The two day auction by Matthews in Kells on October 18 and 19 will offer a private collection of antique furniture, jewellery, paintings and collectibles from the estate of Mrs. Mel O’Flynn of Athlone and other clients. She was first lady president of Athlone Chamber of Commerce and was deeply involved with The Little Theatre. She made her last stage appearance at the age of 91. Mel O’Flynn founded Arcadia Antiques of Athlone and Galway in the 1980’s and was a noted collector of jewellery, silver and antiques. Viewing gets underway in Kells on October 15 and the catalogue is online.
WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Frying Pan – Still Life, 1947. UPDATE; THIS MADE £756,000
Frying Pan – Still Life by William Scott at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on October 19 dates to 1947. It is emblematic of Scott’s approach to painting following the Second World War. At first glance, the simple arrangement of culinary objects speaks of the Northern Irish austerity that Scott experienced in his youth. Concurrently, however, the artist’s sophisticated exploration into the arrangement of colour, form and spatial geometry reflects a preoccupation that ensued throughout the artist’s celebrated career. According to the catalogue notes in this work Scott demonstrates a masterful approach to composition – the ovoid shapes that reverberate across the canvas work in harmony with the linear diagonals that permeate the scene. The alignment of the eggs, positioned carefully on the table-top, create a subtle dynamism as they lead the eye towards the frying pan, whose crisp silhouette against the rich yolk-yellow of the background foreshadows the use of the motif as the most recognisable icon of his later work. The estimate is £300,000-£500,000.
The sale will be led by L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match, which is being offered by The Players Foundation. Estimated at £5,000,000-8,000,000, the painting is poised to set a new world auction record for the artist. The catalogue is online.
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY, R.A. (1887-1976) – Going to the Match. UPDATE: THIS MADE £7,846,500 A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR LOWRY
Sean Scully – Wall of Light Red. UPDATE: THIS LOT WAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE AUCTION
One of the most outstanding paintings in Sean Scully’s Wall of Light series comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening auction in London on October 14. Executed in 1998 it is one of the largest and earliest work within the series. It is estimated at £800,000-£1.2 million.
Large TIANQIUPING porcelain and polychrome enamel vase
This Chinese vase with an estimate of €1,500-€2,000 sold for €7.7 million at an auction in Fontainebleau near Paris on October 1. A bidding war by almost 30 Chinese bidders brought it to a hammer price of almost 4,000 times the estimated value. With fees the cost amounts to €9.12 million. Auctioneers Osenat said the vase had been consigned by a woman living in a French overseas territory who was left it by her mother. The seller had not seen the vase, which is 54 centimetres tall, and had arranged for it to be taken from her mother’s home in Brittany by the auctioneers. The vase had originally belonged to her grandmother, a Parisian collector. Tianqiuping means heavenly sphere. The auctioneers said that from the moment the catalogue was published it generated enormous interest, but that their expert considered the vase to be not old.
A set of 13 masquerade costumes by Harry Kernoff UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Irish art sales continue their merry way at de Vere’s in Dublin on October 11. There is art by Sean McSweeney, Charles Brady, Tony O’Malley, Anne Yeats, Markey Robinson, Brian Maguire, Gerard Dillon and many others among 170 lots on the catalogue. A set of 13 masquerade costumes by Harry Kernoff is, at €8,000-€12,000 the most expensively estimated lot. A nude by Donald Teskey is estimated at €6,000-€9,000 and a landscape by Dan O’Neill is estimated at €5,000-€7,000. A wooden sculpture of an Irish dancer by Oisin Kelly is estimated at €1,000-€2,000. All price points are catered for and estimates range from €100-€12,000.
Irish Dancer by Oisin Kelly. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
Early Morning, Saint-Maxime by David Hockney. UPDATE: THIS MADE £20,899,500
A 1969 Hockney, a deeply personal painting by Tracey Emin, Gerhard Richter’s first Colour Chart and Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of Henrietta Moraes are among the offerings at the October London sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Early Morning Saint Maxime by David Hockney will highlight Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale on October 13. The painting, which is radiant, is situated between his seminal Californian swimming pool art and the pioneering naturalistic double portraits and is estimated at £7 million – £9 million This is one of four paintings based on photographs taken during a trip to France with Hockney’s then partner Peter Schlesinger in autumn 1968. They became regular guests at the home of film director Tony Richardson near Saint Tropez. Richardsons home became the setting for Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) when the relationship between Hockney and Schlesinger ended in 1971. When this work sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in New York in 2018 it set a then auction record for a work by a living artist.
