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    FEAST OF INTERIORS AUCTIONS FOR IRISH COLLECTORS NEXT WEEK

    Saturday, September 2nd, 2023
     A pair of Regency gilt bronze Armorial lustres at Sheppards. UPDATE: THESE MADE 460 AT HAMMER

    Offering everything from a carved Black Forest standing bear and fine antique furniture to a restored Steinway boutique grand piano there will be a feast of interiors auctions for Irish collectors next week.  No less than nine days of sales will be packed into just four days up and down the country on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Catalogues for all auctions are online and all are now on view.  Aidan Foley’s online hotel interiors sale can be viewed at Prussia St. in Dublin and includes a life size Black Forest Bear (€1,200-€1,600). This two day sale takes place on September 4 and 5. Adams At Home sale featured on these pages last week is in Dublin on Monday. Victor Mee’s three day Decorative Interiors sale on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is headed by a Steinway grand (€20,000-€30,000) and is on view at Cloverhill in Co. Cavan. Meantime a selection of fine antique furniture from Sheppards two day interiors sale on  Tuesday and Wednesday is on view in Durrow, Co. Laois.

    A restored Steinway boutique grand piano at Victor Mee UPDATE: THIS MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER

    With 1,287 lots Aidan Foley’s sale kicks off with a selection of mirrors, lighting, bedside lockers, tables and chairs.  There are some decorative metal wall hangings and plenty of framed pictures and prints.  There is a selection of banqueting tables and chairs, restaurant tables, sets of open armchairs, sofas, desks, tableware, kitchen equipment, advertising signs, a bronze bust of Michael Collins (€1,600-€2,000) and more than enough to open an hotel and decorate it too. The fully restored rosewood Steinway boutique grand piano at Victor Mee’s three day decorative interiors sale in Belturbet, Co. Cavan which gets underway on Tuesday evening is estimated at €20,000-€30,000.  Lot 382 is the most expensively estimated piece in the auction. Other top lots include a 19th century ebonised inverted breakfront credenza and an early 20th century French moulded stone gazebo with a wrought iron top, each estimated at €8,000-€12,000.  With everything from wrought iron entrance gates to a Georgian longcase clock and a set of 1950’s Louis Vuitton luggage the sale offers a huge variety of furniture and collectibles including a 19th century French burr walnut music box and a vintage metal childs pedal car.

    An Arts and Crafts inlaid secretaire at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    Fine antique furniture is a feature at Sheppards sale of over 700 lots on Tuesday and Wednesday. From 18th century parcel gilt console tables and a set of ten Regency dining chairs to an 18th century Danish silver tea urn and a monumental carved wood American eagle and a 19th century satinwood period pier cabinet there is much to tempt collectors.  Rarities include a cast iron Great Southern Western Railway plaque (€120-€180), a 17th century leather wine pouch (€350-€600), a collection of nine oval Indian miniatures painted on ivory (€1,800-€3,000) and a pair of Regency gilt bronze armorial lustres (€500-€700). The timed online At Home sale at James Adam offers more than 400 lot with examples of Art Nouveau, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Deco, 19th century French furniture, a Victorian framed settee, an ebonised credenza and a selection of silver along with carpets, runners, kilims and prayer rugs.  This auction ends from 11 am on Monday.

    AN 18TH CENTURY IRISH GLASS CENTREPIECE AT SHEPPARDS

    Friday, September 1st, 2023
    IRISH 18TH-CENTURY CUT GLASS CENTREPIECE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    This Irish 18th century cut glass centrepiece with hobnail decoration and lobed rim is lot 160 at Sheppards two day sale in Durrow on September 5 and 6. It is estimated at €500-€700. There are 706 lots in total in this sale of antique furniture, art and collectibles. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Durrow from September 2-4.

    NOT JUST ANY £26,000 (AND RISING) MOUSTACHE COMB

    Thursday, August 31st, 2023
    Freddie Mercury’s silver moustache comb, Tiffany & Co., late 20th century. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £152,400

    Freddie Mercury’s silver moustache comb has caught the imagination of the public and is a surprise hit of the series of sales at Sotheby’s in London and online due to get underway next week. Estimated at £400-£600 the current bid stands at £26,000. The London exhibition at Sotheby’s, Freddie Mercury, A World of his Own, has already drawn 40,000 visitors. It runs until September 5, the day before the live auctions begin.

