Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt sold for a record-breaking £17.6 million in July
Christie’s is projecting $5.7 billion in global sales in 2024, down 6% on $6.1 billion in 2023. Auction sales at $4.2 billion were down by 16% ($5 billion in 2023) and private sales at $1.5 billion were up by 41%. A total of 81% of bids were placed online compared with 78% the previous year. A company statement said that in 2024 Christie’s experienced a strengthening of auction sales as the year progressed, together with outstanding results for private sales throughout.
“Our key performance indicators of overall sell through rate of 86%, hammer vs. low estimate index at 112% and bidders per lot of 3.7 all showed growth year over year, indicating that our strategy and focus resonated with sellers and buyers. We sold the most valuable work of the year René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières for $121.2 million from the Mica Ertegun collection; the only lot to sell for over $100 million globally. Christie’s also sold the most valuable jewel of the year, The Eden Rose, for $13.4 million in New York in June.
The America’s contrubuted around 41% to global sales, Europe, the Middle East and Africa contributed around 32%.
The earliest surviving inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments, incised during the late Roman-Byzantine era, comes up at Sotheby’s in New York on December 18. The only complete example of a ten commandments tablet from this era – 300-800 AD – is estimated at $1 million – $2 million. The white marble table is chisel-inscribed with the Mosaic Ten Commandments in their Israelite Samaritan version, 20 lines in a Paleo-Hebrew script, each line containing between eleven and fifteen characters, with margins of about 10 cm on either side; the letters have a width of between one and 2 cm and words are separated from one another with one or two dots; a few letters are confused for each other (especially ? and ?) and a few characters on the right side of the first two lines are effaced and re-inscribed.
Weighing 115 pounds and measuring approximately two feet in height, it is now called the Yavne Tablet after the city on the coastal plain of the Land of Israel near where it was?rediscovered more than a century ago. This monumental, incised marble slab was serendipitously uncovered during excavations for a railroad track running through the Land of Israel to Egypt. The significance of the discovery went unrecognised for many decades, and for thirty years it served as a paving stone in a local home.
The Place of Writing by Seamus Heaney from the collection of Seamus Deane UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
There are treasures, gifts, once off items and many desirable rarities among a cornucopia of good things at the timed online At Home auction on view this weekend at James Adam in Dublin.
Literary and theatre types will be interested in a collection of books from Seamus Deane, classmate and close friend of Seamus Heaney. Together with Heaney, Brian Friel, Stephen Rea, Tom Paulin and David Hammond, Deane was a founding director of the Field Day Theatre Company, which began in Derry 1980 as a cultural and intellectual response to the political crisis in Northern Ireland. Friel’s critically acclaimed Translations was the first of many Field Day plays to stage at Derry’s Guildhall before travelling throughout Ireland and the world.
Much of the collection, which makes up the first 41 lots, comprises first edition signed copies of Seamus Heaney works at reasonable estimates.
Lot 54 is a 1938 presentation copy of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, one of only 200 printed. The estimate is €2,000-€3,000.
A black painted timber two door cabinet UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
The catalogue cover lot is a distressed black painted timber two door cabinet with outset cornice and glazed doors. It would work well in a contemporary setting and the estimate is just €500-€800. Furniture highlights include a mahogany and brass bound military chest (€1,800-€2,200), a pair of Howard style armchairs (€1,000-€1,500), a pair of compact leather upholstered armchairs (€2,500-€3,000), a club fender (€2,000-€3,000) and a c1820 secretaire bookcase (€2,000-€3,000).
A good selection of quality antique furniture comes in at estimates of under €1,000.
T’is the season and the Christmassy feel to this sale is boosted by lots like a collection of 13 vintage jigsaw puzzles (€150-€250), various silver sauce boats, a set of five green cylindrical glasses, dinner and tea services, Meissen parrots, Irish cut glass 19th century decanters, German figural candelabra, toleware jardinieres and even a cased croquet set for when the evenings get longer.
There is a good selection of silver and no doubt collectors will be taken by a c1706 Queen Anne silver two handled porringer (€800-€1,200).
