Bronze sculpture of boys climbing a ladder made 7,200 at hammer
This seasonal bronze sculpture of boys climbing a ladder made a hammer price of 7,200 at the opening evening of Victor Mee’s three day Palace Collection sale on September 20. Two Irish Georgian marble statuary fireplaces each made 14,000, a plaster cast statue of Venus of Arles made 4,600,, a bronze sculpture of a majestic stage made 3,600, an Irish Georgian longcase clock by John Irwin of Boyle made 4,000, an Irish Crystal 15 branch chandelier made 3,500 and a 17th century oak refectory table made 3,400. The online sale continues at 6 pm on September 21 and 22.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 16, 2022)
Georgian lowboy (€300-€400). UPDATE: THIS MADE 470 AT HAMMER
All auctions with antique furniture offer plenty of opportunities for entry level collectors. The sort of value to be had is underlined at Woodwards sale in Cork on September 24. A selection of Georgian, William IV, Victorian and Edwardian furniture is all available at under €500. Many of these built to last venerable old pieces would have cost more two decades ago than they do today and defy every current trend simply by getting cheaper. If auction history teaches us anything it is that antique pieces from particular eras have to survive a period of unfashionability and a tendency to break them up. The time to come back into some sort of vogue is overdue.
What is slightly puzzling is that in an era like this one when anything goes antique furniture is not at all unfashionable. The best interiors are routinely drawn from many sources – eclectic if you like – and the stylish modern home offers huge scope for individual taste and style in furniture, art and collectibles. Even if we are about to be bled dry by energy costs and inflation we need to feather winter nests for the coming winter. Here are some examples from Woodwards with estimates in brackets: Georgian lowboy (€300-€400); concave cabinet (€300-€400); George II card table (€400-€500); Edwardian demi-lune card table (€300-€400); William IV sideboard (€400-€500); Edardian twin pillar dining table (€300-€400); Edwardian sofa table (€300-€400) and a small bachelors chest (€150-€200). The catalogue is online.
Irish Georgian marble breakfront chimney piece. UPDATE: THIS MADE 14,000 AT HAMMER
This Irish Georgian fireplace is among the top lots at Victor Mee’s annual Palace Collection sale which runs from September 20-22. Viewing gets underway at the former Bishop’s Palace, Kilmore, Co Cavan on September 17 and the catalogue is online. There are 1,748 lots of antique furniture, decorative interior pieces and garden furniture and the auction includes contents from Benmore House in Co. Fermanagh. The breakfront chimney piece with centre plaque illustrated here is estimated at €15,000-€25,000 and is lot 250b. It is one of a number of fireplace pieces in the sale. There is a big selection of antique furniture, art, collectibles and a variety with a wide appeal to all tastes across varying price ranges.
UPDATE: THIS MADE £930,000 – A WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A V.C.
The ‘Siege of Lucknow’ Victoria Cross awarded to Irishman Thomas Henry Kavanagh was sold for a world-record price of £930,000 (€1,073,355) by Mayfair-based auctioneers Noonans today. Bought by an un named collector in a sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria it was the first civilian V.C. of five to be awarded. Estimated at £300,000-400,000 it was one of only two not currently in a museum. The price includes a 24% buyer’s premium.
Kavanagh, who was born on July 15, 1821 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath was employed as a clerk in the Lucknow Office prior to the Siege, which occurred during the Indian Mutiny. In November 1857, he volunteered to leave the safety of the Residency disguised as a Sepoy accompanied by a Brahmin scout. The pair jostled past armed rebels through the narrow Lucknow streets and talked their way past sentries in the moonlight, crossed deep rivers, tramped through swamps and narrowly avoided capture after startling a farmer who raised the alarm. On finally reaching a British cavalry outpost, Kavanagh delivered a vital despatch to Sir Colin Campbell and ably guided his column to the relief of the Residency garrison.
Oliver Pepys, Associate Director and Medal Specialist at Noonans said: “Kavanagh’s gallantry at Lucknow 165 years ago stands out as one of the most premeditated and sustained acts of gallantry in the history of the Victoria Cross and the price achieved at auction demonstrates the high regard which Kavanagh is still held in today.”
Pierce Noonan, Chairman and CEO of Noonans auctions, said: “The record price achieved for Kavanagh’s Victoria Cross reflects not just Kavanagh’s extraordinary gallantry, but also the strength of the market for small collectibles more generally where the prices for high quality items continue to go from strength to strength.”
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for August 28 and August 18, 2022)
MYSTERY-SET SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND FLOWER BROOCH, BY VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
THIS mystery set sapphire and diamond flower brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels made a hammer price of €110,000 at James Adam sale of Fine Jewellery and Watches in Dublin on September 13. Described by the auctioneers as rare and collectible it had been estimated at €30,000-€50,000. Patented by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1933 the Mystery Setting “is a technique which allows the jeweller to model any form, any movement”. The apparently invisible mounting of the stones without visible claws or prongs creates an effect which makes them almost look as though they are floating.
Royal Mughal pashmina carpet c1650. UPDATE: THIS MADE £5,422,000
An extraordinarily rare survivor from the golden age of Imperial Mughal carpet production comes up at Christie’s in London on October 27. This Royal Mughal pashmina carpet woven for the court of the Emperor Shah Jahan is of ‘Lattice and Flower’ design, exemplary for its brilliant colour and pattern, woven with the most luxurious and costly materials with prized pashmina goat hair woven onto a fine silk foundation. One of only four 17th century pashmina carpets remaining in private hands. This one is estimated at £2,500,000 – 3,500,000.