Like a Cloud of Blood by Tracey Emin. UPDATE: THIS. MADE £2,322,000, A RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Like a Cloud of Blood, one of the first paintings made by Tracey Emin following her cancer treatment, will be offered at the same sale with an estimate of £500,000-£700,000. Made this year the work is an intimate vision of her recent experience and marks a return to the creative process. The sale will raise funds for an innovative new artists studio complex in Margate set in a former bathhouse and mortuary. TKE Studios (the name is based on an abbreviation of her full name Tracey Karima Emin) the complex aims to foster talent with 12 subsidised professional studios, two year residencies, tutorials and lectures.
Gerhard Richter’s first Colour Chart – 192 Farben (1966), will headline the season at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in London on October 14. The colour charts were among the first paintings not done in black and white by this globally significant artist and marked an important turning point in his career. Long before his prices reached stratospheric levels on the Richter scale the artist Gerhard Richter became intrigued by paint chips produced on an industrial scale. Richter relates the work to Pop Art.Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes by Francis Bacon is another highlight at Sotheby’s. Henrietta Moraes and Bacon were close friends. One of his portraits of her made £21.3 million. in 2012. Sotheby’s has put together a stellar sale to coincide with the Frieze and Frieze Masters art fairs, when the global contemporary art world assembles in London. The sale will be preceded at Sotheby’s by the Now evening auction, a sale format established in March this year to address the outstanding demands for new and emerging artists.
192 Farben (192 Colours) by Gerhard Richter. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £18,287,800
IRISH YEW WOOD LIBRARY TABLE by Arthur Jones & Co. Dublin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
This Irish library table comes up on day two of the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall near Drogheda on October 18. It was made in Dublin by Arthur Jones and Co. for the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London. It was originally part of an 18 piece bog yew suite. There are four known surviving pieces of this suite today, a teapoy, a wine cooler, a whist table and this table. The teapoy was sold at Adams in 2014, the wine cooler was bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia by Samuel Henry Ervin and is in Sydney, the whist or card table is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The table, lot 428 in the sale, is estimated at 10,000-15,000.
The Liberator ‘Daniel O’Connell’s’ Timepiece made €26,000 at hammer
This 19th century gold pocket watch personally commissioned by Daniel O’Connell made a hammer price of €26,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Castlecomer on September 28. Lot 694 was made by Donegan and Wright in Dublin with fusée movement. It is numbered 683. There is a decorative border on the face, Roman numerals and a central engraving of “Derrynane Abbey, Co. Kerry,” home of The Liberator. It is hallmarked with Dublin gold marks and date and supplied with a matching gold link chain. This pocket watch was subsequently gifted to the Ffrench Family, Castle Ffrench, Galway. It came to sale by direct family descent.
The Fortune Pink – an 18.18 carat fancy vivid pink diamond. (US$ 25,000,000 – 35,000,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $28.2 MILLION
The largest pear-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond ever offered for sale at auction comes up at Christie’s in Geneva on November 8. The Fortune Pink will lead the Magnificent Jewels sale. Weighing an auspicious 18.18 carats the diamond’s weight literally translates to definite prosperity in Asia and is sure to garner interest from collectors across the globe. According to Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s International Head of Jewellery, the colour is phenomenal.
Gerard Dillon (1916 – 1971) – Man on a Chair (Self-Portrait). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Adam’s sale of Important Irish Art on September 28 is a showcase for the west of Ireland with works ranging from the late 19th century up to the present day with diverse representations of life and landscape by artists such as Charles Lamb, Thomas Rose Miles, Gerard Dillon and Donald Teskey and many more. There are 161 lots and the catalogue is online. This work by Gerard Dillon is estimated at €50,000-€80,000.
