Rare portrait lithographs of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith signed both by the sitters and artist Sir John Lavery feature at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale which runs from April 7-18. Lavery painted portraits of Griffith and Collins in 1921 whilst they were in London negotiating the terms of the Irish Treaty. Within months of their portraits being painted, both men were dead – Griffith of a heart attack, Collins assasinated. The lithographs are based on the oil portraits now in the collection of the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin and estimated at €8,000-12,000.
Lot 78 at R.J. Keighery’s annual garden auction in Waterford on April 13 is a pair of round stoneware rose pots measuring 38 cms x 36 cms. The estimate is €200-300. The auction offers over 700 lots including benches, gates, planters, urns and statues. The catalogue is online.
This pair of terracotta rhubarb forcers made €1,800 at hammer
Terracotta rhubarb forcers were a surprise hit at Sheppards sale of contents from Kilroan House, Glanmire, Cork and other clients. Traditional Victorian cloches, which work by trapping heat and blocking light forcing the plant to grow faster and sweeter, had all the allure of hot cross buns on Good Friday at the auction. Two pairs sold for a hammer price of €1,800 each and another pair made €1,600 over estimates of €200-€300.
Elsewhere in the sale a 1915 Royal Worcester covered vase with an estimate of €250-€350 made a hammer price of €4,600. Hand painted with swans in flight it was numbered and designed by one of the most gifted Worcester artists Charles Henry Clifford Baldwyn whose swans became signature pieces. A marine chronometer made €3,000, a life size bronze sculpture of four deer made €10,200, a Regency breakfront bookcase made €7,000 and a William IV four poster bed made €8,500. A view of Blackrock Castle and the River Lee by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson made €2,700 at hammer.
ROYAL WORCESTER COVERED VASE, 1915 – SWANS IN FLIGHT
This Royal Worcester vase made a hammer price of €4,600 over an estimate of €250-€350 at Sheppards ongoing sale of contents from Kilroan House, Glanmire, Cork and other clients. It is richly decorated with raised gilt rococo scrolls and hand-painted swans in flight against a sky-blue and olive-green ground. The pierced neck and handles are decorated with gilt and blush highlights and the domed cover is surmounted by a gilt finial. The underside is printed with the Worcester crown mark, registration number 168915.
Charles Henry Clifford Baldwyn, one of the most gifted artists at Royal Worcester in the late 19th and early 20th century, specialised in bird painting. His paintings of swans in flight on vases became signature pieces. The designs were so distinctive and synonymous with his name that no other decorator was allowed to paint them during his employment at the Royal Worcester factory. Baldwyn was also allowed to sign his designs at a time when few factory artists were permitted to do so. Royal Worcester went to the trouble of registering this and other designs by Baldwyn to discourage copying by other rival factories because the style was so desirable and important for their sales. Later versions of the Baldwyn swans registered pattern could be printed in outline and then coloured in by other factory painters.
Meet the most expensive guitar ever sold. David Gilmour’s 1969 Fender Stratocaster – nicknamed the “Black Strat” – was played on all six of Pink Floyd’s albums between 1970 and 1983. Among them were The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. It made $14.6 million (€12.73 million) at Christie’s auction of the Jim Irsay Collection in New York where 44 lots made 373% times the low estimate. The auction brought in $84 million (€73.25 million). A piano owned by John Lennon made $3.2 million (€2.79 million). The previous record for a guitar was Kurt Cobain’s 1959 Martin D-18E played during Nivana’s legendary MTV unplugged performance in 1993 which sold for $6 million (€5.23 million) in 2020.
An interior view at Ardbraccan, Co. Meath. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: LOTS FROM ARDBRACCAN IN THE SALE REALISED £1.2 MILLION
Heartening to see an Irish house making waves on the international decorative arts and interiors markets. A carefully curated selection of beautiful English and Irish decorative arts from Ardbraccan House, a Palladian mansion in Co. Meath, will feature at Christie’s Collections London sale online from April 1-15. It has been home for over a decade to celebrated interior designer Serena Williams-Ellis and her partner Charles Noell.
