Djinn lounge chair by Olivier Mourgue. UPDATE: THIS MADE 400 AT HAMMER
Anyone travelling by air this summer quickly learns one harsh truth. Those of us paying the piper do not call the tune. Which makes one lot at de Veres online art and design auction, which runs until July 12, of great if impractical interest. It won’t fit in your carry on bag but lot 16 at de Veres is this Djinn lounge chair by Olivier Mourgue for Airborne International. Just the thing when your flight has been cancelled and you have been abandoned. The estimate is just €400-€600. There are chairs by Charles and Ray Eames and Ligne Roset, Italian sofas, contemporary tables and antique desks but most of the 146 lots in this sale are artworks. All of them are at highly affordable prices as this is one of a number of sales by de Veres designed for those who are dipping their toes into the market for the first time. Among the art lots are a number of mid century set designs by Reginald Grey for theatres like The Gate, The Globe and The Pike.
Panelled hand painted and gilded gesso French chateau interior. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
In a year when so many projects are behind time and skills are hard to come by the words “hold that building job” are difficult to utter. It might be just worth the risk for lot 624 at Victor Mee’s upcoming decorative interiors, architectural and pub memorabilia sale. If your concept of Les Liasons dangereuses revolves around a risky rush of blood at the auction room and your taste runs to gilded French interiors of the 18th century then this is the lot for you.
On offer is a totally over the top richly gilded panelled room with etched glass panel doors and original fireplace from a chateau near Versailles. The estimate for the lot is €25,000-€35,000 and good luck to anyone prepared to take it on. Armed with this piece of kit any purchaser would be in a perfect position to utter the words: “welcome to my humble abode” or mutter “a mere bagatelle I picked up at a sale”. These recreations really do work. There are wonderfully atmospheric French rooms recreated from original panelling at the Metropolitan Museum in New York where you need a pinch to know that you are in the US and not in France. The illustration here includes a pair of life size stone lamp statues on marble bases. These are a separate lot numbered 715 in a brimful of interest catalogue of 1,124 lots, and the estimate is €2,750-€3,750. UPDATE: THE STONE LAMP STATUES MADE €2,800 at the sale of BG salvage in October 2023.
The stylish mantel piece (note quantity of panels reflected in the mirror).
Victor Mee is based in Co. Cavan but is an offsite online sale which is on view at Tallbridge Road, Cranagill, Co. Armagh, BT62 8NP in Northern Ireland on July 16 and 17 from 11 am to 4 pm on each day. Among the lots are doors of various types, pediments, dividers, cast iron radiators, panelling, corbels, gates, lighting, chairs, display units, clocks, mirrors, a crocodile skin, tables, prints, bar fittings, urns, cast iron models of models, a gazebo, a stone fountain and a 19th century carved oak pulpit.
UPDATE: IN OCTOBER 2023 THE PANELLED ROOM CAME UP AT A VICTOR MEE SALE OF BG SALVAGE IN NAAS AND MADE A HAMMER PRICE OF €15,000
Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording of Blowin in the Wind since 1962 sold for £1,482,000 at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London today. It was from a special session with multi-Grammy winning producer T Bone Burnett, on the recently announced groundbreaking Ionic Original disc. T Bone Burnett, Founder of NeoFidelity Inc. and multi-Grammy-winning producer commented: “Marshall McLuhan said that a medium surrounds a previous medium and turns the previous medium into an art form, as film did with novels, as television did with film, as the internet has done with television, and as digital has done with analogue. With Bob Dylan’s new version of “Blowin’ In The Wind”, our first Ionic Original archival analogue disc, we have entered and aim to help develop a music space in the fine arts market. I trust and hope it will mean as much to whomever acquired it today at Christie’s Exceptional Sale as it does to all of us who made it, and that they will consider it and care for it as a painting or any other singular work of art.”