A Chinese lacquer pagoda shrine. UPDATE: THIS MADE 340 AT HAMMER
Curiosities like a 19th century timber spoon rack, a Chinese lacquer pagoda shrine and a 19th century Indian olive glass bottle diorama add interest to a catalogue with nearly 500 lots There is no shortage of glassware for those hell bent on stylish entertaining during this festive season.
No At Home auction would be complete without art and this one offers beautiful nautical paintings by Edwin Hayes, Peter Ellenshaw and Daniel Sherrin. This timed online sale gets underway at 11 am next Wednesday. It is on view at Adams from 1 pm to 5 pm today and tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday.
An early Victorian flame mahogany sofa table. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A first edition from 1710 of Irish philosopher George Berkeley’s A Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge sold for a hammer price of €13,000 at the opening day of Fonsie Mealy’s Christmas Rare Book and Collectors sale in Castlecomer today. The scarce volume contained in a worn cover had been estimated at €3,000-€4,000. The love letters of the poet Thomas Davis and a complete set of Cuala Press broadsides each made €6,500, a copy of The Aran Island signed by Synge and Yeats made €5,400 and a copy of Finnegan’s Wake signed by James Joyce made €3,600. The auction continues on December 12.
LOUISE KENNEDY – A CHANDELIER. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
This art deco stye cut crystal chandelier by Louise Kennedy for Tipperary Crystal is at de Veres Christmas Crackers auction which runs until December 12. It is tiered form with cut glass lustres and the estimate is €2,000-€4,000. The online only auction offers a selection ranging from Irish art to design furniture including art by Patrick Scott, Richard Kingston and Mark O’Neill and design pieces by Gianfranco Frattini, Verner Panton, Antonio Citterio, Fase and others. The catalogue is online.
This sapphire and diamond cluster ring along with a five stone rose gold diamond ring will lead Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon on December 11. Each one is estimated at €3,000-€4,000. The sale offers a selection of antique furniture, silver, collectibles and art including The Country Bus by John Schwatschke (€600-€800) and Brittas Bay by John Morris (€900-€1,200). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
An illustration from William Lewin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
The wise and slightly indignant looking old owl which graces the catalogue cover for Fonsie Mealy’s two day Christmas rare book and collectors auction next week offers a clue to something special within. The rarest of all English bird books, one of just 60 sets of the first edition of William Lewin’s The Birds of Great Britain with their Eggs, leads the sale.
Complete with 323 original watercolour illustrations by Lewin of birds and eggs in gouache some heightened with gum Arabic this outstanding work of ornithology is in seven volumes. The estimate for this very fine copy is €17,500-€25,000.
A c1885 copy of the Shrine of the Bell of St. Patrick. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,500 AT HAMMER
Among the more unusual offerings is a c1885 copy of the Shrine for the Bell of St. Patrick. The original A c1885 copy of the Shrine of the Bell of St. Patrick at Fonsie Mealy.shrine from which this cast was taken – made to contain a bell reputedly owned by St. Patrick – dates to around 1100 and is in the National Museum of Ireland. There is a copy at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. This one is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. In the 1860’s the South Kensington Museum (now the V and A) campaigned for copies of artefacts to be made so that knowledge could be spread widely and by 1867 no less than 15 European heads of state signed a convention for international exchange.
Fermoy escaped the very worst ravages of famine in Ireland, but it had a narrow escape. Among 1170 lots on offer in Castlecomer on December 11 and 12 are two manuscript books for the poor rate in Fermoy in 1847, when hunger was at a peak, and 1859.
A collecting book for the Poor Rate, Fermoy 1847. UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
The 1847 book is signed by William Cooke-Collis, chairman of the board of guardians and Roderick O’Flanagan, clerk of the union and others. In his book about the famine in North East Cork published in 1986 by Eigse Books the historian Edward Garner observes: “It will have to be said that, had the Fermoy Poor Law Union not possessed the Board it did, then it would have joined the ranks of Skibbereen and Bantry. Fermoy escaped by the skin of its teeth.” Lot 706 is estimated at €600-€800.
