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This gouache on paper by Norah McGuinness comes up as lot 28 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online Irish art auction. The online catalogue for this sale – which runs until May 22 – includes work by Sean McSweeney, Nano Reid, Tony O’Malley, Hughie O’Donoghue, Basil Blackshaw, Charles Tyrrell and many others. The McGuinness is estimated at €2,000-3,000.
A letter handwritten in 1971 by Lord Mountbatten from Classiebawn Castle on the subject of security comes up as lot 336 at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale in Dublin on May 13. It was sent to Garda Superintendent Long. Written on Classiebawn Castle crested notepaper Mountbatten thanks Superintendent Long for ‘coming here to see me about the question of security and for the admirable arrangements you made for my protection’. He mentions enclosing a paperback edition of The Life And Times Of Lord Mountbatten by John Terraine. The book is with this lot, inscribed ‘Pauline Long, October 1971’.
Lord Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA on 27 August 1979, by a bomb in his boat. The letter is estimated at €800-€1,200. Viewing for the sale gets underway at Whyte’s Galleries at Molesworth St., Dublin today. UPDATE: THIS MADE 750 AT HAMMER
This watercolour by Percy French made a hammer price of €5,000 at the opening day of Sheppards four day sale in Durrow, Co. Laois this week. A set of Royal letters patent from King Charles II dated 1667 made €6,500, a 19th century walnut and marquetry longcase clock made €5,500, a George III automaton striking bracket clock made €4,300, a 19th century Chinese hardwood cabinet on cabinet made €4,200, a pair of 18th century Ottoman flintlock pistols made €2,200, a pair of hide upholstered wingback armchairs made €2,300, an 18th century Irish settee made €2,000, a Killarney cabinet made €1,800, a George III side table made €2,400, a George III inlaid breakfront bookcase made €4,400 and a Chinese archaic bronze bell made €28,000.
Alpha, a cast and fabricated unique bronze by renowned Irish sculptor Eilis O’Connell made a hammer price of €2,400 at the James Adam timed online Mid-Century Modern sale in Dublin today. It had been estimated at €1,200-1,600. The sculpture was used as the invitation image for the 2015 exhibition Eilis O’Connell: Khôra at Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin, An armchair by Eileen Gray made €3,400, a set of four rosewood chairs by Nils Otto Muller made €2,600, a 2003 oil on canvas, Transverse by Mark Francis, made €13,000, Interior with Wine Jar by Stephen McKenna made €11,000 and a chaise longue by le Corbusier made €2,400.
This unique pigment inkjet print by Corban Walker comes up as lot 74 at de Veres contemporary art auction for Pallas Projects which runs until May 11. Walker represented Ireland at the 54th Venice International Art Biennale, 2011. He received the Pollock Krasner Award in 2015. His work is in the collections of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Mitsubishi Estate Co. Tokyo and other important collections. The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork presented a survey of his work in 2022. The fourth Pallas Projects/Studios have run since 2014, will help the cutting-edge arts organisation continue their mission to support grassroots arts initiatives, emerging artists and maintaining artists studios. The sale features work by over 80 established and up and coming Irish artists. The catalogue is online and works are on view at the City Assembly House at South William St. in Dublin.
What could be better. Springtime in Paris is again enlivened this year with a feast of Irish art at Sotheby’s. Come on the dawn, a 1951 work by Jack B. Yeats (€200,000-€300,000) leads a sale supported by a global marketing campaign with Sotheby’s displaying Irish art to Paris and the world. This second edition celebrating cultural links between Ireland and France follows on from the success of an inaugural sale in 2022 which saw strong international bidding and a new world record for a work on paper by Mainie Jellett.
Artists from the 19th century to the present day feature in the 2023 selection which includes Irish painters abroad and contemporary artworks. Paintings by Roderic O’Conor, Sir William Orpen and Sir John Lavery are on view alongside art and sculpture by Sean Scully, Louis le Brocquy, Rowan Gillespie, Orla de Bri, Peter Curling, Maser, Melissa O’Flaherty, Richard Hearns and Jack Coulter. The catalogue, with 50 lots, is online. The sale, now on view at Sotheby’s Paris headquarters on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, takes place on May 10.
