A selection of percussion pistols which dealer David Elliman will feature on his militaria stand at the National Antiques Fair this weekend.
Even when the weather outside is frightful one compensation of our world is that armed only with an internet connection it is possible to virtually view a huge selection of upcoming antiques, art and collectibles sales.The virtual world has its advantages but no matter where in Ireland you happen to be local sales that can be easily got to and viewed readily are a significant draw.
There is no substitute for actual viewing. The thousands of people travelling to the National antique, art and vintage fair, an indoor event at Limerick Racecourse today and tomorrow, are testament to the fact that, though the market is subject to its ups and downs, interest is huge. Auctions at Lynes and Lynes and Woodwards scheduled to take place on March 25 will open for viewing today in Carrigtwohill and Cork city centre respectively.
TEFAF has made a spectacular return to its traditional March dates in Maastricht. Tens of thousands of collectors and art lovers descended on Maastricht from around the world to see and acquire 7,000 years of the very best art history, presented by 270 exhibitors from 20 countries. More than 250 museums and institutions visited the previews. Among them were major institutions like the National Gallery of Washington; Art Institute of Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum; MoMa; Metropolitan Museum of Art; American Friends of the Louvre; American Friends of the Musée d’Orsay; Guggenheim; Uffizi; Teylers Museum; Van Gough Museum; Rijksmuseum; Museum of Fine Art Boston; Louvre; Toledo Museum; Dallas Museum; Kimbell Museum; Museum Voorlinden; Mauritshuis; Cleveland Museum; Frick Collection; Museum Barberini; Kunstpalast Düsseldorf; Minneapolis Institute of Art; National Gallery of London and National Galleries of Scotland.
Security is tight. Among many notable sales was a painting by Joaquin Sorolla titled Girls on a Beach on which the Barcelona Gallery Arthur Ramon Art of Barcelona had an asking price of €2,700,000. The first exhibition of Sorolla’s work in Ireland was at the National Gallery in 2019.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 10, 2019)
A 1798 Cork City Militia gold medal will be among the real rarities at the indoor National Antique, Art and Vintage Fair at Limerick Racecourse on March 18/19. As well as all its other St. Patrick’s Day celebrations Limerick will be the venue for this antique crowd pulling event, a mecca for collectors and dealers of every type. The Cork Militia speak to an unhappy history as they were heavily and cruelly involved in putting down the 1798 Rebellion. They were, in fact, a sort of 18th century Black and Tan group, recruited from jails and known to commit acts of torture on their prisoners. In this regard the North Cork Militia achieved a particular notoriety. The particular medal at the fair was awarded to a member of the Cork City Militia.
On foot of the move to Limerick Racecourse last year, with ample parking and plenty of display space, this ever popular antique fair – on the go now for 35 years – has grown even bigger. Organiser Robin O’Donnell claims that it will be the biggest collection of dealers ever assembled in Ireland.
A selection of vintage designer items from Wendy’s Way of Life
The going looks good at Limerick Racecourse this weekend. Hibernian Antique Fairs hit Limerick Racecourse have once again hit the home turf. The racecourse has proven an ideal venue for dealers from all over the country and the public alike. This January event is the biggest yet. A particularly large display of jewellery from vintage to high end with traders from Ireland and Northern Ireland, including a number of members of the Irish Antique Dealers Association, is on display. Prices at Wendy’s Way of Life, a new dealer whose wares have proved very popular, range from €50-€400. Or how about passenger chairs from the RMS Celtic with ran aground off Roches Point in 1928. Dealer Norman Allison will offer a pair of original condition chairs with no repairs or faults on cast iron bases bolted to the floor. Among a number of new dealers Jim Halpin of the Listowel Military and Historical Museum will be showing and selling for the first time. This is a fair to savour at leisure, full of quirky, rare and unusual items of interest to all sorts of collectors. There will be antique furniture, Irish art, glass, silver, jewellery, vintage fashion, coins, banknotes, militaria and a large selection of collectibles to be seen and enjoyed.
Vintage black wool hat with pearls and gold tone pin
You can find all kinds of everything at the National Antique and Vintage Fair at Limerick Racecourse this weekend. Like this vintage hat which Elly Henry, who specialises in antique and vintage clothing, accessories and jewellery, will bring to the fair. There will be antique furniture, jewellery, art, vintage collectibles, coins, bank notes, even a wooden toboggan. Limerick Racecourse has proven to be a great venue for this event, which promises to be a major crowd puller.
What has been described as the joyous return of the leading antiques and fine art fair in the US will bring together 68 global exhibitors from Europe, South America and the US. Global experts in fine and decorative arts will assemble for The Winter Show, which gets underway at the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan ON January 20 and continues until January 29. Time and tastes are changing and the eclectic mix at the Armory show is less rigorous in terms of antique timelines than would once have been the case. Alongside old favourites like a George II Chinese red lacquer bureau and stand (Ronald Phillips), an 1812 Parisian inkstand (Koopman Rare Art), The Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the elder (Robert Simon Fine Art) and a favrile glass lava vase by Tiffany (Lillian Nassau LLC) there is furniture from 1969 and even 2019. Everything on offer, from Rodin to Tiffany to Frank Lloyd Wright, is vetted for authenticity and quality.
An 1804 portrait by John Singleton Copley of Mary Montagu and Robert Copley, her brother.