19th century cheval mirror with brass candle holders
This 19th century mahogany cheval mirror is among the lots from Howth Castle at Sean Eacrett’s online sale from Ballybrittas, Co. Laois on July 9. The sale includes a number of lots from the attics and basements at Howth Castle. The mirror illustrated here, lot 295, is estimated at €300-€500. There are 720 lots in the auction, which includes contents from houses in Kildare, Dublin and Wicklow.
A gilt console table and other lots from Aidan Foley’s sale
A 1940 shipwreck off Cape Clear and the Irish record for a specimen river brown trout are recalled at Aidan Foley’s two day auction at Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare on July 4 and 5. The trout, weighing 20 lbs, was caught in the River Shannon at Corbally, Limerick in February 1957 by Major Hugh L Place. The sale includes items from the Place family, who had strong connections to the Limerick Steamship Company, which named its ships after locations in Limerick.
The SS Maigue, travelling from Limerick via Fenit to Liverpool with a cargo of bacon, struck a rock near Cape Clear in January 1940 and was beached at South Harbour. Badly damaged she was refloated that May, sold for scrap and broken up in Dublin. An unsigned painting of the ship is included in the auction along with a collection of fishing rods by John Enright, Castleconnell owned by Major Place. Old fishing flies with a 1945 note by Major Place who believed them then to be 100 years old might make an interesting catch. Antique lots in the auction include two console tables, a metal Armada chest, Irish swords by Johnson of Dublin, an Adams style desk and a large club fender. The catalogue for this sale of 1,700 lots is online and the auctions will be live and online.
IRISH GEORGE II SILVER FOUR-BRANCH EPERGNE, MARK OF ROBERT CALDERWOOD, DUBLIN, CIRCA 1750
This Georgian Irish silver epergne sold for €60,480 at Christie’s in Paris. It was once in the Cork collection of the Newenham family. Brigadier General Henry Edward Berkeley Newenham (1866-1934) was the son of William Henry Newenham, of Maryborough Park, co. Cork, a branch of the Newenhams of Coolmore. He was educated at Haileybury and served in the Royal Fusiliers, fighting in the Boer War and the First World War. He commanded the first landing of men at Galliopoli where he was wounded, losing a leg. In retirement he served as mayor of Lymington, Hampshire. His sale in 1902 was formed from a collection of Irish and English silver. The family house Maryborough Park was sold by his father in 1889 and is now a hotel.
It was of the sale of the collection “Le Grand Style: An apartment on the Quai d’Orsay designed by Alberto Pinto” .
LÊ QU0C L0C (VIETNAM, 1918-1987) – A Mekong river landscape with a village
Described as rare and important this six fold Mekong river scene by Le Quoc Loc made a hammer price of €360,000 at the James Adam sale of Asian art in Dublin today. This screen is typical of the artist’s work, in the sense that the predominant tones are red and dark brown combined with gilt. It depicts a bird’s eye-view animated landscape, as seen from the top of a hill, crossed by Mekong river arms. The in-depth perspective is created by a succession of grounds. In the first two the artist used a gilt lacquer to depict trees, including palm trees. In the middle on the left, is a traditional thatched houses hamlet. Then come Mekong river arms. The composition may roughly be described as being divided into two parts by a diagonal going from the upper left corner to the lower right corner – thereby creating two triangular shapes – and playing with empty and full. The estimate for the screen was €200,000-€400,000.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 25,2022)
STONE-EMBELLISHED GILT COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF AN ELEVEN-HEADED AVALOKITESVARATIBETO CHINESE / SINO-TIBETAN, POSSIBLY 18TH CENTURY
This mercury gilt and stone embellished figure made a hammer price of €19,000 at the opening day of three days of sales of Asian art at Adams in Dublin today. It was formerly by repute in the collection of Juan Carlos Katzenstein (1925-2018), Argentinian diplomat and ambassador in Beijing from December 1975 to January 1978, and later to the Holy See (Vatican) and to the Sovereign Order of Malta from 1989 to 1991. The upper estimate was €15,000. The auction kicked off with the sale of a white jade melon and butterfly linked box and cover from an Irish collection for €15,000 over a top estimate of €8,000. A Famille Vert Month cup with Kangxi mark and seal mark reading ‘Shang’ with a top estimate of €2,000 made €33,000 at hammer.
