Spike, Caenagnathid dinosaur, Late Cretaceous (c. 68 million years ago). (£3,000,000–5,000,000).
Spike an exceptionally preserved dinosaur and one of the most complete Caenagnathid specimens ever discovered will headline Christie’s inauguralGroundbreakers: Icons of Our Time auction in London on December 11. A discovery from the 2022 field season Spike, comprises approximately 100 preserved fossil bones that tell the story of a sub-adult dinosaur that is 68 million years in the making. It has recently been determined that this family of dinosaurs were heavily feathered, and a rare marking on Spike’s wrist might be further evidence of this. Since the first Caenagnathid was published in 1940, only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have ever come to auction.
This sale presents a curated selection of 30 lots spanning natural history, cinema, music, literature, fashion, and technology. Highlights range from personal letters by cultural icons, to rare scientific artifacts, historic musical instruments, and pioneering design pieces.
A 1914 Buick Tourer at Lynes and Lynes. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An eyecatching turquoise tourer, rare antique jade pieces and a walnut chest on chest are among the choices available at auction now. The chest on chest is at Woodwards in Cork today (November 8) with an estimate of €1,000-€1,500). A carved walnut breakfast table with a similar estimate is also on offer here.
The 1914 Buick Tourer in fine condition is among the leading lights at Lynes and Lynes sale in Carrigtwohill on November 15. Contents from several Cork residences and two newly closed businesses, Canty’s Garage and the Cotton Ball pub ensure that there will be no shortage of local interest in this sale.
With everything from stuffed moose heads with antlers (€100-€200) to a bottle of Midleton Whiskey from the old West Cork Bottling Company in Bandon (€200-€300), a large old Murphy’s Stout and Porter sign and The Cork Cup from 1925, a greyhound trophy, there is plenty for collectors to browse over.
A pair of Satsuma vases at Lynes and Lynes. UPDATE: THESE MADE 550 AT HAMMER
The auction offers jewellery, clocks, mirrors, Cork dining chairs and other furniture, a selection of antique oil lamps, two five branch Waterford Crystal chandeliers, a pair of Satsuma vases and a 1940 portrait of the Cork businessman and founder of Sunbeam Wolsey William Dwyer (1887-1951) by Sean O’Sullivan.
Along with the Buick (€15,000-€20,000) rarities include two old Lady Lavery £10 notes from 1972 with printing errors. The estimate is €3,000-€4,000. Viewing from 10 am to 5 pm daily gets underway today (November 8).
A rare pale and black jade bear at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
With estimates from €80 (for an ashtray netsuke stag horn) to €80,000 for a large Buddhist temple painting or thangka the sale of fine Asian art at James Adam next Wednesday (November 12) is now on view in Dublin. There are rare antique jades like a celadon tiger face from the Western Zhou dynasty c1100-771 BC (€1,000-€1,200), lots of porcelain, enamels, cloisonne wares, fans, paintings, furniture, carpets, bronze plaques, carved ornaments and ivory, pendants, folding screens and masks among more than 400 lots.
The sale kicks off with four figures of seated Buddhist lions. From the Yongzheng period in China c1725 they are estimated at just €200-€300. The auction has already been on view in Paris. It is on weekend view at Adams at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin from 1 pm to 5 pm today and tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday and Tuesday.
In Cork Woodwards has a good selection of antique furniture including a harlequin set of Cork chairs, a Victorian secretaire, a Georgian inlaid cellarette, a French bonheur du jour and a Victorian three tier dumb waiter. There is a set of 17 portraits of figures from The Rising by Rod Coyne. Other lots of note include a large Kashan carpet, a mounted Greenland goose and a large cast iron garden seat. All catalogues are online.
A Georgian walnut chest on chest at Woodwards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 525 AT HAMMER
Sotheby’s new galleries inside the legendary Breuer building on Madison Avenue will open this weekend in New York. Longtime admirers of the Breuer which opened in 1966 as the original Whitney Museum will find lead architects Herzog & de Meuron have preserved everything that makes the building glorious. The lobby lights, the bluestone floors, the bush-hammered concrete walls, the trapezoidal windows – they’re all there, revitalised.
Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Sotheby’s will unveil the stunning art coming up in the New York Sales which will run from November 18-21 with the Leonard Lauder collection leading the way with a trio of masterworks by Klimt. The Breuer opening will culminate a banner year for Sotheby’s which has just completed the best third quarter in its 281-year history. Recent art sales in London and Paris totalled over $325m, with a 95% sell through rate and 74% of lots selling above the high estimate.
Designed by Dublin based Heneghan Peng architects so that the visitor moves through a sequence of spaces to gradually transition from the contemporary world back into the world of the Pharaohs the Grand Egyptian Museum opens fully in Cairo on November 4. The world’s largest archaeological museum is packed with some 100,000 artefacts covering some seven millennia of the country’s history from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras. It displays the entire contents of the intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, with its spectacular gold mask, throne and chariots shown together for the first time since its discovery by British Egyptologist Howard Carter. The vast museum complex – about the size of 70 football pitches – is expected to attract up to eight million visitors a year, giving a huge boost to Egyptian tourism. The grand staircase culminates with a view of the pyramids and allows visitors to navigate the museum. Located near the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza at the edge of the desert plateau between the pyramids and Cairo the exterior is covered in hieroglyphs and translucent alabaster cut into triangles with a pyramid shaped entrance.
