PAIR OF TURQUOISE ‘SWEET ALHAMBRA’ EARSTUDS by VAN CLEEF & ARPELS. UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
Jewellery auctions are for everyone, not just the super rich. This pair of Van Cleef & Arpels turquoise Sweet Alhambra earstuds come up as lot 5 at the Fine Jewellery and Watches sale by James Adam in Dublin on September 10 with an estimate of just €700-€900. A number of lots in this sale have estimtes of under €1,000. The most expensively estimated piece is a brilliant cut diamond pendant at €40,000-€50,000.
Berlin Suite by Cecil King (1921-1986). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
At a time when Irish art seemed to exist mostly in a landscape laden time warp from around the turn of the 20th century, when Irish Modernism existed in a vacuum, IMMA was far in the future and the avant garde was regarded as deluded and possibly even heathen Oliver Dowling opened his gallery on Kildare St. in Dublin in 1975 with a focus on minimalism, conceptualism, neo-expressionism and other abstractions.
Concurring Rhythms by Alice Berger Hammerschlag (1917-1969) UPDATE: THIS MADE 360 AT HAMMER
There were controversies. This writer vividly remembers one evening paper dashing off to Lenehan’s Hardware Shop on Capel St. to purchase for a pittance a glass shelf and a water glass to demonstrate the folly of it all. Oliver was showing An Oak Tree by Michael Craig-Martin, consisting of a glass of water on a glass shelf on metal brackets and a text (the original is now in the National Gallery of Australia with an artist’s copy at the Tate). The news hounds entirely missed the conceptual point but it made for an amusing story. Oliver Dowling had a loyal following who understood how easily avant garde art could be misjudged in a world where it was so far ahead of the prevailing norms.
Untitled by Fergus Martin (b 1955). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
Fast forward nearly half a century and art like this is fairly mainstream, even in Ireland, largely thanks to people like Oliver Dowling, his partner Cecil King (they were among the founders of the ROSC exhibitions), and all the other artists and gallerists who toiled in that vacuum. When I was a young journalist in Dublin Cecil King offered me a piece of advice which I’ve often quoted. Looking at a conceptual painting that consisted of not much more than a pencil dot on a large white canvas I asked what on earth it was all about. “Just look” he said, “and keep on looking”. This guidance has proved richly rewarding.
It is why I’ve been pouring over the catalogue of The Oliver Dowling Collection with such enthusiasm. It comes up at a timed online sale at James Adam on September 11. There are 163 lots – including as large a selection of work by Cecil King ever likely to be found at any sale – in an auction now on view at Adams.
Oliver Dowling died in January. His collection bears witness to a true pioneer with rigorous standards. There is art by William McKeown, Mary Fitzgerald, Josef Beuys, Michael Coleman, Fergus Martin, Felim Egan, Ciaran Lennon, Nigel Rolfe, Luis Tomasello, Willie Doherty, Jo Baer, Jerry Zeniuk, Raimund Girke, Alice Berger Hammerschlag, Colin Middleton, Eduardo Chillida, Dorothy Cross, Robert Janz, Maria Simmonds Gooding and many other acclaimed artists in this exceptional sale.
Rose Stem and Pot by Derrick Greaves (1927-2022). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
A tall cloisonne garlic head vase or a Killarney wood sewing table? The choice is yours at upcoming sales by Hegartys in Bandon on September 11 and at Aidan Foleys in Doneraile on September 16 and 17. Decorated with flowers and birds in inlaid enamel the vase is estimated by Hegartys at €180-€250. The Killarney wood sewing table, last sold at Woodwards in 2010 for a hammer price of €5,200, is estimated by Aidan Foley at €4,000-€6,000.
Hegartys will offer garden furniture, antique furniture, silver, art and collectibles in an auction where feature lots include pink topaz diamond studded pendant, a late Qing Dynasty garden stool, a west of Ireland oil on canvas by Mabel Young and an etched glass jar. Aidan Foley’s sale features a country house contents from Co. Limerick and lots from a town house in Thurles.
Killarney wood sewing table at Aidan Foley’s sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,400 AT HAMMER
The Armorial ‘hatchment’ for Anglo-Irish military officer, statesman and twice-serving UK Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) at Dreweatts fine furniture sale on September 10 and 11. A hatchment is a panel on which a coat of arms of a deceased person is temporarily displayed and lot 414 is estimated at £4,000-£6,000. It bears the motto ‘Virtutis Fortuna Comes’ (Fortune favours the brave). Wellesley is revered as one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and in his military role, was one of the pivotal commanders to end the Anglo-Mysore and Napoleonic wars – most famously he is celebrated for ending the Napoleonic Wars in victory, when the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoleon at the legendary Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Born into Irish aristocracy (his grandfather was Richard Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington, who served in the Irish House of Commons representing Trim in County Meath), his childhood was spent between the family homes of Mornington House in Dublin and Dangan Castle near Summerhill in County Meath.