19th century horse drawn coach from the estate of Maureen O’Hara UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A life size bronze sculpture of a horse and jockey, a large cast iron gazebo and a group of large Italianate stone figures are among the leading lots at Sheppards annual Glantelwe gardens sale in Durrow, Co. Laois on June 28 and 29. These are large garden pieces but the sale of 724 lots of architectural ornaments and garden sculpture offers something for every garden, large or small.
Conversation pieces include lot 486, a 19th century horse drawn coach complete with carriage lights from the estate of the late Maureen O’Hara. It is estimated at €4,000-€6,000. Or how about lot 501, two large metal milk churns (€150-€250). An exercise in imagination might land an appetising spot for these in many gardens. There are lovely cast iron garden benches, stone sculptures, bronzes, estate entrance gates, troughs, planters, marble sculpture, staddle stones, 19th century urns, pedestals, finials, bollards, sundials, tree guards, tables, chairs, arches, jardinieres, spheres and fountains. The sale is on view in Durrow and the catalogue is online.
Lacquered wooden panel of a seated young beauty with flowers by Alix Ayme. UPDATE: THIS MADE 80,000 AT HAMMER
The fabulous arts of Asia – magnificent, rich, colourful, symbolic, auspicious – will come under the hammer at three days of sales at James Adam in Dublin kicking off next Tuesday. More than 1,000 lots including newly discovered masterpieces of fine Chinese and Himalayan art will feature in two Asian Spring auctions and one of decorative Asian art. There will be global interest in an auction series which has been already previewed at the Pagoda Fair in Paris. Irish collectors and those dipping their toes into this market for the first time will find plenty of opportunities at sales where estimates range from €80 to €400,000.
In an era of fakes, knockoffs and forgeries seasoned collectors of Asian art value provenance very highly. These auctions are rich in works from well known collections like that of Carlos Alfredo Tornquist Altgelt (1885-1953); Juan Carlos Katzenstein (1925-2018); Jorge Casares of Buenos Aires and Canadian industrialist Baron Sir Duncan Orr-Lewis. The top lot of the auction is a rare six panelled lacquered wood screen of a Mekong River landscape with village by Vietnamese artist Le Quoc Loc (1918-1987). This 1943 panel is estimated at €200,000-€400,000. From snuff bottles to carved animals to screens and vases there is enough jade to make one green with envy. On day one there are Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze figures, rock crystal censers, blanc de chine porcelain vases, Chinese export porcelain, silver, cloisonne ware, an opium tray, furniture, art and scrolls.
Le Quoc Loc – Six panelled lacquered wood screen of a Mekong River landscape with village. UPDATE: THIS MADE 360,000 AT HAMMER
The emphasis on Wednesday is on Vietnam, Indochina, Asian painters and Japan. There are some Japanese prints along with a selection of art and artefacts headed by the six fold lacquer screen by Le Quoc Loc and a beautiful lacquer panel with a Byzantine inspired gold ground by Alix Ayme (1894-1989), professor at the Indochina Fine Arts College in Hanoi. The artist, once a pupil of Maurice Denis, was instrumental in the revival of the ancient art of lacquer which she taught in Hanoi. On Thursday the sale of decorative arts is brimful of interest. The Chinese incorporate auspicious symbols in nearly every aspect of life, including arts and culture. All sorts of symbols represent their aspiration for a longer, more prosperous and happier life. Lot 701 is a Famille Rose eight boys bottle vase. Three of them are climbing up the vase, and the depiction of five on the shoulders is particularly auspicious as it signifies the saying “wu zi deng ke” referring to the supreme achievement of one family whose five sons passed the civil service examination. (In my view the most auspicious thing about this is that they did not live next door!).The catalogue is online and viewing is underway at St. Stephen’s Green.
