A pair of Anglo-Indian giltwood chaises longues, Bombay, 19th century. UPDATE: THIS WAS SOLD PRIOR TO THE AUCTION
This pair of Anglo-Indian giltwood chaises longues is one of five lots originally at Castletown House at Sotheby’s Royal and Noble sale in London on January 17. The estimate is £5,000-£8,000. Lots 46 to 51 in the sale from Castletown comprise of five lots of a suite of 19th century Anglo-Indian furniture from Bombay. A giltwood cabinet is estimated at £4,000-£6,000, a three fold screen is estimated at £2,500-£3,500, a piano stool is estimated at £1,000-£2,000 and a giltwood bergere has an estimate of £2,000-£3,000. UPDATE: ALL FIVE LOTS WERE SOLD PRIOR TO THE AUCTION.
An Anglo-Indian giltwood cabinet, Bombay, 19th century UPDATE: THIS WAS SOLD PRIOR TO THE AUCTION
Sumptuous lots from Palazzo Volpi, the Renaissance palace on the Grand Canal in Venice and birthoplace of the Venice Film Festival, will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Paris on February 28. A total of 200 lots of furniture and works of art from the collection of Count and Countess Volpi of Misurata will include palatial Roman tables, ballroom banquettes, sopraporta panels in the styleof Jacopo Sansovino, Wagner sofas and Venetian mirrors. They will include items from the palace’s piano nobile, the main floor containing the portego (a typically Venetian reception room), the ballroom and the music room. Highlights will include a set of 14 Venetian giltwood chairs, a pair of Italian giltwood side tables and a Venetian Japanese style console.
The magnificent Renaissance residence was acquired in 1917 by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata (1877-1947), founder of the Venice International Film Festival after whom the Volpi Cup prize for the best actor and actress is still named. Over the course of his lifetime and the generation that has followed, the Count and his family hosted some of the greatest names in the 20th century in the opulent rooms of the palazzo including Winston Churchill, Coco Chanel, Josephine Baker, King Fouad of Egypt, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Andy Warhol, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Barbara Hutton, Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida, Harrison Ford and George Clooney.
The most expensive painting sold in Ireland in 2023 was Sean Scully’s Raval Rojo. It made a hammer price of €580,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art sale last April. At Whyte’s total sales were just under €6 million, there was a new world record for a work on paper by Harry Clarke at James Adam and in 2023 Bonhams recorded the best every turnover in their 230 year history. Sotheby’s continued their Irish sales in Paris, along with London and Christie’s reported projected global sales for art and luxury goods in 2023 of €5.8 billion and say their is a promising pipeline of consignments already in motion for 2024.
As we leave 2023 behind there is every reason to be optimistic about the coming year in the art, luxury and collectible end of things. At Christie’s last year there was a strong influx of new buyers (35%) and a growing participation of Millennials and Generation Z. Much of this is driven by popular culture. Think Freddie Mercury at Sotheby’s and Lady Diana’s dress at Julien’s.
Whyte’s achieved the highest prices in Ireland in 2023 for Jack Yeats (€290,00), Sir John Lavery (€230,000) and Paul Henry (€155,000) – excluding buyers’ premium and VAT. A Seán Keating painting, The Goose Girl, made €62,000 in December. Adams sold over €500,000 worth of paintings by Paul Henry and Harry Clarke’s The Colloquy of Monos and Una, a 1923 illustration for Edgar Allen Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination, made a record €70,000 and joined the collection of the Crawford Gallery in Cork, where it is now on display.
ART DECO PERIOD SILVER TEA POT. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Art Deco silver teapot comes up as lot 55 at Hegarty’s New Year auction which begins online at 5 pm on January 3. The London teapot with the mark for 1928 has the maker’s mark G&S Co Ltd. For Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Co. Ltd. It is estimated at 500-600. The auction offers around 280 lots of jewellery, art, antique furniture and collectibles.
An 18 branch Waterford Crystal chandelier. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Need your auction fix? Can’t wait for everything to get back to normal. Wait no more. An appetising sale gets underway this very afternoon when more than 700 lots will come under the hammer at Victor Mee’s Winter Decorative Interiors auction. Determined to end the year on a high note Victor Mee has put together an eclectic assortment of interior and exterior furniture and decor. With everything from a Ralph Lauren bar cabinet customised for a super yacht (€4,000-€8,000) to an Art Deco marble clock with spelter birds (€10-€20) there is lots and lots to choose across all price ranges.
Among the top lots are an eighteen branch Waterford Crystal chandelier (€3,000-€6,000), a Percy French watercolour of a Connemara cottage (€4,000-€6,000), a set of 12 Victorian dining chairs with metal studded upholstered seats (€1,500-€3,000), an Irish mahogany spiral brass bound peat bucket (€1,600-€2,000) and The Clock Tower, Irvinestown by Cecil Maguire (€2,000-€3,000). T’is the season for a brass club fender with an upholstered seat. There are two at this sale, each estimated at €1,200-€1,800. There is a selection of lighting and garden furniture including a bronze sculpture of a stag, a collection of wrought iron railings, 19th century cast urns, moulded stone fountains, sandstone avenue lamps, Art Deco cast iron planters, hand forged Arras chairs and a wrought iron gazebo.
