This maquette for Kingfisher was created by John Burke (1946-2006) in preparation for his large outdoor sculpture at the Wilton Roundabout in Cork city. Commissioned by Clayton Love and Seamus Gallagher to commemorate the Cork 800 festival the Wilton sculpture is 25 feet in height and weighs eight tons. Fabricated using plates of steel welded together the sculpture was installed in December 1984. The smaller bright blue painted maquette is a delightful sculpture in its own right. From the collection of Frances Lynch it is 117 cm high, 127 cm wide and 57.5 cm deep. John Burke generally painted his sculptures in bright colours using, for example, Red Cardinal for the monumental Bank of Ireland piece (now the Department of Health) on Baggot St. in Dublin. Estimated at €30,000-€50,000 the maquette is the leading lot at Sheppards sale of important Irish art on September 15. UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN
A continental walnut and veneered cylinder desk UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER
If the idea of a real bargain in antique furniture floats your boat then a sale by Sean Eacrett on September 7 should be of interest. The entire contents of Templetuohy Antiques in Co. Tipperary will come under the hammer. The auction of 893 lots offers 542 furniture pieces headed by a large pitch pine and oak kitchen table, a Regency rosewood brass inlaid foldover card table and a William IV mahogany console table, all estimated at €800-€1,200.
These are estimates only. At many auctions lots fail to reach the low estimate and sell anyway. Demand for antique furniture is not strong and there are bargains to be found in an appetising selection that includes everything from a 19th century circular rent table with blind tooled green leather top, a pair of wingback chairs with deep button backs and a continental two door vitrine with painted panel doors.
A continental walnut and veneered cylinder writing desk with ivorine panels on inlaid cabriole supports and a Regency Irish supper table with hairy paw supports are each estimated at just €300-€500. A 19th century two door elm armoire (€150-€250), a Regency sofa table (€150-€250), a 19th century ebonised single door side cabinet (€100-€200) and an antique oak dresser (€80-€120) give a good idea of the value to be found.
The selection includes mirrors, rugs, torcheres, various chairs, work tables, desks, blanket boxes, trunks, teapoys and even some cast iron Guinness weather vanes at €60-€100. The auction is on view in Templetuohy today and tomorrow and the live and online sale will take place in Ballybrittas, Co. Laois from 10 am next Monday.
Regency rosewood and brass inlaid card table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 600 AT HAMMER
Untitled (1998) by Felim Egan (1952-2020) at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction. UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,000 AT HAMMER
Art by Donald Teskey, Basil Blackshaw, Sean Scully, Liam O’Neill, Barrie Cooke, Cecil Maguire, John Behan, Felim Egan and Markey Robinson leads Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art online auction. The sale, with 232 lots in total, draws to a close on Monday evening, September 7, and the catalogue is online.
Original Mazawattee Tea enamel sign. UPDATE: THIS MADE 200 AT HAMMER
This original Mazawattee Tea enamel sign is from Aidan Foley’s online sale of contents from the Groody Bar, Castletroy, Limerick on September 7. The auctioneer has not put an estimate on it but collectibles like this are popular and the entire pub contents are for sale. The name Mazawattee is a derivative of the Hindi word Maza meaning pleasure or fun and the Sinhalese word Wattee meaning a garden. There are 499 lots in the auction.
Elizabeth Cope (b.1952) – Still Life on Tabletop. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
This oil on board by Elizabeth Cope is at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art online auction, which runs until September 7. The estimate is 2,000-3,000. The sale offers a wide selection of work by Irish artists in various eras and genres, from John Butler Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, Markey Robinson and Nano Reid to Sean Scully, Basil Blackshaw, Majella O’Neill Collins and Felim Egan. The catalogue, with 232 lots, is online.
A desk from the early 18th century attributed to André Charles Boulle. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €486,400
More than 300 years old this remarkable desk dates to the end of the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV and is attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732). It bears all the hallmarks of his work. The projecting frieze drawer and emblematic masks resemble a famous series of drawings attributed to Boulle at the Musée des Art Décoratifs in Paris. The desk is one of a very small number of known examples to retain its original cartonnier, a small ornamental box for documents. Estimated by Christie’s at €400,000-€600,000 it is from the fabulous collection of Graziella Patino de Ortiz Linares (1900-1980) to be auctioned in Paris on September 23.
Masterpieces by Watteau and Fragonard stand alongside classical furniture and a magnificent collection of silver in an auction of 60 lots with an overall estimate of €23 million – €33 million. Among numerous highlights is Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Longed for Moment, or Happy Lovers, a composition characteristic of his lively and spontaneous style painted with great freedom. The estimate is around €2.5 million. A glittering figure in Paris in the 1920’s Graziella was daughter of the Bolivian business magnate Don Simon Iturri Patino (1860-1947) known as the Tin King. With refined taste and great erudition she built a collection over four decades in one of the most beautiful private mansions on the widest and one of the most expensive streets in Paris, Avenue Foch.
UPDATE: THE AUCTION REALISED €38,736,120
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) – The Longed for Moment or Happy Lovers. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €10.6 MILLION
A Killarney davenport UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
Some spectacular though not strictly speaking vernacular Killarney furniture has crept on to the catalogue for a sale now on at Adam’s. Headed by a profusely inlaid davenport the four top lots at the timed online Irish Vernacular auction which runs until Monday September 7 are fine Killarney wood pieces.
Highly decorated pieces like this were crafted for the commercial tourist trade. Vernacular furniture like dressers, sugán chairs, larders and blanket boxes locally made throughout Ireland was designed and built for utilitarian purposes in rural homes and farmhouses. Some of it is very fine and collectible.
The exceptional davenport, complete with carved bog oak pillars includes marquetry vignettes and trailing foliate motifs of shamrock, dog rose, oak leaf and ivy and would grace any sale. The estimate is €12,000-€16,000. A Killarney centre table has an estimate of €8,000-€10,000. There is as well a chess and draughts table and a circular centre table each estimated at €6,000-€8,000.
An 18th century painted larder. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER
Among an interesting selection of vernacular furniture on offer is a cerise painted shelved larder with panel doors, a green painted pine cupboard, a stained pine kitchen dresser, a green painted plate rack stand, a buttermilk painted kitchen table, a red and white painted three seater settle bed, an open spit rack, an unusual set of sugán ladder back chairs, a railback chair with a stained elmwood seat, various farmhouse kitchen tables, a sage green painted Irish folk chiffonier with an ornate carved gallery back,a green painted marriage chest and a bog oak book slide.
A red and white painted three seater settle bench. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
There is a decorative wrought iron harnen stand, used near open fires to dry and crisp oatcakes, a beechwood butter table, a 19th century wooden rocking cradle, a milking stool, a coopered churn and paddle, a domestic butter churn, a wrought iron rush light, willow baskets, a stained oak hedge chair, toleware cannisters and a carved bog oak quaintly named fisherman’s priest. This object was used to humanely and quickly kill a catch. The name derives from the idea that it administers the last rites to the fish.
There is no doubt about it. Vernacular furniture is attractive, evocative and suits many contemporary settings. In this auction it is matched with early 19th century Irish glass decanters, pedestal bowls, jugs and dishes, there is a selection of spongeware and a glazed ceramic mether cup, a stoneware flask, contemporary ceramics, art, Irish harps, duck decoys, Claddagh rings, banknotes and a number of smaller Killarney wood pieces. The catalogue is online.
John Crampton Walker (1890-1942) – A cottage by the dunes. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
Framed photographic portraits of the Showa Emperor and the Empress Nagako of Japan. UPDATE: THE CLOSING BID WAS €1,120
One of the more unusual lots at the timed online sale by South Dublin Auctions on August 30 is a pair of signed photographic portraits of the Showa Emperor Hirohito and the Empress Nagako of Japan. Each is hand signed by the emperor and empress in beautiful blue Imperial presentation leather frames. Handsigned items from Japanese monarchs are exceptionally rare as they were only gifted to heads of states or very senior diplomats. These are from the Dublin residence of David Neligan, former Irish ambassador to Japan and head of the Anglo-Irish section of the Department of Foreign Affairs for five years at the height of the Northern Troubles. Mr. Neligan died aged 90 in 2025. The portraits are estimated at €6,000-€12,000. UPDATE: THIS CLOSING BID WAS 2,400
The Frank Phelan studio timed online sale is at de Veres from August 27 to September 16. Irish born, Frank Phelan settled in London in the 1950s with sculptor Frank Morris, where he worked as a stagehand and set designer for a number of London theatres. He was a great drinking companion to Francis Bacon, who he regarded as his greatest artistic influence. Phelan eventually made his way to Penzance and St. Ives where he befriended Tony O’Malley and other figures in the St. Ives circle including Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron and Conor Fallon. He spent his time working between Cornwall and a studio on the Fulham Road. He had his first solo show in 1966 at the Richard Demarco Gallery. His work, represented by Demarco during these years, was shown alongside Joseph Beuys, Paul Neagu, Ron Kitaj and Dame Elizabeth Frink. His exhibited internationally and in England, where he was represented by the Walton Gallery, Cricket Fine Art, and in later years by the Messum Gallery (Cork Street). He rarely showed in Ireland. A life-long member and ex-Chairman of the London Sketch Club Frank Phelan worked until his death in 2023, aged 91. Estimates for over 100 works in the sale range from €200-€3,000.
Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita (1886 – 1968) – Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine),1949.
Following the record breaking results for Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection in London this year Sotheby’s Asia will offer The Foujita Lexicon: Works from the Lewis Collection in Hong Kong on September 28. The sale brings together 15 Foujita masterpieces from a collection forming the most celebrated private collection of the artist which traces six decades of the career of a distinctive figure in the Parisian avant-garde. The estimate is US$2.3 million – $3.45 million.
Rising to prominence within the vibrant Montparnasse community of 1920’s Paris Foujita moved in the same artistic circles as Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, and counted Chaïm Soutine, Henri Matisse and Fernand Léger among his peers. His unique fusion of Japanese and European artistic traditions established him as one of the defining voices of the era. This sale is the most comprehensive Foujita collection ever offered in Asia.
