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A pair of cold painted bronze pheasants by the Viennese Franz Bergman foundry come up at Hegarty’s live online sale in Bandon on August 22. The pair are impressed with the makers mark “B” and each one is numbered. The Bergman was noted for detailed and colourful work and the estimate on the pair is €800-€1,000. The sale of 290 lots includes art, antique furniture and collectibles from a private collection in Kinsale.
A Renaissance library of magnificent books and bindings will come up at Sotheby’s in New York in October. Bibliotheca Brookeriana, the T. Kimball Brooker Library of Renaissance Books and Bindings is the only library with the theme and concentration of Brooker’s ever assembled outside of Europe. There will be an unprecedented series of eight auctions of treasured texts celebrating the history of western thought and the art of bookmaking. Collector and scholar T. Kimball Brooker diligently assembled a carefully curated, extraordinary library of more than 1,300 sixteenth-century French and Italian books in their original bindings across more than six decades. Estimated to achieve in excess of $25 million, the collection will be presented in a live evening auction in New York this October – marking the first dedicated Books & Manuscripts evening auction in New York in a decade.
Among the countless treasures is the largest collection of editions from the renowned Aldine Press to come to the market in a century. Numbering approximately 1,000 volumes published roughly from the 1490s to the 1590s, the grouping represents the largest private collection of these revered and highly collectible texts in existence, with other comparable collections held in prominent institutions including University of California, Los Angeles; The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; John Rylands Research Institute and Library in Manchester, England; and
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. A series of eight dedicated sales will begin with a live evening sale on October 11 and the first sale dedicated to the Aldine editions on October 12.
Freddie Mercury’s baby grand, the matched wedding rings of Bogie and Bacall, a first edition of The Great Gatsby from the collection of Charlie Watts and Sir Roger Moore’s Lamborghini skis are among an extraordinary collection of celebrity stuff soon to come up at blockbuster sales in London and Hollywood. Collectibles like these are big business. With fans everywhere and global auction access online the business is growing exponentially.
Right now every inch of Sotheby’s 16,000 gallery space at New Bond St. in London is given over to a free exhibition of the world of Freddie Mercury in advance of three auctions on September 6, 7 and 8. Online Mercury sales already underway will run to September 11, 12 and 13. On offer are costumes, hand written lyrics, drawings, furniture, decorative and fine art that were part of his life at his London home, Garden Lodge in Kensington.The centre piece of the exhibition is his treasured Yamaha G2 Baby Grand. More than a decade of hits, from Bohemian Rhapsody to Barcelona, were composed on this treasured piano. Always kept in pristine condition it is estimated at £2 million – £3 million. There are handwritten working lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody, Don’t Stop Me Now and Somebody to Love, costumes relating to promotional videos including a two piece stage outfit comprising catsuit and bolero of ivory satin with winged wrists and lower legs inspired by the God Mercury.
Freddie Mercury was a discriminating collector who loved going to auctions. In 1980 he acquired Garden Lodge, a Georgian style brick villa, and set about creating a home that was both grand and intimate, richly furnished and entirely of his own making. The auction will include art by Matisse, James Tissot, Picasso and Utagawa Hiroshige, Victorian paintings and works on paper, the finest examples of the glass makers art, exceptional fabrics and fine works collected on trips to Japan. All are on view at Sotheby’s in an exhibition that will close on September 5, the day that would have been Freddie Mercury’s 77th birthday.
Iconic objects from some of Hollywood’s greatest legends will come up at a sale by Turner Classic Movies and Julien’s Auctions on September 6, 7 and 8. There is everything from dresses worn by Princess Diana and Audrey Hepburn to a slave costume worn by Princess Leia in Star Wars, Captain Kirk’s Star Fleet command jacket and the 1945 wedding rings of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. James Bond, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Back to the Future and Batman will all feature in a sale celebrating 100 years of Warner Brothers.
A library of First Edition classics and landmarks from the world of jazz will come up at Christie’s sale of the collection of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021). The sale is led by a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby inscribed by the author to the original Gatsby of the story. There are iconic works of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle alongside the best of English and American literature of the 20th century. Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone will take place in London on September 28. An online sale will run from September 15-29. Meantime Bonhams will offer 180 lots from the personal collection of Bond actor and UNICEF ambassador Sir Roger Moore (1927-2017) in London on October 4. This marks the 50th anniversary year of his first appearance as 007. There is Bond memorabilia like dinner suits and jackets, collectibles like a Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque and personal items like silk ties and cravats along with a pair of his Lamborghini skis.
House contents auctions are always brimful of appeal so Sheppards offering from Knocksaintlour House, Cashel, Co. Tipperary and other clients in Durrow on August 15 is bound to be a draw. The top lots are a French Empire style marble specimen table (€5,000-€8,000), a French gilt metal marquetry cylinder bureau, a fine Kirman rug and a large 20th century bronze sculpture of a boy and girl on a bench all estimated at €4,000-€6,000. The selection ranges from a pair of 19th century Marley horses and handlers after Cousteau to a Regency banjo barometer, a designer carved wood log box, a Venetian pier mirror and a pair of ruby glass baskets. There are tables of various types including card tables, chairs, Tiffany style lamps, desks, centrepieces, conservatory armchairs, some silver, a barograph, compact antique furniture pieces and garden furniture including moulded stone lions, a trough and a blacksmith forged steel gate.
