Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha grand piano sold for £1,742,000 at Sotheby’s last evening. Though slightly below estimate it was a record for a composers piano. He used it to compose some of Queen’s greatest hits. An original 15-page manuscript for their epic hit Bohemian Rhapsody, with the working title “Mongolian Rhapsody” and which reveals in its notes the different directions Mercury saw the track going in, was sold for £1.3 million. The first night of the Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own auction series saw bidders from 61 countries drive 93% of lots over their estimate, with Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics and Freddie’s Yamaha piano leading the sale. Sales on the opening night brought in £12.2 million in a white glove auction where every one of nearly 60 lots sold. A month long exhibition at Sotheby’s in advance of the sales drew nearly 140,000 visitors.
The second day of the sale on September 7 brought in £9.4 million.
Two fine sleepers emerged from the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin yesterday. This pair of 19th century marquetry side tables, estimated at €1,500-€2,500, made a hammer price of €10,000. Attributed to Edwards and Roberts a trade label showed the tables had been with David Zork, Chicago and were once in the collection of Rear Admiral F R Harris, New York.
An English School watercolour tondo portrait of a young woman also made €10,000 at hammer. The c1900 work was estimated at just €300-€500.
ENGLISH SCHOOL c1900 – Portrait Study of a Young Woman
Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha Baby Grand Piano. UPDATE: THIS MADE £1.7 MILLION
FREDDIE MERCURY: A WORLD OF HIS OWN has already drawn over 130,000 visitors to Sotheby’s in London. Overwhelmed by the response Mary Austin has decided to offer his beloved piano entirely without reserve. He composed Bohemian Rhapsody and countless other hits on this instrument. Free to the public and open seven days a week, the month-long show draws to a close at Sotheby’s in London tomorrow on what would have been Mercury’s 77th birthday. Elton John sent a message saying he missed Freddie to this day. “He was a wonderful friend – more full of love and live than anyone I’ve ever met – as well as a brilliant performer whose music has inspired and thrilled millions”.
In recognition of the strong friendship they enjoyed, proceeds from the sale of six items – some gifts from Elton to Freddie, others reminders of their friendship – will be donated to the Elton John Aids Foundation.
There will be live auctions on September 6, 7 and 9 and online sales close on September 11.
A pair of Regency gilt bronze Armorial lustres at Sheppards. UPDATE: THESE MADE 460 AT HAMMER
Offering everything from a carved Black Forest standing bear and fine antique furniture to a restored Steinway boutique grand piano there will be a feast of interiors auctions for Irish collectors next week. No less than nine days of sales will be packed into just four days up and down the country on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Catalogues for all auctions are online and all are now on view. Aidan Foley’s online hotel interiors sale can be viewed at Prussia St. in Dublin and includes a life size Black Forest Bear (€1,200-€1,600). This two day sale takes place on September 4 and 5. Adams At Home sale featured on these pages last week is in Dublin on Monday. Victor Mee’s three day Decorative Interiors sale on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is headed by a Steinway grand (€20,000-€30,000) and is on view at Cloverhill in Co. Cavan. Meantime a selection of fine antique furniture from Sheppards two day interiors sale on Tuesday and Wednesday is on view in Durrow, Co. Laois.
A restored Steinway boutique grand piano at Victor Mee UPDATE: THIS MADE 18,000 AT HAMMER
With 1,287 lots Aidan Foley’s sale kicks off with a selection of mirrors, lighting, bedside lockers, tables and chairs. There are some decorative metal wall hangings and plenty of framed pictures and prints. There is a selection of banqueting tables and chairs, restaurant tables, sets of open armchairs, sofas, desks, tableware, kitchen equipment, advertising signs, a bronze bust of Michael Collins (€1,600-€2,000) and more than enough to open an hotel and decorate it too. The fully restored rosewood Steinway boutique grand piano at Victor Mee’s three day decorative interiors sale in Belturbet, Co. Cavan which gets underway on Tuesday evening is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Lot 382 is the most expensively estimated piece in the auction. Other top lots include a 19th century ebonised inverted breakfront credenza and an early 20th century French moulded stone gazebo with a wrought iron top, each estimated at €8,000-€12,000. With everything from wrought iron entrance gates to a Georgian longcase clock and a set of 1950’s Louis Vuitton luggage the sale offers a huge variety of furniture and collectibles including a 19th century French burr walnut music box and a vintage metal childs pedal car.
