A rare and important dress sword at Adams Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall. UPDATE; this made 280,000 at hammer
A rare dress sword set with diamonds in 18 carat gold with London hallmarks for 1800-01 will lead Adams annual two day Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall near Drogheda. Presented by the East India Company to Armagh born Lt. Col. Barry Close, later Major General Sir Barry Close (1756-1813), a skilled negotiator and linguist, it is estimated at €300,000-€400,000. Close was a pivotal figure in the Mysore campaigns against Tipu Sultan. Viewing gets underway at Townley Hall on October 11. The sale on Monday week October 13 will be online only and the live auction of lots 400-825 will be held at Adams, St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin on October 14. The catalogue is online.
This 18th century scribal manuscript made €35,000 at hammer at Fonsie Mealy.
An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation was the top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s two day sale on October 1 and 2. It made €90,000 at hammer. Other top hammer prices were €35,000 for an 18th century scribal copy of Keating’s History of Ireland for Edward Denny and €18,000 for a collection of working papers for Seamus Heaney’s poem Remembering Malibu. The programme for the 1913 All Ireland hurling final at Jones Road made €11,000, a match ticket for the Bloody Sunday match at Croke Park in 1920 made €9,000 and a 1924 All Ireland hurling medal made €6,000. A collection of documents relating to the Sinn Fein bank of 1908-1924 made €7,500 and a c1599 rare first state Boazio map of Ireland made €6,000. The sale made more than €5,000 on the hammer.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 27, 2025)
A MAGNIFICENT AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT IMPERIAL WINTER EGG BY FABERGÉ. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,895,000 (€26,008,720)
Commissioned by Emperor Nicholas II as an Easter gift to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna the Winter Egg will be offered by Christie’s in London on December 2 during Classic Week with an estimate of in excess of £20 million. The Easter gift to his mother was in 1913, the year of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty. The creative genius of Fabergé’s most celebrated female designer Alma Theresia Pihl – exquisitely executed by her uncle workmaster Albert Holmström – it is among the most lavish of Fabergé’s Imperial creations and widely regarded as one of the most original and artistically inventive Easter eggs that the house created for the Imperial family. Believed lost for almost two decades, between 1975 and 1994, The Winter Egg has previously set the world record for a work by Fabergé not once but twice: when it was offered by Christie’s in 1994, upon being rediscovered, and again in 2002.
The egg is finely carved in rock crystal, delicately engraved on the interior with a frost design, while the exterior is applied with rose-cut diamond-set platinum snowflake motifs, with two vertical diamond-set platinum borders concealing a hinge on the side and a cabochon moonstone dated 1913. The egg is on a rock-crystal base formed as a block of melting ice, applied with rose-cut diamond-set platinum rivulets, centering a platinum pin in the middle to support the egg, and opens to reveal the ‘surprise’ suspended from a platinum hook. This comprises a double-handled trelliswork platinum basket, set throughout with rose-cut diamonds, full of finely carved white quartz wood anemones, each spring flower with gold wire stem and stamens, the centre set with a demantoid garnet, the leaves delicately carved in nephrite, emerging from a bed of gold moss. The sale will offer important works by Fabergé from a princely collection.
UPDATE: The Winter Egg sold for £22,895,000 (€26,008,720), setting a new world auction record for a work by Fabergé for the third time in its storied history, all at Christie’s.
A selection of 18th century Chinese painted enamels from the Palmer family collection
Art of Asia, a dedicated online auction of Chinese works of art at Christie’s from October 30 to November 12, is led by the final chapter of the Palmer family collection, a distinguished legacy built over three generations by the family that founded the Reading-based biscuit company Huntley & Palmers. Comprising 112 lots the Palmer collection includes Chinese ceramics and works of art from the Song (960-1127), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties (1644-1911), all with exceptional provenance. Among the sale highlights are six enamel ruby backed dishes Yongzheng period (1723-1735), a pale blue ground painted enamel dish 18th century acquired from Spink & Son Ltd, London in 1937, a selection of finely painted 18th century enamels and a rare famille rose black back flowers and bird dish with the Yongzheng six-character mark. The auction will coincide with Asian Art in London from October 27-November 6.
FLORENTINE PIETRA DURA MOSAIC HARDSTONE BROOCH. UPDATE: THIS MADE 600 AT HAMMER
This Florentine hardstone brooch inlaid with a lily of the valley motif is lot 23 at The Jewellery Box timed online sale by James Adam in Dublin on October 7. It is mounted in gold and silver and estimated at just €150-€200. The sale offers 295 lots with estimates from €50-€80 to €7,000-€8,000. It will be on view at Adams from October 3-6 and the catalogue is online.
A Rolls Royce Corniche at Victor Mee’s sale in Tipperary. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An original copy of the Irish Proclamation in Castlecomer, a Sheik’s Rolls Royce at New Inn in Co. Tipperary, art in Dublin and a reminder of nuns on the run – what is not to like among the auction offerings in Ireland this week.
