This 19th century French boulle desk comes up as lot 728 on day two of Adams Country House Collections sale on October 18 and 19. The auction is open for viewing at Townley Hall near Drogheda today, tomorrow and on Sunday. The online is at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin. This is a showcase of some of the finest pieces of Irish Georgian furniture and important Irish Old Master paintings consigned from many fine old country houses, many of the lots never having been on the auction market before. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800 AT HAMMER
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for October 9 and October 5, 2021)
A 19th century metal bound butter churn (40-80). UPDATE: THIS MADE 60 AT HAMMER
This old Irish butter churn is among the lots at Victor Mee’s online two day sale of Irish vernacular, pine furniture and pub collectibles on October 20 and 21. There will be a total of 961 lots. Irish vernacular furniture was built using inexpensive materials for use everyday and often carved by the homeowner. There is kitchen furniture, collectible items and spongeware, as well as some furniture and collectible pieces from a local pub and Victorian apothecary. Spongeware is the craft of using paint to decorate plain mugs bowls and plates with a sponge or potato cut to shapes of flowers, leaves hearts and animals.
A pair of Cork Republican silver candlesticks will highlight a special live and online auction of Irish and English silver at Woodwards on October 16. The candlesticks were made by Egans during the Irish Civil War when silver could not be safely sent to the Assay Office in Dublin. It was instead stamped with the Arms of Cork, with two castles and a ship in the centre. Republican silver is both rare and prized by collectors. This pair is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. There is a Republican silver sugar tongs (€400-800), a Cork silver salver stamped ‘STERLING’ (€400-600) a spoon marked ‘Grand Central Hotel’ by Egans as well as items of Cork silver by Carden Terry and Jane Williams.
The militaria section is from the estate of Brother William Palladius Allen (1892-1984) and includes an old Irish Blunderbuss made by Robert Tomlinson, Dublin.
Irish George II secretaire inlaid with filigree marque. UPDATE: THIS MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER
Serious collectors of fine Irish Georgian furniture will find much of interest at Adams annual Country House Collections on October 18 and 19. Viewing for this annual auction, which this year offers a particularly good selection of 18th century Irish furniture alongside fine examples of classical Irish art and silver, gets underway at Townley Hall near Drogheda next Friday. Among various highly covetable rarities is a c1730/40 George II Irish secretaire cabinet with a scrolled broken pediment inlaid with filigree marquetry and Comedia dell’Arte figures. Adams estimate it at €20,000-€30,000. There is a similar example in Irish Furniture by The Knight of Glin and James Peill. Another mid Georgian Irish secretaire bookcase with a more traditional straight front design, at one stage in the home of Lord Monteagle at Mount Trenchard House near Foynes, is estimated at €30,000-€40,000.An Irish George II mahogany side table in the manner of Richard Cranfield, was in the collection of Lord Leverhulme of Sunlight Soap fame before being sold in New York in 1926. It has an unusual design of corner truss legs and Greek key frieze and is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. A stunning Irish mahogany side table with an apron carved with scrolls and acanthus leaves and a centre scallop shell is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. So is a compartmental George III pier mirror notable for the blue and clear glass bead decoration so associated with Irish mirrors.There is a wonderful dining table measuring over five metres long on three centre quadropod supports. It is estimated at €30,000-€40,000. A set of 18 Regency dining chairs come with an estimate of €20,000-€30,000. Collectible pieces of Irish furniture such as a Killarney work centre table (€2,000-€3,000) are on offer at less stratospheric prices and not everything in the sale is Irish.A remarkable nine piece suite of Anglo-Indian gilt wood furniture, latterly at Prehen House in Derry, was included in the Castletown House, Co. Kildare inventory of 1893 as “Bombay” furniture. It is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. An example of fine English cabinet making is a George III knee hole desk after a design by Thomas Chippendale.Among the silverware is a pair of Dublin 1765 tureens by R. Holmes and a rare Irish George I bullet shaped teapot made in Cork in 1725 by William Clarke. There is a selection of gold boxes from the private collection of an Italian noblewoman. The sale contains two marble busts by the Irish sculptor Christopher Moore, one of the 3rd Duke of Leinster, one of William, 1st Baron Plunkett, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Both date to 1843.Garret Morphy (c1650-1716) is regarded as the first Irish born artist of stature. His 1696 portrait of Anne Boyle, 2nd Lady Mountjoy in a landscape holding a dove accompanied by Cupid, is estimated at €30,000-€40,000. There are two landscapes by James B. McCoy (c1750-1780), whose work is rare, and a double portrait by James Latham (1696-1747) considered the leading portrait painter in Dublin in the first half of the 18th century. A comparable example of this portrait of An Architect and his Son can be found in a family group at Fota.Adams advise that this spectacular sale ought to viewed in person and it can be seen in the elegant and neo-classical surroundings of Townley Hall for three days from next Friday. The live and online auction takes place at Adams St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, saleroom on October 18 and 19.