An Arts and Crafts inlaid secretaire at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Fine antique furniture is a feature at Sheppards sale of over 700 lots on Tuesday and Wednesday. From 18th century parcel gilt console tables and a set of ten Regency dining chairs to an 18th century Danish silver tea urn and a monumental carved wood American eagle and a 19th century satinwood period pier cabinet there is much to tempt collectors. Rarities include a cast iron Great Southern Western Railway plaque (€120-€180), a 17th century leather wine pouch (€350-€600), a collection of nine oval Indian miniatures painted on ivory (€1,800-€3,000) and a pair of Regency gilt bronze armorial lustres (€500-€700). The timed online At Home sale at James Adam offers more than 400 lot with examples of Art Nouveau, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Art Deco, 19th century French furniture, a Victorian framed settee, an ebonised credenza and a selection of silver along with carpets, runners, kilims and prayer rugs. This auction ends from 11 am on Monday.
Christie’s will offer Rhinocrétaire I, the first major sculpture by François-Xavier Lalanne— widely considered to be the artist’s most important work— in a single-lot auction in Paris on October 20. Contained within the armoured body of the animal is a hidden secretary desk, bar, safe and lamps—Lalanne’s ingenious interpretation of a classic theme in the legacy of French decorative arts— furniture with secret compartments. In Rhinocrétaire I, the artist has wittily imbued this heritage with an avant-garde and very modern twist.
Heralding an extraordinary artistic career, Rhinocrétaire I stands as a seminal prototype in François-Xavier Lalanne’s œuvre: all the elements that would become the hallmark of the artist’s work are present. These would later culminate in his Moutons de Laine, Bar Les Autruches, Baignoires Hippopotame, and Bar YSL. Rhinocrétaire I encapsulates, prefigures, and sets the tone for the poetic excess and whimsy that would define the artist’s signature for the next forty-four years. In creating this rhinoceros, François-Xavier Lalanne knew he was following in the footsteps of some of the world’s greatest artists, from the representations of animals in the Paleolithic cave paintings at Lascaux, to works by Dalí or Dürer. As in the famous engraving by the German master, the rhinoceros does not simulate its real-life counterpart. However, it is Lalanne’s expressive mastery of the metal that truly gives life to the sculpture.
With a pre-sale estimate of €4,000,000–6,000,000, this stunning work will be the focus of a dedicated exhibition at Christie’s Paris this fall, and a limited-edition catalogue will be available in early October.
IRISH 18TH-CENTURY CUT GLASS CENTREPIECE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This Irish 18th century cut glass centrepiece with hobnail decoration and lobed rim is lot 160 at Sheppards two day sale in Durrow on September 5 and 6. It is estimated at €500-€700. There are 706 lots in total in this sale of antique furniture, art and collectibles. The catalogue is online and the sale will be on view in Durrow from September 2-4.
EXTENSIVE COMPOSITE SEVRES PORCELAIN GREEN-GROUND PART DINNER AND DESSERT SERVICE. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $226,800
Rothschild Masterpieces at Christie’s in New York next October will include a magnificent selection of 600 lots of decorative and fine art. The first ever North American sales of objects from one of the great collecting families in history comprises objects assembled in France by two generations of Rothschilds mostly during the latter half of the 19th century. Highlights include The Triumph of David, a set of Dutch School painted and embossed leather panels laid down on canvas, a third quarter of the 16th century Limoges enamel charger, a Dutch silver gilt mounted nautilus cup (Delft 1607) and an Italian 16th century oval armorial dish. They were purchased by Baron James and his wife Betty and Baron Alphonse and his wife Leonora for their palatial Chateau de Ferrieres outside Paris (it opened in 1862 with a gala attended by Napoleon III) and for their houses in the city. The chateau was donated to France in 1975. The total estimate for this selection of furniture, enamels, maiolica, Renaissance jewels, silver and paintings is in excess of $20 million (€18.24 million). There is to be an evening sale at the Rockefeller Center on October 11, two days sales on October 12 and 13 and an online sale. UPDATE: THE ROTHSCHILD MASTERPIECES EVENING SALE REALISED $43,237,900
UPDATE: THE Rothschild auction series brought in $62.6 million. The four sales averaged 280 percent sold hammer above low estimate, and 98 percent sold by lot. Millennial buyers accounted for an average of 15 percent of bidders and buyers across the week, and bidders and buyers from 40 nations participated.
