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A family photograph with Christy Brown.

The last remaining archive of material relating to the work of Christy Brown  (1931-1981), the Irish writer and painter whose life inspired the Oscar winning film, My left Foot, was sold at Bonhams in London today for £37,500.   It had been estimated at £30,000-40,000.

It was bought by the National Library of Ireland and the National Archive.   The material purchased includes previously unseen sketches, paintings and unpublished poems as well as a large cache of correspondence and writings.  At its core are his private letters, in particular, his life- long correspondence with Katriona Maguire who started visiting Christy in his adolescence and nurtured his love of writing and painting. The 43 letters – five written with his left foot before he was advised to stop doing this in order to develop more control over this other limbs – run from 1945-1976, five years before his death. They include his most personal thoughts and observations amounting in the words of Brown’s biographer, Georgina Hambleton, ‘almost to a spiritual diary’.

Christy Brown became an international celebrity with the publication of his best selling autobiography, My Left Foot, in 1954. His work gained new recognition when a film of the book was released in 1989.  Daniel Day Lewis won the first of his three Academy Awards for Best Actor for his portrayal of the writer.

The Meiyintang Chenghua “Chicken Cup”
UPDATE: SOLD FOR US$36.05 MILLION, A WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A PIECE OF CHINESE PORCELAIN.

Sotheby’s will offer a “Chicken Cup”  –  the most expensive, most sought-after and most reproduced Chinese objects since the Ming dynasty –  at their Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art spring sales in Hong Kong on April 8.  The Meiyintang Chicken Cup – estimated at $25.6-38.5 million US – is one of only four preserved in private hands. The Meiyintang Collection is Europe’s grandest collection of Imperial Chinese porcelain.

First created in the Chenghua reign (1465 – 87), “Chicken cups” have been praised, desired and reproduced by Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) emperors and other discerning literati collectors.  With a legendary aura that goes well beyond their immediate art-historical importance,“chicken cups” have in modern days set record prices for Chinese art in 1980 and 1999.

Chenghua “Chicken cups” were produced in extremely small quantities. Apart from the present example, only three others are preserved in private hands and no more than a few of the world’s most prestigious museums can boast an example among their collections, including The National Palace Museum, Taipei; the British Museum, London; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Collections Baur, Geneva.  The present example was sold at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 1999 for $3.7 million US.

UPDATE:  It sold for a world record price of US$36.05 million to Shanghai collector Mr. Liu Yiqian.

The censored film poster. A dress was superimposed on the bikini worn by Ursula Andress in the original. UPDATE: This made 3,800 at hammer.

THE connection between the actress Ursula Andress and the onward march of time in Ireland might not at first sight seem all that obvious.  But it is neatly captured in one particular lot at Whyte’s sale of History, Literature and Collectibles in Dublin on March 9.  On offer  among more than 900 lots is a censored James Bond film poster for Dr. No.  In it a dress has been superimposed on Ursula Andress, who wore a bikini in the original.  The poster is estimated at 600-800 and the auction is now on view at Molesworth St. in Dublin.

The Sunday interiors sale at James Adam in Dublin on March 9 is now on view.  The auction, with more than 580 lots in total, is strong on silver and also offers furniture, art, wine and collectibles.  Two of the more unusual furniture items are some oak Gothic Revival pieces after Pugin.  The catalogue is online.  Here is a small selection:

A SET OF SIX GOTHIC REVIVAL OAK DINING CHAIRS, AFTER EDWARD WELBY PUGIN (1834 – 1875), 19th Century (2,000-3,000)  UPDATE: THESE MADE 13,000

A GOTHIC REVIVAL OAK DESK AFTER EDWARD WELBY PUGIN (1834 – 1875), 19th Century (800-1,200)  UPDATE: SOLD FOR 1,100

A Cork 18th century silver punch bowl by William Reynolds (2,500-3,500)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500

A ROMAN MARBLE STATUE OF THE YOUNG HERCULES
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D. three and a half inches high (£100,000-150,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.,2014.

A rare statue of the young Hercules leads Christie’s sale of Antiquities in London on April 2.  A total  of  199  lots which span the ancient world from the 3^rd Millennium B.C. to the 11^th Century A.D. are on offer.  The sale expected to realize more than £2 million.  The Hercules, formerly in the Roger Peyrefitte (1907-2000) Collection in Paris is estimated at £100,000-150,000. Peyrefitte was a French diplomat and novelist, whose collection, including this piece, was published in 1972. Further highlights include a pair of Egyptian alabaster canopic jars for Tau-Iert-Iru (£50,000 – 70,000) and a Roman marble Fortuna, previously in the collection at Harewood House (£25,000 – 35,000).

The statue shows him wearing the Namean lion skin, which was won in his first labour.  The Romans followed the Greek taste for artistic  renderings of infants. Depictions of Hercules as an infant abound but there are few representations of him evident as a plump child, as here.