Antique furniture, collectibles, rugs and art will all come up at Woodwards first sale of 2022 on January 29 in Cork. Items from recent house sales and estates are featured in this online only auction which is now on view at Cook St. in Cork city centre subject to Covid restrictions. Georgian pieces include a walnut lowboy, an inlaid bureau and a walnut card table all estimated at €500-€800. A Regency sofa table is estimated at €800-€1,200 and chests of drawers and a d-end dining table feature as well. There is a painting of turf stacks by Douglas Alexander (€300-€400) and collectibles include three antique bronze Chinese ceremonial longstaffs (€800-€1,500) and a Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy car figure (€400-€600). A large red ground Kashan carpet and a selection of Waterford Crystal is included too.
Georgian walnut lowboy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER
Hibernian Antique Fairs, hard hit by the pandemic, held a number of virtual fairs over the past couple of years. This weekend they are doing something new. The contents of Bride Park Cottage, Kilumney, Co. Cork are on offer online priced and ready to sell. There will not be fees on purchases. Here is a link to the sale: https://hibernianantiques.com//fairs/cork-sale-1
This early mahogany drop leaf table, lot 192, is priced at 250
A lounge suite from the couple’s flat in the former Maeterlinck Palace
A rare glimpse into the glamorous domestic world of a couple at the heart of the glittering social world of Paris in the 1970’s is offered by a sale at Sotheby’s on February 24. Best known in France and the US François Catroux was one of the most important decorators of the 21st century.François and Betty Catroux married in 1968 when she was becoming the face of Yves St. Laurent and he was decorating bold modern homes for clients like the Rothschilds, Diane von Furstenbert and Princess Firyal of Jordan. He counted Roman Abromovitch, Helene Rochas and Antenor Patino among his clients.
François Catroux elegantly mixed antiques with contemporary furniture. He brought work by contemporary designers like Ron Arad, Ingo Maurer, Martin Szekely, Serge Manzon and Ettore Sottsass together with artists like Luis Tomasello, Lucio Fontana, Tom Wesselman, Zoran Music, Victor Vasarely, Xavier Veilhan, Christian Bérard and Jean Cocteau. On offer at Sotheby’s Paris is the entire contents of the apartment he created for their retirement at the former Maeterlinck Palace overlooking the Baie des Anges at Nice. The project was barely completed when Catroux discovered he had cancer. He died in November 2020. Catroux and St. Laurent were at school together, though they never spoke of their schooldays where St. Laurent had been bullied.
In a New York Times obituary Penelope Green came up with a wonderful quote from Betty Catroux: “I’m not interested in fashion, and I’m not interested in design, and I got the two geniuses on the subject. I could live in an empty room as long as there is a bottle of wine and good music. But I know what’s beautiful. I was so lucky. It’s been a fairy tale life”.
Betty and François Catroux. Photograph: Horst P. Horst/Condé Nast archive
A FAMILLE ROSE ‘HUNDRED BATS’ VASE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 20,000 AT HAMMER
This Famille Rose hundred bats vase comes up as lot 119 at the James Adam Chinese New Year sale of Decorative Asian Arts in Dublin on January 18. The globular trumpet necked vase with the Guangxu six-character mark and of the period is estimated at €5,000-€7,000. The brightly enamelled vase has a profusion of iron-red bats in flight amidst multicoloured lingzhi clouds, between a band of ruyi heads at the rim and upright lappets around the foot. It is divided at the shoulder by a band of lotus sprays alternating with gilt shou characters on the shoulder above a gilt relief border.
This Georgian mahogany chest on chest comes up as lot 7 at Hegarty’s evening fine interiors sale online on January 11. It is estimated at 2,000-2,500. There are 272 lots of design, furnishing, contemporary art and silver in the auction. The catalogue is online.
Set of four George II mahogany torchères c1740. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR £37,800.
This set of four torcheres come up as lot 69 at Sotheby’s Royal and Nobel sale, online from today until January 20. To have a set of four mahogany torchères from one source is extremely rare as they are often found as pairs. Originally used to supplement the fixed lighting arrangements in large rooms, torchères played an important role in the 17th and 18th century interior. The refined form of those in the present lot highlights the quality of the mahogany used in construction. According to Sotheby’s it seems that those offered here were bought or commissioned for the Long Gallery at Blickling Hall, Norfolk. They are estimated at £6,000-9,000.
A South Italian pietre dure, mother-of-pearl and marble table top, Naples, ate 17th century. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £63,000
This late 17th century Italian table top in the manner of Cosimo Fanzago comes up at Sotheby’s Stone III sale online in London from January 3-19. It is estimated at £50,000-70,000. Exquisite works of art, objects and pieces furniture made of, or incorporating, marbles, hardstones and micromosaics feature in an auction which explores the incredibly rich use of these materials in European Decorative Arts, with an emphasis on their rarity, colour and craftmanship.
A GEORGE II GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR INSET WITH CHINESE EXPORT REVERSE MIRROR PAINTINGS. UPDATE: THIS MADE $600,000 at hammer. The sale totalled $4.88 million
The practice of painting on mirrors developed in China after 1715 when the Jesuit missionary Father Giuseppe Castiglione arrived in Beijing. He found favour with the Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong and was entrusted with the decoration of the Imperial Garden in Beijing. He learned to paint in oil on glass, a technique that was already practiced in Europe but which was unknown in China in 1715. Chinese artists, already expert in painting and calligraphy, took up the practice, tracing the outlines of their designs on the back of the plate and, using a special steel implement, scraping away the mirror backing to reveal glass that could then be painted. Glass paintings were made almost entirely for export, fuelled by the mania in Europe for all things Chinese.
This c1760 mirror in a beautifully drawn giltwood frame following the designs of London’s pre-eminent cabinet-makers such as John Linnell or Thomas Chippendale represents the ingenuity and collaboration between Chinese and British artists of the mid-18th century. From the collection of Pierre Durand it comes up at Christie’s in New York on January 27 with an estimate of $100,000-$200,000. The late philanthropist and collector co-founded The Chinese Porcelain Company. The sale offers a glimpse into a life well lived with objects and art and features the contents of his New York apartment which artistically combined walls of gallery-hung Old Master Drawings with contemporary glass by Yoichi Ohira, and contrasted Chinese paintings by Liu Dan with fine French and English decorative arts.
A 7 inch high Chinese cinnabar vase. UPDATE: THIS MADE 120 AT HAMMER
This Chinese cinnabar vase is lot 56 at Matthews annual holiday auction online on December 30. It will feature 896 lots of jewellery, silver, art and collectibles. The catalogue is online and the vase is estimated at €50-€80. The sale will be followed on January 2 with a timed online vintage costume and jewellery auction.
Studio of Charles Jervas (1675-1739) Portrait of a lady, said to be Catherine, Lady Paisley. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £27,720
This oil on canvas portrait by the Irish artist Charles Jervas comes up at Sotheby’s online Royal and Noble sale in London which ends on January 20 with an estimate of £4,000-6,000. The sitter is said to be Catherine, Lady Paisley, wife of James Hamilton, Lord Paisley. Born in Co. Offaly Jervas succeeded Sir Godfrey Kneller as principal painter in ordinary to King George I in 1723 and was a popular artist often referred to in works by literary figures of the period. His portraits of his friends Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope are in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Bidding for the Royal and Noble sale opens on January 3.