A 1939 copy of Finnegan’s Wake signed by James Joyce is estimated at €3,000-€4,000 and Eleven Poems signed by Seamus Heaney is estimated at €2,500-€3,500.
The Westport House copy of the 1789 sole edition of Surveys of the Harbours by William O’Brien Drury including Blacksod, Valentia, Bear Haven, Corke and Waterford is another prize lot. This one is estimated at €3,000-€4,000.
A pair of handcuffs said to have been used by Michael Collins. UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
Collectibles include a set of heavy steel handcuffs said to have been used by Michael Collins (€1,000-€1,500), a lady’s Blueshirt uniform (€2,000-€3,000) and a gold 1904 All Ireland hurling championship medal won by Tullaroan, Kilkenny (€4,000-€6,000).
There is an Irish library of fishing books, a private collection of illustrated and hand coloured volumes, the library of Nelson Bell of The Bell Gallery, Belfast and part one of the Dr. Phillip Murray collection of Seamus Heaney. There will be viewing in Castlecomer on December 9 and 10. The catalogue is online.
Aidan Foley will make a timely offering of two vintage doll’s houses in good condition at his online sale in Doneraile on the evenings of December 8 and 9. The two day sale will offer everything from a large cast iron famine pot to Victorian dining tables. Demand for the former is strong, not so much for the tables. There is an Irish longcase clock with enamel dial, art by Norman Teeling, Patrick Copperwhite, John Morris, Albert Hartland and others and a selection of collectibles. Among these are vinyl records, cigarette cards, music posters, stamps and books. The auction is on view in Doneraile from noon to 5 pm today and from 11 am to 3 pm on December 8. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30 AT HAMMER
DIEGO GIACOMETTI (1902-1985) – CONSOLE PROMENADE DES AMIS
There was a new world record for Diego Giacometti at Christie’s in Paris today when his witty design console featuring a horse and three dogs meeting under a tree sold for €9.5 million. It was from the collection of Lady Mercia Harrison, widow of the actor Rex Harrison. Four works from her collection directly from the artist’s studio achieved €12.3 million. The top price marks an auction record for a piece of design in France in 2024 at a sale which saw solid results and totalled €19.4 million.
The first time Lady Mercia Harrison saw furniture by Diego Giacometti was at a cocktail party in Zurich. ‘They were so beautiful I started to cry,’ she says. ‘There was something so joyous about them.’ She begged her host for Giacometti’s telephone number, but was warned that he had a thick book of orders which he ignored, and was not interested in meeting collectors.
Undeterred, she phoned the artist. ‘I didn’t want to address him as “Monsieur”, so I called him “Maître”, which he thought hilarious, and I think it broke the ice.’ Even so, Giacometti rejected her invitation to lunch, so she got on a plane to Paris. ‘I rang the bell of his studio on Rue Hippolyte-Maindron and said: “I am Mercia Harrison, would you like to have lunch with me?” He was so surprised that he agreed.’ It was the start of an unlikely friendship between the furniture-maker and the wife of a world-famous British actor. The nonagenarian is still very much the art lover, with a keen grasp on the contemporary art world. She believes that her friendship with Giacometti was based on their mutual non-conformity.
Taxidermy elephant of a baby elephant. UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 AT HAMMER
Auctions regularly throw surprises but a stuffed elephant is a real rarity. The focus of Marshs in Cork on December 7 is on fine antique furniture and collectibles but a 127 centimetre high taxidermy elephant is set to be a spectacular scene stealer in the premier larceny league of the late, great actress Maggie Smith.
If you can tear your attention away from Dumbo you might be taken by a pair of marble topped gilt console tables, a Georgian Adam’s style mirror or a Georgian lowboy in the Chippendale style on paw feet. The auction features a selection of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian furniture, art and collectibles including the elephant. The sale, with 312 lots, will be on view at Marshs auction rooms on December 4, 5 and 6 and the catalogue is online.
A pair of marble topped gilt console tables UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
