A PAIR OF GILT CIRCULAR COCKTAIL TABLES, MADE FOR THE RITZ HOTEL, PARIS. UPDATE: THESE MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
This pair of gilt circular cocktail tables custom made for the Ritz Hotel in Paris and removed when renovated in 2018 come up as lot 23 at de Veres international Art and Design auction in Dublin on April 30. They are estimated at €1,200-€1,800. The sale features chairs from the Louvre, a Golden Egg chair designed by Arne Jacobsen and Ron Arad designed chairs. The Golden Age of stylish and functional Danish design, from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, is well represented too. It remains popular today as it works in traditional and contemporary spaces. There is art by Pierre Soulages, William Scott, Felim Egan and Barry Flanagan.
A first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, a set of four 18th century armorial hall chairs and a portrait of Thomas Wyndham by the Dutch painter Simon Pietersz Verelst (1644-1721) from Christie’s sale at Adare Manor in 1982 come up at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on April 30. The auction features The Durrus Collection and includes items from the estate of Major Ian Alexander Dorling Thomson who was awarded a Military Cross in 1953. The jewellery selection includes a yellow gold pink sapphire and diamond floral ring where the central petals revolve (pictured above). UPDATE: THE RING WAS UNSOLD
A woodblock print by Hiroshi Yoshida. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
A west Cork collection of 18th century Irish and Oriental artefacts assembled by an investment banker is included in four days of sales with more than 1,800 lots at Sheppards in Durrow next week. Among the lots from west Cork is a set of Japanese woodblock prints from the series Seto inland sea by Hiroshi Yoshida (1876-1950), a pair of 19th century Meissen parakeets and a pair of 19th century Meissen plates.
A 17th century Flemish tapestry, a pair of Chippendale elbow chairs from Malahide Castle, a 17th century silver chalice from the Tim O’Mahony Collection, Kilkenny, an Irish 18th century wake table, four 18th century Chippendale chairs from the estate of Yehudi Menuhin and a long Donegal runner supplied by Robert Kime to Clarence House, home of King Charles and Queen Camilla add considerable interest to this auction.
The Great Irish Interiors sale takes place on April 30 and May 1. Curated jewellery will come under the hammer at Sheppards on May 2 with top brands like Cartier, Boucheron and Dior and the Irish Vernacular sale on May 3 offers a c1880 three wheeled bike, dug out chairs, hedge chairs and a Penal Cross. Viewing for all these sales gets underway in Durrow today and the catalogue is online.
This blue ground with trellis panel Donegal runner at Sheppards was supplied by Robert Kime to Clarence House. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Étretat, 1939 by Tristram Hillier (1905-1983). UPDATE: THIS MADE 75,000 AT HAMMER
Quality and diversity are the hallmarks of the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin on May 1. With everything from an historic American collection, fine paintings, and lots collected during a Grand Tour to silver, bookcases, desks and collectibles this auction of 347 lots will richly reward a long curious look.
The collection of 80 lots of furniture, clocks, porcelain, glass and decorative effects from ‘Dawesfield’, a c1728 Pennsylvania farmhouse built by Abraham Dawes, is fascinating. The farmhouse served as George Washington’s headquarters during the battle of Germantown in 1777 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The connections between émigré Irish cabinet makers working in Philadelphia, such as Joseph Barry and Henry Connelly, is particularly apparent in a Federal mahogany sofa (€3,000-€5,000) with typically Irish rope twist legs. A Chippendale corner cabinet (€2,000-€3,000), a Federal dining table (€700-€1,000), a set of eight dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) and a c1775 four poster bed (€3,000-€5,000) are all from this collection. A c1775 oak schrank or South German style wardrobe might have been used by Washington during his stay and is estimated at €6,000-€10,000. By descent through the female line these pieces have been in Ireland for three decades and have never been on the market before.
Carved Siena marble architectural models of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian. UPDATE: THESE MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER
Siena marble carved models of the Roman ruins of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Vespasian are typical of the prized objects collected during a Grand Tour. The architectural models date to the 19th century and are estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
The most expensively estimated lot is a 1939 Surrealist oil on canvas by Tristram Hillier of Étretat in Normandy (€40,000-€60,000). An 18th century capriccio landscape of Dunmoe Castle, Co. Meath by Robert Carver is estimated at €30,000-€50,000 and an 18th century view of the Grand Canal in Venice from the School of Canaletto is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. There is a similar estimate on a pair of George II candleabrae and on the most expensively estimated furniture lot, a Louis XV satinwood, kingwood, tulipwood, parquetry and ormolu mounted writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier (1735-1807).
