Longcase clock by Egans of Cork UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,750 AT HAMMER
Selected contents from the Convent of Mercy in Charleville and contents from a period home in Cork city will feature at Aidan Foley’s two day sale on March 31 and April 1. Highlights include longcase clocks by Egans of Cork and S D O’Neill Ltd. of Belfast, a 19th century hunt table and art by Markey Robinson, Michael Hales, John Morris and Mark O’Neill. Collectibles include Persian rugs, Waterford crystal, porcelain and garden furniture. An antique violin by Josef Thier of Innsbruck in good original condition will be sold on behalf of The Hope Foundation. The online only auction will be on view in Doneraile from March 28. UPDATE: THE JOSEF THIER VIOLIN MADE 1,420 AT HAMMER AND THE BELFAST LONGCASE CLOCK MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER.
Louis XV ormolu mounted desk at Woodwards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 650 AT HAMMER
A Louis XV ormolu mounted desk (€1,000-€2,000), a Sheraton inlaid bowfront sideboard (€600-€800), an Edwardian roll top desk (€750-€1,000), a small Irish Regency bookcase (€400-€500) and a pair of Edwardian demi-lune side tables €750-€1,000) give some indication of the value to be had at Woodwards online auction in Cork on March 29. Some or all of these pieces will be picked up for less than the low estimate. Antique furniture continues to represent very good value. More than 300 lots will come under the hammer.
The decorative interior sale at Victor Mee on March 26 and 27 can be viewed online too. More than 950 lots, headed by an antique Irish Georgian marble fireplace from the Castle Saunderson Estate in Co. Cavan and a cast iron gazebo, will come under the hammer over two online evening sales.
Irish Georgian marble fire surround at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Mark O’Neill – Garden’s Rainbow. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,700 AT HAMMER
Art and whiskey combine to make Dolan’s Spring auction, now live online, a cause to celebrate for collectors of all things Irish. Artists featured include Mark O’Neill, Arthur Maderson, Peter Curling, Norman Teeling, Susan Cronin, George Gillespie, Robert Egginton and Moyra Barry. The sale features a selection of Very Rare Midleton Whiskeys and there is antique furniture and collectibles, including stamps and books. The timed online sale runs until March 24.
A set of 10 Very Rare Midleton whiskeys. UPDATE: THESE MADE 4,600 AT HAMMER
PAIR 19TH-CENTURY FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED KINGWOOD & MARQUETRY SIDE TABLES. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
Viewing gets underway in Durrow today for the re-scheduled Paradigms and the Unexpected auction by Sheppards from March 18-20. The auction was to have been held this week but it was postponed after the unexpected death of Sheppards director Philip Sheppard. Pictured here is lot 331, a pair of 19th century French side tables. They are estimated at €4,000-€6,000. More than 1700 lots will come under the hammer and the catalogue is online.
Antique Mahal rug from west Persia from the Peter Linden collection at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
With no less than three online sales next week James Adam will offer a selection to suit many tastes. Emeralds, diamonds, topaz, sapphires, pearls, gold, coral, lapis lazuli and aquamarine will feature in various settings at The Jewellery Box sale of 275 lots from 11 am on March 11.
The Peter Linden rug collection comes under the hammer on Wednesday. Sadly Ireland’s leading specialist in antique carpets, kilims, rugs and tapestries, who established his business here in 1980, died in 2024. His collection will be headed by a semi-antique Kashan carpet with an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. Estimates at the timed online sale which starts to close at 2 pm on March 12 are from €50 up
An online picture sale at James Adam next Thursday will include works from the studio of Fergus O’Ryan along with artists like Rowland Hill, Cathy Carman, William Conor, Harry Kernoff, Anne Yeats, Basil Blackshaw, Barbara Warren, Muriel Brandt and Tony O’Malley. All catalogues are online and there is viewing across the weekend and next week at Adams, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin.
The Scarecrow by Fergus O’Ryan (1911-1989). UPDATE: THIS MADE 110 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford mirrors. UPDATE: THESE MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
A pair of George III Waterford oval mirrors of a type prized by collectors with alternating blue and clear crystal faceted cabochons will feature three days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow from March 18-20. True collectors items like this don’t come cheap and the estimate is €15,000-€25,000.
Viewing for the Paradigms and the Unexpected sale gets underway in Durrow on March 15. The most expensively estimated of over 1700 lots is a south Dublin collection of luxury watches headed by a recently serviced Rolex day date president with square cut diamonds representing the hour marks (€25,000-€35,000). There is a similar estimate on a Franck Muller conquistador watch. Both of these will come up on Wednesday, the mirrors on Tuesday afternoon.
The most expensive paintings in the sale, with top estimates of €15,000, are Sea Green Mood by Nano Reid, Boats in the Bay, Greatmans Bay, Galway by Charles Lamb and Bathers by the Pier, Waterfoot, Antrim by James Humbert Craig. Among the many artists represented are Sean Keating, John Behan, William Crozier, Gerard Dillon, Anthony Scott, Grace Henry, Kenneth Webb, Mainie Jellett, Percy French and there is a complete set of Malton Views of Dublin.
