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    INTERESTING SELECTION AT ADAMS AT HOME SALE

    Saturday, June 8th, 2024

    19th century Irish landscape mirror in the Rococo style. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER

    If you are searching for mirrors, Irish furniture, art or a piece of interesting silver there are good examples to be found at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on June 11. This online only sale offers interesting, affordable and collectibles antiques and furnishings.

    The catalogue cover features an attractive giltwood mirror (€500-€800) and a giltwood and marble topped console table (€1,500-€2,000). An early 19th century circular wall mirror with a gilded and decorated frame is estimated at €2,000-€3,000 and a large overmantle with scallop shell and scrollwork cornice has an estimate of €1,500-€2,000.  There is a similar estimate on a c1880 overmantle surmounted by a faience dish. A 19th century Irish carved giltwood landscape mirror in the rococo style is estimated at €600-€1,000.

    A pair of George III mahogany dining room urns on pedestals. UPDATE: THESE MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER

    Among the more expensive antique furniture pieces are a pair of George III dining room urns on pedestals with domed fluted covers and acorn finials, a pair of mahogany framed Gainsborough armchairs and a c1790 Irish sycamore and rosewood banded  demi-lune pier table.  All are estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Signed pieces include a Victorian love seat by Robert Strahan (€400-€600) and a pair of marquetry inlaid mahogany settees by  the British maker James Schoolbred whose workshop was on Tottenham Court Road  (€1,000-€1,500).

     A Korean ebonised storage chest  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    The selection of furniture ranges from a Georgian hunt table, a Dutch marquetry display cabinet and a Georgian bowfront sideboard to  some Irish George III brass bound plate buckets, a Louis Quatorze walnut bureau de dame, a Victorian circular breakfast table and a Georgian slope front bureau.

    The auction of more than 400 lots kicks off with a selection of garden furniture headed by a large Victorian cast iron Warwick Vase garden urn (€2,000-€3,000). A pair of 20th century pottery waisted planters (€300-€500), garden benches, terracotta plinths, Italian terracotta lions and a Victorian cast iron classical figure all feature.

    Art offerings include landscapes and still lives, portraits and seascapes and the array of collectibles includes a 19th century French gilt and porcelain clock, a Waterford Crystal nine branch chandelier and a large Edwardian hexagonal hall lantern. A c1775 silver salver made in Cork by Stephen Walsh will attract interest as will an Irish provincial silver sauceboat struck “Sterling” and a pair of Irish George III silver oval trays.  This will be the last At Home sale by Adams before the summer break.

    A large Edwardian hexagonal hall lantern. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER

    CONFIDENTIAL NOTES ON IRA ACTIVITES FROM 1941-47 AT AUCTION

    Saturday, June 8th, 2024

    Confidential notes on IRA activities in the period from 1941-47 are included Purcell Auctioneers sale of the Library of the late Dr. Garret FitzGerald (1926-2011) and another private library in Birr on June 26. The proceeds from the auction of the library of the former Taoiseach will be donated to Focus Ireland, the homeless and housing charity. A total of 656 lots will come under the hammer and the catalogue is online.

    Confidential IRA notes were prepared in the office of the Minister for Justice. This copy No. 26 was issued to Colonel Dan Bryan, the renowned Military Intelligence officer. It contains detailed information mostly unavailable elsewhere on activities of the IRA in Ireland and Britain during the Second World War, Stephen Hayes’ kidnapping, government executions, and other incidents plus biographies of those involved. According to one researcher the documentation relied on intelligence from the Special Branch. Nevertheless they are an exhaustive record of the years following the establishment of the state. Relatively few copies of these handbooks were produced and they were not given to every cabinet minister. Six copies of the ‘Notes on events 1931-1941’ were distributed, while ‘Notes on IRA activities’ had also a very limited circulation. This copy is estimated at 750-1,200. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER

    MALACHITE TOPPED TABLE AT JAMES ADAM SALE

    Friday, June 7th, 2024

    WILLIAM IV GILTWOOD AND MALACHITE CIRCULAR TABLE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    This malachite topped circular William IV table comes up as lot 29 at the James Adam At Home auction. The top is supported on a fluted centre column with carved cabochons and rim masks on scroll legs carved with leaves. The estimate is 1,500-2,500. The timed online only auction is now up and running and will begin to close from 11 am on June 11. Viewing for the sale gets underway in Dublin today.

    UNSOLVED THEFT OF THE IRISH CROWN JEWELS RECALLED AT WHYTE’S

    Wednesday, June 5th, 2024

    Dublin Metropolitan Police reward poster for the Irish Crown Jewels. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER

    This rare poster issued by the Dublin Metropolitan Police in the wake of the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907 comes up at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector timed online auction which runs until June 7. Issued by John Lowe, Superintendent with three illustrations of the jewels – all of them for the Order of Saint Patrick – the lot is estimated at 600-800.

    The Jewels of the Order of St Patrick were the heavily jewelled badge and star created in 1831 for the Grand Master of the Order of St. Patrick established in 1783 by George III to be an Irish equivalent of the Order of the Garter in England.  They were stolen along with the collars of five knights of the order. The theft was never solved and the items were never recovered. Viewing for the auction gets underway at Whyte’s today and the catalogue is online.

    A HARE’S LAMENT BY BARRY FLANAGAN AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, June 4th, 2024

    Barry Flanagan – Lament. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £180,000

    Barry Flanagan’s bronze sculpture Lament (2007) at Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish evening auction in London on June 6 is a late exemplar of perhaps the artist’s most celebrated series of works. Cast only two years before Flanagan’s death it combines figuration and abstraction, whimsy and sorrow. The hare becomes anthropomorphic, its arms raised in a theatrical gesture. The hare is captured in a moment of expressive exultation or anguish, as the contorted and twisted body appears to be fluctuating on the verge between the two. Number 1 from the edition of 8, plus four artist’s casts, it is estimated at £150,000-£250,000.