An Irish George II side table from the mid 18th century is estimated at £40,000-£60,000 (€46,170-€69,250). A set of five mid 18th century leather fire buckets from the collection of the Dukes of Leinster at Carton House (£2,000-£3,000)(€2,308-€3,462), a portrait of Sophia Southwell, nee Campbell later Lady de Clifford by Sir Joshua Reynolds (£30,000-£50,000)(€34,630-€57,710) and a group of sporting pictures led by horse paintings by John E Ferneley Senior all feature.
Serena Williams-Ellis, who likes a house to smile, said: “The collection at Ardbraccan was organic in its formation over the years. I wished to get the balance of being grand enough for the house but in no way was it to feel austere, the all important thing was to feel as if it had always been there and was comfortable as it sat within the house. I wanted all things in our collection to have the charm factor – something of beauty or to make you smile. Ardbraccan under our tenure became a Stud Farm”.
Mid 18th century Irish George II side table from Ardbraccan Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2026. UPDATE: THIS MADE £76,200
Bank of Ireland £1 note from 1831 UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A spectacular Irish £1 note issued in 1831 in Newry, Dublin and Armagh comes up at Noonan’s auction of British and Irish banknotes in London on March 25. The specialist auctioneers say that it is a remarkable new discovery and the first note ever seen of this type, though it had been known to exist. They estimate lot 301 at £8,000-£10,000.
A large antique Caucasian rug. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
Antique Persian rugs, furniture and decorative objects sourced at auctions in the 1960’s, ’70’s and ’80’s at Kilroan House in Glanmire will come under the hammer at Sheppard’s on March 24 and 25.
Some of the rugs were acquired at the dispersal sale of Malahide Castle in the mid 1970’s and there is furniture from Adare Manor and other prominent Irish and English country houses from when their contents came to market.
Kilroan is brimful of lots collected with discrimination over many decades along with family heirlooms that reach way back. Viewing gets underway at the former family home of Mrs. Rosemary Punch and her late husband John in Glanmire on March 21. After three days of viewing in Cork the live and online auction will be held over the following two days in Durrow.
An 18th century oak longcase clock by James Aickin, Cork UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Auctioneer Michael Sheppard describes this as an exceptionally layered collection. Many of the Persian rugs were acquired at Malahide Castle. Sturdy oak furniture in the house has a timeless appeal. Carved oak pieces offer ultimate sustainabilty and versatility. The selection available here is plentiful and ranges from panelled oak coffers and trunks to armchairs, a court cupboard and refectory tables. Oak is sought these days both by traditionalists and those seeking to make modern minimalist interiors.
At Kilroan,which has been sold, furniture was selected for quality and character. Practical 18th-century oak and mahogany pieces sit comfortably alongside more unusual and expressive objects like a metamorphic library pole which is both functional and a statement piece, a Regency crossbanded sofa table, a yew wood library table, a Regency inlaid cellarete and a Regency ebony and parcel gilt open bookcase. Among the rare early books is a 17th-century translation of Homer’s Iliad along with books on gardening and early maps of Ireland. An iron-bound oak rent box is a 17th century piece. The collection of clocks includes an 18th century oak longcase clock by James Aickin, Cork and an 18th century longcase clock by Maddock of Waterford. There are plenty of clocks to choose from including a 19th century boulle inlaid bracket clock, a 19th century French gilt and marble figural mantel clock, a skeleton clock and a19th century barograph.
Map: The Harbour of Corke sold by Mount and Thos. Page at Tower Hill, London. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Decorative garden ornaments, seats and urns, accumulated over many years, are available along with an exceptional group of terracotta rhubarb forcers.
The late John Punch’s workshop is largely as he maintained it. There are engineering and woodworking machines including a Myford Super 7 centre lathe, an earlier Drummond Bros metal lathe, a Meddings pillar drill, and a Scheppach planer–thicknesser. These are presented along with tools, fittings and sections of old panelling salvaged from the dismantled RMS Celtic which foundered off Roches Point in December 1928.
Silver on offer includes provincial Cork silver, and fine 18th-century Dublin silver. Two 19th-century portraits, traditionally believed to depict John Punch and his wife, have long presided over the dining room. A painting of Dublin Bay by Nathaniel Hone the Younger is accompanied by a presentation plaque recording that it was gifted to a John Punch in the 1840s.
