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Barcelona, a 1998 watercolour on paper by Sean Scully, is lot 16 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale which runs until October 24. The estimate is 50,000-70,000. Viewing for the sale gets underway today in Skibbereen and continues over the weekend until Monday. The sale will be on view at the Minerva Suite of the RDS from October 20-23.
Designed in 1930 this Barcelona day bed by Mies van der Rohe comes up as lot 6 at de Veres art and design auction on October 24 in Dublin. The sale features around 200 lots of classic design Danish and Italian furniture
and lighting by some of the major names of the 20th Century including Mies van Der Rohe, Ingmar Relling, Marcel Breuer, Charles & Ray Eames, Rolf Benz and Ligne Roset. The Barcelona day bed shares the same simple elegance as the iconic lounge chair of the same name and is estimated at €4,000-€6,000.
This Frida Kahlo portrait is from the collection of Jerry Moss, the M and A&M Records. Thirteen works from his collection will be showcased in a single-owner section of Christie’s 20th Century evening sale in New York on November 9. Jerry Moss was a music industry giant who played a critical role in establishing careers of the biggest musical acts in history—Sting, Janet Jackson, Peter Frampton, Cat Stevens, Carole King, and countless more. Moss’s art collection comprises a fantastic group of objects that span a range of genres, representing the European avant-garde, icons of Latin American art, and contemporary masters.
Highlights include: Friday Kahlo’s Portrait of Cristina, My Sister ($8 million – 12 million) and Tamara de Lempicka’s Fillette en rose ($7 million – 10 million) two deeply personal portraits by women of their immediate family members—the first, of the artist’s sister and the second of the artist’s daughter. The top lot of the group is Picasso’s Nu couché, estimated to achieve $10 million – 15 million. Subsequent property from the collection will be sold in the Marquee Week day sales and the Design sales in December. In total, the collection is estimated to realise in excess of $50 million, with partial proceeds to benefit The Music Center.
This pair of Kangxi parrots with late 19th century ormolu mounts made a hammer price of €32,000 over a top estimate of €8,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at today. The mounts for the Famille Verte biscuit figures are stamped MB for Theodor Millet. A pair of 1776 elliptical side tables to a design by Wyatt made €50,000, a George III three pillar extending dining table made €19,000, a pair of capriccio Italian landscapes by Willem van der Hagen made €22,000 over a top estimate of €3,000, an Irish George III hall table made €55,000, Lady Nugent’s Hunter by John Ferneley snr made €32,000, an Irish mahogany rectangular side table made €17,000, an 18th century Gisburne Park Rules board made €9,000, The Salmon Leap at Leixlip by Thomas Roberts made €26,000, and a portrait of William Hoare Hume of Humewood by Robert Lucius West made €20,000.
The Blessington Commode attributed to John Kirkhoffer was bought prior to the sale by the National Museum of Ireland.
This bronze statue of the Emperor Napoleon was the top lot at the opening day of the James Adam Country House Collections sale today. It made a hammer price of €8,000 over an estimate of €2,000-3,000. The statue is on a grey marble bow front plinth with imperial gilt bronze appliques to the front and sides. An oil on canvas signed and dated by Joseph Sempill, Belfast 1873 made €4,800 over a top estimate of €4,000 and a c1800 Thames Valley Windsor chair made €4,600 over a top estimate of €4,000. This was a timed online only sale.
The Country House Collections sale continues live and online at St. Stephen’s Green at 11 a.m on October 10.
This pair of Irish George II carved giltwood armchairs, one bearing the label R Stahan and Co., come up at Sotheby’s in New York on October 17 as part of a sale of Classic Design: Furniture, Silver and Ceramics. They are estimated at $100,000-$150,000. The chairs may have been commissioned by Charles Moore, 1st Earl of Charleville, an Irish peer and wealthy owner of large estates in County Limerick and Charleville Forest in County Offaly, who died without issue in February 1794, the estates passing to his nephew John Bury in 1764, who would himself pass away only six months later, leaving his newborn son Charles William as heir. Charles would become an Irish MP and later peer and was made Earl of Charleville 2nd creation in 1806. He used his large fortune to commission the architect Francis Johnston (d.1829) to erect a new house on the Charleville estate between 1800 and 1812 in the form of a medieval castle. Following the death of the 5th Earl without issue in 1875, Charleville Castle and its contents passed to his sister Lady Julia, who had married Captain Kenneth Howard-Bury (1846–1885), and their son Charles would inherit the estate in 1931.