A private collection of guitars will include Canadian rocker Fred (C.F.) Turner’s 1968 Fender Precision green bass guitar (€5,000-€8,000). Other collectibles include a 1999 Late Late Show music script signed by Gay Byrne on his last show (€1,500-€2,500) and an Everlast boxing glove signed by Mohammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis and George Foreman (€4,000-€6,000) and selections of Chinese and Japanese ceramics.
Among a large selection of furniture is a Black Forest hat and coat tree, a Killarney work table, Dublin furniture by Hicks, Art Deco mirrored pieces, a signed Maple and Co. kneehole desk, a 17th century Tibetan monastery trunk and an Irish Vernacular tree dugout cabinet.
Black Forest hat and coat tree. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
19th century giltwood mirror by R.W. Clarke, Cork. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
With everything from a circular giltwood mirror by Clarkes of Cork, an Irish bureau gifted by Winston Churchill and a set of lithographs of Egypt and Nubia to antique pottery from the Della Robia Studio, Birkenhead, a modern home bar and an ebonised Italian dining set Fonsie Mealy’s two day sale in Castlecomer on March 5 and 6 is of wide appeal. UPDATE: THE SALE HAS BEEN RE-SCHEDULED TO MARCH 18-20.
More than 700 lots will come under the hammer over two days. The 19th century bureau (€1,000-€1,500) was, by family tradition, a gift from Churchill to General Sir Bindon Blood. Churchill served under Blood at the North West Frontier in 1897 and dedicated his first non fiction book – The Story of the Malakand Field Force – to him. There will be local interest in a 19th century circular leaf decorated mirror and original plate by R W Clarke of Cork (€200-€300) and collectors will be taken by three terracotta blue and white relief panels attributed to the Harold Rathbone Della Robia Studio in Birkenhead (€800-€1,000).
Collectors of a different sort have lots to choose from like a modern formica glazed and padded home bar, matching shelves and four high stools (€500-€700); a five piece ebonised Italian dining set by Molteni (€1,500-€2,000); four leather armchairs by Rolf Benz (€800-€1,000) and a modern L shaped designer couch (€500-€600).
The excitement surrounding the discovery of the tomb of King Thutmose II in the Valley of the Kings – the first finding of a Pharaoh’s tomb since Tutankhamun over a century ago – adds interest to lot 542, a set of 20 lithographs of Egypt and Nubia (€800-€1,200). These are by Louis Haghe, maple framed in landscape and portrait form and dated 1838. The selection of art includes work by Sean Keating and Fergus O’Ryan and there is a selection of antique furniture and collectibles,
Viewing continues in Castlecomer next Monday and Tuesday from 9.30 am to 5 pm on each day and the catalogue is online.
A modern J shaped home bar. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420 AT HAMMER
A pair of late 18th Century Delft Apothecary Jars. UPDATE: THESE MADE 200 AT HAMMER
This pair of 18th century Deflt apothecary jars feature at Fonsie Mealy’s Spring antiques and collectibles sale at Castlecomer on March 5 and 6. Viewing for the sale gets underway at Castlecomer today and continues on March 3 and 4. One of the blue and white wet drug jars and covers is for A Cucumeris, the other for O Camoemeli. Each has a short spot and the estimate is €300-400. Viewing is at the Kilkenny Road showrooms, the live auction will be at The Avalon House Hotel. The catalogue for this sale of 714 lots of paintings, ceramics, glassware, affordable antique and modern furniture and collectibles is online.
JAMINI PRAKASH GANGOOLY (INDIAN, 1876-1953) – On the beach at sunset
This oil on canvas by Jamini Prakash Gangooly made a hammer price of €15,000 at the At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin today. It had been estimated at €2,000-€3,000. The artist was a member of the Tagore family and a nephew of the poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore. A master painter he was celebrated both for his luminous and beautiful landscapes and his portraits.
A Victorian porcelain vase by Christopher Dresser made €8,500 at hammer over a top estimate of €2,000. Born in Glasgow Christopher Dresser became Britain’s first professional, independent, industrial designeR. He was one of the most influential design reformers of the 19th century.
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER (1834-1904) – VICTORIAN ‘CLOISONNÉ’ PORCELAIN VASE
A large Fabergé jewelled obsidian model of a rhinoceros, St Petersburg, circa 1900 (£50,000-£70,000)
One of the last important groups of Fabergé animals in private hands will be sold by Castle Howard at Sotheby’s in May. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the restoration of the long lost tapestry drawing room at the castle. The collection of some 30 rare and beautiful carvings is similar to those owned by the British Royal Family and members of the Russian Imperial Court. With the latter disassembled by Revolution and the former still held in the Royal Collection, the sale marks an opportunity for collectors to acquire pieces that fully demonstrate why Fabergé earned a prime position in royal and noble collections throughout Europe.
The pieces range from a tiny vole carved of smoky quartz to a commanding obsidian rhinoceros, a captivating bloodstone anteater to a charming series of woodland animals. Alongside the menagerie, the collection also includes Fabergé and European desk accessories.
Part of the proceeds from the auction will contribute to the restoration of the Tapestry Drawing Room, gutted by a devastating fire in 1940. It has remained a shell ever since. As part of a major renovation of Castle Howard’s historic interiors, from April 2025, visitors will be able to see the fully restored and decorated space, with the tapestries that originally hung in the room returned to their original positions.