    THE STARTLING DIFFERENCE MADE BY A PROFESSIONAL RESTORATION

    Monday, June 3rd, 2024

    What a difference a professional restoration can make.  Pictured here are before and after conservation images of The Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys, which will be a highlight at Christie’s Old Master sale in London on July 2.  Painted in the 1520’s in Antwerp all trace of the work was lost following the death of its then owner in 1668. It resurfaced in Paris in the 1920’s with an altered composition including a curtain across the window and was no longer recognised as work by Metsys. With its overpainting and varnish it was offered at Christie’s in 2015 as a studio variant deriving from the original, reflecting scholarly opinion at that time. Subsequent conservation was transformative and enabled scholars to recognise it as the original.  The estimate for the work is now £8 million – £12 million (€9.40 million – €14.09 million). 

    PLENTY OF OPTIONS AT MARSHS SALE IN CORK

    Monday, June 3rd, 2024

    A pair of Art Nouveau figures on marble bases UPDATE: THESE MADE 300 AT HAMMER

    Lovers of antique furniture, and there are still plenty of them out there, will find plenty of options that are both affordable and attractive, not to mention sustainable, at Marshs sale in Cork on June 12. The selection on offer ranges from an antique Queen Anne walnut bureau bookcase (€2,000-€3,000) and a pair of early Irish Georgian dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) to an early walnut secretaire campaign chest (€500-€800) and a set of eight Cork dining chairs (€800-€1,000).

    There is a choice of card tables led by a Regency marquetry inlaid example (€500-€1,000) as well as a large oval end Victorian dining table with an estimate of just €1,000-€1,500.  There are collectible lithographs of Cork Harbour scenes by Robert Stopford and others, some Waterford Crystal and a private collection of around 150 lots of Irish, English and European coins. 

    A pair of Edwardian knife boxes. UPDATE: THESE MADE 600 AT HAMMER

    HISTORIC NIRVANA PORTRAIT AND A SPORTING MEDALS COLLECTION

    Saturday, June 1st, 2024

    Poster for cancelled Nirvana concert in Dublin in April 1994. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER

    An historic poster for a cancelled Nirvana concert at the RDS in Dublin on April 8, 1994, the day Kurt Cobain’s body was found in Seattle, the original manuscript from The Fianna of Fionn by Padraig Pearse, the magnificent sporting collection of Ed Hayes of Two Mile Borris, captain of the winning All-Ireland hurling team in 1900 and a letter to General Lauriston dictated and signed by Napoleon  are highlights at Whyte’s.   The timed online Eclectic Collector auction is open for bidding and runs until June 7.

    The sale of 582 lots at Whytes includes historical artefacts, manuscripts, documents, photographs, books, militaria and medals, weapons and  memorabilia.

    The 1809 letter from Emperor Napoleon, Pádraig Pearse’s original handwritten manuscript of 23 pages, a 1966 Rising Jubilee 4 ounce gold medal, the British War medals to awarded to Captain G.T. Baggallay, assassinated by Michael Collins’ squad on Bloody Sunday, a 1921 grocer’s account for ‘The Irish Delegation to the Treaty Talks in London’ and the 1900-1910 Hurling, collection of Ed Hayes including All-Ireland, Tipperary and Munster Championships medals and two cups will attract many bidders. 

    The scarce Nirvana poster relates to a Dublin concert poignantly dated on the 1994 day Kurt Cobain’s body was found, three days after his suicide in Seattle. The artwork is based on the transparent anatomical mannikin with superimposed angel wings used on the cover of In Utero, the bands third and final studio album.

    The oldest items are south Italian pot lids and a candle holder from c300 BC.  There is a range of 17th century maps of Ireland and a Penal Cross from 1745, items from modern history including the Troubles and a Libyan munitions box seized on the MV Claudia in 1973.

    The 1900-1910 medal and cup collection of Ed Hayes, Two Mile Borris including All Ireland, Tipperary and Munster Championships. UPDATE: THESE MADE 6,200 AT HAMMER

    NEW WORLD RECORD FOR THE MOST EXPENSIVE PRINCE GUITAR SOLD

    Friday, May 31st, 2024

    Prince’s original “Cloud 3” electric guitar used in his iconic ’80s-’90s tours from Purple Rain to Diamonds & Pearls, set a new world record for the most expensive Prince guitar ever sold at auction when it made $910,000 at Julien’s Music Icons sale in New York. Bono’s iconic U2 signed 2005 Gretsch G6136i “Irish Falcon” sold for $260,000, Steve Jones’ custom 1974 Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, recently verified as the punk rock icon’s true original and iconic Sex Pistols axe, sold for $390,000, Adam Clayton’s Fender Rose Sparkle Precision bass guitar from the U2 Las Vegas residency sold for $260,000, ans Cliff Williams’ circa 1980s AC/DC teal double cutaway precision style bass guitar with eight mother of pearl inlaid “penis” motifs sold for $22,750.

    PAUL HENRY TOPS THE BILL AT ADAMS ART SALE

    Thursday, May 30th, 2024

    Paul Henry RHA RUA (1876-1958) – Mountain Landscape with Cottages c.1926-30

    Paul Henry’s Mountain Landscape with Cottages and Early Morning in the Markets, Quimperlé (1883) by Walter Osborne shared top honours at the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on May 29. Each made €110,000 at hammer. The Water Steps by Jack Yeats made €100,000 and Crossing the Canal Bridge, from the Tram Top (1927) by Yeats made €90,000.