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    BEATLES’ ORIGINAL MANAGEMENT CONTRACT SELLS AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, July 9th, 2019

    The Beatles’ original management contract with Brian Epstein was sold at Sotheby’s London today for £275,000. Signed by the band on 24 January 1962 the old piece of paper marked the beginning of the transformation of The Beatles into a band that would conquer the world.

    Manager Brian Epstein’s signature is conspicuously absent from this contract. He chose not to sign it, meaning that, whilst this contract bound Epstein to the Beatles, it did not bind The Beatles to Epstein. He explained: “It was because even though I knew I would keep the contract in every clause, I had not 100 per cent faith in myself to help the Beatles adequately. In other words, I wanted to free the Beatles of their obligations if I felt they would be better off.”

    A a collection of material relating to The Fab Four’s legendary performances in Hamburg sold for a combined £66,625. The city had become instrumental in the development of the British rock and roll scene by chance, thanks to a Liverpool club owner who ended up exporting English rock and roll bands to German bars. The Beatles had been going there since 1960, and performed at the Star-Club, the city’s leading rock venue managed by Horst Fascher. Two performance contracts for The Beatles at The Star-Club sold for £35,000 and £18,750 respectively. A collection of photographs and further materials relating to the Star Club sold for £11,875, many multiples of the estimate of £2,000-3,000.

    THE BEATLES’ CONTRACT

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    FIRST WRITING BY A HUMAN BEING ON THE MOON

    Sunday, July 7th, 2019

     The 50th anniversary of mans first landing on the moon on July 20, 1969 falls this month.  Christie’s is marking the occasion with One Giant Leap, an auction celebrating space exploration 50 years after Apollo 11.   The highlight of the sale, which takes place in New York on July 18, is the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book  used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to navigate the lunar module Eagle onto the surface of the moon.  It includes traces of moon dust and almost 150 handwritten annotations including Lunar Module Eagle’s coordinates on the lunar surface within moments of landing, marking the first writing by a human being on an extraterrestrial body.  This writing is illustrated in the image here.  The book is estimated at $7-9 million.  The sale will include nearly 200 artefacts from NASA missions of the Sixties and Seventies including the Gemini and Apollo programmes.

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    BUST EGYPT SAYS WAS STOLEN SELLS FOR £4.7 MILLION

    Thursday, July 4th, 2019

    The controversial Egyptian brown quartzite head of Tutankamen as the God Amen sold at Christie’s London this evening for £4,746,250. The Egyptian government foreign ministry claimed that it was probably stolen from an Egyptian temple during the 1970’s. Christies said they had not received any evidence from the Egyptian authorities about a problem and that they would not auction an object about which there were legitimate concerns. They published a chronology of the owners for the past 50 years.

    Christie’s stated: “This was a rare, beautiful and important work. We recognise that historic objects can raise complex discussions about the past; yet our role today is to work to continue to provide a transparent, legitimate marketplace upholding the highest standards for the transfer of objects. There is an honourable market for ancient art and we believe it is in the public interest that works come out into the open with the opportunity for them to be researched, as well as seen and enjoyed by global audiences.”

    The present lot was acquired from Heinz Herzer, a Munich-based dealer in 1985. Prior to this, Joseph Messina, an Austrian dealer, acquired it in 1973-74 from Prinz Wilhelm von Thurn und Taxis who reputedly had it in his collection by the 1960s.

    The brown quartzite piece is 11 inches high.

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    LEWIS CHESSMEN WARDER MAKES NEW WORLD RECORD

    Tuesday, July 2nd, 2019

    There was a new record for a medieval chess piece at auction today. A newly discovered warder attributed to the Lewis Chessmen workshop sold for £735,000 at Sotheby’s in London. The piece had been acquired for £5 in 1964 by an antiques dealer in Edinburgh and passed down in the same family by descent. It was stored away in his home before being inherited by his daughter, who believed it was special and perhaps imbued with some magical significance. The warder then passed onto the next generation of the family, who approached Sotheby’s to shed light on what was in fact an important historic artefact. Alexander Kader, Sotheby’s Co-Worldwide Head of European Sculpture & Works of Art, began a year-long study of the warder and deduced that the chessman could be one of the lost pieces of the Lewis group.

    The most famous chess pieces to have survived from the medieval world, the Lewis Chessmen were found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. The hoard comprised 93 objects, the majority carved from walrus ivory, which could make four complete sets of figure pieces, with the exception of one Knight and four Warders.

