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The lure of nostalgia is strong. The popularity in Ireland of sales of pub and old advertising memorabilia is undimmed. There are 659 lots in Victor Mee’s advertising, pub memorabilia and collectibles sale online from Belturbet, Co. Cavan on August 5. These days were are all harking back longingly to life BC (before Covid). This sale was originally scheduled to take place on July 22.
Contents from Osberstown House, Naas, Co. Kildare will come under the hammer at an online sale by Fonsie Mealy on July 27. More than 600 lots will come under the hammer. Viewing will be available by appointment on July 23, 24 and 26. The sale will be live online in Castlecomer, but there will be no public attendance.
HIS time in power continues to fascinate generations later. Now Sotheby’s plans to commemorate the bicentenary of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death with an online auction in September dedicated to the Emperor whose extraordinary destiny continues to fascinate two hundred years after his passing. The sale will offer an extensive overview, with works spanning two centuries of art history and all fields: from 19th-century to contemporary art, sculpture, silverware, furniture, porcelain, jewellery and photography, as well as memorabilia of the Emperor and his loved ones.
Among the most exciting lots in the sale is an emblematic bicorne, a hat that has become inextricably linked with Napoleon’s image. Only nineteen bicornes have been authenticated as having belonged to the Emperor, of which this is one, with a number in the collections of museums worldwide.
An important collection of Irish silver comes up at Bonhams in London on July 28. The auction of silver and objects of vertu includes 28 pieces from the Peter Ticher collection including a 1798 Cork freedom box by Carden Terry and Jane Williams. This was awarded to Major General William Loftus, a British army officer and member of parliament. The collection includes many pieces inherited from his father, Dr Kurt Ticher who with his wife, Ellen, emigrated from Germany to Ireland in the 1920’s, settled in Dublin and became naturalised Irish citizens. Kurt developed a keen interest in Irish Georgian silver and built up a large collection and publishing several books and papers. Part of his collection was donated to the National Museum of Ireland and the rest was distributed to his family. His eldest son, Peter, had also developed a passion for Irish silver and continued to add to his collection throughout his life. Among the highlghts are a set of four mid 18th century cast silver candlesticks by Michael Fowler, Dublin c1755, a George III Irish silver dish ring by Richard Williams, Dublin, 1771, an Irish silver scissor wax jack by Thomas Walker, Dublin c1735 and an Irish provincial silver bullet teapot by William Clarke of Cork and Dublin, c1728.
UPDATE: The collection made £87,678. The Cork freedom box made £7,650. A set of four mid 18th century Irish silver candlesticks by Michael Fowler, Dublin c1755 made £8,925.
The first published edition of James Joyce’s Dubliners comes up at an online sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby’s in New York until July 16. One of a number of works by Joyce in the auction it is estimated at $80,000-$120,000. It is one of approximately 746 copies bound in the publisher’s maroon cloth, with the very rare dust-jacket. A ticket pasted to the rear states that it was de-acidified in 1989. Only six copies in jacket have appeared at auction in the past forty-five years. Sotheby’s say that despite the restorations noted, this is an attractive, near-fine copy.
The sale offers first editions of A Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses by Joyce as well as a letter from Oscar Wilde to Aimee Daniell Beringer and a copy of Wilde’s A Woman of No Importance. The catalogue is online.
One of only two known surviving copies of the earliest football rules printed by the world’s first football club, Sheffield Football Club, in 1859 comes up at Sotheby’s in July. The sixteen-page pamphlet, recently discovered bound in a Victorian scrapbook, is estimated to make £50,000-70,000 in London on July 20, with bidding open online from July 12-20. Established in 1857, Sheffield Football Club predated the founding of the Football Association by six years, and is acknowledged by both the FA and FIFA as the world’s oldest football club. The formal rule-based game of football was a Victorian innovation, incubated at public schools and universities. However, it was the foundation of Sheffield Football Club that brought the game into the community.
This pamphlet is also uniquely revised to keep it up to date with developments in the laws of the game. The most significant is the hardening of the rules against handling the ball. The 1858 rules allowed the ball to be “pushed or hit with the hand” but not held (law 8), but in this copy a printed slip disallows “knocking or pushing [the ball] on”. A handwritten note finesses the throw-in, specifying that the ball must “touch the Ground before coming in Contact with any player” (law 10). A new law (law 12) is also added by hand, requiring that flags be placed four yards from each goal post (this was to allow a short-lived secondary scoring system called a rouge). These revisions must have been made before 1862, when the club issued a new rulebook that included these and other changes.
This copy of the Sheffield FC rules was preserved in a scrapbook compiled by a local clergyman, the Rev. Greville John Chester (1830-92). The club’s historic archive was sold at Sotheby’s in 2011 for £881,000.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £56,700
One of the masterpieces of the Marlborough Collection, The Arundel Zodiac, a rare 16th-century astrological intaglio set in a virtuoso enameled gold pendant, will highlight Sotheby’s third Small Wonders auction online from July 9-15. The sales showcase early gems and jewels from the ancient world through to the early 19th century. The Arundel Zodiac was once in two of the greatest gem collections: the Arundel and Marlborough collections. Like most of the Arundel gems, it is likely to have once been owned by the Gonzaga dukes of Mantua. It is centered by a rare 16th-century intaglio carved with Jupiter astride an eagle, flanked by Mars and Mercury, and Neptune underneath. The composition relates to a design by Raphael engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. The whole is encircled by a frieze with the signs of the Zodiac. Only three such Zodiac gems exist from the period, in: the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. no. 3706); the Cabinet des medailles, formerly the French royal collection; and the present Arundel Zodiac which is estimated at £120,000-£180,000.
A collection of Communion tokens, derived from the Irish wars of religion of the mid 1600’s, comes up at a sale of Coins, Tokens and Historical Medals at Dix Noonan Webb in London on July 6 and 7. Amassed over many years by Delmas Parker, an American, the collection comprises 72 lots, totalling 455 pieces, mostly from the northern counties like Antrim, Down and Derry. Most of the towns and villages in Northern Ireland are represented in the collection. Protestants assembled in large church meetings, which served, not just as religious meetings, but also as political gatherings. To keep track of just who was attending these larger meetings, which were subject to activities of political spies and people that did not belong, communion tokens came into being. They were given to known local congregants by the priest or pastor. The tokens would be surrendered at the larger church meetings. They acted as passes, allowing members from smaller congregations to assemble in larger churches and not be deemed political spies or unrepentant sinners.
A presentation pair of Armada pattern silver claret jugs are included in a collection of Irish silver at Dreweatts online auction in Newbury, Berkshire on July 7. Made by John Smyth and Sons of Grafton St. they were presented to Dublin Lord Mayor George Moyers in 1881. The estimate is £3,000-£5,000. Other Irish pieces in the sale include a George III silver salver, a George II cream jug, a mid 18th century silver bowl and a twin handled silver cup by Robert Calderwood.
MORE than 300 lots will come under the hammer at Hegarty’s live online auction in Bandon on July 4. Among them are a pair of late 19th century silver tazzas made in Dublin c1892 with the maker mark MH. They are estimated at 700-1,400. The sale features antique furniture, jewellery and collectibles. The catalogue is online. UPDATE: THESE MADE 550 AT HAMMER.