Charles Kenneth Howard-Bury was a colourful character from the waning generations of the Anglo-Irish elite. Following his education at Eton and Sandhurst he joined the army and was sent to India, where he developed a taste for exploration, learnt Hindi and Urdu and went on tiger and crocodile hunting expeditions. After distinguished service in Flanders during World War I he returned to India and went on the first British expedition to Mount Everest, where he described wolves’ footprints in the snow that were mistranslated as belonging to an ‘Abominable Snowman’, thus giving rise to the expression for the first time. On his return to Ireland he resided at Belvedere House, a lakeside Palladian villa designed by Robert Cassels in 1740 inherited from his cousin Charles Brinsley Marlay in 1912. Whilst serving in the army during World War II, Howard-Bury met the RAF pilot Rex Beaumont (1914-1988) who became his companion and settled in Ireland after the war. A former Shakespearean actor informally known as ‘Sexy Rexy’, Beaumont and Howard-Bury became prominent local figures and entertained lavishly, their guests reputedly including Princess Grace of Monaco, the Crown Prince of Sweden, Charlie Chaplin and Elizabeth Arden.
The sale includes two pieces attributed to William Moore, a c1780 demi lune side table ($30,000-$50,000) and a c1790 demi lune commode ($50,000-$80,000).
Bleu Royal, the largest internally flawless fancy vivid blue diamond ever seen at auction will come up at Christie’s in Geneva on November 7. Fancy vivid blue diamonds of over 10 carats are practically unheard of in the saleroom. Only three have come up in more than 250 years at Christie’s. This 17.61 carat pear shaped stone combines a rich colour and flawless purity. In the same collection for the past 50 years it remains among the rarest to have been unearthed. Prices for top quality coloured diamonds have increased exponentially in recent years. The estimate is $35 million – $50 million (€32.8 million – €46.8 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $43.8 million.
One of Pablo Picasso’s most unique still lifes, containing coded references to his famed “Golden muse,”
Marie-Thérèse Walter at a time when their clandestine affair remained a secret, comes up at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York on November 13. Compotier et guitare was completed the day before Valentine’s Day while in the throes of his secretive affair with Marie-Thérèse. It was not until later in 1932 with the opening of Picasso’s celebrated retrospective at the Galeries Georges Petit in Paris that their affair would become public. Selected by Picasso to star in this exhibition (the first and only time he installed his own work), Compotier et guitare’s veiled portrait was exhibited alongside numerous portraits of Marie-Thérèse, announcing to the world that she was his muse. It is estimated in the region of $25 million, placing it among the most valuable still lifes by the artist at auction.
Cottages on Achill Sound by Paul Henry will be a highlight at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale which runs until October 24. One of finest West of Ireland scenes it has for many years been in a private collection in Dublin. The painting depicts three traditional thatched cottages by a track leading down to the Atlantic seashore. Most of Henry’s views of Connemara and Mayo include mountains. In this he has turned away from the land and faced towards the ocean. The estimate is €100,000-€150,000. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Gerhard Richter’s Abstract Painting is among the highlights at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening sale in London on October 12. It is estimated at £16-£20 million. Other contemporary highlights including a study for a portrait by Francis Bacon and art by Philip Guston, Robert Ryman, Sigmar Polke and Sean Scully.
This October, Sotheby’s will once more bring together two series of sales in London and Paris, coinciding with the world renowned Frieze and Paris + par Art Basel art fairs. The auctions will present a diverse selection of works by the most exciting artists emerging on the auction scene, alongside established titans of the 20th and 21st centuries.
