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The official programme for the 1955 All-Ireland Hurling Final comes up as lot 949 at Fonsie Mealy’s rare books and collectors online timed auction which runs until March 1. The final between Galway and Wexford took place at Croke Park on September 4 of that year. It was Wexford’s seventh attempt at the title and they won on a score of 3-13 to 2-8. The estimate is €100-150. The catalogue is online and the sale is open for viewing in Castlecomer today and on next Monday and Tuesday.
There is an interesting provenance to this 19th century High Gothic Revival hall mirror at Mullen’s timed classic and contemporary interiors auction which runs until February 26. Lot 192 at this auction of 894 lots last came up at the Shelton Abbey, Arklow sale in 1950. That auction on behalf of the Earl of Wicklow was conducted by Allen & Townsend, Dublin and Clark, Delahunt of Wicklow. The mirror, in the manner of Augustus Pugin, has arched gothic plates in a cluster column and a gilt foliate capped frame. Lot 192 is estimated at €1,500-€2,500.
This pine bar back with barley twist columns and tongue and groove backing comes up as lot 304 at Victor Mee’s three day Normal People pub memorabilia and collectibles sale. On offer are contents from Killoran’s Pub, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo. The pub was used for the filming of the global TV hit and Emmy and Golden Globe nominated Normal People, based on the novel by Sally Rooney. A total of 1,378 lots will come under the hammer during three days of sales on February 28, March 1 and March 2. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce from the first English edition published by The Egoist in 1916 leads Fonsie Mealy’s online rare book and collectors sale. The first English edition, one of only 750 copies of Joyce’s first novel, is estimated at €1,500-2,000. The online timed sale opens today and runs until March 1. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Castlecomer on February 27 and 28. The selection on offer ranges from Brian Merriman to Edna O’Brien, Seamus Heaney to Liam O’Flaherty, Anthony Trollope to John McGahern.
There is an album and record sleeve signed by Jimi Hendrix, a complete set of Georgian Society records, a set of 18th century Georgian Society architectural records and a Brazil jersey signed by Pele among the 945 lots.
The Codex Sassoon is set to become the most valuable historical document or manuscript ever at auction when it is sold at Sotheby’s in May. This bridge from the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible of today is estimated to make $30-$50 million. It has been dated as the earliest, most complete definitive text of its kind. Dating to the late 9th early 10th century it is the most complete extant Hebrew Bible. It is named for its prominent modern owner David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) and comes to auction from the renowned collection of Jacqui Safra. The auction is to take place in New York in May alongside Sotheby’s marquee sales of Contemporary and Modern Art. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $38.1 MILLION
This stylish pair of early 19th century heavy gates will come up as lot 469 at Fonsie Mealy’s Making Room spring sale in Castlecomer and online on February 15. Originally at Tudenham Park, Mullingar, they are estimated at €2,000-3,000. Viewing for this sale gets underway on February 13 and the catalogue is online. Most lots, from antique furniture, mirrors, lanterns, knife boxes, clocks, chairs, peat buckets and collectibles, are to be sold without reserves.
A pair of George III mahogany pedestals, urns and covers will lead the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on February 14. Each six sided urn is complete with boxwood strung turned tops and finials. The estimate is €4,000-€6,000. This 494 lot auction opens with 134 lots of silver and jewellery headed by a single stone princess cut diamond ring of 2.5 carats (€4,000-€6,000). There is temptation for collectors too in a Florentine style pietra dura rectangular table top. Inlaid with various kinds of marble and hardstone with an abundance of flowers, foliage and birds it is estimated at €2,500-€4,000.
One well placed eye catching piece can change the atmosphere of a room and a sale like this is the exactly the sort of place to let your imagination run riot. There is a wide range of affordable choices from a pair of polished brass amphora shaped table lamps (€300-€500), a Persian rug (€1,500-€2,500) and a pair of 19th century cut lustre candlesticks (€50-€100) to a Meiji period Japanese carved ivory okimono of a fruit vendor (€300-€400) and a 19th century ebonised Anglo-Indian fold over card table (€300-€500). There are longcase clocks, porcelain parrots, sets of prints, clock garnitures. dining chairs, bookcases, cabinets, chandeliers, brass fenders, library chairs, fire screens and an Irish silver champagne bucket. The most expensively estimated art lot is a painting of horses with domestic fowl in a farmyard by J F Herring jnr (1820-1907) (€2,500-€3,500). The sale offers some Irish School and continental landscapes, a number of portraits, genre scenes, Snaffles prints, Spy prints, busts and bronzes. The catalogue cover lot is a pair of bronze and gilt decorated busts of Ramses, the great Egyptian Pharaoh and the Goddess Isis after Pierre Eugene Emile Hebert (1828-1893) (€1,500-€2,500).
An unlikely to be repeated ever opportunity to unleash the mule and sit on Cromwell arises at at Fonsie Mealy’s Making Room spring sale on February 15. The late 18th century oak and mahogany banded specimen at the sale in Castlecomer has everything you would want in a mule chest. This character full lot comes with a hinged top above one long and two short drawers and two mock drawers. In the 17th century mule chests were used to store clothes, linens, wools and valuables. They always came with a key. This one is estimated at €400-€600.
The 468 lots on offer at affordable estimates range from heavy cast gates originally at Tudenham Park, Mullingar to artworks, rugs, tables, sideboards, display cabinets, longcase clocks, collectibles and chairs. Among these is a set of 12 sturdy 19th century Cromwellian style chairs with crested carved tops and cream hide seats. The style was popular during the Puritan period. Whether such chairs are favoured in Ireland today remains to be seen. The catalogue is online.
THIS early 19th century Irish Regency dining table originally acquired for Bantry House in west Cork comes up at Christie’s in London on February 9. The estimate is £60,000-£90,000. It was probably acquired by Richard White, 1st Earl of Bantry (d. 1851) or his son, Viscount Berehaven, later 2nd Earl of Bantry (1800-1868). The table remained in Bantry House for many year before being sold anonymously at Christie’s in 2006 for £96,000.
Bantry House has been the home of the White family and the Earls of Bantry since c1765. From about 1816 the 1st Earl (1767-1851) preferred to live at his shooting lodge, styled as a cottage orné in nearby Glengariff. After the death of his wife in 1835 he lived there permanently. It was around this time that Bantry House was made over to his eldest son, Viscount Berehaven (1800-1868), later 2nd Earl of Bantry.
Viscount Berehaven was a collector, who travelled much of Europe and transformed Bantry House to what is seen today. He furnished the house with great opulence, which included such an outstanding array of items that Bantry House became known as ‘the Wallace Collection of Ireland’. The alterations to the house took place in the 1840s, and it is therefore possible that this table was acquired by either the 1st or 2nd Earl.
The table comes up as lot 105 in a sale entitled An Opulent Aesthetic: An Important Private Collection from an English Country House. There are 266 lots in the sale including 19th century paintings, Old Masters and sporting art, antique furniture and decorative arts.
Part of a single owner collection of Irish Tokens made a hammer price of almost £20,000 at Noonans. The collection amassed by the late Barry Woodside is being dispersed in a series of auctions.
The top lot was a rare Londonderry copper farthing for Broadway Bar on Duke Street which made £1,700 against an estimate of £150-200. It went to a private collector. A copper token from Michael Donoghue of Dublin dating from 1853-8 made £1,600 over an estimate of £300-400.
Only three examples of the free ticket for the Grandstand of the Isle of Man Race are known. The one at Noonans made £1,400, almost three times its top estimate.