Maison Gerard of New York will exhibit a cabinet by Achille Salvagni created in Italy in 2019. Made of parchment covered wood and cast bronze, with gold plated bronze details this deeply layered piece bears all the characteristics of Salvragni’s work with material richness and craftsmanship. An avowed Modernist his work, with its emphasis on creating sophisticated residential and yacht interiors, draws on the architectural legacies of the 1920’s and ’30’s.In complete contrast is a sculptural, natural sandstone formation from France. Robert Simon Fine Art of New York will exhibit this piece which is around 30 million years old and weighs just over 97 lbs. Traditionalists will undoubtedly value a double portrait by the American born Anglo Irish artist John Singleton Copley (1737-1815) of Mary Montagu and her brother Robert Copley. Hirschl and Adler Galleries will exhibit this work, once in the collection of former New York Governor and Democratic politician Averell Harriman.
A 1969 free edged conoid table in Persian walnut by George Nakashima.
A 1969 free edged conoid table of Persian walnut and ten chairs by George Nakashima will be shown by Geoffrey Diner of Washington. The selection ranges from Victorian jewellery to African carving, Japanese folding screens and a unique late medieval/early Renaissance astronomical calendar at Daniel Crouch Rare Books.
If you love fairs and all this New York style sounds a bit beyond your league – and much of it is beyond the league of most of us – then console yourself. The two day National Antique, Art and Vintage Fair, billed as Ireland’s biggest, takes place at Limerick Racecourse on January 21 and 22. With ample space and easy parking the new venue for the fair at Limerick Racecourse has already proved to be hugely popular. Fairs are scheduled to take place there four times this year, in January, March, September and November.
This pair of mahogany baronial armchairs on hairy paw feet with tapestry based on The Lady and the Unicorn at the Musee de Cluny in Paris made €4,200 at hammer at Sheppards
CAN 2023 keep up with 2022. That is the burning question facing the market as Christmas has drawn to a close. If 2023 can live up to 2022 in the world of art, antiques and collectibles everyone in the business will be more than happy. In Ireland art and collectibles made strong and steady gains, exactly the sort of progress minus the madness that market insiders like to see. Rare antique furniture was sought after, day to day antique furniture, though attractive, continued to languish in the doldrums.
On the international scene art was hot, hot, hot. Records tumbled all over the place in what turned out to be a year for superlatives. In November the collection of Microsoft founder Paul G Allen at Christie’s broke all records and made more than $1.6 billion, turning into the most valuable private collection of all time. In May Christie’s sold Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn for ¢195 million, the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold. These auctions lead a long list of sales where many new artists records were established and diminished expectations fuelled by war and financial uncertainty were ridiculously confounded.Another plus was the growing post covid normalisation.
Events like major international and local fairs, shut down in 2020 and 2021, gradually got going again. One significant pandemic plus noted across the board is a whole new wave of tech savvy buyers unafraid of the internet and happy to buy unseen. Many major international sales reported waves of new and young buyers previously unknown to the auction houses.
It was a good year for rare collectibles like this 1936 All-Ireland Hurling Final programme which made €6,500 at hammer at Fonsie Mealy
The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) will run at Maastricht in The Netherlands from March 11 – 19, 2023, with invitation only days taking place on March 9 and 10. Galleries between 3 and 10 years old and whose breadth of expertise mirrors the scope of TEFAF Maastricht as a whole are selected for Showcase which next year will take place in the area that has previously been the Works on Paper section. In 2023 visitors to Showcase at the fair can look forward to exploring Old Masters; 19th century European works; ethnographic art and antiques; early 20th century paintings, drawings and sculpture; Italian & European sculpture; 20th century design; rare books; 20th century British art; and contemporary art. Showcase 2023 participants are Ambrose Naumann Fine Art (USA); Ben Hunter (UK); Callisto Fine Arts (UK); Elliott Fine Art (UK); Frederick Mouraux Gallery (Belgium); Galerie Maxime Flatry (France); Miriam Di Penta Fine Arts (Italy); Pingel Rare Books (France); Willoughby Gerrish (UK); and Zebregs&Röell Fine Art and Antiques (Netherlands).
The National Antiques Fair at Limerick Racecourse on November 19 and 20 will be an assembly of more than 80 dealers including a number of members of the Irish Antique Dealers Association. The racecourse venue proved to be a resounding success when it was first used last September. Organiser Robin O’Donnell will have his own stand among the antique shops, galleries and vintage dealers at the fair for the first time in many years.
Killarney wood work table at Hegarty’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A busy week of auctions, fairs and exhibitions on the home front is book ended by Art Source at the RDS this weekend and the National Antiques and Vintage Fair at Limerick Racecourse next weekend. At Art Source Gormleys will feature an exhibition by Damien Hirst and the work of around 160 artists will be on display.
Online auctions by O’Donovan’s in Newcastlewest and Aidan Foley in Kilcolgan, Co. Galway will take place respectively today and tomorrow. Sunday will also see a sale by Sean Eacrett in Ballybrittas, Co. Laois. On Monday it will be the turn of Milltown Auction Rooms, Dundalk. Among the prime lots at Hegarty’s sale in Bandon on Wednesday is a 19th century Killarney work table. Viewing for Fonsie Mealy’s sale of Irish and International art on Wednesday gets underway in Castlecomer on Monday. A fine Yeats, re-discovered Aran Island works by Sean Keating and works by John Shinnors, John Behan, Pauline Bewick and Daniel MacLise will feature.
The National Antique Fair at Limerick Racecourse on November 19 and 20 will bring more than 80 dealers from right around Ireland. Organiser Robin O’Donnell will exhibit at his own fair for the first time.
Robin O’Donnell will offer this Irish Regency rosewood teapoy at the National Antique Fair.