    ROTHSCHILD MASTERPIECES AT CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK

    Sunday, August 27th, 2023

    Rothschild Masterpieces at Christie’s in New York next October will include a magnificent selection of 600 lots of decorative and fine art.  The first ever North American sales of objects from one of the great collecting families in history comprises objects assembled in France by two generations of Rothschilds mostly during the latter half of the 19th century. Highlights include The Triumph of David, a set of Dutch School painted and embossed leather panels laid down on canvas, a third quarter of the 16th century Limoges enamel charger, a Dutch silver gilt mounted nautilus cup (Delft 1607) and an Italian 16th century oval armorial dish. They were purchased by Baron James and his wife Betty and Baron Alphonse and his wife Leonora for their palatial Chateau de Ferrieres outside Paris (it opened in 1862 with a gala attended by Napoleon III) and for their houses in the city.  The chateau was donated to France in 1975.  The total estimate for this selection of furniture, enamels, maiolica, Renaissance jewels, silver and paintings is in excess of $20 million (€18.24 million). There is to be an evening sale at the Rockefeller Center on October 11, two days sales on October 12 and 13 and an online sale.

    AT HOME SALE AT JAMES ADAM IN DUBLIN

    Saturday, August 26th, 2023
    Still life with Flowers by Lily Williams (1874-1940) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER

    f you seek to add beauty and interest to your surroundings the timed online At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin on September 4 is a good place to start. The appetising selection of large and small pieces across various price points ranges from conversation pieces like a French Art Deco figure of a young woman in a green dress to mirrors, desks, antique furniture, silver, lanterns and even a cast iron garden bench modelled with oak boughs. The catalogue cover lot is a Still Life with Flowers by Lily Williams ARHA (1874-1940) the artist and Republican who fell out with her Unionist family during the Easter Rising.  Work by Williams, who designed the Cross of Cong postage stamp used in Ireland from 1922-1968, does not turn up very often at auction.  The oil on board is estimated at €1,000-€1,500.  Among other art lots are miniature portraits from an Irish collector and a painting of Sunset over a Churchyard by the English artist Daniel Sherrin. The highly collectible silver on offer includes a pair of serving spoons by the Cork maker John Toleken, an 18th century butter dish by Paul Storr and a fruit basket by the English silversmith Hester Bateman (1708-1794) renowned both for her flatware and ornamental work.
    The Arts and Crafts Movement features in the sale with lots including a secretaire with classic decorative motifs by George Montgomery Ellwood (1875-1955), large copper chargers, an oak dresser and an oak chest.  There are examples of 19th century French furniture in Kingwood and marquetry including a marble topped credenza and a secretaire in the Louis Quinze taste along with a good choice of useful domestic antique furniture pieces from curio tables to chairs, teapoys and a circular burr walnut  tilt top table. There is a selection of overmantles and mirrors, as well as various types of lighting from chandeliers and a brass standard lamp to a hexagonal hall lantern and an unusual pair of  brass and polychrome enamel column lamps.  English, European and Oriental porcelain on offer includes dinner and tea services and there is a range of carpets, kilims and rugs.

    George III rectangular kneehole desk. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER

    TWO DAY HOTEL INTERIORS AUCTION IN DUBLIN

    Friday, August 25th, 2023

    This life size Black Forest sculpture of a standing bear is among the top lots at Aidan Foley’s two day hotel interiors auction at Prussia St. in Dublin on September 4 and 5. A total of 1,260 lots will come under the hammer. Among the main ones there is art by Marie Carroll, Markey Robinson, Ann Marie Bourke, Graham Knuttel and a pencil drawing by Jack B Yeats, there is a bronze bust of Michael Collins, some old whisky distillery mirrors and a big selection of hotel furniture and fittings at very reasonable estimates. The Black Forest bear is estimated at €1,200-€1,600 and the catalogue for the sale is online. Viewing in Dublin gets underway on September 1. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER

    BELLEEK CAT AMONG FREDDIE MERCURY’S CRAZY LITTLE THINGS

    Wednesday, August 23rd, 2023
    An Irish white glazed figure of a seated cat, Belleek, 1930s

