Around 850 lots will come under the hammer at Sheppards sale of design décor, decorative art, fine spirits, art, sculpture, rugs,
silver and jewellery. in Durrow on January 29. No less than 80% of lots from the Decor Decoded sale will be offered without reserve. The catalogue is online. Here is a small selection:
19th century Japanese blue and white vase
Fishing on a Mediterranean coast by Henri Baret
George III sideboard
A pair of 19th century Japanese ceremonial chairs.
A portrait of Mrs. Gertrude Coutts by Sir John Lavery (1856-1941) is stamped “B. Kellerman Painters Supplies, New York”. It measures 28′ x 20′ and is estimated at 4,000-8,000. Among the furniture is a pair of Irish rosewood fold over card tables c1820 and an 18th century Irish mahogany hunt table. There is an early 20th century Arts and Crafts silver goblet and a collection of jewellery.
Portrait of Mrs. Gertrude Coutts by Sir John Lavery UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,200 AT HAMMER
A pair of Irish 19th century fold over card tables.UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
Fine jewellery, watches and silver will come under the hammer at O’Reilly’s on Francis St., Dublin on January 23. Diamonds, sapphires, pearls, peridots, amethysts and all sort of coloured stones feature in a jewellery selection that includes rings, bracelets, brooches, pendants, earrings and watches in various styles and across all price ranges. There is more than 500 lots and the selection includes silver, miniatures and art. The catalogue is online.
A founder of the Irish Picture Postcard Society Seamus Kearns (1929-2014) began collecting stamps in the 1930’s and fell in love with old postcards in the 1950’s when he started amassing this collection. He provided many exhibitions around the country including a show at the Guinness Hopstore in 1994. The main value is in Irish topographical and historical Irish cards. There are views of villages and towns from the early 1900’s to the 1950’s. Historic events like the 1916 Rising are covered. Every county is represented with views which show a transition from muddy roads and horse drawn vehicles to tarmac, trams, buses and motor cars. Auction estimates range from 50 to 3,000. The collection has been broken up into 500 lots with a total estimated value of 50,000-70,000. The number of cards per lot varies from ten to over 3,000. A collection of 110 cards of Belfast is estimated at 50, a collection of Irish advertising cards is estimated at 3,000. The catalogue is online and the sale can be viewed at Whyte’s from January 23.
Lot 411 is an album of 480 mixed advertising and Art Deco cards UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400
Patrick’s Hill, Cork from an album of 130 cards of Cork and Queenstown (200-300). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 50
A collection of 45 postcards of Lucan (80-120). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 300
Lot 311 is an album of 120 Irish advertising cards (200-300) UPDATE: THIS MADE 400
A silver presentation given to Gustav Wilhelm Wolff (1834-1913), one of the founders of the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, comes up at an auction in Surrey next February 27. Presented in 1911, a year before Titanic set sail from the shipyard, it comes up at Catherine Southon’s sale at Farleigh Court Golf Club at Selsdon in England. Wolff served as a Belfast Harbour Commissioner and founded Belfast Ropeworks in the early 1870’s. Like Edward Harland he served as a member of parliament for Belfast East from 1892 to 1910. In 1911 he was awarded the freedom of Belfast.
UPDATE: The silver casket sold for £9,728 over a top estimate of £3,000.
A postcard of William St., Galway
Over 100,000 postcards will be offered by Whyte’s in Dublin on January 26. The collection was formed by Dubliner, Seamus Kearns (1929-2014). He began collecting stamps in the 1930s and fell in love with old postcards in the 1950s, since when he started amassing this collection. A founder of the Irish Picture Postcard Society, he provided many exhibitions around the country, including a major show at The Guinness Hopstore in 1994. The main value is in Irish topographical and historical Irish cards – views of villages and towns from the early 1900s to the 1950s as well as historic events such as the 1916 rising. With the advent of texting and selfies the sales of postcards have gone into decline but this collection shows what we are missing today – not only the wonderful images but also the thoughtful messages. Pictured is a card showing William St., Galway in by gone days. A bit of Christmas nostalgia for our readers, to whom we wish a very happy Christmas.
