A contract signed by Marlon Brando, a Charlie Chaplin signed vinyl and Eric Clapton’s autograph are among the lots on offer at a sale of the private collection of the late American film producer Elliott Kastner. An online sale by Excalibur Auctions on March 13 features the collection of the producer of films like Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Missouri Breaks (1976) and Angel Heart (1987). This collection includes photographs, personal letters, posters, unmade film scripts, advertising press packs, books, artwork and pictures from Kastner’s office at London’s Pinewood Studio. About 80% of his archive was donated to the British Film Institute.
If you are looking at ways to ward off evil and spice up your garden or an interior space at the same time Woodwards sale in Cork on March 13 might have the answer. A pair of antique Qing Dynasty foo dogs – also known as stone lions or shishi in Japan – is on offer with an estimate of €2,000-€3,000. These highly stylised lions originated in Chinese Buddhism and are thought to offer protection from harmful spiritual influences or people. A popular decorative feature found everywhere from imperial palaces to the entrances of restaurants and supermarkets they are an ideal additive in 2021, though vaccines are even better.
The selection on offer includes an Edwardian games table (€600-€1,000), a bureau bookcase (€600-€1,000), a kidney shaped desk (€400-€600), an Oriental pod table (€300-€500), a Georgian library table (€300-€500), a William IV work table (€300-€400) and a Georgian Pembroke table (€300-€500). A pair of Coalbrookdale garden benches (€1,500-€2,000) and a five piece patio set will also be offered. The sale features items from the estate of the late Stan Cussen who was well known in Cork as owner of the Planes, Boats and Trains model toy shop on Princes St. and the Farmhouse cafe and cake shop.
Pair of Qing Dynasty Foo Dogs. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
With everything from a rare Victorian steeplechase board game, a pair of 19th century model brass cannons, a suite of three Paul Storr meat covers and a painting of the East Indiaman Hotspur leaving Tyne on her maiden voyage in 1851 by William Garthwaite Sheppards online sales by Sheppards in Durrow on March 11 and 12 are brimful of interest. On offer are contents from Eyrefield Lodge Stud at The Curragh, home to Sir Edmund and Lady Susan Loder, as well as some other clients of Sheppards. Equestrian portraits, wonderful antique oak furniture, ceramics, glass, garden and conservatory pieces, racing memorabilia, wines and all the trappings of an exceptional home and garden come up at this sale. The steeplechase game dates to c1865 and is attributed to E.C. Spurin, London. Complete with mahogany cased board it is estimated at €800-€1,200. At the other end of the scale is a colourful Louis le Brocquy Aubusson tapestry of a garlanded goat with an estimate of €50,000-€80,000. A 19th century breakfront bookcase is estimated at €30,000-€40,000 but much of the fine furniture in this sale is far more affordable. There are wine tables, work tables, chairs, chests of drawers and cabinets including an attractive George III with vaulted back and scallop shell interior (€800-€1,200). The suite of three Paul Storr silver meat covers dates to 1811 and is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. A Chinese puce enamelled chrysanthemum dish is estimated at €800-€1,200 and a large Chinese porcelain jardiniere on stand is estimated at €1,500-€2,500. The pair of 19th century model brass cannons are estimated at €500-€800. The 1851 oil on canvas by William Garthwaite is estimated at €800-€1,200 and two pairs of Art Nouveau stained glass panels are each estimated at €400-€600. For the convenience of online bidders the auction of more than 800 lots will be broken up into four sessions, each of around 200 lots at 10 am and 2 pm on each day. The catalogue is online.
Rare Victorian steeplechase board game. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
This pair of Dublin Chippendale carvers come up at Sheppards online auction of contents from Eyrefield Lodge Stud at The Curragh, home to Sir Edmund and Lady Susan Loder, on March 11 and 12. The c1900 chairs are estimated at 1,500-2,500 and come up as lot 95. There are 860 lots from Eyrefield Lodge and other clients and for the convenience of bidders the sales are broken up into four sessions of around 200 lots each.
A match ticket to the fatal Bloody Sunday game at Croke Park in 1920 sold for a hammer price of 7,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s collectors sale on March 3. It had been estimated at 2,000-3,000 and after competitive internet bidding it went to a buyer in Ireland. Shootings at the game followed the early morning assassination of eleven British Intelligence Agents, “The Cairo Gang,” in an operation organised by Michael Collins. The British retaliated later that day at Croke Park. Military and Auxiliary Forces fired into the a crowd indiscriminately, killing twelve people and wounding about sixty. A total of 73 issues of Limerick War News, later the South Western Command War News from July to October 1922 sold for 6,500 at hammer. This is one of the rarest of all Civil War journals.
De luxe edition of the Harry Potter series aroused much interest. A first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets signed by J.K. Rowling made 5,000 at hammer; a signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made 4,800 and a signed de luxe edition of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone made 4,000.
