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Art by Patrick Scott, Frank McKelvey, Charles Brady and Louis le Brocquy feature in the Christmas art and design sale at de Veres. The timed online auction closes next Tuesday (December 12) and offers 20th century pieces by designers like Charles and Ray Eames, Rolf Benz and Fendi.
Rembrandt’s rediscovered Adoration of the Kings sold for £10.9 million (€12.7 million) at Sotheby’s in London on December 6. Just two years ago – when it was attributed to the Circle of Rembrandt – it was valued at just €10,000-€15,000 at Christie’s in Amsterdam. The complex monochromatic painting had been almost entirely unseen by scholars since the 1950’s when it came to light.
It was included in museum exhibitions and referenced as a Rembrandt work by leading Rembrandt scholars in the 1950s, but in 1960 German art historian Kurt Bauch, who only knew the painting from a black and white photograph, described it as a product of the Rembrandt School and omitted it from from the catalogue raisonné he was compiling. Thereafter, the painting was “entirely overlooked and completely ignored in the Rembrandt literature,” according to Sothebys. Following an 18 month research programme by Sotheby’s it was recognised as a work of great significance from Rembrandt’s early career.
The Adoration of the Kings was acquired by collector J.C.H. Heldring in Amsterdam in 1955. His widow sold it to a German family in 1985, where it remained until it was sold by Christie’s in Amsterdam two years ago. The painting, which measures 9.6 x 7.3 inches, was purchased by an anonymous buyer for €860,000 at the Christie’s sale — more than 50 times the estimated value. It was later identified as the work of the Dutch master.
The vast majority of Rembrandt’s works hang in museums around the world, and almost all of those that have come to auction over the past three decades have been portraits or studies of single character heads.
Viewing is now underway in Castlecomer for Fonsie Mealy’s Christmas rare book and collector’s sale on December 12 and 13. This rare Croke Park 1920 admission ticket is highly collectible. The period from 1918 – 1920 was a turbulent and dangerous time in Ireland. It was at this match that British soldiers opened fire on the pitch and crowd, killing a player and twelve spectators. This followed Michael Collins’ operation against British secret service agents earlier that morning, in which fourteen British officers were shot dead. The ticket is estimated at €4,000-€5,000. There are many rare and collectible items on offer in this auction of 1,019 lots which will get underway each day at 10.30 am. The catalogue is online.
The National Gallery of Ireland announced today that it had acquired Titania Enchanting Bottom by Harry Clarke. It is undergoing conservation treatment and will be on display in the New Year. The luminous stained glass panel was sold by Morgan O’Driscoll last October 24 for a hammer price of €160,000. The acquisition was supported by the Patrons of Irish Art of the National Gallery of Ireland. Born in Dublin on St Patrick’s Day in 1889, Harry Clarke is one of Ireland’s best known and most beloved artists. He achieved significant acclaim in his short lifetime, working across different media including book illustration. His principal career was in the production of stained glass windows, mainly for churches and religious houses across Ireland, as well as in the UK, US and Australia. He also produced a small number of secular works in glass.
Titania Enchanting Bottom is the only glass work by Clarke that is inspired by Shakespeare. It depicts Act IV, Scene I, from Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Featuring characters from the play including Bottom, Puck, Titania, Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Moth, the work is adorned with botanical elements – a detail typical of Clarke’s work. From 1917 to 1922, Clarke made a unique series of miniature panels inspired by literature – including this one – adapting his talent and passion for book illustration to the medium of stained glass. These panels were set into bespoke cabinets, of which several, including this example, were designed by Dublin-born furniture maker James Hicks (1866-1936). Titania Enchanting Bottom is one of just five panels that survive. At the National Gallery of Ireland, it joins The Song of the Mad Prince (1917) which is on display in Room 20 and was acquired by the Gallery in 1987. These panels are significant to the understanding of Harry Clarke as an artist. They are the forerunners to the The Eve of St Agnes based on the Keats poem and The Geneva Window now at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami.
The Captain by Jack B Yeats was the top lot at the James Adam sale of important Irish Art in Dublin tonight. It made €95,000 at hammer. Near Leenane by Paul Henry made €80,000, Aran Harbour by Sean Keating made €75,000, The Colloquy of Monus and Una, a pencil, ink and watercolour by Harry Clarke made €70,000, Keem Bay by Paul Henry made €65,000 and Paysage Sinistre by Henry made €60,000.
Boat in the Bay, a creation in coloured pencils by Mary Swanzy, comes up as lot 116 at Whyte’s Christmas online art auction which runs until the evening of December 13. It is estimated at €600-€800. The sale is one view at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. from December 9 and the catalogue is online. There is a wide ranging selection of artists from Elizabeth Cope and Markey Robinson, Cecil Maguire and Kenneth Webb to Mabel Young and Moyra Barry, to Roderic O’Conor, Sarah Purser, Sir William Orpen, Jack B. Yeats, Beatrice Elvery (Lady Glenavy) and Mary Cottenham Yeats among more than 300 lots on offer.
This collection of Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys from 2015 to 2023 comes up as lot 7 at Dolan’s timed online December sale with an estimate of €7,000-€9,000. The catalogue for this sale, which features 240 lots of 20th century and contemporary Irish artists along with antiques, collectibles, whiskeys rugs and books, is now live and will run until December 11.
This Austrian gilt and ruby porcelain stein sold for a hammer price of €7,200 over a top estimate of €500-€800 at Sheppards in Durrow this afternoon. It was made around 1880. The reserve is hand painted with ‘The Triumph of Constantine’ and signed ‘Joeger Pinxt’. There is a leaf cast scroll handle with raised thumb piece and a domed cover on an outset gilt metal foot. The stein carries the Bidenschild mark. A large Regency crystal chandelier made €6,500 and another made €5,500, a walnut four poster bed made €6,000, a 19th century bronze garden sculpture of Mercury made €5,000, a Neoclassical white chimney piece made €4,600 and a marble Neptune fountain made €2,800.
Switzerland, Hazel and Alice by Sir John Lavery made a hammer price of €230,000 over a top estimate of €220,000 at Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. Dooega, Achill Island, Co. Mayo by Paul Henry made €155,000 on the hammer. London Hospital, 1914 by Lavery made €64,000, The Goose Girl by Sean Keating made €62,000 over a top estimate of €35,000, On the Beach by Gerard Dillon made €34,000 over a top estimate of €30,000, Abstract Composition c1929 by Mainie Jellett made €27,000 over a top estimate of €15,000, The Desert Charge by Aloyosius O’Kelly made €16,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €15,000, a 19th century Irish school painting of The Ruins of the Royal Arcade, Dublin made €12,000 over a top estimate of €8,000, Wicklow Mountains by Peter Collis made €7,000 over a top estimate of €5,000, Coming Home by Mark O’Neill made €8,500 over a top estimate of €8,000, The Club by Graham Knuttel made €9,000 over a top estimate of €7,000, Aquainted with Grief by Leo Whelan made €4,600 over a top estimate of €2,000 and Tonight we Dance by William Conor made €5,200 over a top estimate of €2,000.
Daniel O’Connell’s leather gun case is one of the more unusual lots at Marshs sale in Cork on December 9. The case, stamped with his name and Derrynane Abbey, is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. There is a similar estimate on a rare 19th century watercolour, The Strand at Tivoli, Cork by John E Bosanquet. Antique furniture on offer includes a Georgian four door breakfront bookcase, a four piece ivory inlaid bedroom suite, a set of Cork dining chairs, a Georgian inlaid chest and a French walnut ormolu mounted vitrine. The online only sale will be on view from December 6.
