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This French Empire style marble specimen table comes up Sheppards sale of the entire contents of Knocksaintlour House, Cashel on August 15. The sale will be held at Durrow in Co. Laois. The circular-shaped table top with Greek key scroll border encloses a quadrant paterae centre. It rests on a doric columned temple centred by a figure of Hebe on a stepped circular base terminating on claw feet. The table is estimated at €5,000-€8,000.
A rare piece of early Irish furniture has been donated by benefactor David Boles to the Irish Museum of Time at Greyfriars St. in Waterford. The George I walnut and featherbanded secretaire with sycamore, cedar and marquetry is believed to have been made in Dublin c1725-30 by German asylum seeking John Kirkhoffer. Around this time Ireland benefitted greatly when highly skilled silversmiths, clock and furniture makers from Germany, Holland and France sought refuge here. The cabinet was sold at Bonhams in London last February for £22,950 (€26,847). David Boles remarked: “It will not only rhyme but also chime with history in the company of early 18th century Irish walnut and marquetry longcase clocks already on display”. Since opening just over a year ago Ireland’s first horological museum has attracted visitors from around the globe.
A limited edition of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev illustrated by Bono comes up at de Veres current online auction of Irish and international art and 20th century design now open for bidding. Lot 110, number 33 from an edition of 200, comprises a set of six lithograph sheets (one signed) and a CD performed by Gavin Friday. The estimate is €500-€700. The sale offers a selection of design furniture by makers like Willy Rizzo, Charles and Ray Eames, Fendi and Roche Bobois including armchairs, dining tables, chairs, cabinets, desks and lamps. There is a selection of affordable art from a variety of artists including Hughie O’Donoghue, Michael Coleman, Gwen O’Dowd, Ciaran Lennon, Patrick Collins, Tony O’Malley, William Crozier, Corban Walker, Tim Goulding and Charles Tyrrell among 168 lots in total. Bidding starts to close from 2 pm on July 18. UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 AT HAMMER
A bird bath held by a crouching Art Deco lady or a Victrola redolent of another bygone era? The choice is yours as endless summer materialises in different ways at upcoming sales by Aidan Foley at Kilcolgan, Co. Galway on July 16 and 17 and by Victor Mee in Belturbet, Co. Cavan on July 18 and 19. One off items of a type you would not happen across every day feature alongside plenty of lots that will draw bargain hunters. A Georgian bow fronted sideboard with an estimate of just €300-€500 comes up at Kilcolgan and an attractive composition wall sundial decorated with a lion mask at Victor Mee is estimated at just €60-€120.
With everything from a pair of brass Gothic style candlesticks, two heavy metal swan jardinieres, a vintage Tiffany style ceiling light and a pair of carved African figures at estimates ranging from €30 to €450 the sale at Kilcolgan caters to a wide variety of interests. Aidan Foley promises a good selection of art headed by a small pencil sketch by Jack B. Yeats of Galway Races with an estimate of around €2,000. There is art by painters from Graham Knuttel to Markey Robinson, Marie Carroll, Sean O’Sullivan and Ivan Sutton.
Victor Mee’s summer garden sale of 648 lots boasts a selection of unique and statement garden pieces. The most expensively estimated lots are bronzes of horses, foals, stags, seated lions along with an early 20th century French moulded stone gazebo with a wrought iron top and corinthian columns. These are all in the €6,000 and €8,000 up range but the choice is wide.There is, for example, a Lutyens three seater teak garden bench with an estimate of €500-€800, a bronze model of a baby snail (€300-€500), copper wall lanterns (€250-€450), an Art Deco limestone planter (€300-€600) and a cast aluminium bird bath (€80-€160). There are tables, chairs, planters, benches, wrought iron gates, acorn topped finials, urns, iron railings, moulded sandstone avenue lamps with copper lights and a cut Italian wall fountain with a lion mask among a big selection on offer. Both sales are now on view and the catalogues are online.
This fine George II giltwood mirror is among the top lots at Fonsie Mealy’s three day sale of fine art, antiques and collectibles in Castlecomer on August 1, 2 and 3. The estimate is €8,000-€12,000. It was originally at Easton Neston in Northamptonshire and last changed hands at auction at Sotheby’s in London in 2005. It comes up as lot 820 out of a total of 1,292 lots of furniture, paintings, silver, militaria, jewellery, Oriental ceramics and a wide variety of collectibles. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Castlecomer on July 30 and 31.
This pair of Arras style garden armchairs come up as lot number 10 at Victor Mee’s two day summer garden sale on July 18 and 19. The stylish hand forged wrought iron chairs are estimated at €1,000-2,000. Arras furniture – based on the designs made in the town of Arras in France in the 17th and 18th centuries – is sought after. There is another similar pair in the sale which offers 686 lots. The catalogue is online.
Those in search of a mid 20th century look might be interested in this teak Everest sideboard by Andrew Thompson. It comes up as lot 143 at de Veres timed online art and design auction which runs until July 18. The sideboard has three central drawers flanked by cupboard doors and estimated at 500-700. The auction offers design furniture and affordable art.