A set of 23 c1700 etchings of the Invalides in Paris last came to auction in 1925 at the Carton House sale. Estimated at €1,000-€1,500 they are from the library at Carton, for 700 years home to the Dukes of Leinster and Earls of Kildare. The estate was lost to the Fitzgeralds when the third son of the sixth duke sold his birthright to Lord Brockett to pay off immense gambling debts. Viewing gets underway this afternoon and the catalogue is online.
A Louis XV writing table by Claude-Charles Saunier at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Collection of 10 Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys. UPDATE; THIS MADE 5,600 at hammer
This appetising whiskey collection ranging from 2016-2024 comes up as lot 1 at Dolan’s. current timed online auction. The sale of Irish paintings and rare Irish whiskies is now live and continues until the evening of April 29. All ten bottles pictured here are accompanied by their certificates and the lot is estimated at €7,000-€9,000. Almost 100 bottles in total will come under the hammer along with art by Letitia Hamilton, Flora Mitchell, Mildred Anne Butler, James le Jeune, Charles Harper, Susan Cronin, Arthur Armstrong, Peter Curling and many other Irish artists.
19TH-CENTURY KILLARNEY ARBUTUS & MARQUETRY TABLE UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Killarney work table comes up on the first of four days of sales at Sheppards in Durrow on April 30 and May 1, 2 and 3. The octagonal chequered and shamrock inlaid shaped top opens to a fitted interior, above an ogee moulded and inlaid frieze. The 19th century table is raised on a baluster stem with octagonal platform base terminating on scroll feet and is estimated at €5,000-€8,000. Lot 327 is estimated to come up early in the afternoon of April 30. Viewing in Durrow gets underway on April 27 and the catalogue is online.
An 1857 work on Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by David Livingstone – 14 years before Dr. Livingstone by found by Henry Morton Stanley near what was then Lake Tanganyika in present day Tanzania. UPDATE: THIS MADE 170 AT HAMMER
A complete set of Moore’s Dublin Edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica totalling 19 volumes illustrated with nearly 400 copper plates features at Fonsie Mealy’s timed online Spring Rare Book and Collector’s auction which runs until April 24. James Moore’s 1791-97 reprint of the third edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica was technically legal because British copyright protections did not apply in Ireland until after the Act of Union in 1800. Unlike Britannica volumes, all dated 1797, Moore’s title pages were dated the year they were printed, from 1788 to 1797. The unusual result of this is that the pirated Irish version has an earlier date than the original. The estimate on what was the largest and most expensive publication to appear in Ireland at the time is €700-€1,000.
On offer is a selection of English and Irish first editions, signed and limited copies, periodicals and books on history, travel and science along with pamphlets, maps and ephemera. Included is the residue of the library of the late Dr. Philip Murray of Sligo.
More than 700 lots will come under the hammer with everything from a signed first edition of Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy complete with a two cassette audio book read by Brad Pitt (€800-€1,000) to a 1959 poster for an excursion to Youghal by train from Cork (€300-€400), a 1929 book on champion boxer Jack Dempsey signed by Rocky Marciano (€400-€600) and Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa by Dr. David Livingstone.
A poster for a 1959 excursion to Youghal. UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER
A collection of programmes from Manchester United home games from 1949-69 (€300-€400), a 1912 first edition of Life in the West of Ireland with coloured illustrations by Jack B Yeats (€550-€750), a framed emigrants testimonial to ships surgeon J J Tighe from passengers of the Rangitiki after a 13 week voyage to New Zealand in 1876 (€250-€350), an 1809 printing of The Works of James Barry, Historical Painter by Edward Fryer (€200-€300) and a set of five signed first editions by Lawrence Durrell including two inscribed to Dr. Philip Murray (€250-€320) demonstrate the depth and breadth of this sale.
You could travel in 3rd class in comfort with CIE according to the poster advertising an excursion to Youghal from Cork on Sunday, September 6 1959. It announced that a non stop special train would leave Cork at 10.45 am and return at 11.55 pm. The return third class fair was seven shillings and six pence. Freighted with memories this poster is estimated at €300-€400.
