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    NEW AUCTION RECORD FOR A PIECE OF ENGLISH FURNITURE

    Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

    The Harrington Commode made a new world record for a piece of English furniture at auction. (click to enlarge)

    THE Harrington Commode, dating to circa 1770, made a new record for a piece of English furniture at auction at Sotheby’s in London on December 8.  It sold for £3,793,250 over an estimate of £600,000-£1 million. The serpentine commode was almost certainly crafted by Thomas Chippendale.

    It exceeded the previous world record for any piece of English furniture at auction by over £1 million.  Sotheby’s said it set an exciting new benchmark for English furniture.  The George III commode, previously housed at Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire, was sold by order of the Trustees of the 10th Earl of Harrington’s Will Trust. Lord Harrington had extensive Irish estates.  His son, the 11th Earl, who died in 2009, was an Irish citizen and successful horse breeder who maintained studs in Ireland.  He had links to the Royal Family through the marriage of his grand-daughter, Serena Stanhope to the furniture maker Viscount Linley, son of the late Princess Margaret and nephew of Queen Elizabeth.
    The Harrington Commode was part of an Important Furniture, Ceramics, Clocks, Silver & Vertu sale which made £6,216,750. Henry House, Head of English Furniture at Sotheby’s, commented: “This remarkable commode which is outstandingly beautiful in both form and condition, was keenly contested by five bidders, the final price demonstrating true demand in the market for items of real quality, and I feel is justly deserved for an item that has been an honour to sell.”
    The previous world record for a piece of English furniture at auction belonged to a George II Parcel-Gilt Padouk Cabinet-on-Stand attributed to Thomas Chippendale, 1755-1760, which sold for £2,729,250 at Christies in June 2008.

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    EILEEN GRAY AT CHRISTIE’S SALE OF THE GOURDON COLLECTION IN PARIS

    Friday, December 3rd, 2010

    Eileen Gray's Black lacquer screen, courtesy of Christie's, estimated at up to 1.5 million euro. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE 1,353,000

    IRISH designer Eileen Gray (1879-1976) is one of the leading names featured

    The Bibendum armchair by Eileen Gray, courtesy of Christie's images. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE 709,000

    in an extraordinary collection to be sold at Christie’s in Paris in March 2011. Christie’s will offer the Gourdon Collection, estimated to achieve between 40 and 60 million euro, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris on March 29, 30 and 31.

    Housed at the medieval Château de Gourdon near Grasse the collection focuses principally on the classicism of Art Deco and on the emergence of Modernism in France.  It includes an important group of works by Eileen Gray. Celebrated as a single-minded and individualistic character the County Wexford born designer managed to capture and express in her own way the prevailing spirit of the age in design through the first decades of the 20th century.
    In February 2009  her  ‘dragons’ chair, circa 1917-1919 –  see Design Record on antiquesandartireland.com – achieved the record sum of  €21 million at the sale of the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé collections at the Grand Palais.
    In the early 1920s Gray choose to move away from the highly refined lacquer work of her early days to focus on more functionalist designs in metal, glass and painted wood, inspired at first by the Modernist ideas of the Dutch De Stjil movement.
    No less than 15 works by Eileen Gray featured in this sale include the black lacquered Brick’ screen (est. 1,200,000-1,500,000) developed from the panels she used in the hallway of the apartment of Suzanne Talbot on Rue de Lota, circa 1922. An example of this screen is now in the master bedroom of the Irish government mansion at Farmleigh in Dublin. The black and yellow base of her floor light (€400,000-600,000) resembles a piece of Constructivist architecture.
    Her Transatlantique armchair (€1,000,000-1,500,000) was formerly the property of her friend and collaborator architect Jean Badovici, founder of the avant-garde magazine L’Architecture Vivante, 1923 and the ‘Bibendum’ armchair (€800,000-1,200,000) is clearly evocative of the logo of tire-manufacturer Michelin.

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    SHEPPARDS THREE DAY SALE

    Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

    This large famille rose Chinese punch bowl is at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

    An early 18th century Irish gilt console table from the Sheppards sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,500

    Sheppards three day sale in Durrow, Co. Laois on Tuesday, November 30 and Wednesday and Thursday December 1 and 2 features much of interest to collectors.  Among over 1,500 lots there are 96 pieces of Chinese ceramics from the same Co. Carlow private collection which yielded the Qianlong vase which made 110,000 earlier this year.

    The early 18th century Irish gilt console table featured here is estimated at 8,000-12,000. The 18th century Irish tea table with circular serpentine scallop carved top is estimated at 5,000-8,000.  The Chinese Imari ginger jar is estimated at 2,000-3,000 and the Chinese blue and white dish has an estimate of 50-150.  The large Chinese punch bowl, decorated with pheasant and quail in a rocky landscape amid peony blossoms is estimated at 1,400-1,800.

    The auction begins each day at 2 p.m.

