This 18th century marble chimneypiece comes up as lot 12 at Sheppards three day sale in Durrow from December 6-8. There is an inverted moulded edge mantle above a swag draped table and Sienna fluted inlaid panels and pillars. The estimate is €12,000-18,000. Around 1,450 lots will come under the hammer at the sale entitled Bonnettstown Hall, Kilkenny and other important clients. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Durrow from December 3. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A good selection of great value and attractive antique furniture and collectibles will feature at two Cork city sales on December 3. Local interest will be stirred by a painting of Mahon Golf Club by Josef Keys at Woodwards (€400-€500) and a double washstand from the State Bedroom of the White Star liner RMS Celtic which ran aground off Roches Point in December 1928 at Marshs (€4,000-€6,000).
Memories of the storied industrial past of the city will be awakened by not just any old tin but one labelled grandly “The Finest Keeping Butter in the World”. The advice on the 28 lb tin packed by M. Barrett, Cork is to store in a cool place. Marshs estimate it at just €200-€400. Among a selection of cased longcase clocks, wall and mantel clocks at Marshs are two Cork clocks, one by William Ross, the other by a maker called Mansfield. Each is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. A large bronze bust of Napoleon on a pedestal (€1,500-€2,500) and a selection of silver and plated cutlery from the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock will create interest too.
Not so much interest perhaps in the antique furniture, which has not been doing well for what seems to me to be inexplicable reasons. Marshs will offer a highly collectible pair of large mahogany wine coolers and an early Georgian mahogany corner cabinet each estimated at €1,500-€2,000. The estimates for these might have been higher two decades ago. There is a mere €400-€500 on an arbutus wood Killarney work table and a Queen Anne armchair comes with an estimate of just €250-€300.
At Woodwards a pair of cast iron garden benches is estimated at €1,600-€2,000 and a large Persian Mashad rug is estimated at €500-€600. Among the antique furniture in the estimate range of €400-€500 is a Georgian mahogany breakfast table, a George II kneehole desk, a pair of inlaid console tables, an Edwardian inlaid sofa table and an eight piece Chippendale style drawing room suite. The estimates are even less on a William IV inlaid walnut sewing table, a William IV oblong hall table, a Georgian walnut card table and a large kneehold desk, all reckoned to make around €300-€400. A bachelors chest, a Victorian oval centre table and an Edwardian envelope card table are all estimated at just €200-€300.
A pair of 18th century gilt console tables c1780 with rouge royale shaped marble tops will come up as lot 901 at Sheppards three day sale on December 6, 7 and 8. They are estimated at €8,000-€12,000. Viewing for the sale entitled Bonnettstown Hall and other important clients will get underway in Durrow on December 3. The catalogue is online from today.
A masterwork by Herman Doomer, the leading cabinet maker in The Netherlands in the 17th century, goes on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from November 25. Made in 1632 the ebony cupboard with mother-of-pearl inlay was in private hands for several centuries. It is believed to be Doomer’s first masterwork, and the only piece by him that can be accurately dated. It will be displayed beside another by Doomer in the Rijksmuseum collection since 1975 in the Gallery of Honour until March 14, 2023.
Doomer introduced new styles and techniques to cabinetmaking and counted Rembrandt amongst his admirers. Rembrandt painted portraits of Herman Doomer and his wife Baertje Martens in 1640. These paintings now hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Hermitage in St Petersburg. The lower section is fairly traditional, in the upper section the cabinetmaker introduced movement and Baroque innovation, such as in the fan-shaped ripple and twisted columns. The cabinet is inlaid with costly ebony wood and radiant mother-of-pearl – a combination that was entirely new to Amsterdam.
This c1820 Irish serving table made by Gillingtons in Dublin comes up at a sale by Reillys Antiques, Prosperous, Co. Kildare on November 26. It is estimated at €4,200-4,500. Contents from Ballyraggett House, Sallins will come under the hammer. There will be viewing at Ballyraggett House today and tomorrow and the sale takes place at Reilly’s and online with 425 lots in total.
This Rita Hayworth film post, L’Affaire de Trinidad”, comes up as lot 215 at Dolan’s timed online November auction with an estimate of 150-220. It is in good condition, unframed with a single fold mark. The sale offers work by 20th century and contemporary artists including Charles Lamb, Mark O’Neill, Flora Mitchell, Arthur Maderson, Markey Robinson (Bronze), Charles Harper, Cecil Maguire, Martin Mooney, Frank Egginton, Arthur Armstrong, Muriel Brandt, Ernest Hayes, Arthur Twells and Modern British artists Helen Tabor and Roger Dellar. There is a selection of Very Rare Midleton Whiskeys which Dolan’s say are prized by collectors across the world, from Ireland to Sydney.
The selection includes antique furniture, rugs, books, silver and collectibles with 344 lots in total. There is art by Susan Cronin, Henry Morgan, John Morris, Norman Teeling, John C Brobbel, Rose Stapleton, Roy Lyndsay, Robert Egginton, Olive Bodeker, Michael Morris, Thelma Mansfield, Mat Grogan, Douglas Hutton and Manus Walsh. The auction runs until November 28.
These tables come up as lot 39 at Sotheby’s sale of the collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung in London on December 8 with an estimate of £12,000-£18,000. The pier tables are believed to have belonged to the Earls of Grandison, and if indigenous to their estates at Dromana, Co. Waterford were likely supplied to George Mason-Villiers, 2nd Earl Grandison PC (1751–1800). The 2nd Earl died without sons and thus the title became extinct in 1800.
An original copy of The Cork Examiner from 1848 with a front page full of auction advertising, a large collection of old GAA hurling and football programmes including the iconic Thunder and Lightning All Ireland hurling final of 1939 (played on the day Britain declared war on Germany), an 18 carat gentlemans Rolex watch and a London 1928 crocodile vanity case with tortoiseshell fittings are among the highly collectible lots at Lynes and Lynes on November 26.
There is a Victorian dining table, a set of Cork 11-bar chairs, some Georgian Cork dining chairs, two large Waterford chandeliers, a selection of jewellery, a collection of old motoring posters, art and a selection of terracotta garden pots. The auction will be online and viewing is underway in Carrigtwohill. A large variety of more than 500 lots will come under the hammer so the sale will start earlier than usual at 10 am.
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.
A total of 31 bids later the seven bidders competing for this Joseph Walsh Studio piece at the James Adam Mid Century Modern sale today saw it knocked down for a hammer price of 9,500 over an estimate of 2,000-3,000. The table is Ash was purchased from the Joseph Walsh Studio and came complete with an official certificate, Niamh Barry’s Touch Vessels failed to find a buyer, a pair of c1950 valet stands by Fratelli Reguitti made 8,500, a pair of lady chairs by Marco Zanuso made 7,000, a set of eight Danish Model 62 rosewood chairs by Niels Otto Moller made 15,000, a teak Spade chair by Finn Juhl made 5,500, an oil on panel portrait of a young girl by Harrington Mann made 11,000 (1864-1937), a charcoal drawing by Alice Maher entitled Lovers made 5,500 and Rhapink Nudge by Richard Gorman made 5,000.