Belfast in 1958, but Steinberg moved to Liverpool in 1977 when he refused to pay protection money to either republican or loyalist paramilitaries. He was shot in 1977 by the Provisional IRA. Proceeds are for causes and charities associated with Lord Steinberg, who died in 2009. This includes the fund he started with the aim of helping to rebuild Old Trafford, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

UPDATE: The four day sale brought in £2,648,652, the one day auction comprised of Great Britain Mint Multiples realised £1,134,924.

Hong Kong 1863-71 at 30 cents. (est. £10,000-12,000) (Click on image to enlarge)

: 1840 1d. black. (est. £150,000-250,000) (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: This sold for

£180,000

Tags: sotheby's, stamps, Steinberg
Posted in AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | 1 Comment »

BEATLES PHOTO MAKES $68,500

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

This image was the top lot.

THIS 1964 photo of the Beatles on their first US tour was estimated to make $2,000 but in fact sold for $68,500.

It was taken by a then 18 year old photographer named Mike Mitchell. He had been granted a press pass. But the photographs were never published and he kept 400 negatives and contact sheets in a box for 47 years.

With encouragement from friends, he showed them to Christie’s. They selected 46 images. Partly becasue Mitchell as a photographer is relatively unknown Christie’s reckoned they would make $100,000 dollars.

The collection sold for $362,000.

See antiquesandartireland.com post for May 26, 2011.

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DOLAN’S SUMMER ART SALE AT BALLYNAHINCH CASTLE, CONNEMARA

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Dolan’s Irish art auction house will hold a summer sale of 200 works in a marquee in the grounds of Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, Co. Galway on Wednesday, August 3 at 2 p.m. On offer is a broad cross section of work from a variety of emerging and established Irish artists. Here is a selection of what is on offer (click on any image to enlarge it):

A handcoloured engraving of Queen Victoria and the Royal Squadron leaving Kingstown Harbour (now Dun Laoghaire) in August 1849. It is estimated at 180-250. UPDATE: IT MADE 300

Achill by Markey Robinson is estimated at 9,500-10,500. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 9,250

Girl with Parasol by Rosemary Fallon (1,800-2,500). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Poppies by Kenneth Webb (6,000-7,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,500

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