    POSTPONED TWICE DUE TO ADVERSE WEATHER.  WILL NOW TAKE PLACE ON DECEMBER 14, 15 and 16

    A Chinese Imari ginger jar and matching lid from a private Carlow collection at Sheppards.

    This Chinese blue and white dish is at Sheppards.

    This 18th century Irish tea table is at Sheppards. UPDATE: IT MADE 5,400

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    EXCEPTIONAL IRISH FURNITURE AT SLANE AUCTION

    Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

    Fabulous antique Irish furniture is a feature of the Country House Collections sale by James Adam at Slane Castle in Co. Meath on October 5. There are 796 lots on offer and the catalogue is online at www.adams.ie (See earlier post for September 21 on antiquesandartireland.com)

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    An Irish flat-carved giltwood mirror, c.1760, the high shouldered scrolled broken pediment filled with a ho-ho bird, the deep apron with a shell, is estimated at 8,000-12,000. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE 9,000

    This pair of George I Irish mahogany side chairs, c.1720, each with shell carved top rail above a vase-shaped splat, and drop in seat covered in floral damask, standing on shell capped cabriole supports, with claw and ball feet will be offered by James Adam at Slane. They are estimated at 25,000-35,000. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THE pair sold for 28,000

    A sycamore, satinwood, harewood, boxwood and ebony line inlaid D-shaped pier table, attributed to William Moore of Dublin, c.1780, the fan inlaid rosewood banded top centred with a burr walnut panel, and with ribbon tied laurel border, the frieze with ribbon tied swags of harebells, on canted square tapering legs with hare bell pendants, headed by oval burr walnut panels, and with lower raised banding is estimated at 20,000-25,000. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT made 20,000

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    ANTIQUE FURNITURE EXHIBITION IN CORK

    Friday, September 17th, 2010

    A video presentation by antiquesandartireland.com You can choose to watch it on full screen by clicking the little arrow box on the lower right hand corner, and return to the page by pressing escape on your keyboard.

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    IRISH CARD TABLE MAKES £26,000

    Thursday, September 16th, 2010

    This mid 18th century Irish card table made 26,000 at Hartley's in West Yorkshire on September 16, 2010. (click on image to enlarge)

    THIS fine mid 18th century Irish mahogany card table, almost certainly one of a pair, sold at Hartley’s in West Yorkshire for £26,000 on Thursday, September 16, 2010.  It had been estimated at 3,000-5,000, but the Irish antique trade had been very interested in the piece.  Hartley’s said it was bought by the local trade in West Yorkshire on behalf of a client.

    The lion paw of the Irish card table sold at Hartley's. (click on image to enlarge)

    The rounded oblong folding top was relined in green baize. The shaped frieze is carved with acanthus scrolls on a punched ground and centred by a lion mask in high relief.
    The fact that the mask faces in one direction indicates that it was once part of a pair of tables.  The acanthus carved cabriole legs terminate in lion paw feet.
    Hartley’s at Ilkley in West Yorkshire, is one of the leading auction houses for antiques and fine art sales outside London.
    In June 2010 an Irish George II mahogany side table, c1750 from Kinnaird Estate made a staggering £229,940 at Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh.  The piece was hotly contested by two bidders in the room and potential bidders lined up on ten telephone lines were unable to enter the fray.

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    IRISH LONGCASE CLOCK MAKES £11,875

    Monday, July 12th, 2010

    THIS Irish longcase clock made £11,875 in London.

    AN Irish longcase clock made £11,875 at the Spencer House sale in London in July over a top estimate of £4,000.  The George III mahogany striking eight day longcase clock was made by George Furnace in Dublin circa 1770.  George Furnace is recorded working in Dublin from 1751 to 1781.
    The top price of £802,850 at this sale was paid for a pair of George II sabicu and lime open armchairs  (pictured right)  thought to be designed by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart and probably supplied between 1758-1765.
    The sale of the items from Althorp, family home of Princess Diana, raised a total of £21,076,288 at Christie’s in London.  Included in this total is furniture, art and porcelain from Spencer House, the family’s London town house until 1924.  The 70 lots sold from here brought in £4,857,750.
    The top lot from Althorp was A Commander Being Armed for Battle by Sir Peter Paul Rubens which made £9,001,250 – the second highest price for the artist at auction.

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    FERNHILL SALE

    Saturday, June 26th, 2010

    UPDATED JUNE 29:  THE James Adam country house auction on the premises at Fernhill, Sandyford, Dublin 18 on June 28 brought in 290,000 including fees, 240,000 without.

    The top lot was a portrait of a gentleman and a lady attributed to Mason Chamberlin (British, 1727-1787).  It made 19,000.  An oil on canvas by Nathanial Hone, Fishing Boats on the Lagoon, Venice, looking towards the Doges Palace on the right and Santa Maria della Salute on the left estimated at 5,000-7,000 made 9,000, an Irish George IV serving table made 5,700, a Victorian giltwood centre table sold for 5,600 and  The Botanical Magazine or Flower Garden Displayed by William Curtis and continued by John Sims; col plates, Vols 1-24, 1787-1806 in twelve volumes made 5,500.

