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A Chinese Ming-style blue and white yuhuchunping vase made 180,000 at Sheppards in Durrow today.

This white jade Qing seal made 630,000 at Sheppards in Durrow. (Click on image to enlarge).

The base stamp with Sheppards seal of approval. (Click on image to enlarge).

A Chinese Qing period white jade seal made 630,000 at Sheppards in Durrow today. The top lot came at the culmination of a highly successful three day Dublin and Provincial auction.  From the Marie Louise Beauvoir collection the jade seal, just three centimeters high, was a classic sleeper lot. It had been estimated at a mere 4,000-6,000.  The highest price ever paid for an antique lot at auction in Ireland came after a 20 minute bidding battle between a buyer on the telephone from Beijing and another on the internet from the Chinese city of Jingdezhen.

The second most expensive lot in the sale, a Chinese Ming blue and white yuhuchunping vase estimated at 150,000-200,000 sold for 180,000.

A telegram from General Eisenhower on the eve of VE Day in 1945 and one from General Foch on Armistice Day in 1918 are among the lots at Mealy’s  Christmas sale of rare books, manuscripts and collectibles at the Clyde Court Hotel in Dublin on December 4 and 5 next. Among more than 1,400 items in the auction are rare manuscripts, original stained glass windows by Harry Clarke, watercolours, drawings and a collection of wine.
The Eisenower telegram orders all offensive operations by Allied Expeditionary Force to cease and troops to remain in present positions effective immediately. It was sent from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force on May 7 and a public announcement was not made until the following day, designated VE Day. The telegram from Marshal Foch sent on Armistice Day 1918 orders a cessation of hostilities later that day. It is addressed to Commander in Chief and was received at 6.10 a.m. at Dublin Wireless. Foch replaced John D.P. French, 1st Earl of Ypres, as Commander of the Allied Forces in the closing stages of the Great War. Effectively dismissed, French was recalled and “promoted” to Commander in Chief Home Forces and, in May 1918, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. It was sent to French, then in Dublin. Each of the telegrams is in a conservation frame and each one is estimated at 3,000-4,000.
There is a Yeats hand coloured poster announcing a 1918 meeting to recover the Lane pictures for Ireland, probably made at the orders of Lady Gregory, who organised the meeting. It is estimated at 5,000-7,000. An original stained glass window, The Visitation, from the Harry Clarke Studio has an estimate of 3,000-4,000. A newly discovered mainly 18th century Irish manuscript with dictionaries of place names and genealogies of Irish families – a rare surviving example of the native Irish Manuscript Book – is estimated at 10,000-15,000 and a signed first edition of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind from 1936 is estimated at 1,000-1,500. (Click on any image to enlarge it).

Telegram from General Eisenhower on the eve of V.E. Day 1945.  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800

Telegram from Marshal Foch on Armistice Day 1918.  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400

First Edition of Gone With the Wind signed by Margaret Mitchell. UPDATE: THIS MADE 900

Original stained glass window, Harry Clarke Studios: “The Visitation. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800

A hand coloured Yeats poster from 1918 about a meeting to recover the Lane pictures for Ireland.  UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000

An 18th century Gaelic manuscript at Mealy’s sale in Dublin. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

The piano from the film Casablanca.  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR  $602,500

One of the world’s favourite film props, the piano from the 1942 film Casablanca comes up at Sotheby’s  in New York on December 14.  The romance between Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) is movingly established during the famous flashback scene in Paris at La Belle Aurore. The Paris piano on which Sam plays “As Time Goes By” – the key prop in the scene – is estimated at $800,000/1.2 million.

The American Film Institute has ranked Casablanca the most romantic movie of all time and the most quotable. Casablanca won three Oscars in 1943 for Best Picture, Best Writing (Screenplay) and Best Director, with Oscar nominations in five other categories, including Best Score.

UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR  $602,500. It was last auctioned in 1988 when a Japanese collector bought it for $154,000.  Other notable film memorabilia prices include James Bond’s Aston Martin which sold for $4.6 million, Marilyn Monroe’s White Dress which made $5.6 million and Dorothy’s red slippers from The Wizard of Oz which made $612,000.