Auctions at Sotheby’s worldwide totalled $5.3 billion in 2018. This is a 12% increase over 2017. Online buyers spent more than $200 million this year and 25% of all lots sold in 2018 were sold online. The top lot of the year at any auction house was Modigliani’s Nu Couche which sold for $157.2 million in New York in May. This was the highest auction price in Sotheby’s history.
Queen Marie Antoinette’s pearl sold for $36.2 million in Geneva in November.
Amedeo Modigliani Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) Signed Modigliani (lower left)
There was a new world auction record to Tiffany Studios at Christie’s Design auction in New York when a rare Pond Lily lamp made $3.3 million. The lamp dates to c1903. The sale totalled $8.4 million and was sold 84% by lot and 96% by value.
A three part centrepiece by Francois Xavier Lalanne made $250,000 over a top estiamte of $150,000 and an urn by Frank Lloyd Wright made $567,500.
A single owner French Art Nouveau glass sale Masterpieces in Glass: The Nakamoto Collection brought in $2.7 million. The top lot of this auciton was a Lys vase by Émile Gallé which sold for $444,500. This is the second highest press ever achieved for Galle.
There is a wide variety of lots, from silver and porcelain to jewellery, antique furniture, art and collectibles at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on December 16. The sale is at 11.30 a.m. There is a timed online sale, At Home Part II which starts at 2 p.m. Catalogues for both sales are online. Here is a small selection:
A REGENCY INLAID ROSEWOOD RECTANGULAR DOUBLE DROP LEAF SOFA TABLE, (1,000-1,500) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
AN IRISH 19TH CENTURY DESSERT DISH, by Herbert Cooper, Molesworth Street, Dublin (100-200) UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
DESMOND CARRICK RHA (1928-2012)
Figures walking the promenade (400-600) UPDATE; THIS MADE 480 AT HAMMER
A NAPOLEON III CORAL PARURE (800-1,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
The key to the Eccles St. home of Leopold Bloom. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £7,500
A key created by James Joyce to help his friends keep track of Ulysses comes up at Sotheby’s book sale in London on December 10. Seven copies were produced in total as the author ever wanted it to be shared too widely. In his words ‘If I give it all up immediately, I’d lose my immortality. I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant”. However by 1930 it has been seen so widely that Joyce allowed its publication. Another lot in the sale is the latchkey to Leopold Bloom’s fictional home at 7 Eccles Street, Dublin. In Ulysses, Bloom’s missing latchkey has been interpreted in Freudian terms as a symbol of his loss of potency, and in political terms as a synecdoche of Irish dispossession before Independence, but given Joyce’s careful mapping of Dublin in the novel it is also a key to a real front door – the home of one of Joyce’s friends. The key was rescued by a Joyce scholar when the house was demolished in the 1960s. The house’s front door was also reclaimed and is now exhibited at Dublin’s James Joyce Centre.
A little more background on the story of the key in Ulysses – Bloom leaves his latchkey behind in the pocket of yesterday’s trousers when he departs from his home at the beginning of his day’s odyssey. He had reminded himself several times to pick up the key before going out, and his annoyance at his own forgetfulness recurs several times in the novel. Finally, when Bloom staggers home in the early hours of the morning with Stephen Dedalus , he puts his hand in his empty pocket to retrieve his key, so he has to hop the fence and come in by the back door.
Sotheby’s specialist Gabriel Heaton said: “So our sale has two keys to Ulysses. One is a secret that was never kept but has guided generations of students through the novel; the other once unlocked a front door that now opens onto a brick wall. The very fact that these items still attract such interest shows that Joyce’s immortality is safe enough, and one cannot help but think that Joyce himself would have taken great pleasure in the appearance at auction of his fictional hero’s lost key.”
The current example is one of three copies of the definitive English schema to precede the novel’s publication, the other two being for the translator Valery Larbaud and the publisher Sylvia Beach. The online sale runs December 10.
UPDATE: The schema sold for £47,500, the key for £7,500.