SEVRES ORMOLU-MOUNTED POWDERED LAVENDER AND GOLD-GROUND VASE c1805-1806 MADE $94,500. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.
There was energetic participation by bidders and buyers from 33 countries at Christie’s online sale of two American collections which brought in $2,157,624. More than 200 lots of mostly 18th and 19th century European decorative arts were from the estates of two passionate collectors, Adolphus and Emily Andrews, San Franciso and Donald Bruce Wilson of Memphis. The top lot of the sale came from the Andrews collection, a rare pair of marquetry table screens made for Joachim Murat, King of Naples, which made $378,000, more than seven times its low estimate. The top lot of the Wilson collection was a Sevres ormolu-mounted powdered lavender and gold-ground vase which made $94,500.
This mosaic mural made with hand cut Venetian tiles is lot 433 at Sheppards Glantelwe gardens auction in Durrow on June 25 and 26. It is a large piece and the estimate is €3,000-€5,000. The catalogue for the online and live in Durrow sale of architural ornaments and garden lots is online and viewing gets underway on June 22. More than 600 lots will come under the hammer. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Guinness for Strength ad by John Gilroy featuring a sculpted man after Henry Moore. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
If you frequented Irish pubs in the rare old times the gleaming advertising mirrors that surrounded you then are valuable collectible items now. In terms of cost at auction they trump objects including original artworks by John Gilroy from a valuable Guinness collection which highlights three days of sales by Victor Mee on June 18, 19 and 20.
The English artist John Gilroy (1898-1985) who worked with S.H. Benson – Britain’s largest advertising agency – created the iconic toucan and what is now instantly recognisable art for Guinness featuring the zoo keeper and animals enjoying the black stuff. Such is the global reach of this art that you could safely say that Gilroy was here, there and everywhere as well! His colleagues at Bensons included author Dorothy L Sayers, grand daughter of an emigrant from Tipperary, then a copywriter.
A framed Guinness toucan with a paintbrush pencil sketch by John Gilroy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
The collection of David Hughes, a brewer at Park Royal in London for 16 years, features among almost 1,500 lots at Victor Mee’s sale. He is the author of several books about Guinness including Gilroy was Good for Guinness and The Lost Art of Guinness. “After a long time in the business it’s a treat to come across a private collection of the calibre and esteem that David’s collection brags” auctioneer Victor Mee remarked.
The collection is still growing so Hughes has reluctantly decided to part with some of it. Framed sketches illustrated and signed by Gilroy including a Guinness for Strength ad featuring a sculpted stone man after Henry Moore, a Guinness Toucan with a paintbrush and pencil sketch, a koala on a branch with a Guinness bottle, a sketch of zoo animals running and a 1953 advertising artwork depicting the Guinness sea lion and an ostrich feature. Estimates for all these sketches range between €200 and €1,200.
A ruberoid Guinness penguin is estimated at just €40-€60 and other items from the collection include an ashtray with penguin, a 1920’s round cream plastic calendar, a pottery water jug and a grey stone bulldog.
Rare early 20th century Cork Distilleries advertising mirror. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,800 AT HAMMER
An early 20th century Paddy Pure Pot Still Ten Years Old Irish Whiskey mirror made by the Dublin glass plate company (€5,000-€8,000), a Schweppes table cordial and cider mirror (€4,000-€8,000) and an early 20th century Hignetts reliable cigarettes dispensing cabinet on reverse painted glass (€4,000-€8,000) are the most expensively estimated lots. These are much sought after by publicans, hoteliers and collectors of memorabilia.
A number of other mirrors, a Shell advertising pump and an advertising clock with central mirrored panel are among the top lots. The most expensively estimated Hughes lot is a Guinness Time wall metal advertising sign depicting Gilroy figures of a seal, an ostrich and a man (€2,000-€4,000). Lot 1252 is a rare advertising showcard for Slattery’s Bacon and Hams, Tralee (€400-€600). The catalogue is online and the sales begin each day at 5.30 pm.
