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KEN PARKER – BALLYCOPELAND WINDMILL CO. DOWN. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This acrylic on wooden panels by Ken Parker comes up at Hegarty’s online auction in Bandon on August 28. The sale of 300 lots offers antique furniture including a 19th century Killarney davenport in country house condition (€3,500-5,500), silver, jewellery, garden furniture and 44 lots of paintings. The one illustrated here is estimated at €400-600. The catalogue for the auction is online.
19TH CENTURY PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT BUREAU BOOKCASE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,600 AT HAMMER
Auctions deliver unlikely lots and the timed online At Home sale running at James Adam until August 28 is no exception. Take lot 264, this 19th century painted and parcel gilt bureau bookcase. Complete with mirrored doors, slope front, moulded cornice, drawers, gilt handles and lock plates and bracket feet it is painted with Mongolian warriors in the midst of battle. Mongolian warriors were part of a genuine meritocracy, the more heroic their deeds, the more enemies they vanquished the more they were awarded. Funny old world. Then it was women and gold. Now, in the western world on a scale of unattainability, successful young warriors might instead seek a house. The estimate for this unusual object of furniture is 1,500-2,500.
Collection of 10 Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys, 2016 to 2024. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,800 AT HAMMER
Collectible whiskey is a growing trend. The global market for rare Irish whiskey is moving up and this collection of ten bottles of Midleton Very Rare at Dolan’s timed online auction of art, rare whiskeys and antiques is estimated at €6,000-8,000. The sale runs until August 26 and features a selection of single bottles of rare Irish whiskey along with work by 20th century and contemporary Irish and international artists. The catalogue is online.
Marble altar sculpted by J.F. Davis. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER
This marble altar, sculpted by John Francis Davis in Cork around 1910, comes up at O’Donovans online only sale of the contents of the Redemptorist Esker Monastery near Athenry in Newcastle West on August 24. A total of 315 lots, including church pews, altars, statues, paintings and household effects will come under the hammer. All are to be sold without reserve. There are two altars and a set of altar rails with Celtic Cross motifs by J F Davis in the auction. No estimate has been issued and there is a stipulation that the altars must be removed without causing damage to the building. John Francis Davis was a stone and marble mason born around 1860 in Kilkenny. He had a workshop near College Road in Cork city until 1914 and many of his commissions were ecclesiastical. He left Cork for Belfast in 1914 and started a new business under the name of JFD Malcolm. UPDATE: The second altar made 1,900 and the set of altar rails made 720 (hammer prices).
William Sadler II, c.1782-1839 – POOLBEG LIGHTHOUSE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
This oil on panel by William Sadler comes up at de Veres timed house contents auction at 25 Wellington Road, Dublin which runs until August 27 with an estimate of €4,000-€6,000. Poolbeg Lighthouse in Dublin Bay was a favourite subject of the artist. Sadler records the original 1767 appearance of the lighthouse before it was rebuilt to the present design in 1820. Initially lit by candles it became one of the first lighthouses to be illumination by oil light. The auction includes 200 lots of both antique and designer modern furniture to be sold often without reserve and a collection of paintings. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing at Wellington Road from September 23.
George Lothian Hall (1825-1888) – Kenmare at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 260 AT HAMMER
AN early watercolour of Kenmare, a Waterford Crystal 12 branch chandelier, a diamond riviere necklace, an extremely rare antique Hardy brass face Perfect specimen reel, a white marble inlaid chimney piece and a carved limestone head are among the varied and highly collectible offerings at upcoming sales in Ireland.
Easy and convenient to view these lots are from sales to be held online respectively by Adams in Dublin, Keighery’s of Waterford, Purcell Auctioneers in Birr, Matthews of Kells, Mullens of Laurel Park in Bray and O’Donovans of Newcastle West between now and August 28.
To take the last one first there is bound to be interest from Kerry in an 1886 watercolour of Kenmare by the Liverpool born George Lothian Hall whose paintings can be found in the Yale Centre for British Art. With Kenmare faintly visible in the background it depicts a sailing boat, some other leisure vessels, cattle, cottages and a horse and trap. The estimate at the James Adam At Home sale of 394 lots on August 28 is €2,000-€3,000.
The Waterford chandelier at Keighery’s auction on August 19 is estimated at €4,000-€6,000. This sale of over 650 lots will include items from the Furlong estate of historian and journalist Nicholas and antique dealer Mairead of Wexford. There are antique books of Wexford and Irish history, some attractive furniture, various books on antiques, Imari chargers and collectibles including a sailing ship in a case among a large selection of lots.
A white marble inlaid chimney piece at Mullen’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
The timed online Classic and Contemporary Interiors sale at Mullen’s of Laurel Park at 6 pm on August 18 offers an inverted breakfront white marble inlaid chimney piece (€2,500-€3,500) as one of its leading pieces. There is furniture, art and lighting on offer in this sale of over 770 lots.