Paul Henry RHA (1877-1958) – The Bog Pool (c.1921-22). UPDATE: THIS MADE 160,000 AT HAMMER
The Bog Pool by Paul Henry is the most expensively estimated lot at the James Adam Important Irish Art sale in Dublin on September 25. It was exhibited at The Dublin Painters Gallery in 1922 and in New York in 1930. The setting is most likely Achill. The estimate is €120,000-€160,000. The catalogue, with 150 lots, is online.
This Gibson Flying V electric guitar formerly owned by Johnny Marr and used by Noel Gallagher during The Monnow Valley sessions prior to the final recording of Oasis’ 1994 debut album ‘Definitely Maybe’ at Sawmills Studio is at Sotheby’s inaugural Popular Culture sale which runs until September 12. Lot 45 is estimated at £60,000-£80,000. There are 64 lots on offer in a sale of artefacts from the worlds of music, film and celebrity.
Van Cleef & Arpels diamond brooch c1945-50. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Van Cleef & Arpels diamond brooch is among the leading lots at the James Adam auction of fine jewellery and watches in Dublin on September 10. It is designed as two elongated stylised leaves, both set with brilliant, baguette and tapered baguette-cut diamonds of 8.0 – 10 carats in total. Signed VCA it is mounted in platinum and 18 carat gold. There are French assay marks and a partial indistinct maker’s mark. The estimate is €35,000-€40,000. There are 220 lots in total in the sale.
Heart of Darkness – an etching by Sean Scully UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
Bidding on the current Irish art online auction by Morgan O’Driscoll runs until September 9. The sale features work by Sean Scully, Mainie Jellett, Donald Teskey, Francis Tansey, Kenneth Webb, Nano Reid, Dan O’Neill, Graham Knuttel and many other artists. The catalogue is online.
A surreal collection described by Christie’s as a true theatre of the imagination that perfectly captures its founders’ creativity and intellectual curiosity comes up in Paris on September 24. A total of 150 lots from the collection of Paul and Jacqueline Duchein of Montauban will come under the hammer. Artists featured include Marie Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Wolfgang Paalen, André Breton, Salvador Dalí, Victor Brauner, Josef Sima and Man Ray. Their collection combines Surrealism with folk art, Art Brut, and tribal art and their home, illustrated here, would become a cabinet of curiosities, rapidly earning a reputation as the city’s second major museum alongside the Musée Ingres Bourdelle. Highlights of the sale include Flux et reflux de la nuit by Marie Cermínovà, also known as Toyen (€800,000–1,200,000), and Trois monstres ou la Horde, a remarkable oil on canvas painted by Max Ernst in 1927 (€400,000–600,000). The global estimate is €4.6-7 million.
Sir John Lavery – The Ratification of the Irish Treaty in the House of Lords, December 1921
A re-discovered study by Sir John Lavery of The Ratification of the Irish Treaty in the House of Lords, December 1921 will come up at auction in England in November. The Treaty passed for ratification from the Commons to the Lords on December 16, 1921. It was a moment when the British Empire changed from the rapid expansion from the 1870’s to steep decline in the 20th century.
By then in his ’60’s Lavery, who had been knighted for his services as an official war artist, sought assistance from Sir Patrick Ford and Lord Birkenhead to paint while the house was in session. Armed with these sketches he began work immediately on the large version now in the Glasgow Museums. Lavery frequently gifted his preparatory sketches and gave this one to sculptor George Henry Paulin in gratitude for his portrait of Lavery, a cast of which is in the Glasgow Museums. The study has remained with the family and it will lead Bellmans auction of Modern British and 20th century art on November 21 with an estimate of £20,000-£30,000 (€23,460-€35,190).
It could make more. At Dreweatts in the UK earlier this year a Lavery study for The Hearing of the Appeal of Sir Roger Casement sold for £155,200 with fees (€182,050) over a top estimate of £25,000 (€29,330) after a long bidding battle.
Lavery’s view on Irish independence was clear. In 1910 he wrote to his friend and pupil Sir Winston Churchill, then Minister for the Colonies, that he believed Ireland: “will never be ruled by Westminster, the Vatican or Ulster without continuous bloodshed … and leaving Irishmen to settle their own affairs is the only solution”.
This study by Sir John Lavery of The Hearing of the Appeal of Sir Roger Casement sold for £155,200 with fees (€182,050)
