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The Irish Silver tankard by the Cork maker Robert Goble sold for $31,250 in New York.

WHAT was billed in New York as a George II silver tankard turned out to be a Cork piece and sold for more than 30 times its top estimate. Lot 292 at the Doyle New York sale of important furniture and Old Master paintings was a silver tankard of cylindrical form with rubbed marks. It was estimated at $700-1,000.  The catalogue noted that further research indicated it might be of Irish origin.

Irish silver dealers immediately recognised the Cork marks when photos of the eight inch high tankard appeared on the internet just days before the auction.  They were outbid at the sale by the international trade and it was knocked down for $31,250 including buyers premium.

The tankard is a Queen Anne/George I piece. It was made in Cork by Robert Goble, who worked in the city from 1672 to 1719.  It was marked with his initials and with the two castles and gallery mark based on the Arms of the City of Cork used by local silversmiths. Robert Goble, the maker of the 1696 Mace of the Trade Guilds of the City of Cork now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, died in 1719 and is buried in the Huguenot Cemetary on French Church St. in the heart of the city.

Audubon's Great Blue Heron. (Click to enlarge).

Audubon's Columbia Jay. (Click to enlarge).

WHAT could turn out to be the world’s most expensive book will be auctioned by Christie’s in New York on January 20.  John James Audubon’s The Birds of America: The Duke of Portland Set is estimated at $7-10 million, but could go higher.  Completed and published over eleven years from 1827 to 1838, this magnificent four volume set of 435 hand-colored engravings is one of only a few known unbound copies in existence.  At the present time, 107 copies remain in institutions and 13 are in private hands. A new world record for a printed book sold at auction was established at Sotheby’s in London for another copy in December 2010 when one sold for  £7,321,250.

The monumental format of this work (double elephant folios of over 3 ft. high) was due to Audubon’s insistence on life-size illustrations and his determination to depict all the known species found in North America. (All images copyright Christie’s Images).  (See post on antiquesandartireland.comfor December 7, 2010).

UPDATE:  IT SOLD FOR $7.9 MILLION WHICH WAS WITHIN ESTIMATE BUT FAR SHORT OF THE RECORD OF AN EQUIVALENT $11.5 MILLION DOLLARS  IN 2010 IN LONDON.

Audubon's Carolina Parrot. (Click on image to enlarge).

Audubon's Wild Turkey. (Click to enlarge).

This Sheffield silver plated wine cooler was a gift from George Washington. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE $782,500

THIS Sheffield plated silver wine cooler, a gift from George Washington, is at Christie’s sale of Important American Silver in New York on January 19. He gave it to the founding father and first US Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in 1797.

The four-bottle wine cooler is an exceptionally well documented historical object, symbolizing the famous partnership between Washington and Hamilton in the early days of the republic. Never before seen by the public, it is being sold by direct descendants of Alexander Hamilton. It is estimated at $400,000-600,000.

UPDATE:  It sold for $782,500 in a sale of 88 lots that brought in a total of $2,028,000.

This copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic made 55,000 at Mealys. (Click on image to enlarge).

A rare and original copy of the 1916 Irish Proclamation made 55,000 at Mealy’s rare book sale in Dublin on December 13.  The copy, with a piece torn away from the third paragraph, had been damaged when it was removed from a hoarding. It has been professionally restored. It had been posted in North King St. beside the Four Courts.

It was removed by Murty Tubridy from Co. Clare, a volunteer who was grazed in the ear while defending his post nearby. He was taken to the Richmond Hospital, but was advised to decamp if mobile as the hospital was to be raided.

About 1,000 copies of the Proclamation were printed. It is reckoned that no more than 40 or 50 originals survived. This one came by direct descent through Murty Tubridy’s family. It was bought by a private Irish purchaser.

This was the top lot in a sale which brought in more than 500,000 and was 82 per cent sold.

See post on antiquesandartireland.com for December 8.

The tiny Charlotte Bronte manuscript which sold for a record £690,850. (Click on image to enlarge).

There was a new record at auction for a manuscript by Charlotte Bronte at Sotheby’s  in London today. Her miniature autograph manuscript, written when she was 14 and dated 1830, sold for £690,850. More than twice the pre-sale estimate, this is a record at auction for a literary work by any of the Bronte sisters.

Sotheby’s had billed it as the most important Bronte manuscript to appear at auction in more than 30 years.  Set in the earliest fictional world created by the Bronte sisters the Young Men’s Magazine No. 2  has never been seen before by scholars. Written in miniature magazine format it was bought by La Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, Paris, where it will be exhibited in January 2012.

Other highlights included Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, 1847, three volumes presented to Ellen Nussey, which sold for £157,250 against an estimate of £70,000-100,000; Charles Darwin’s The Variations of Animals and Plants under Domestication 1868 which made £61,250 (est. £15,000-20,000)  and a self portrait by Aubrey Beardsley which made £30,000, double the pre-sale high estimate.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for November 8).