The sale of 360 lots is on view at the house in Cashel today and tomorrow (August 12 and 13) and the catalogue is online.
This antique walnut secretaire with oval panels on bracket feet comes up at R.J. Keighery’s sale of over 800 lots in Waterford on August 21. This is an auction of antique and vintage furniture, Waterford Crystal including chandeliers and a master cutter harp, jewellery, rugs and collectibles. The secretaire is estimated at just €700-€900.
This 19th century Vernis Martin escritoire comes up at Sheppards sale of contents of Knocksaintlour House, Cashel on August 15. With a rouge-royale marble top above a painted panelled fall front opening there is a comprehensive fitted writing interior. The estimate is €2,500-€3,500. A total of 360 lots are on offer at a sale where viewing will be at Knocksaintlour House in Cashel on August 12 and 13. The auction will be held in Durrow and online.
Typical. You wait nearly a century and then two come along. Ailerons from the Vickers Vimy bomber flown by Alcock and Brown in the first non-stop transatlantic flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Connemara in 1919 are rare. One turned up at Whyte’s in 2018. Now a different one has surfaced and will be auctioned by Purcell Auctioneers in Birr on August 18. At Whyte’s the aileron made €8,500 at hammer. Lot 205 at Purcell’s sale of collectibles and rarities is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. This piece was retrieved by noted local photographer R W Simmons, one of the first on the scene to take photographs for the national newspapers. Purcell’s say it is thence: by descent and gift to the current owner in the early 2000’s. Three hand written descriptions thereon, one of which includes the name of R W Simons (Simmons – renowned Galway based photographer). A paper cutting on the other side reads “£50 for £1. The owner of a Treasury Pound Note carried across the Atlantic by Sir John Alcock on the 1st non-stop flight, has refused £50 for it”.
The plane landed in a bog that appeared from the air to be a suitable green field after less than 16 hours flying time and was damaged after going nose over. Neither of the airmen was hurt. An Alcock and Brown photo/scrapbook made €2,600 over a top estimate of €1,800.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 8, 2018).
The doors to the full and fascinating world of Fredde Mercury open today at Sotheby’s in London. Every inch of Sotheby’s 16,000 square foot gallery space in New Bond Street has been given over to the vast array of costumes, hand-written lyrics, drawings, furniture, and decorative and fine art that were so much a part of Mercury’s
life and with which he lived in his beautiful London home, Garden Lodge. At the heart of the exhibition will be the piano pictured here – revealed today for the first time – that was deeply precious to Mercury and a vital element in the creation of his greatest compositions: his treasured Yamaha G2 Baby Grand Piano, estimated at £2-3 million. On it he composed over a decade of hits, from Bohemian Rhapsody to Barcelona.
By 1975, the trusty old upright piano on which Freddie had composed the hits on Queen’s first three albums was no longer equal to his ever more panoramic musical ambitions. With the financial backing of music mogul Don Arden – who was unsuccessfully attempting to woo Queen to his management table – Freddie set out to find the perfect piano, with a sound that resonated with his evolving musical ambitions. After an intensive search lasting many weeks, he finally found what he was looking for: a rare baby grand with an easy keyboard action, an elegant look, and a particularly clean and clear sound, made by the Japanese manufacturer Yamaha, who had only recently started importing their instruments to England. The piano would just about fit into the small apartment he was sharing at the time with Mary Austin. As she recalls, ‘Freddie treated the Yamaha with absolute respect. He considered it to be more than an instrument, it was an extension of himself, his vehicle of creativity. He would never smoke at the piano or rest a glass on top of it and would ensure nobody else did either. The piano was always pristine.’
The new piano very soon proved its worth. In the months after its arrival, he used it to develop and hone the epic track Bohemian Rhapsody, released towards the end of that year. The London exhibition continues until September 5. On September 6, 7 and 8 Sotheby’s will hold three auctions devoted to the Freddie Mercury Collection. Meantime three online Freddie Mercury auctions running to September 11, 12 and 13 will get underway on August 11.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 26, 2023)
These three early Chinese brush pots made a hammer price of €13,500 on the opening day of Fonsie Mealy’s three day sale in Castlecomer on August 1. The estimate was €1,000-€1,500. The catalogue described lot 289 as a very good carved bamboo brush pot of cylindrical form depicting a large man seated on a rug, 15cms (6″); a Chinese bamboo Brush Pot, carved in deep relief with four figures by a pavilion and two lines of calligraphy and a single oval panel with a phoenix, 13cms (5 1/4″); and a very fine early bamboo Brush Pot, depicting a man with rolling horse in low relief and three lines of calligraphy, 15cms (6″).
Legends: Hollywood and Royalty is hardly an understated title for Julien’s auction celebrating 100 years of Warner Brothers in Beverly Hills on September 6, 7 and 8. The greatest legends of the silver screen will feature alongside evening gowns worn by Princess Diana. Among more than 1,400 lots are matching wedding rings from Bogie and Bacall, Princess Leia’s slave costume from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, a Captain Kirk Starfleet command jacket from from Star Trek, over a dozen Harry Potter prop wands, Blade Runner props from Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, a Back to the Future hoverboard prop and an array of spectacular one of a kind production artefacts. Hebburn’s dress illustrated here is estimated at $200,000-$400,000.