A Slattery’s Bacon and Hams Tralee advertising showcard. UPDATE: THIS MADE 750 AT HAMMER
This retro gold bracelet comes up at Adams online auction, The Jewellery Box, which runs until June 24. The wide hinged band is composed of textured links set in a geometric pattern, enhanced with chased foliate detailing, within triangular-shaped polished and engraved motifs. It is mounted in 18 carat gold with indistinct Italian registry mark and is estimated at €2,200-€2,800. The sale offers a selection of rings, earrings, bracelets, watches and will be on view at Adams in Dublin from June 21. Meantime the catalogue is online.
JOHN BEHAN (B.1938) – FAMINE SHIP. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This 2024 famine ship by John Behan is lot 109 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until June 24. The bronze is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The auction features work by artists as varied as Letitia M Hamilton and Nano Reid to Patrick Hennessy, Harry Kernoff and Barbara Warren. Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Sean Scully are on the catalogue along with Brian Maguire, Willie McKeown and Felim Egan. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Skibbereen from June 20.
JEAN SIMÉON CHARDIN (PARIS 1699-1779) – Le Melon entamé (The cut melon)
Le Melon entamé (1760) by Jean Siméon Chardin made €26,730,000 over a top estimate of €12 million at Christie’s in Paris today to become the most expensive Old Master painting sold in France, the most expensive 18th century French old master in the world and the most expensive work sold in France in 2024. From the Marcille and Rothschild collections it was acquired by a European collector. One of the signal masterpieces of Chardin’s late career, The Cut Melon has for almost two centuries belonged to just two families, the Marcille and the Rothschild dynasties, each of which gathered through succeeding generations the greatest and most celebrated collections of Chardin’s paintings ever assembled.
IAN BRENNAN AND ONE OF HIS PAINTINGS. UPDATE: THIS MADE€25,600
Bonhams ground-breaking Male Form sale arrives in Brussels following successful previous auctions on the same theme held in London, New York and Paris. The mission remains unchanged: to challenge a market that has been traditionally centred on the concept of the male gaze – depicting women from a masculine standpoint. It will span centuries and genres, from Antiquities and Old Master Paintings to Sculpture and Decorative Arts, from Contemporary Art to Photography. This year the sale on June 25 features two paintings by the Irish artist Ian Brennan (born 1963). The artist, who trained as a psychotherapist, paints the shadow aspect of the human condition.
Guinness Time wall metal advertising sign depicting Gilroy figures of the seal, ostrich and man. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
This wall metal Guinness Time image from the David Hughes Collection is lot 1143 at three days of sales by Victor Mee on June 18, 19 and 20. Original artworks from his collection are among the highlights of this pub memorabilia and collectibles sale. He was a brewer at Park Royal and is the author of several books about Guinness. The catalogue is online.
Hillside Cottages, Connemara at Woodwards summer auction in Cork on June 22 is believed by the auctioneers to be an untraced work by Paul Henry – possibly The Wilds of Connemara exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London in 1934 or In the Hills of Connemara exhibited in New York and Boston in 1930. Dr. S.B. Kennedy, the late art historian, curator and author of the definitive work on Henry, reported that a number of Paul Henry’s paintings remained untraced or unidentified. “Paul Henry often made paintings from drawings done perhaps years earlier. Consequently his pictures can be difficult to date and too he often painted variations on a theme”. The setting for this one, which the artist painted many times, is a remote group of cottages in the townland of Loughanillaun with the road from Ballynahinch to Clifden hidden in the valley below the mountains. Framed by Gilberts, Cork in the 1930’s the painting was last at auction at Woodwards around 1964. UPDATE: THIS AUCTION HAS NOW BEEN PUT BACK TO JUNE 29.
An Art Nouveau silver belt, a set of six Cork silver tablespoons by Carden Terry and Jane Williams and a c1775 silver sauce boat by Matthew West of Dublin are among the appetising lots at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon on June 12. The belt, estimated at €500-€800, is made up of 16 shamrock shaped plates with raised relief decoration linked by looped chains. It dates to 1902. The sale, titled the Dromkeen country house collection, offers a selection of silver, art, antique furniture and collectibles. UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER
