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A sleigh might not be exactly what is needed in rainy Ireland right now but who knows what the rest of the winter will bring? This one comes up at Aidan Foley’s online two day relocation auction of lots from “Weddings by Franc” on November 7 and 8. From chair covers and tablecloths to decorative mirrors and candle holders, tables, lamps, lanterns and Frosty the Snowman this sale of more than 1,000 lots offers and enormous variety of lots for weddings, parties and Christmas events.
Sotheby’s annual Irish Art sale in London on November 21 and 22 will be part of a newly created flagship sales series of Modern British & Irish Art. Evening and Day sales will comprise 54 lots of Irish art and feature the most beloved and esteemed names of the genre with works from the descendants of Sir John Lavery along with art by Jack Butler Yeats, F.E. McWilliam and Gerard Dillon. Together, they are estimated to bring in the region of £2 million. The sales will headline Sotheby’s British & Irish Art week – a dedicated week celebrating the artistic landscape of Britain and Ireland from the 19th to the 21st century.
Two works by Lavery, a Moorish Hareem and Ariadne, are each estimated at £300,000-500,000 / €343,830-573,050. They are from direct descendants of the artist. The Donkey Show and The Trotter by Yeats are estimated respectively at £400,000-600,000 / €458,440-687,660 and £80,000- 120,000 / €91,688 – 137,532.
The Day sale will comprise a dedicated 49 lot portion of Irish art, featuring classical Irish artists like Yeats and Dillon as well as a strong selection of works by contemporary artists including Hughie O’Donoghue, Linda Brunker, Orla de Bri, Richard Hearns, Melissa O’Donnell, Jack Coulter, Rowan Gillespie and Nick Miller. Works will be on view at Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin between November 9-12 and in Sotheby’s New Bond Street galleries in London from November 17- 21.
This tiara from the collection of Baroness Inchiquin (1868-1940) comes up at Sotheby’s sale of Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels in Geneva on November 8. The descendants of Brian Boru went on to be the Kings of Thomond. In 1543, Murrough O’Brien, the last King of Thomond, submitted his realm to Henry VIII. In order to do so, he had to renounce his ancient Irish titles, instead he was granted the titles Marquis of Thomond, and Baron Inchiquin. Their ancestral seat is Dromoland Castle in Co. Clare.
Lucius O’Brien, The 15th Baron, Lord Inchiquin (1864–1929), Prince of Thomond and chief of the name was born in England and started his military career in Royal Irish Riffles. Upon succeeding to the title of Lord Inchiquin, 15th Baron, he served as an Irish representative in the House of Lords. His spouse, Lady Inchiquin, née Ethel Jane Foster attended the coronation of King George V in 1911 wearing the natural pearl and diamond tiara. Estimated at 170,000-180,000 Swiss francs (€176,980-€187,390) it is one of three jewels in the sale which belonged to the late Lady Inchiquin. Her diamond brooch is estimated at 6,000-8,000 Swiss francs (€6,250-€8,330) and a c1900 devant de corsage is estimated at 24,000-35,000 Swiss francs (€24,990-€36,440).
Legendary designers like Eileen Gray, Niels Otto Moller, Arne Vodder, Mario Bellini, Finn Juhl and Angelo Lelli and a curated selection of artists from Dorothy Cross, Nathalie du Pasquier, Sinead ni Mhaonaigh to John Shinnors, John Boyd and Guggi feature at Adams autumn Mid-Century Modern timed online sale which runs until November 7. Design highlights in a selection that includes tables, chairs, lighting, mirrors, cabinets, glassware and desks include a five piece “Camaleonda” sofa by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia, one of the first truly modular sofa designs (€10,000-€15,000), and the Transat chair by Eileen Gray (€2,000-€3,000). Art highlights include Road to Carraroe by John Shinnors (€15,000-€20,000), Untitled by the French born Milan based artist and designer Nathalie de Pasquier (€4,000-€6,000) and Brompton V by the English expressionist abstract artist Albert Irvin (1922-2015). Viewing from this sale of 20th century design and contemporary art gets underway at Adams next Friday (November 3) and the catalogue is online.
With everything from a signed January 1922 letter written by Michael Collins to a set of ten armorial side chairs from Fota House, a Killarney wood library table and an Egyptian New Kingdom amulet the Gentleman’s Library sale at Sheppards in Durrow on November 7 and 8 is brimful of interest. It offers an exceptional array of fine library furniture, lighting, early Irish cartography, Irish and European art, Pre-Colombian art, sculpture, Egyptian and Roman artefacts, vintage wine, rare whiskeys and books including a collection of 84 broadsides by Jack B Yeats and recently discovered manuscript letters from Michael Collins and Padraig Pearse.
The Collins letter, written on Gresham Hotel embossed note paper, is dated 2/1/1922 and estimated at €4,000-€6,000. Dated 27/6/12 the letter signed by Padraig Pearse is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. A fine Killarney wood arbutus library table is estimated at €15,000-€25,000 and a set of 10 Fota House Armorial side chairs has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.
Any library would be set off by a 19th century hide upholstered roll back settee or an Edwardian brass and hide upholstered club fender, each estimated at €1,400-€1,800. A George III Irish breakfront bookcase and an 18th century carved giltwood console table are each estimated at €4,000-€6,000.There is a selection of early Irish cartography in the form of four c1610 engraved and hand coloured maps of Munster, Leinster, Ulster and Connaught by John Speed. Each one is estimated at €500-€800. An Extensive landscape with travellers and cattle by James Arthur O’Connor has an estimate of €25,000-€35,000 and an untitled oil on envelope laid on board by John Constable is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. Art by George Barret, Hugh Douglas Hamilton and Dan O’Neill is among the highlights. Lots on offer from around the world include an Egyptian New Kingdom faience amulet (€3,000-€5,000), a 16th century Peruvian ceramic character ewer (€500-€800), a Roman bronze mask (€800-€1,200) and a c1680 Flemish tapestry (€2,000-€3,000). Silver includes two bright cut Limerick serving spoons by Maurice Fitzgerald (€3,000-€5,000) and an 1893 Russian Imperial silver and rock crystal urn (€800-€1,200). The wine selection includes a 2010 case of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and there is a bottle of Midleton Very Rare Whiskey from 2000. The sale will be on view in Durrow from November 4 and the catalogue is online.
Highlights of the Karpidas collection to be sold at Sotheby’s in Paris next Monday and Tuesday include stellar works by Claude and Francois-Xavier Lalanne, Marlene Dumas, Damien Hirst, George Baselitz, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas and Nan Goldin. Manchester born Karpidas is an international collector who has surrounded herself with artists for decades. Her home on the Greek island of Hydra has long been a getaway for artists, collectors and curators. There will be an evening sale on October 30 and a day sale on October 31.
Styled The Lissadell Mirror’ this early to mid 19th century gilt overmantel was purchased directly from the Gore-Booth family. Dating to 1840-60 it comes up as lot 523 at Sean Eacrett’s sale of fine art, antiques and collectibles in Ballybrittas, Co. Laois on November 2. It is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. The catalogue, with over 1,000 lots, is online.
Connemara Landscape, a small oil on canvas by Eileen Meagher, comes up as lot 12 in Morgan O’Driscoll’s off the wall online art auction which runs until October 31. The sale offers an affordable collection with lithographs and prints by William Crozier, Damien Hirst, Paul Henry, Roy Lichtenstein, Joan Miro, pencil drawings, watercolours and oils by a wide range of popular Irish and international artists. The catalogue is online.
Padraig Pearse’s 1913 membership card for The Irish Volunteers is the top lot at Whyte’s History sale on November 11. The rarity of this treasure is reflected in an estimate of €150,000-250,000. It is inscribed in Pearse’s own hand in indelible pencil: Pádraic Mac Piarais Sgoil Éanna and numbered 100. The card was gifted by Pearse’s mother Margaret to Micheál Mac Ruaidhrí, thence to his daughter Brid who gifted it to the family of the present owner.
Micheál Mac Ruaidhrí was a mentor and confidant to Padraig Pearse. Dubbed ‘the greatest seanchaí of our time’ by the scholar and patriot Eoin MacNeill, and known to Professor Douglas Hyde, Ireland’s first President, as ‘The Mayo Poet’ because of the musical quality of his Irish he was born in Mayo in 1860. Mac Ruaidhri suffered from poor eyesight and as a result spent just two days in school, preferring instead to occupy his days with the elders of his area. In the process he amassed and retained a vast knowledge of folklore, sagas, history, song and music, all of which he dearly loved, whilst also gaining a genuine love for and understanding of the soil.
As a young man Micheál went to Dublin and worked as a gardener at Stradbrook Estate, Blackrock, before striking up a relationship with the revolutionary and educationalist Patrick Pearse. From the foundation in 1908 of Pearse’s Cullenswood School in Ranelagh, Dublin, Micheaál taught practical gardening and horticulture and in 1910, he, together with his bride, the former Alice Wallace, relocated with Pearse to the Hermitage in Rathfarnham, the site of the future and much celebrated Scoil Eanna -‘St. Endas.’ The Hermitage was to be the site of a new school for boys based on the ancient Irish custom of fosterage, while Cullenswood became a girls school which Pearse named Scoil Íde. St. Enda’s influence on the 1916 Rising is evident by the list of those participants who taught at or attended the school. In addition to Mac Ruaidhri and his assistant Patrick Donnelly and the patriot Pearse brothers, Patrick and Willie, other revolutionaries such as Thomas MacDonagh, Eamon Ceannt, Con Colbert and Fergus de Burca also taught there, as did the writers Padraic Colum and Standish O Grady. Desmond Ryan who fought in the GPO and and Joseph Sweeney who was a sniper on the roof of the GPO were among the sixteen St. Enda’s pupils who participated in the 1916 Rising.
Mac Ruaidhri was in the G.P.O. Dublin, with Pearse on Easter Monday 1916, and stood beside Pearse as he read the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Due to his bad eyesight and the fact that he was 56 years of age at the time, he was ordered back to St. Enda’s by Pearse with instructions to destroy or hide secret documents. Following the suppression of the 1916 Rebellion, Mac Ruaidhrí was arrested and imprisoned in Frongoch Prison, Wales: at the time he was the oldest prisoner in the gaol and spent his days teaching Irish and history to the other rebel inmates. On his release he returned to St. Enda’s and resumed his career as gardener. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, a treaty he disagreed with, MacRuaidhri took no further part in politics and concentrated instead on his writing and folklore collecting. Those who sought out his wisdom and knowledge included Eamon De Valera, Dr.Douglas Hyde and Micheál Ó Tiomaindhe (Michael Timoney 1870-1940). Micheál MacRuaidhrí died in May, 1936 aged 76 at his home, St Enda’s Lodge, was buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.
The sale of classic 20th century design furniture and Irish art at de Veres in Dublin on October 24 offers some cutting edge Irish design alongside a selection of major international designers like Mies van der Rohe, Ingmar Relling, Marceel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, Rolf Benz and Ligne Roset. The Ivy Bench by Irish sculptural furniture maker Sasha Sykes is an acrylic and resin piece from an artist who explores the material language of the natural world and is influenced by the Irish landscape. The most expensively estimated lot, at 70,000-100,000, is a west of Ireland painting by Paul Henry of the Maam Valley.