A late painting by Klimt set to become the most valuable artwork ever sold in Europe, wonderful antique furniture, portraits and exceptional collectibles will make rich pickings for the rich and plenty of eye candy for the rest of us in London in the coming weeks. This is the time of year when the art world descends on the British capital for a variety of major sales, fairs and significant one off events like the re-opening after five years of the world renowned National Portrait Gallery. Despite some indications that the global art market might be in slightly hesitant mode right now the London summer season of 2023 is unlikely to disappoint. Lady with a Fan by Klimt at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening sale on June 27 has an estimate of around €80 million. The last portrait he painted was still on an easel in the studio at the time of his untimely death in the flu pandemic of 1918. Featuring an unnamed woman it is described by Sotheby’s as an ever deeper, ever more joyful immersion in pattern, colour and form, filled with the creative exuberance. The auction will offer a strong grouping of portraits with work by artists like Alberto Giacomett and Edvard Munch.
In celebration of the re-opening of London’s National Portrait Gallery last Thursday the dynamism of portraiture across the centuries, redefined by each generation, will again be highlighted at Christie’s sale on June 28. One of the more contemporary offerings here is Diplomacy I by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Part of the Tate Retrospective which closed last February it depicts a group of suited delegates recalling Marion Kaplan’s photographs of African heads of state at a summit in Uganda in 1967. The artist has created bold new characters for black representation in art. In this imagined portrait Yiadom-Boakye has inserted a single woman, clad in pink. The sale offers portraits by Frank Auerbach, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edgar Degas, Lucian Freud and Howard Hodgkin.
The Treasure House Fair, in full swing until next Monday at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, was generated by leading UK dealers after the cancellation of Masterpiece, which cited a lack of overseas exhibitor interest. Treasure House has attracted dealers from France, Switzerland and the US like Geoffrey Diner and Michele Beiny. There is fine antique furniture from leading UK dealers like Ronald Phillips at this curated global event with distinguished names across a wide range of disciplines.Meantime the city is gearing up for London Art Week which runs from June 30 to July 7 with 53 specialists and expert dealers with museum quality examples of decorative arts, paintings, sculpture and works on paper from antiquity to contemporary. Various galleries will show work by Irish artists like Sir John Lavery, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (who lived here for a time) Augustus John and Gwen John as well showcasing artists from Giambologna to Renoir, Picasso and Dora Maar. The Fine Arts Society will exhibit an enamel by Phoebe Anna Traquair, the Irish born artist who achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts Movement in Scotland. She produced large scale murals, embroidery, enamel jewellery and book illuminations. On show in London is The Life of the Virgin (1906), three plaques in enamel with foil on copper.
Singular opportunities to add oodles of style to your garden and home await at upcoming auctions by Sheppards in Durrow and Victor Mee in Belturbet. Extraordinary architectural ornaments and garden sculpture will grace Sheppards annual live and online sale at Glantelwe Gardens in Durrow. There is grandeur here, and art and pieces for large and small gardens among a selection which includes entrance gates, fountains, statues, lions, urns, sundials, planters, benches, seats, patio sets, staddle stones, pumps, estate railing and stone troughs.
The Sheppards sale of 850 lots offers numerous decorative objects of the sort typically associated with the pleasure grounds and gardens of the Irish country house in centuries gone by. That is no reason to prevent anyone in our 21st century from locating such objects of beauty in the lovely gardens and balconies of the cityscapes and burgeoning leafy suburbs in cities and towns throughout Ireland.
Exceptional lots include a monumental pair of Sphinxes, a pair of carved stone French rococo lidded urns on stands, a lifesize bronze stallion and jockey after Isidore Bonheur (1827-1901), a pair of 19th century Medici lions, four Francois Carre garden sunburst armchairs, a bronze crane and a set of dancers by Robin Buick RHA. Glantelwe is a secret garden nestling along the banks of the Erkina River at Durrow. The name comes from the late Middle Ages and is an Anglicised version of Gleann Tulaigh (the glen of the hillocks). The garden designer Arthur Shackleton worked with Sheppards to provide an appropriate setting for the accoutrements in this annual auction, now in its seventh year.
Auctioneer David Sheppard said: “The objects we are bringing to sale have been treasured by generations of families and will bring great joy to their new owners”. Viewing at Glantelwe gets underway on June 24. The auction is on June 27 and 28 at 10 am on each day.
Garden sculpture crops up at Victor Mee’s evening online June decorative interiors sale on June 20. Among 879 lots is a set of sandstone statues of the four seasons, life sized cast iron statues of a deer with fawn and of a deer family and a composition garden fountain on lions feet decorated with cherubs and carp. Leading art lots include works by James Humbert Craig, Cecil Maguire, Arthur Maderson and George Gillespie. Furniture ranges from an Art Deco style armchair and footstool and a chrome and walnut consul table to a 19th century Viennese carved oak armoire, a Victorian mahogany server with carved back, a 19th century burr walnut sewing table and a hand dyed aviator three seater sofa.Collectibles include a brass and oak wall mounted xylophone, a Sitzendorf Monkey Band (12 pieces), a Victrola gramophone, a copper bed warmer and a chrome and leather chess set. There are some marble fireplaces to choose from along with lanterns, mirrors, chandeliers and an Edwardian serpentine front desk. Catalogues for each of these sales are online.
This 19th century lacquered bureau bookcase is among the top lots at Reillys sale of contents from Dyann House, Donadea, Co. Kildare on June 17. The house once featured on RTE’s “Ireland’s most exclusive homes”. The live online auction of 726 lots from this private residential equestrian estate which changed hands in May gets underway at 11 a.m. and there will be viewing on the premises on June 15 and 16. The bookcase is estimated at €4,000-4,500.