An original copy of the Proclamation, first, limited and signed editions by Irish and international authors, a collection of Seamus Heaney material, rare maps, fine bindings and the earliest extant programme for the 1913 All Ireland senior hurling final are all included in Fonsie Mealy’s rare book and collectors sale in Castlecomer on October 1 and 2.
An original copy of The Proclamation at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 90,000 AT HAMMER
More than 1,200 lots, headed by the Proclamation with an estimate of €100,000-€150,000, will come under the hammer. Rarities include an 18 carat gold medal presented in 1846 to Timothy O’Brien of Johnston Mooney and O’Brien for his continued exertions in the manufacture of bread from Indian corn (Trevelyan’s corn) (€15,000-€20,000). A scribal manuscript of Keating’s History of Ireland, transcribed for the use of Edward Denny of Tralee Castle, is similarly estimated. The antiquarian and local history library of the late Tony Bocking of Kinsale is included. The sale will be at the Avalon House Hotel and the auction is on view at Fonsie Mealy’s next Monday and Tuesday. The catalogue is online.
A Rolls Royce in a convent auction recalls the group of elderly Poor Clare nuns who made international headlines in 1990 after selling their convent in Bruges and moving to a life of luxury in the South of France. Alas, Victor Mee’s sale of contents from the Convent of Mercy at New Inn in Co. Tipperary, which includes both a Rolls and a Bentley, will feature lots from other clients too.
The Hooper built Rolls Royce Corniche in the sale was once owned by Sheik Abdelaziz bin Ahmed Al Thani. Lot 914 and estimated at €60,000-€120,000. A 1992 Bentley is more modestly estimated at €6,000-€12,000. The wide ranging collection on offer will include antique furniture, collectibles, Irish art, clocks, lighting, kitchen equipment, carpets and rugs among 1,200 lots.
A 19th century Killarney work table at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
There will be much interest in a Killarney wood work table (€5,000-€8,000), a specimen marble chess table (€5,000-€8,000), an Irish Georgian breakfront bookcase (€3,500-€5,500) and a 19th century French clock garniture (€2,000-€4,000). Artists Edwin Hayes, Louis le Brocquy, Peter Curling, Cecil Maguire and Graham Knuttel will feature along with an Adoration of the Christ Child, a 19th century Italian work after Corregio. A sandstone two tier fountain is estimated at €2,000-€3,000 and there is some garden sculpture. The auction on September 28 is both online and in room, the sale on September 29 will be online only.
An All-Ireland hurling final programme from 1913, the first final at Jones Road, at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE €11,000 at hammer
PAIR OF 19TH-CENTURY GAINSBOROUGH ARMCHAIRS IN BUTTONED LEATHER UPHOLSTERY
This handsome pair of library armchairs will come up as lot 238 at Sheppard’s three day sale in Durrow from October 7-10. The Legacy of the Big House sale will offer around 1700 lots of Irish and international art, furniture, sculpture, lighting, arms, books and decorative objects. Viewing gets underway in Durrow on October 4 and the catalogue is online. The chairs are estimated at €5,000-€8,000.
Arthur Maderson – Evening shadows on the beach. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
This small oil on canvas by Arthur Maderson is lot 28 at Dolan’s timed online autumn auction of Irish art, rare whiskies and collectibles which runs until September 29. The sale features the work of 20th century and contemporary Irish and international artists and emerging talents in the world of Irish art. This lot is estimated at €2,800-€3,500. A collection of nine Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys leads the auction with an estimate of €4,800-€6,500.
William IV combination games/sewing table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 320 AT HAMMER
A Regency inlaid teapoy, William IV games/sewing table or a Georgian davenport. Any of these petite antique furniture items would grace a modern house or apartment and all three will come under the hammer with reasonable estimates at Woodwards in Cork on September 27. The teapoy and the games table are reckoned to make €400-€600 each while the davenport has an estimate of €500-€800.
There is a good selection of antique pieces in this sale, from a harlequin set of Cork 11-bar dining chairs (€1,000-€1,500), a Victorian walnut tallboy (€400-€600) and a Georgian hexagonal cellarette (€600-€800) to an Irish Regency secretaire bookcase (€1,000-€1,200), a Georgian walnut bureau (€800-€1,200) and a Georgian kneehole desk (€400-€600). All have provided sterling and elegant service for many years and can do so for many more. The auction offers a large gilt framed mirror (€600-€800), a set of four gilt framed mirrors (€1,000-€1,500), a selection of Persian rugs and three French chandeliers and many other items of interest. The catalogue is online.
A rare Cork Queen Anne fireplace surround UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The lifetime collection of Nobel Antiques, the Cork antique fireplace specialists, will be included in Hegarty’s online auction on September 24. Exceptional marble fireplaces and accessories will feature, including a rare Queen Anne Cork fireplace made from locally quarried stone, similar to one at Howth Castle. Among the period 19th century fireplaces is one from Cork’s South Mall. A c1880 Italian marble fireplace was in the Jack Lynch room at the Metropole Hotel in Cork where Michael Collins is believed to have stayed once. The collection includes club fenders, insets, period Georgian accessories and columns and the sale includes antique furniture, jewellery and collectibles.