Garret Morphy (c1650-1716) – Portrait of Anne Boyle, 2nd Lady Mountjoy. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This William and Mary walnut chest comes up as lot 38 at Sheppards sale of contents of 33 Wellington Place, Dublin online from Durrow on October 21. It is estimated at 1,500-2,500. There are 168 lots in this evening sale and the catalogue is online.
The wonderful surroundings of Townley Hall near Drogheda will be the viewing venue for Adams annual Country House Collections sale on October 18 and 19. Viewing will take place at the Francis Johnston designed neo-classical masterpiece on October 15, 16 and 17. The live and online auction with around 700 lots will take place at the St. Stephen’s Green saleroom on October 18 and 19. The sale will showcase fine Irish Georgian furniture and Irish Old Master artworks.
A PAIR OF 19TH CENTURY GEORGE III STYLE GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLES, in the manner of William Kent. UPDATE: THESE MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER
This Dublin copper token made £1,860 against an estimate of £40-60 at Dix Noonan Webb’s sale of tokens, tickets and passes in London. It was one of a number of Irish tokens from the Collection of Barry Woodside. The 63 lots had a pre-sale estimate of £7,000 and achieved a total of £27,361. It was 100% sold. The highest price was for this token depicting a horse and jockey and stamped James Large. He is believed to have been the inn holder at the Horse and Jockey, 26 Lincoln Place in 1855. It was bought by a private collector in the Irish Republic.
THIS is an Irish Georgian economy dining table. Comprised of a fold over tea table, a double drop leaf table and a single drop leaf table it can function three ways. Fully extended it measures three metres in length. Each table is raised on ring turned legs with rounded pad feet. It comes up at Hegarty’s live online auction from Bandon, Co. Cork on October 10 with an estimate of €2,000-€3,000.
According to Christie’s there is an intriguing possibility that this remarkable pair of George II giltwood console tables could be Irish. A closely related pair was supplied to Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone (1694-1763) for his country seat at Curraghamore, Co. Waterford and Thomas Johnsons influential Collection of Designs published in 1798 featured similar tree form consoles. These consoles come up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in New York on October 13 with an estimate of $100,000-$150,000 (€85,3230-€127,985). UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $187,500
GOLD-MOUNTED ENAMEL, NEPHRITE AND ROCK CRYSTAL STUDY OF WILD STRAWBERRIES BY FABERGÉ, ST PETERSBURG, CIRCA 1900. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £325,000
AN iconic, private collection of Fabergé masterpieces from the collection of Harry Woolf takes place live at Christie’s in London on November 29 during the Autumn Russian Art sales season. There are 86 pieces from Mr. Woolf’s extraordinary Fabergé collection personally composed over a period of nearly fifty years from the 1970’s until 2019. They range from jewelled hardstone animals and decorative photograph frames, to pill boxes, scent bottles, silver pieces and jewellery. Harry Woolf is recognised for having collected only the very finest examples and has one of the most exemplary Fabergé collections known to have been curated by any private collector in the last fifty years. The study of wild strawberries pictured here is estimated at £200,000-300,000.
More than ten rare pieces from this prestigious collection (not included in Christie’s sale) are included in the forthcoming Fabergé: From Romance to Revolution exhibition at the V&A in London. This opens on November 20.
UPDATE: THE SALE REALISED £5,203,250, MORE THAN DOUBLE THE PRE-SALE LOW ESTIMATE