This is a comprehensive dispersal auction with an across the board appeal to all sorts of collectors. The catalogue lists more than 1,300 lots from the Punch collection and other clients.
Looking out at Fountainstown by Anna O’Hara UPDATE: THIS MADE 220 AT HAMMER
The West End Bar fitting from Portadown at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS MADE €120,000 AT HAMMER
Architectural antiques, reclaimed building materials, fireplaces, decorative interiors and outdoor features combine to make a landmark online sale by Co. Cavan based Victor Mee Auctions next Wednesday and Thursday (March 18 and 19). Contents from Wilson’s Yard, Dromore, Co. Down – now closing down after more than four decades supplying contents for homes, designers and commercial projects across Ireland, the UK and beyond – will come under the hammer.
How about a French moulded sandstone three-tier fountain? Or a vintage copper topped cupola re-envisioned as a free standing garden ornament. A four sided c1920 tower clock which stood at Spitalfields Market in London until the late 1990’s maybe. The complete fittings from the West End Bar in Portadown, one of the oldest licensed premises in Co. Armagh, including bar counter, back bar and snug can be had for an estimated €60,000-€80,000. It was in use until 2024. The sale is on view on site at Wilson’s Yard on today (March 14), tomorrow and Monday.
A c1830 lead top cupola with wrought iron weather vane at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS MADE €7,500 AT HAMMER
A Louis XIV sword, 17th century portrait miniatures, an 18th century silver tea service, a portrait of a noblewoman in the robes of the Order of Malta, a Book of Hours and collectible glass by Gallé, Daum and Baccarat will feature at Sheppards live and online Paradigms and the Unexpected auction in Durrow on March 10, 11 and 12.
These treasures are from a group of 150 lots in the auction from the Blandin family of Château de Chalain, France. They have been held in Ireland for over fifty years by direct descent, curated by its Irish family custodians.
The collection reflects generations of military, civic and cultural history. Among the earliest recorded figures in the family is Charles Louis Blandin de Chalain, owner of the Louis XIV sword (€1,000-€1,500). The blade is broken but an engraved Vive le Roi survives on one side. This offers a direct link to the family’s service under the French crown and is among a number of lots in the auction showing a continuity of lineage from Ancien Régime of France to its long-established Irish chapter.
Rare Gallé World War I vase. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Gallé World War I vases are among the rarest works of the École de Nancy. A Gallé World War I glass vase produced in 1915 with Art Nouveau glassmaking, war iconography and a subject that relates to the Vosges front has an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. It is from the Chateau de Chalain collection.
The Irish dimension of the sale is equally notable. A pair of 18th-century pastel portraits depict Walter Hussey de Burgh (1742–1783), Prime Serjeant and later Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, of Donore House, County Kildare and his wife and cousin Anne. He was one of Ireland’s most prominent legal figures of the period.
A stained glass watercolour study for the south window at Castlehaven church, Skibbereen. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A set of six stained glass watercolour designs from the late 19th century form an important ecclesiastical archive. Attributed to Arthur Louis Moore & Co., London they were prepared for the Church of Ireland commissioners and reflect Moore’s practice of producing bespoke designs for individual churches. They were made for All Saints’ Church, Phibsborough, Dublin, Christ Church, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Quin Church, County Clare (centre window, south side), St Mary’s Church, Donnybrook, Dublin (south side), Castlehaven Parish Church, Skibbereen, County Cork (south window) also known as St. Barrahane and Rathmolyon Church, County Meath (east window).
The craftsmanship of late 18th or early 19th century Irish workshops can be seen in a flintlock pistol by Dublin maker John Lanigan (1829-1835). A later percussion pistol by James Read of Dublin illustrates the technological transition from flint ignition to percussion mechanism in the 19th century. A pair of Japanese World War II “Big Eye” naval binoculars were probably manufactured by Nikon or Tokyo Kogaku Kikai (Tokyo Optical Company). The lot is accompanied by a US Army certificate permitting the removal of the binoculars at the end of the war.
An Irish 19th century inlaid commode. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