Anyone for a prototype of Bono’s Gretsch Irish Falcon model 6136 electric guitar? The Gretsch family, one of the most celebrated names in the music industry, is opening up their archive for the first time to benefit their music foundation. On offer live and online at Juliens Auctions, Beverly Hills, on March 26 and 27, is part of their collection of guitars. These were used as early generation prototypes of signature instruments by music legends like Bono, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Chet Atkins, Brian Setzer and many more. Gretsch has been the premier manufacturers of the worlds finest guitars and drums since 1883. Among the highlights of the sale is Bono’s prototype, which comes complete with green finish, two pickups with The Goal is Soul on the pickguard and gold hardware. The estimate is $8,000-$10,000.
No matter what your area of interest happens to be there is much in Fonsie Mealy’s Collectors’ Sale online from Castlecomer on March 3 to keep you occupied during this long lockdown. Literature, local and national history, sport and cinema all feature. These sales always throw up lots that offer insights into the day to day working lives of people like Michael Collins or the late Victorian and Edwardian Corkonians who mounted what seems to me to be the best show this city ever produced, the Cork Exhibition of 1901-02. A typed letter from the Aire Airgead (Minister for Finance) of 1920 is in fact a typically businesslike response from Michael Collins to a request from Skibbereen. Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (1873-1965), Gaelic League organiser, poet and Volunteer, had sought assistance for local fishermen. Collins, as minister, promised action but advised that the first thing to be done was to set up a co-operative society “as we deal only with Societies and not with individuals”. The letter, lot 407 in a sale of 673 lots, is estimated at 400-600.A letter of June 2, 1920 from Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, to the Superintendent, Great Southern and Western Railway, supports a request from Messrs. Henry Ford of Cork for two sleeping carriages to be attached to the mail train between Cork and Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). The letter, estimated at €450-€650, is on black bordered official notepaper following the assassination of Lord Mayor Tomas MacCurtain. By any standards the Cork Exhibition was a magnificent event. Insight into the largely forgotten organisers might be found in lot 378, a 1911 book entitled Cork and County in the 20th century, Contemporary Biographies by Rev. R.J. Hodges edited by W. T. Pike, estimated at €200-€300.Lot 315 is a Maharajah’s photo album gift to engineer Vincent Hart. It is inscribed; “To V. Hart Esq., Superintending Engineer, Madras. With the best compliments of Ramchandra, Maharajah of Jeypore”. He was responsible for building the Mettur Dam on the River Cauvery, at that time the biggest solid gravity dam in the world. He retired to Cork and died at his house at Lotabeg on the Lower Glanmire Road in 1939. The album is estimated at 1,000-€1,500. A selection of sporting memorabilia includes lot 616, the match programme for the 1945 All Ireland Football Final between Cork and Cavan (Cork won by 2-5 to 0-7) and some Munster Championship official programmes. Among the cinema memorabilia are posters for The Field, Ryan’s Daughter and Michael Collins.
The programme for 1945 All Ireland Football Final between Cork and Cavan. UPDATE: THIS MADE 600 AT HAMMER
A cased pair of Japanese porcelain tea bowls decorated with foliage and the gilt mythological bird known as Fenghuang presented to Princess Michiko at a tennis tournament come up at Hegarty’s online only auction of antique furniture, art, jewellery and collectibles in Bandon on February 28. The lot includes a black and white photograph of the princess inscribed with the year 1961. Four years earlier Michiko Shoda played a game of mixed doubles against then Crown Prince Akihito. It was and it wasn’t a love match. The Crown Prince lost the match and his heart. Michiko won the prince and the game. Their wedding marked the first time in the 2,600+ years of the Yamato dynasty that someone born neither a princess nor an aristocrat married into the Imperial household. The bowls are estimated at €400-€600. If that story has struck some sort of romantic chord then how about a vintage square cut yellow sapphire and diamond ring. Hegarty’s has just the one, estimated at €5,000-€7,000. Among other lots of note is a pair of matching 19th century inlaid cutlery urns (€8,000-€10,000) and a watercolour by Douglas Alexander titled Among the Crohyboyle Mountains (€2,000-€4,000). There is an Art Deco peridot and diamond ring (€5,000-€9,000), an Italian Art Deco silver ice bucket (€3,500-€7,000) and an Edwardian Sheraton Revival sideboard (€1,000-€2,000). The sale offers one of the first three printings of the trade editions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (€800-€1,500). The March 1903 version includes all 30 illustrations, mostly by Quentin Blake, reduced to 27 thereafter.
Cased pair of Japanese bowls. UPDATE: THESE MADE 420 AT HAMMER
A poster for True Grit, the film for which John Wayne won an Oscar, comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Collectors’ Sale online from Castlecomer on March 3. Directed by Henry Hathaway the film starred John Wayne, Glen Campbell and Kim Darby. The poster is estimated at 120-180 in a sale of collectibles including literature, local and national history, sport and cinema.
All lots sold and 72 of the 75 on offer made more than their top estimates at Christie’s Deep Impact: Martian Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites online only sale from New York. It brought in $4,351,750 and attracted bidders from 23 countries across five continents. A slice of the moon, the fourth largest in this world, made $525,000 over a top estimate of $350,000 and a sphere fashioned from a lunar meteorite made $500,000 over a top estimate of $25,000. A 1.7 gram sample of the planet Mars sold for $13,750, worth more than 100 times its weight in gold.