This History of the Life of James Duke of Ormonde (1610-1688) by Thomas Carte is at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon on November 5. James Butler, Duke of Ormonde was an important Irish statesmen and soldier, the 12th Earl and 1st Duke of Ormond known as the ‘Great Earl’. Butle was born at Clerkenwell, London, in 1610, in the house of his grandfather, Sir John Poyntz. His parents returned to Ireland shortly after his birth. He succeeded to the earldom in 1633 and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland six times. He arranged a cease fire with Irish rebels in 1643 and offered a treaty in 1646 which granted religious tolerance to Catholics. He fought for the king in the senate and the field until 1650, when he retired to France. He played an important role in the restoration of Charles II and was afterwards created Marquis and Duke by him. He retired to Dorset and died there in 1688. The two volume set was published in London in 1736 it was printed for J. J. and P. Knapton; G. Strahan; W. Innys and R. Manby; F. Giles; and T. Wotton. It is estimated at €200-€400.
U2 musician Adam Clayton with guitars from his personal collection. Brian McEvoy/Julien’s Auctions. UPDATE: THE ENTIRE COLLECTION SOLD OUT
Adam Clayton’s personal collection of 18 bass guitars will come under the hammer as part of Julien’s Played Worn & Torn sale in Nashville on November 20 and 21. The live and online sale will be held at the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum. Meantime a three-week exhibition celebrating the collection of the U2 bassist and this collection opens today at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Co Kildare. It runs until November 9.
Highlights include his 2014 Sherwood Green Fender Adam Clayton signature Jazz Bass, played during U2’s Innocence + Experience tour in 2015. Notable stops were in Dublin, Belfast, Paris, Glasgow, London, Koln, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Turin, NYC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Montreal, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Jose, and Vancouver (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); his 200 Lakland Joe Osborn J sunburst bass, played during the U2’s Vertigo Tour for their classic hit “One,” notably in Dublin on August 27, 2005 (estimate: $20,000-$40,000); a 2010 Gold Sparkle Fender Adam Clayton Precision Bass deemed a “mistake” by Clayton’s guitar technician due to the Jazz Bass decaled headstock (estimate: $40,000-$60,000); Clayton’s stunning U2 360 Tour 2010 Warwick Gold Reverso electric basses (estimate each: $20,000-$40,000) and Clayton’s prized Fender Jazz Basses ranging from the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Adam Clayton “Achtung Baby” Era Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust Wristwatch made $16,000, more than eight times the estimate. A portion of the proceeds will benefit MusiCares
Rory Gallagher’s Fender Stratocaster guitar will go on display at the National Museum at Collins Barracks from October 16. It was bought at Bonhams two years ago for over €1 million by Live Nation Gaiety Ltd who donated it to the National Museum of Ireland. Gallagher bought his guitar for £100 at Crowley’s music store in Cork, in 1963.
‘The Changing Ireland Galleries’ are opening following a full refurbishment of an area in Collins Barracks, Dublin, that had been untouched since the departure of the Defence Forces almost 30 years ago. The guitar is one of more than 250 objects to go on display as part of an expansion to feature hundreds of political, social and cultural objects from the 20th and 21st century collections. Most will be shown for the first time.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 17, 2024)
After an absence of nearly 300 year rediscovered wall hangings by Willem van der Hagen, the Dutch painter who settled in Ireland in the 1720’s, are to go on display at the State Apartments in Dublin Castle. Made to disguise unsightly walls in the old hall at the castle ahead of a grand ball hosted by Lord Lieutenant Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset they are regarded as the earliest surviving party decorations. A suite of capriccios transformed the hall into an Italian fantasy complete with garden follies, Italianate palaces and rustic landscapes. They were not intended to last but in the early 1970’s they were uncovered under layers of wallpaper during alterations at Knole, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Dorset in Kent. In 2024 the 13 painted canvases were acquired by the OPW and prepared for display. Irreverant Ireland – The Lost Ballroom of Dublin Castle will be open to the public soon.
This 18th century scribal manuscript made €35,000 at hammer at Fonsie Mealy.
An original copy of the 1916 Proclamation was the top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s two day sale on October 1 and 2. It made €90,000 at hammer. Other top hammer prices were €35,000 for an 18th century scribal copy of Keating’s History of Ireland for Edward Denny and €18,000 for a collection of working papers for Seamus Heaney’s poem Remembering Malibu. The programme for the 1913 All Ireland hurling final at Jones Road made €11,000, a match ticket for the Bloody Sunday match at Croke Park in 1920 made €9,000 and a 1924 All Ireland hurling medal made €6,000. A collection of documents relating to the Sinn Fein bank of 1908-1924 made €7,500 and a c1599 rare first state Boazio map of Ireland made €6,000. The sale made more than €5,000 on the hammer.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 27, 2025)
FLORENTINE PIETRA DURA MOSAIC HARDSTONE BROOCH. UPDATE: THIS MADE 600 AT HAMMER
This Florentine hardstone brooch inlaid with a lily of the valley motif is lot 23 at The Jewellery Box timed online sale by James Adam in Dublin on October 7. It is mounted in gold and silver and estimated at just €150-€200. The sale offers 295 lots with estimates from €50-€80 to €7,000-€8,000. It will be on view at Adams from October 3-6 and the catalogue is online.