    This 1930’s Belleek cat is one of a number of Irish lots in the online sales of the Freddie Mercury collection now ongoing at Sotheby’s. The cat is lot 1501 in the Freddie Mercury, a World of His Own sale, Crazy Little Things, which runs until September 11. The white glazed cat is estimated at £50-£60 but such is the popularity of the sale that it will make a lot more. Lot 1587 in the same sale is a large group of mixed European linen damask and cotton. It comprises various large damask linen cloths some with matching napkins, other white work embroidered and pulled-work table cloths, napkins and various other small groups of napkins, tape lace place mats, together with two new unused Irish ‘Fingal’ linen double damask cloths, ‘Celtic’ and ‘Chrysanthemum’ designs, a box of six new ‘Chrysanthemum’ design napkins and a group of 28 new ‘Artraco’ white spotted napkins. The estimate is £400-£600 but again these will sell for a lot more.

    In the live At Home sale in London on September 8 is a c1760 George III giltwood mirror described as possibly Irish. The estimate is £2,000-£3,000.

    AUGUST LIVE ONLINE AUCTION AT HEGARTY’S IN BANDON

    Sunday, August 20th, 2023
    A decorative 19th century walnut work/dressing table. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    A late 19th century walnut combination dressing table and work table is among the antique furniture highlights at Hegarty’s August live online auction which takes place on August 22.  The cabinet, adorned with open fretwork with delicate scrolling and foliate detail, is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. A William IV specimen table is estimated at €2,500-€3,500 and a pair of William IV armchairs have an estimate of €900-€1,000. The sale offers more than 250 lots of art, furniture and collectibles from a private collection in Kinsale.  There is an oil on board by Arthur Maderson titled Autumn Sunlight, a watercolour of Cork Docklands by Norma Healy and  an oil on canvas by Martin Stone, Gorsefire.  An Art Deco inspired Ceylon sapphire and diamond cluster ring is estimated at €6,500-€8,500.

    BERGMAN PHEASANTS TO FLY IN BANDON

    Thursday, August 17th, 2023
    Franz Bergman (1898-1963) Bronze painted pheasant. UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS UNSOLD

    A pair of cold painted bronze pheasants by the Viennese Franz Bergman foundry come up at Hegarty’s live online sale in Bandon on August 22. The pair are impressed with the makers mark “B” and each one is numbered. The Bergman was noted for detailed and colourful work and the estimate on the pair is €800-€1,000. The sale of 290 lots includes art, antique furniture and collectibles from a private collection in Kinsale.

    A RENAISSANCE LIBRARY AT SOTHEBY’S IN NEW YORK THIS OCTOBER

    Tuesday, August 15th, 2023
    Council of Trent. Canones et decreta sacrosancti oecumenici et generalis Concilii Tridentini, sub Paulo III, Julio III, et Pio III. Rome, 1564. This volume was bound in Rome in the shop of the “Ruiz Binder,” assumed to be the successor to Maestro Luigi, and working regularly for the Vatican.

    A Renaissance library of magnificent books and bindings will come up at Sotheby’s in New York in October. Bibliotheca Brookeriana, the T. Kimball Brooker Library of Renaissance Books and Bindings is the only library with the theme and concentration of Brooker’s ever assembled outside of Europe. There will be an unprecedented series of eight auctions of treasured texts celebrating the history of western thought and the art of bookmaking. Collector and scholar T. Kimball Brooker diligently assembled a carefully curated, extraordinary library of more than 1,300 sixteenth-century French and Italian books in their original bindings across more than six decades. Estimated to achieve in excess of $25 million, the collection will be presented in a live evening auction in New York this October – marking the first dedicated Books & Manuscripts evening auction in New York in a decade.

    Among the countless treasures is the largest collection of editions from the renowned Aldine Press to come to the market in a century. Numbering approximately 1,000 volumes published roughly from the 1490s to the 1590s, the grouping represents the largest private collection of these revered and highly collectible texts in existence, with other comparable collections held in prominent institutions including University of California, Los Angeles; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester, England; and
    The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. A series of eight dedicated sales will begin with a live evening sale on October 11 and the first sale dedicated to the Aldine editions on October 12.