    Attributed to the Lewis Chessman Workshop
    Probably Norwegian, Trondheim, 13th Century

     

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    IRISH LOTS AT SOTHEBY’S ONLINE LITERATURE SALE

    Monday, July 1st, 2019

    A first edition of Gulliver’s Travels 1726-27 is among a number of Irish lots at Sotheby’s online sale of English Literature, Books, Childrens’ Books and Illustrations. The sale will include a 1654 Summary of Government Expenditure, Ireland, a copy of the Irish Proclamation estimated at £50,000-70,000 and lower half only copy of the Proclamation with an estimate of £8,000-12,000, paintings by Edyth Starkie, a pencil and watercolour caricature of George Moore by Max Beerbohm and various other lots. The sale opens for bidding today and runs until July 9.

    Gulliver’s Travels (£6,000-9,000).

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    AT HOME SALE AT JAMES ADAM DUBLIN

    Friday, June 28th, 2019

    The At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin at 11.30 a.m. on June 30 features a wide variety of lots including silver, art, antique furniture, jewellery and collectibles including a Lalique Ceylan glass vase and some Russian Gardner porcelain figures made in Moscow in the 19th century. The catalogue is online.

    A Russian Gardner porcelain figure of a peasant woman, Moscow, 19th century (1,000-1,500). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,500 AT HAMMER

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    ONE GIANT LEAP AT CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK

    Thursday, June 27th, 2019

    Nearly 200 rare artefacts celebrating space exploration 50 years after Apollo 11 will come up at Christie’s in New York on July 11. One Giant Leap: Celebrating Space Exploration 50 Years After Apollo 11 includes nearly 200 artifacts from NASA missions of the Sixties and Seventies including the Gemini and Apollo programs. The sale highlight is the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book ($7- 9 million) used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to navigate the lunar module Eagle onto the surface of the moon in July 1969. 

    Tranquility Base Photograph The iconic picture of Buzz Aldrin by Neil Armstrong inscribed by Aldrin with Armstrong’s name for the landing site. Buzz Aldrin was photographed by Neil Armstrong moments after both began exploring the surface of the Moon. This large image is inscribed “Tranquility Base, July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin and is estimated at $7,000-9,000.

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    IRISH SILVER MOUNTED CARRIAGE PISTOLS AT THOMAS DEL MAR

    Tuesday, June 25th, 2019

    A pair of 12 bore Irish silver mounted pistols by William and John Rigby, Dublin will come up at Thomas Del Mar’s auction of antique arms and armour in London on July 10. The DB Percussion carriage pistols are Numbers 10959 and 10960 for August 1859 and estimated at £12,000-15,000. They are in very good condition throughout.

    A pair of 12 bore Irish carriage pistols

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    OUT OF THE ORDINARY COLLECTIBLES AT SHEPPARDS

    Saturday, June 22nd, 2019

    Out of the ordinary collectibles like a pair of Chinese Qing astronomers chairs, a hardwood temple plaque, an electrified dolls house and a rather fine Cork Regency brass inlaid chest abound at Sheppards two day sale in Durrow on June 25 and 26. The sale offers residual contents from Castle Blunden in Co. Kilkenny as well as lots from other clients. The auction of over 1,200 lots is conveniently broken up into four sessions starting at 10.30 am and 2 pm on each day.  The Cork chest is distinguished by brass inlay and turned spiral columns.  It is estimated at 2,500-3,500.  A Neo Classical marble chimney piece is the sort of lot that might find a new home relatively easily in these post recession times.  This one, lot 825, is estimated at 4,000-6,000. There is a more modest estimate of just 100-150 on an attractive Victorian bentwood rocking chair.  The catalogue is online at www.sheppards.ie and there is iewing in Durrow is from 10.30 am to 5 pm for the next three days.

    Cork Regency chest of drawers  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER

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    GILMOUR’S GUITARS TOTAL $21.5 MILLION – ANOTHER PINK FLOYD RECORD

    Friday, June 21st, 2019

    The guitar collection of Pink Floyd singer and songwriter David Gilmour has become the the most valuable collection of musical instruments ever sold at auction at Christie’s in New York last night. The white glove auction of 126 guitars in New York totalled $21.4 million and attracted bidders from all over the world. His iconic 1969 Black Fender Stratocaster made $3.975 million, a record for any guitar sold at auction. The ‘Black Strat’ was Gilmour’s primary performance and recording instrument integral to recording many Pink Floyd’s greatest albums including The Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Dark Side of The Moon, as well as his solo albums. The start of the sale had to be delayed for one hour to accommodate the unprecedented number of bidders who queued around the block in Rockefeller Center.

    David Gilmour and his Black Strat

    The entire proceeds from the auction will be donated to the charity ClientEarth. This week in a statement David Gilmour said: “The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible. As Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist said in a speech earlier this year “Either we choose to go on as a civilisation, or we don’t”. The choice really is that simple, and I hope that the sale of these guitars will help ClientEarth in their cause to use the law to bring about real change. We need a civilised world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”

    The previous record for collection of musical instruments was Eric Clapton’s guitar collection which sold in 1999 ($5,072,350) and in 2004 ($7,438,624), realizing $12,510,974 in total.

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