    The sale included a range of antiques, paintings, china, silver and antique linens together with items removed from Farmleigh House being sold on the instructions of the executors for the estate of The 3rd Earl of Iveagh.  The auction was 85 per cent sold.


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    VENICE IN LONDON

    Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

    VENETIAN craftsmen excelled at many skills. This carved and painted giltwood and faux marble mirror from the mid 18th century displays this versatility. It is estimated at £150,000-200,000. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: The mirror made £205,250

    Sotheby’s will stage a single-owner sale of superb 17th- and 18th-century antique Venetian paintings and furniture in London on July 6. Each of the 64 lots in the sale was chosen with care and a keen eye for quality by a private European family, who acquired the pieces over a period of some 30 years in order to adorn their palazzo in the Veneto region of Italy. Taken as a whole, the collection evokes the dazzlingly beautiful world that existed inside some of Venice’s most splendid palazzi during some of the most prosperous and charmed years of the Venetian Republic.

    Chosen for their quality and enduring beauty, the pieces in the sale summarise the qualities that characterise “Venetian style”.

    In the introduction to Sotheby’s catalogue for the sale, historian Roberto Valeriani writes: “Venetian style owes its distinctiveness to the gifted artisans of the city, but also to an innate sense of the luminous that brings precious materials to life. Anyone who has gazed on the frescoes, the furnishings and the plasterwork in the palaces along the Grand Canal knows that they are illuminated at certain times of day as light is reflected off the water into their interiors to create changeable, rippling effects.”

    Just as its painters drew heavily on the lapis lazuli and exotic pigments made available to them by their city’s tradings with the East, so too Venetian craftsmen and furniture makers drew on the materials and techniques they encountered thanks to their contact with the East. Though many of their names are unrecorded, Venetian craftsmen of the 17th and 18th centuries were nonetheless masters of their art – be it in the production of furniture, glass, velvets and silks, lacquered goods inlaid with mother of pearl and pietre dure, or maiolica inspired by Turkish wares and porcelain.

    Much of the furniture in the sale reflects the diversity of media which characterises Venetian craftsmanship. At the same time, the majority of the pieces in the collection date from the Rococo period, the style of which, with its lightness, airiness and sinuosity, is in many ways perfectly matched to place from which the pieces emanate.

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    Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

    DURROW SALE

    Social historians will find much of interest in the Sheppards sale of over 1,000 lots at Durrow, Co. Laois on Tuesday April 27 at 10.30 a.m. Manuscript guest books from the original Burlington Hotel in Dublin and from the oft lamented Jammet’s Restaurant are on offer. The former covers the period from 1880 – 1899, the latter ranges from 1945-1967. Both are populated throughout by famous personalities including Charles Stuart Parnell, Maud Gonne, John E. Redmond, Laurel and Hardy, Bing Crosby and John Lennon.

    A pair of George III ‘Jupiter’ eagle console tables is guided at €30,000-50,000 while an exceptional c1790 Irish George III period gilt framed overmantle is estimated at €8,000-12,000. It bears the trade label R. & W. Clarke, Cork City. A rare eighteenth-century Chippendale gilt framed overmantle mirror has a guide price of €5,000-8,000. Billed as an interiors and exteriors sale it will include furniture, ceramics, jewellery, silver, rugs, overmantles, chimney pieces, fenders and artwork. There is viewing from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, April 24, 25 and 26.Replace this with picture and text

    LYNES AND LYNES SALE IN CORK

    Kenneth Webb’s Mystic Poppies will be sold at Lynes and Lynes in Cork

    Lynes and Lynes will hold an art auction at MacCurtain St. in Cork on Tuesday, April 27 at 6.30 p.m. Among approximately 100 lots is an early collection of Sean O’ Connor oil paintings representing various Killarney landscapes. They were painted around 1950. He died in 1992. Estimates vary from 400 -700. Kenneth Webb is represented with oils and watercolours. The top lot is Mystic Poppies, an oil on canvas estimated at 12,000 – 18,000. Other Webb paintings range in estimate from 2,800 -7,000. There are five works by Arthur Maderson and several Kerry and Galway scenes by Anne Marie Rossi Zen. There is an ink drawing by Pauline Bewick, two works by Elizabeth Brophy and several works by Declan O’Connor, Mark O’Neill and Martin Mooney. There are two works by the Cork based artist Maurice Desmond titled “Early Spring“ and “Early Spring II“ . These have estimates of 800 -1,500 each. Other artists included are Markey Robinson, Martin Finnin, Amanda Jackson, Dermod O’Brien, Patrick Cahill, Susan Webb, Bill Griffin, Hughie O Donoghue (a limited edition print) and Seamus Coleman. Viewing is on Saturday, April 24 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Sunday from noon to 8 p.m., from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday April 26 and from 10 a.m. to the start of the sale on Tuesday, April 27.

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