Elsewhere in the online catalogue is an illuminated address to Thomas Brisbane Warren, Dean of Cork (€120-€170), a large collection of more than 1,100 postcards (€300-€400) and a bound set of six varied acts of King George III owned by John Hely Hutchinson, 2nd Earl of Donoughmore relating to matters like paving the streets of Cork and improving the butter trade,. Hely-Hutchinson represented Cork city in the Irish House of Commons and the set is estimated at €250-€350. Lot 580 is an 1815 Smith’s History of Cork and other books of local interest estimated at €200-€300.
The sale is on view in Castlecomer on April 22 and 23 and the catalogue is online.
A narrative on Jack Dempsey signed by Rocky Marciano UPDATE: THIS MADE 400 AT HAMMER
A Federal mahogany sofa with typically Irish rope twist legs. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600 AT HAMMER
The Irish furniture connections between émigré cabinet makers working in Philadelphia, such as Joseph Barry and Henry Connelly, is particularly apparent in this Federal mahogany sofa which comes up as lot 100 at the James Adam Library Collection sale in Dublin on May 1. It is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Amongst the highlights of the sale is the collection of over 80 lots of furniture, clocks, porcelain, glass and decorative effects from ‘Dawesfield’, an iconic Pennsylvania farmhouse built by Abraham Dawes c1728. The property is on the US National Register of Historic Places because the house served as General George Washington’s headquarters after the Battle of Germantown from October 20 to November 2, 1777 during the revolutionary wars. This collection, never previously on the market, has come down by descent through the generations of the female line, and has been in Ireland for the last three decades or so.
It includes a Chippendale corner cabinet, lot 106 (€2,000/3,000), a Federal dining table, lot 126 (€700/1,000), a set of eight dining chairs,lot 125 (€1,500/2,500) and a Chippendale four poster bed c1775, lot 130 (€3,000/5,000). An unusual oak Schrank (a wardrobe of traditional southern German design), lot 129 (€6,000/10,000) is likely to have been used by George Washington during his stay in Dawesfield in 1777. Also from Dawesfield is a collection of books from the library of Dr Thomas James who was married to Hannah Morris, a descendant of Abraham Dawes.
A Federal dining table from Dawesfield. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
William John Huggins (British 1781-1845) – Madagascar. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,700 AT HAMMER
This c1837 portrat of the Madagascar with the white cliffs of Dover in the background recalls a sea mystery. Built in 1837 it disappeared on a voyage from Melbourne in Australia and was one of the great maritime mysteries of the 19th century. The 1837 oil on canvas is estimated at €4,000-€6,000 when it comes up at the Lynes and Lynes sale in Carrigtwohill, Co. Cork on April 20. After leaving Melbourne on August 12, 1853 with around 110 passengers, a crew of 40 and a cargo of wool, rice and two tonnes of Gold Rush gold the Blackwall Frigate Madagascar was never seen again. The sale of 478 lots will include lots from the estate of Roma Peare (nee Knox) of Kinsale and Tipperary as well as residual lots from Cuskinny House, Cobh and from individual clients of this auction house. There is a good selection of furniture, silver, paintings and collectibles including an old dolls house with farmhouse and accessories (€40-€60).
A dolls house, farmhouse and accessories UPDATE: THIS MADE 100 AT HAMMER
A 19th century French oak pantry cupboard. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
For those hell bent on upscaling an interior and adding a touch of real individuality the sort of lots that can set the imagination soaring can be found in plenty at Victor Mee’s decorative interiors sale on April 24 and 25.
Among an eclectic selection of items are an early 19th century French oak pantry cupboard (€1,500-€3,000), a pair of Ralph Lauren brass wall sconces (€600-€1,200), a 19th century French copper bath (€600-€1,200), a life sized stuffed brown bear (€4,000-€8,000) and a Grecian urn (€450-€850).
Or how about a now rare early 20th century bronze luggage and coat rack complete with mirror (€200-€400). These were a familiar sight on all trains once so this one should jog memories.
The Grand Tour plaster cast Grecian urn on pedestal might stimulate an irresistible urge to try to compose like the Romantic poet John Keats. His famous Ode to a Grecian Urn concludes with the words:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”.
A 19th century life size taxidermy brown bear UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
