This diamond dress ring by Castlebar based master jeweller Nigel O’Reilly will come up as lot 177 at Adams fine jewellery and watches online sale on May 16. With a central rose cut diamond of 3.28 carats and a mount setting with pave diamonds it is estimated at €8,000-€12,000. O’Reilly’s work has been included at exhibitions in Los Angeles and at Bergdorf Goodman in New York. He is the first Irish high jewellery master to have work featured at Sotheby’s Important Jewels sale in New York and is included in Sotheby’s haute joaillerie collection. Viewing is underway in Dublin and the catalogue features a number of pieces selected and modelled by Sarah Greene. The Cork actress has just completed filming Sexy Beasts for Paramount Plus, plays in the upcoming Irish thriller In the Land of Saints and Sinners with Liam Neeson, Ciaran Hinds and Kerry Condon and in Terrence Malicks new film The Last Planet. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Stage Costumes, handwritten lyrics, fine and decorative arts, Japanese art, precious objects and a trove of Freddy Mercury’s personal belongings will be sold by Sotheby’s this summer. While Mercury captivated audiences across the globe, it was at his beloved home – Garden Lodge in Kensington, West London – where he fashioned his own private world, assembling a collection that reflected and fired his expansive imagination.
For some 30 years, Garden Lodge has remained almost entirely as Mercury left it, complete with the many works of art that spoke to him so deeply: from Victorian paintings and striking works on paper by the greatest artists of the 20th century, to the finest examples of the glass maker’s art (a medium he loved beyond measure) and other beautiful objects; and from the exceptional fabrics and fine works he would seek out on trips to Japan, to the smaller, more personal items that were such an important part of his daily life. All complemented by defining objects from his more public life: a number of never-before-seen drafts of the immortal song lyrics, along with some of the riotous costumes that were the hallmark of Mercury’s signature style.
Freddy Mercury’s Martin D35 acoustic guitar
This summer, the contents of Garden Lodge, all lovingly cherished and cared for over the last three decades, will be revealed to the public for the first time in a dedicated month-long exhibition at Sotheby’s in London, which will see every inch of the company’s 16,000 square foot gallery space dedicated to celebrating Mercury’s rich and multi-faceted life and passions, culminating in six dedicated sales in September, each one devoted to a different aspect of his life, both public and private.
Pablo Picasso, Jaqueline au Chapeau Noir (1962
Mary Austin, one of Mercury’s closest and most trusted friends, has treasured and cared for his home and everything in it for the last thirty years.
The month-long exhibition at Sotheby’s this summer will see all 1,500 or so items from Garden Lodge displayed in a sequence of specially designed immersive galleries, each one devoted to a different aspect of Mercury’s rich and varied life. The exhibition will open on August 4, and close on what would have been his 77th birthday, September 5. Prior to the exhibition highlights from will tour to New York, London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong in June.
The six dedicated auctions which follow will kick off with a live evening sale on September 6 with a cross-section of the most significant items.
Emmanuel Danan is new Global Managing Director of Christie’s Luxury. Reporting to Francis Belin, President of Christie’s Asia Pacific, who oversees the Luxury, as well as the Asian and World Art departments globally, Emmanuel joins Christie’s following the business’ nearly billion-dollar year in global sales of Jewels, Watches, Wine and Handbags in 2022. Based in Paris, as of February 20, Emmanuel will direct all aspects of Christie’s luxury business across both live and online auctions and Private Sales and will work closely with colleagues across the specialist departments in New York, London, Geneva, Paris, and Hong Kong.
Fragments: Lost Stories of Ancient Women is the title of the 2023 annual lecture at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. This year the series celebrates St. Brigid’s Day, the new permanent holiday in Ireland on the first Monday of February. Few historical facts are known about St. Brigid. When it comes to ancient women’s lived experience, all we have are fragments. A scrap of a handwritten letter from mother to daughter, preserved two millennia in a fortuitously arid microclimate. A tiny metal amulet worn around the neck, bearing a rolled-up incantation to protect the wearer from menstrual pain. One or two verses, ignored by readers of the canonical gospels, implying that a woman may have personally bankrolled the earliest Jesus movement. Evidence for ancient women is virtually inaccessible compared to evidence for (elite) ancient men, but it is there if we are just willing to dig a little.