A Georgian carved fireplace centre panel. (Click on image to enlarge).

One of a pair of early Irish Regency corbel heads from a fire surround.

A collection of 14 Irish Georgian and Regency marble panels by the Dublin based Courtenay family of stone carvers comes up at Matthews auction in Oldcastle, Co. Meath on November 13. They come from the collection of a family who came to Ireland in 1610 from the village of Courtenay, north of Paris, to work on the rebuilding of the vault of Christchurch Cathedral in Dubin, which had collapsed.

For the next 400 years the family lived as an uninterrupted line of stone carvers within walking distance of the cathedral. The collection of panels being sold were originally centrepieces for fireplaces they worked on or reclaimed from fire surrounds broken up in the Victorian era. They contain Grecian style head carvings, urns and depictions of Diana and Neptune. The panels are estimated at 200-300 each.

This Egyptian greywacke Isis made £3,681,250, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at Christie’s, South Kensington.

The Egyptian section yielded particularly strong prices at the Antiquities sale at Christie’s, South Kensington, on October 25.  The top lot was an Egyptian greywacke Isis dating from c664-525 B.C.  Greywacke is a type of dark sandstone. Illustrated on the catalogue cover it made £3,681,250 after a heated battle between bidders in the room, via telephones and online. It had been estimated at £400,000-600,000 and was sold to Daniel Katz Ltd.  This was the highest price ever paid for a work of art at Christie’s, South Kensington.

The sale brought in  £8,080,563, concluding a record breaking year for the London department.  Annual sales exceeded £13.8 million in 2012.  Laetitia Delaloye of Christie’s said:  “The strength of the market is evident by the variety of areas represented in the top lots – Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Interestingly, over a quarter of the sale was sold or directly underbid online”.

This Victorian Sheffield claret jug bears the arms of Cork.  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

The silver claret jug inscribed with the Cork Coat of Arms illustrated on the right is at Woodwards sale of silver, art and collectibles in Cork on October 24. The 1856 Sheffield jug was presented to Augustine Roche, Mayor of Cork in 1893-94. He became Lord Mayor of the city in 1905 and is the only person to have held both titles. The estimate for the piece is 3,000-5,000.
The auction of 223 lots features Cork, Limerick, Dublin and English silver. Here are some highlights. You can click on any image to enlarge it:

A Queen Anne Irish silver tazza by David King, Dublin c.1708 (4,000 – 5,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

A George III silver sugar bowl by Daniel McCarthy, Cork 1777-82. (1,600 – 2,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400

A George III Irish silver sauce boat by Joseph Jackson, Dublin 1788. (630 – 700).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 580

Pair of rare Limerick tablespoons with Old Irish pattern plain handles by Maurice Fitzgerald c.1770. (2,500 – 3,000). UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,000.

A James II silver tazza by John Jackson, London 1685-86 (6,500 – 8,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and a Dublin printing of The Necromancer by Peter Teuthold feature at Whyte’s book sale next weekend. The sale of the collection of late Dublin bookseller James O’Donoghue Fenning  will take place over two sessions on October 19 and 20. The first 500 lots, to be sold at 6 p.m. on Friday, is restricted to absentee and internet bidding and comprises pieces mainly valued at 100 or less. Nearly 1,000 lots will be offered on October 20 at The Freemason’s Hall, Molesworth St., Dublin.
The Necromancer or  Tale of the Black Forest is a forerunner to popular Gothic stories of the 21st century and is estimated at 5,000-7,000. James O’D Fenning, who died in September, was the third and last generation of a family of Dublin booksellers. His grandfather established the business at Wood Quay in the 1890’s. The auction offers early printed works from the 1590’s and good ranges of 17th and 18th century  political, theological and literary interest, as well as travel books of the 19th century.  Click on any image to enlarge.

UPDATE:  THE auction realised 230,000, with 64 per cent of 1,400 lots sold.

A first edition of Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, 1838, is estimated at 4,000-6,000.

The benefit of farting explain’d by Jonathan Swift is estimated at 600-800.