An Irish brass bound peat bucket. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
Given that 2023 has been the warmest year on record there might be more interest than usual in this moulded stone two tier fountain at Victor Mee’s Winter Decorative Interiors sale on December 30. Surmounted with cherubs it it estimated at €2,000-€4,000. There are 764 lots in offer in a sale that will get underway at noon. The catalogue is online and the sale is on view today. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
A selection of lots from Matthews holiday auctions.
Viewing gets underway today for Matthews annual holiday sale in Kells on December 29 and 30. Antique furniture, collectibles, rugs, mirrors and Waterford Crystal are among the lots to be offered on December 29. Jewellery including watches, earrings, a tennis line bracelet and a Ceylon sapphire and diamond ring will come under the hammer on day two. The auction is comprised of lots from private clients and unredeemed pawnbroker pledges. Sales get underway at 2.30 pm on each day and the catalogue is online.
A pair of early 19th century Neoclassical porphyry vases
The erudite collection of Philip Hewat-Jaboor (1953-2022), chairman of the Masterpiece Fair in London, at Christie’s next February 8 will offer objects of antiquity, antique furniture and important collectibles. An old style connoisseur he had a particular passion for porphyry and the auction will offer a notable collection headed by early 19th century neoclassical vases. He collected work from legendary British patrons and collectors William Beckford (1760-1844) and Thomas Hope (1769-1831) like a pair of c1815 Roman giltwood armchairs probably purchased by Beckford from Cardinal Fesch in Paris in 1816 (£30,000-£50,000)(€34,960-€58,270). Joseph Fesch was Napoleon’s half uncle and one of the most famous art collectors of his period. Hewat-Jaboor’s collection of antiquities includes a 2nd century AD Roman marble bust of Bacchus (£70,000-£100,000) (€81,570-€116,530). The 200 works in the collection are expected to realise more than £1.5 million (€1.75 million) and estimates range from £700 to £120,000 (€815-€139,840).
A pair of Roman giltwood armchairs at Christie’s, probably purchased from Cardinal Fesch.
This Ming Dynasty white jade carved group with an egret amongst flowering stems made a hammer price of €34,000 over an estimated of €2,000-€3,000 at the Fine Asian Art sale at James Adam in Dublin on December 18. It had been in an Irish private collection since the early 20th century. The top lot of the sale was A Charioteer by Kattingeri Krishna Hebbar (1911-1996) which made €65,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €40,000. A Ding Kilns white stoneware bowl from the Northern Song Dynasty made €23,000, a celadon glazed jar and cover made €20,000 and a Qing Dynasty soapstone seal made €10,000.
An important Qing Dynasty celadon jade. UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRWN PRIOR TO THE SALE
A Qing Dynasty celadon jade seal heads up the Fine Asian Art sale at James Adam in Dublin on December 18. The base is carved with six characters meaning: “A treasure in auspicious celebration of a seventeenth birthday”, Set on a small square platform surmounted by a mythical double headed beast carved with a scaly body it will attract international interest and is estimated at €120,000-€150,000. Dr. Wei Wang, who has taken over as head of the Asian art department at Adams explained that seals symbolise power and can be crafted from various materials,with jades being particularly prized for their precious nature. “Our seal stands out for its impressive size and intricate carving work” she said.
A Meiji period ivory okimono of a grimacing fisherman holding giant conch shells being tackled by a large crab at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A total of 455 lots will come under the hammer on Monday in an auction divided across four sections originating from China, the Himalayas, Vietnam and Japan. Offerings from each country have been divided into categories including ceramics, jade and stones, accessories, bronzes and paintings. A Meiji period (1868-1912) Imari charger from Japan is estimated at just €300-€400, a very rare Ding kilns white stoneware bowl of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) carved with a peony spray is estimated at €15,000-€20,000). Ding bowls with peony designs are rare. This one is from an Irish private collection. A bronze stupa with four directionals Buddhas made in 18th century Tibet is estimated at €1,500-€2,000.
Two kingfisher feather hairpins, one with carved amber. UPDATE: THESE MADE 420 AT HAMMER
The sale offers a European collection of Qing Dynasty kingfisher feather ornaments worn as head pieces and accessories within an estimate range of €300-€1,500. For over 2,000 years, the Chinese have utilized the iridescent blue feathers of kingfisher birds as inlays for fine art objects and adornments, ranging from hairpins, headdresses, and fans to panels and screens. Dr. Wang said that In the past decade, a rising trend has emerged among the younger generation in China seeking to incorporate historical Chinese elements into the design of modern fashion. This has created a revival and appreciation of Hanfu culture and traditional Chinese handicrafts.
An 18th century Bleu de Hue porcelain bowl finely painted in shades of cobalt blue from Vietnam – commissioned from China – has an estimate of €8,000-€10,000. A fantastic carved ivory Japanese okimono of a fisherman with giant conch shells being tackled by a crab is estimated at €3,000-€5,000.Or how about an armchair made of deer antlers. One of the top lots of the auction is a Qing Imperial style antler armchair. There are seven known surviving deer antler chairs in China, with five in the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. The one at Adams is a late copy, but it remains rare in the market, hence the estimate of €85,000-€95,000.
A rare Qing Imperial style antler armchair at Adam. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