An unpublished recording is among a valuable Rory Gallagher archive at Whyte’s timed online Eclectic Collector sale which runs until Saturday May 13. Relating to his time with the Fontana Showband from Cork it includes a reel to reel tape by Kingsway Recording, London with tracks titled All the Time, I Want You to be Happy, Slow Down, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean and Valley of Tears along with a CD copy. There are original passport photos taken in a booth in the early 1960’s, promotional cards, Evening Echo news cuttings, a New Spotlight magazine from June 1965, Rory’s harmonica and his sunglasses. Lot 540 is estimated at €15,000-€20,000. The sale offers historical artefacts, manuscripts, 1916 Rising medals, a bible which belonged to Michael Collins, sporting memorabilia, a 1916-1923 film archive, signed Beatles photographs and cinema posters. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A dining suite and a cabinet by Joseph Walsh will lead Sheppards four day sale live and online from Durrow, Co. Laois from next Tuesday to Friday (May 9-12). Walsh is celebrated globally and there will be international interest in lots 2039 and 2040, the last objects to be offered in this large auction of contents from Pouldrew House, located between Kilmeaden and Portlaw in Co. Waterford, as well as from other sources. The suite comprising a black walnut and silver dining table and ten black walnut chairs with sycamore backs created at the Joseph Walsh Studio in Riverstock in 2001 is estimated at €80,000-€120,000. Walshs cabinet on stand dating from the 2001-2003 period, with a walnut case and sycamore interior, comes with an estimate of €35,000-€55,000.
Pouldrew House, home from 1992 to the late Dr. Jan Mohamed who came from Singapore to work at Waterford Regional Hospital (now University Hospital, Waterford), was a magical setting for furniture, art and collectibles acquired over the years in Asia and at country house sales in Ireland. Priscilla Presley and her daughter Lisa-Marie (who died in January) came here several times for acupuncture as a result of a recommendation from the artist Gottfried Helnwein, who lives and works in Ireland and Los Angeles. Given that today is the coronation day of Charles III there might be some extra interest in decorative letters on vellum from Charles II (1630-1685) dated 1667 granting 2,400 acres in seven towns and villages in Waterford to Thomas Brightwell. The estimate is €8,000-€12,000. (Charles I was executed in 1649, but this is an aside).
The many Oriental lots are headed by two Chinese Qing Dynasty hardwood palace cabinets, each estimated at €20,000-€30,000. A magnificent Zhengde yellow glazed bowl (€10,000-€15,000), a Qianlong celadon plate (€8,000-€10,000) and a decorated Chinese lacquered 12 panel palace folding screen (€3,000-€5,000) are feature pieces too.Among many collectibles and conversation pieces is a 19th century Venetian walnut throne chair (€4,000-€6,000), a late 17th century Flemish tapestry (€5,000-€8,000), an 18th century leather panelled sedan chair (€5,000-€8,000), a c1830 monumental American carved wood eagle (€3,000-€5,000) and a signed 1945 World War II war crimes investigation team pewter tankard from Singapore (€500-€800). Leading jewellery lots include a 3.70 carat three stone diamond ring (€20,000-€30,000), a four stone diamond ring (€12,000-€14,000), Colombian emerald and diamond earrings (€8,000-€12,000), a diamond cluster ring (€8,000-€12,000) and an emerald and diamond ring (€6,000-€9,000). The most expensively estimated painting is a Donegal watercolour landscape by Percy French (€5,000-€8,000). There are two mid 20th century Donegal carpets and a good selection of Oriental rugs, runners and carpets in a sale with much interest for all sorts of collectors. The auction is on view in Durrow today, tomorrow and Monday. The catalogue is online and around 500 lots will be sold on each day.
Originally designed in 1969 this arresting armchair and ottoman by Gaetano Pesce comes up as lot 37 at Adams Mid-Century Modern sale on May 9. It is estimated at 4,000-6,000. Viewing for this timed online auction gets underway in Dublin today and continues over the weekend. The catalogue is online.
Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker, the major summer show at the National Gallery of Ireland, runs from May 6 until August 27. The late sixteenth-century Bolognese artist is widely considered to be the first female artist to achieve professional success beyond the confines of a court or a convent. Fontana was the first woman to manage her own workshop, and the first woman to paint public altarpieces and female nudes. She maintained an active career, painting for many illustrious patrons, while also taking on the role of wife and mother.
The first monographic exhibition to examine Fontana’s work in over two decades, and the first to focus on her portraits the show brings together a selection of her most highly regarded works from international public and private collections, alongside the artist’s celebrated The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, from the Gallery’s own collection. The recent conservation of this Renaissance masterpiece was supported by Bank of America.