The online lecture will be delivered by Dr. Sara Parks, historian on women and gender in antiquity, on February 8. Dr. Parks will address the Chester Beatty Library’s ever increasing online and global audience from Nova Scotia, Canada where she is assistant professor of religious studies at St. Francis Xavier University.
George Hardie original artwork Led Zeppelin album cover. Couresy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2022. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $47,880
George Hardie’s original album cover artwork for the 1976 Led Zeppelin soundtrack to the film The Song Remains the Same comes up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in New York on January 27. The acrylic, ink and graphite front and back covers on illustration board are estimated at $50,000-80,000. The sale of extraordinary objects includes furniture, silver and decorative arts. Among the lots on offer are The Arizona Spike made in 1869 of steel clad in gold and silver to commemorate the completion of the world’s first transcontinental railroad and an Ascot Trophy sponsored by Tsar Nicholas II.
UPDATE: The Arizona Spike made $2.2 million, the Ascot Trophy made $302,400.
Christine McVie’s wardrobe Including her vintage Rumours album cover worn maxi dress sold for $56,250 at Julien’s in Hollywood over the weekend. The sale featured over 800 lots from three iconic members of Fleetwood Mac including personal wardrobe, musical equipment, household furnishings, awards, memorabilia and more. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares, who honored Fleetwood Mac in 2018 as the organisation’s Person of the Year, to support the charity’s work providing critical services to underserved members of the music community.
An emotional moment of the auction was the sale of the collection of Christine McVie, who passed away three days before the event took place. The auction and catalogue of her most personal and professional items organised by Ms. McVie and her team with Julien’s a year ago represented the Songbird’s lifetime of great performances, recordings and songs as a member of one of the best-selling groups of all time, Fleetwood Mac, and as a legendary solo artist.
Highlights included: the GRAMMY® Award- winner’s vintage maxi dress which sold for $56,250, five times its original estimate of $10,000. Christine McVie’s iconic instruments including her Leslie Rotary speaker and microphones sold for $37,500, thirty-seven times its original estimate, touring Hammond B3 organ made $28,125, Yamaha E3 Series Disklavier electric five-foot baby grand piano sold for $22,400 and Hammond B3 Organ, stage-played sold for $18,750
AN IMPORTANT DIAMOND NECKLACE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Set with three continuous rows of princess-cut diamonds this necklace comes up at the James Adam sale of Fine Jewellery and Watches in Dublin on December 6. Billed as an important diamond necklace with 45-50 carats in total it is estimated at €40,000-€60,000 and is the most expensively estimated lot in the sale. There are diamonds rings, earrings, brooches, pendants, bracelets, sapphires, pearls, rubies and gold galore to choose from among 261 lots with estimates from €200 up. The catalogue is online.
In London the National Gallery said that Van Gogh’s Sunflowers is covered with glass and was not damaged when protestors threw tins of Heinz Tomato Soup at it today. There is some minor damage to the frame of the work, painted in 1888. The two climate activists in Just Stop Oil T-shirts opened the tins and threw the contents on the masterpiece before gluing their hands to the wall. The Metropolitan Police said two people had been arrested.
STAMPA 2022, the Irish National Stamp Exhibition runs from October 7-9 at Griffith College conference centre, South Circular Road in Dublin. There will be exhibits of stamps and postal history from collections and leading Irish stamp dealers will be on hand.
Contents from the Greenway Antiques and Book Store, Mulranny, Co. Mayo are now on sale. Rare and out of print books and first editions from the collection of the late Vanessa Parker, who along with Roger Grimes Antiques has been a fixture of the Irish antique trade for decades, are on offer at up to 70% off. This copy of Curly Wee is priced at €171 and there are three more from the series. There are first and early edition of poetry by Yeats among thousands of rare books and first editions. For the future Roger Grimes intends to trade on a smaller scale and on the internet on https://antiquesandbooks.com