The carpet is an example of the Flower Style in Mughal India which became popular in architectural decoration and the decorative arts under the emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58). A variety of flowers represented in profile and organised in rows is a hallmark of the style. In most rug-weaving cultures, silk is the most valuable and sumptuous fibre. In Mughal culture, in northern India, this was not the case. The most highly prized fibre for the pile was goat hair, pashmina, the undercoat of the Himalayan mountain goat. Each pashmina fibre measures almost one sixth the width of a human hair, which meant that these Mughal carpets were among the finest carpets ever woven. The highest knot count exceeds 2,000 knots per inch, which goes beyond what the eye can “read.” The majority of examples fall between 400 and 1,000 knots and the carpet discussed has an average of 672 knots per sq. inch. It will be a leading lot in the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Oriental Rugs and Carpets auction.
This table was once the property of Queen Marie Antoinette. UPDATE:THIS WAS UNSOLD
There is considerable provenance to lot 652 at Fonsie Mealy’s autumn Chatsworth auction in Castlecomer on September 27-28. According to the auctioneer the 18th century French Louis XVI oval walnut and tulipwood table pictured here was once the property of Marie Antoinette. Purchased in Paris by Lord Charles Beresford it was given as a gift to Mrs. Maude of Belgard Castle, Clondalkin, Dublin on the birth of her son Marcus “Markie” Maude in 1896. He died in Mesopotamia aged 24 and the table went by descent to Mount Juliet from Colonel Silcock. It was purchased by the present vendor at Mount Juliet. The table was made by Jean-Pierre Dusautoy (1719-1800) and is stamped. There is a three quarter pierced brass gallery and oval top with a tooled leather inset inside a crossbanded edge. It is estimated at 4,000-6,000. The two day sale of over 1,000 lots is brimful of interest and the catalogue is online.
Oval centre table estimated at just €400-€600. UPDATE: THIS MADE 600 AT HAMMER
Just like Patrick Kavanagh you might meet your object of desire on Raglan Road on an autumn day. In the case of the poet it was a lady whose dark hair would weave a snare which he might one day rue. In yours and mine, more prosaically, it could just be something from the timed auction that de Veres is running at 25 Raglan Road until September 19. The auctioneers say this entire sale offers a window into the mind of an interior designer and that this is an opportunity to pick up pieces as new. The mix of antique, modern and contemporary furniture is complemented by lighting, prints, mirrors, soft furnishings, porcelain and household items. One of the most expensively estimated lots is an Andrew Martin sofa (€1,000-€2,000). Mirrors, chairs, curtains, dressing tables, lamps, lined curtains, chests of drawers and porcelain are all very reasonably estimated, many at under €300. There will be viewing at the house next Friday, Saturday and Sunday week. The catalogue is online now.
EMERALD AND DIAMOND SERPENT BROOCH, BY MEISTER, 1968. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This emerald and diamond serpent brooch comes up as lot 85 at the James Adam sale of fine jewellery and watches in Dublin on September 13. The realistically modelled snake with brilliant and single-cut diamond highlights and emerald cabochon eyes, with engraved body and underside is by Zurich based jewellery Meister and was made c1968. The estimate is 4,500-5,500. The auction offers a selection of 243 lots, the catalogue is online and viewing gets underway today in Dublin.
SIR JOHN LAVERY, R.S.A., R.H.A., R.A. (1856-1941) Lady Gwendoline Spencer-Churchill in The Merchant of Venice. COURTESY CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2021. UPDATE: THIS MADE £44,100
Paintings and furniture in the home of a husband and wife over a remarkable span of almost 125 years will come under the hammer at ‘Churchill to Eden: The Collection of The Earl and Countess of Avon’ at Christie’s in London on October 21. On offer is an eclectic collection – the property of Sir Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, K.G., M.C., P.C. (1897–1977), the former British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary (1935–1938; 1940– 1945 and 1951–1955) and Prime Minister of the UK (1955 – 1957) and his second wife, Clarissa Spencer-Churchill (1920–2021).
The sale is an evocative journey into an almost vanished world of politics, society and inter-connections. It will include English furniture, Impressionist and Modern Art, Modern British Art, Antiquities, Chinese Works of Art, Islamic Works of Art, Books and Manuscripts and Silver, all collected by Lord and Lady Avon over many decades. The couple met at a dinner party in 1947 and were married in 1952 in London, garnering international media attention. The reception was held at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister and hosted by Winston Churchill. Eden eventually succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon retiring from the House of Commons and being elevated to the House of Lords, Eden was created Earl of Avon in 1961.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTALLED £2,766,176
Georges Braque, Verre et Huîtres, a gift from Anthony to Clarissa, Courtesy CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2021. UPDATE: THIS MADE £378,000
Away from his life of politics Eden had a passion for art from an early age, with a keen eye which helped to form this collection. Clarissa Eden counted friendships with Lucian Freud and Greta Garbo among others. Unsurprisingly for a British Prime Minister the collection is led by important Modern British Art; including two paintings by Winston Churchill given to Eden during his political career, three works by Sir John Lavery and works given to Lady Avon by her friends Cecil Beaton and David Jones. There is art by Picasso, Braque, Degas, Laurencin and Corot. The sale also features highlights from Lord Avon’s library including signed Churchill, Field Marshal Montgomery and de Gaulle editions, alongside signed works to Lady Avon from notable authors Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton.
Many lots graced the Eden’s Green Drawing Room at 10 Downing Street and featured in archive issues of Country Life in 1961 and in Apollo in 1969 when Lord and Lady Avon were living at Fyfield Manor in Wiltshire where they resided until Lord Avon’s death in 1977. Clarissa lived to the age of 101 and died in 2021.