Still life with Flowers by Lily Williams (1874-1940) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER
f you seek to add beauty and interest to your surroundings the timed online At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin on September 4 is a good place to start. The appetising selection of large and small pieces across various price points ranges from conversation pieces like a French Art Deco figure of a young woman in a green dress to mirrors, desks, antique furniture, silver, lanterns and even a cast iron garden bench modelled with oak boughs. The catalogue cover lot is a Still Life with Flowers by Lily Williams ARHA (1874-1940) the artist and Republican who fell out with her Unionist family during the Easter Rising. Work by Williams, who designed the Cross of Cong postage stamp used in Ireland from 1922-1968, does not turn up very often at auction. The oil on board is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. Among other art lots are miniature portraits from an Irish collector and a painting of Sunset over a Churchyard by the English artist Daniel Sherrin. The highly collectible silver on offer includes a pair of serving spoons by the Cork maker John Toleken, an 18th century butter dish by Paul Storr and a fruit basket by the English silversmith Hester Bateman (1708-1794) renowned both for her flatware and ornamental work. The Arts and Crafts Movement features in the sale with lots including a secretaire with classic decorative motifs by George Montgomery Ellwood (1875-1955), large copper chargers, an oak dresser and an oak chest. There are examples of 19th century French furniture in Kingwood and marquetry including a marble topped credenza and a secretaire in the Louis Quinze taste along with a good choice of useful domestic antique furniture pieces from curio tables to chairs, teapoys and a circular burr walnut tilt top table. There is a selection of overmantles and mirrors, as well as various types of lighting from chandeliers and a brass standard lamp to a hexagonal hall lantern and an unusual pair of brass and polychrome enamel column lamps. English, European and Oriental porcelain on offer includes dinner and tea services and there is a range of carpets, kilims and rugs.
George III rectangular kneehole desk. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
This life size Black Forest sculpture of a standing bear is among the top lots at Aidan Foley’s two day hotel interiors auction at Prussia St. in Dublin on September 4 and 5. A total of 1,260 lots will come under the hammer. Among the main ones there is art by Marie Carroll, Markey Robinson, Ann Marie Bourke, Graham Knuttel and a pencil drawing by Jack B Yeats, there is a bronze bust of Michael Collins, some old whisky distillery mirrors and a big selection of hotel furniture and fittings at very reasonable estimates. The Black Forest bear is estimated at €1,200-€1,600 and the catalogue for the sale is online. Viewing in Dublin gets underway on September 1. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER
An Irish white glazed figure of a seated cat, Belleek, 1930s
This 1930’s Belleek cat is one of a number of Irish lots in the online sales of the Freddie Mercury collection now ongoing at Sotheby’s. The cat is lot 1501 in the Freddie Mercury, a World of His Own sale, Crazy Little Things, which runs until September 11. The white glazed cat is estimated at £50-£60 but such is the popularity of the sale that it will make a lot more. Lot 1587 in the same sale is a large group of mixed European linen damask and cotton. It comprises various large damask linen cloths some with matching napkins, other white work embroidered and pulled-work table cloths, napkins and various other small groups of napkins, tape lace place mats, together with two new unused Irish ‘Fingal’ linen double damask cloths, ‘Celtic’ and ‘Chrysanthemum’ designs, a box of six new ‘Chrysanthemum’ design napkins and a group of 28 new ‘Artraco’ white spotted napkins. The estimate is £400-£600 but again these will sell for a lot more.
In the live At Home sale in London on September 8 is a c1760 George III giltwood mirror described as possibly Irish. The estimate is £2,000-£3,000.