A rare antique Hardy reel at Purcell’s UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
With an estimate of €2,000-€4,000 an extremely rare Hardy specimen reel leads the sale by Purcell Auctioneers of Birr on August 21. It bears the stamp “B”, believed to be the mark of either Alfred or Frederick Broadley, two highly respected figures in the world of salmon perfect reel making whose contribution to the Hardy legacy is well documented. The leather case is marked P D Mallock, Perth, a firm renowned for producing high quality angling accessories. Purcells say the reel is in very good condition and the brass face remains structurally sound.
If you are seriously interested in the diamond 91 stone riviere necklace at Matthews in Kells on August 21 you must go and see it. There will be viewing from noon to 5 pm on August 18, 19 and 20. It is 42 cm long and the total weight is 22 carats. The estimate is €12,500-€17,500. Even if it is beyond your range the auction offers 524 other lots of jewellery, silver and collectibles including unredeemed pawnbroker pledges and executor instructions.
A carved limestone head (€300-€400) is included in the online only sale at O’Donovans in Newcastle West on August 24. The auction comprises 303 lots from the Redemptorist fathers at Esker Monastery, Athenry, Co. Galway. Among them are sets of Stations of the Cross, statues, altars and no less than five sets of five pitch pine church pews with carved ends (€100-€150 a set). All will be offered without reserve.
A 91 stone diamond riviere necklace at Matthews. UPDATE: THIS MADE 14,200 AT HAMMER
Sean Keating – Study for An Allegory. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The pointlessness of civil war, specifically the Irish civil war, is the inspiration for this watercolour and charcoal study by Sean Keating. Based on his famous An Allegory at the National Gallery and unseen in public for many years it comes up at Dolan’s timed online auction which runs until August 26 with an estimate of €60,000-€80,000. Central to the painting is a mother and her baby, wrapped in white for purity and innocence. The figure is Sean Keating’s wife May in the guise of Mother Ireland. Keating portrays himself at her side, weary of the destruction of the Civil War which followed the War of Independence.
The catalogue for the sale, which features Irish art including a watercolour titled A Limerick Farm (1929) by Harry Kernoff and Salthill Diving Boards by Susan Cronin, rare Irish Midleton and Jameson whiskey along with wine, stamps, books and collectibles including a wooden rocking horse, is online.
Harry Kernoff – A Limerick Farm (1929). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The 1939 letter from Einstein to President Franklin D Roosevelt that ushered in the age of the atomic bomb comes up at Christie’s in New York on September 10 with an estimate of $4 million – $6 million. It will lead the Pushing Boundaries: Ingenuity from the Paul G Allen collection sale. The Einstein letter resulted in the Manhattan Project and the story of atomic power told in the 2023 blockbuster film Oppenheimer might never have happened had it not been written. Two versions were drafted, the shorter version on offer here and a more detailed one delivered to the White House by hand – now in the permanent collection of the Franklin D Roosevelt Library in New York. The sale tells the story of science and technology from pre-history to the present day through nearly 40 inspirational documents and objects. The majority of lots date from the 20th century, reflecting Mr. Allen’s most personal passions and serving as a testament to the rapid pace of technological innovation in living memory.
ANCIENT CELTIC RIBBON TORC c500 BC – 500 AD
This Torc, believed to be part of the Rathcormack hoard of 1882-83, made £45,200 including buyers premium at an antiquities sale at Lyon and Turnbull. From a private collection in Edinburgh it was acquired by the family in the 1920’s and thence by descent. The piece originally belonged to Robert Carfrae (1820-1900).
The present style of torc or armlet is exceptionally rare, and is known only from a single hoard discovered near Rathcormack, Co. Cork in 1882 – 1883. The hoard was first described in the ‘Proceedings’ section of the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Anon. 1883-4, 52) where it was noted that Ralph Westropp of Cork exhibited a silver torc with the accompanying note: “It seems that this was found near Rathcormack, county of Cork, with five others of similar make, about the close of last year or early in the present one, by a peasant, beneath a stone in a field, when ploughing.”
The are three recorded examples of the hoard, currently at the National Museum of Scotland and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. All are known to have originated from the Rathcormack Hoard and it is likely that this piece shares the same provenance, though this is unproven.
A CORK REGENCY TRIPLE PANEL OVER MANTLE MIRROR. UPDATE: THIS MADE 220 AT HAMMER
Garden furniture, art, silver, antique furniture and collectibles will feature in an online sale by Hegarty’s in Bandon on August 14. A Regency triple over mantle mirror with an R & W Clarke of Cork label is estimated at €300-€600 and there is an estimate of €900-€1,200 for an oil by John Morris entitled Brittas Bay. The auction gets underway at 5 pm.
