Chairs given by MIchael Collins as a wedding gift to his sister Mary. UPDATE: THESE MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER
A set of six Arts and Crafts dining chairs given as a wedding gift by Michael Collins to his sister Mary – sold at Marshs in Cork in 2017 – are among a number of items of Collins memorabilia at Mullen’s Collector’s Cabinet sale on October 15. The estimate for the mahogany and tooled leather chairs by Schoolbred and Co. London is €1,800-€2,200.
The auction of 649 lots offers everything from Neolithic arrowheads and a giant Elk cranium to more than 40 lots relating to the Northern Ireland troubles. The steel housing for a camera used to monitor one of the H-Blocks (€500-€700) and a flak jacket worn by a member of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (€200-€300) are included. Two photographs from 1941 of a military funeral for four British airmen show coffins draped in the Union flag being carried by Irish Army pallbearers past an honour guard of Irish solders (€150-€200). Lot 90 is the Irish Citizen Army red hand badge of Brigid Brady, a first cousin in Padraig Pearse who worked at Jacobs and played an important part in the 1913 Lockout and the organisation of the Irish Citizen Army. She served at City Hall, Dublin during the 1916 Rising. The badge and her uniform belt are each estimated at €1,200-€1,500.
British airmen received full military honours at a 1941 funeral at Blessington, Co. Wicklow. UPDATE: THESE MADE 140 AT HAMMER
Irish architectural giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Some fine examples of the kind of antique Irish furniture that remains much sought after and achieves high prices will come up at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall, Drogheda on October 17 and 18. Leading the auction is an Irish architectural carved giltwood mirror attributed to John and Francis Booker. This one, made c1760, has an arched plate with scrolled cresting and a triangular pediment supported on corbels embellished with leaves. There is an attractive border of interlocking chains within an egg and dart frame. A Booker mirror is indeed a trophy piece and the estimate here is €30,000-€40,000.
A c1750 Irish mahogany side table with a white marble top, central carved scallop shell on cabriole legs with faceted, collared feet is estimated at €25,000-€30,000. Other prime Irish lots among a large furniture selection are a fine c1740 Irish mahogany secretaire chest on chest (€15,000-€20,000), a late 19th century George II style side table by Hicks of Dublin (€10,000-€15,000) and an Irish yew wood library table by Arthur Jones and Co., Dublin (€10,000-€15,000). Made for the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London this table is a real conversation piece. Adams say (and I disagree) that it is one of only four known survivors of an 18 piece suite, the others being a teapoy (sold at Adams in 2014), a wine cooler bequeathed to the National Trust of Australia by Samuel Henry Ervin, now in Sydney and a card table in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Irish yew wood side table by Arthur Jones and Co. Dublin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
The reason for doubt is a carved bog yew armchair carved to illustrate the history, antiquities, animals and vegetation of Ireland that I spotted at the Masterpiece Fair in London in early July. This too was made by Arthur Jones and Co. for the Great Exhibition. Perhaps it was a one off and not part of the suite and Adams is indeed correct, but it is enough to make me wonder. Butchoff Antiques had worked hard on this fabulous throne chair since acquiring it at an auction in Ayr in December 2020. They paid £44,000 at hammer, over a top estimate of £3,000, had it re-polished and painstakingly re-covered. At Masterpiece it was labelled a highlight by the vetting committee and priced at £150,000.
Social historians will find interest in a half length portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) of Lady Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles. It would have been unusual for a woman in the upper echelons of 17th century society to breastfeed her own children. A wet nurse would have normally been employed. Wife of Lt. Col. Henry Boyle of Castlemartyr and daughter of the Ist Earl of Inchiquin Lady Mary is featured with her third son Charles. At a time of high infant mortality he survived into adulthood and pursued a career in the Navy. The portrait is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Viewing at Townley Hall gets underway next Saturday (October 15) and continues on Sunday week and Monday week. Day one of the auction on October 17 is a timed online only sale with lots 1-281. The live auction at St. Stephen’s Green on October 18 features lots 300-822. The catalogue is online now.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) – Portrait of Lady Mary Boyle nursing her son Charles. UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER
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.
The most important set of Don Quixote volumes to come to auction in thirty years is to be offered at auction on December 14 at Sotheby’s Paris, in conjunction with rare books dealer Jean-Baptiste de Proyart. Estimated at €400,000-600,000, this extraordinary offering comprises spectacular editions of both volumes of Cervantes prized work, presented in matching English bindings dating to 1750. With a shared provenance traceable back over 320 years, they are among the oldest known sets of both volumes together.
Beloved for its liveliness and panorama of Spanish society, Don Quixote became legendary almost immediately when released, with the author achieving fame throughout Europe and the New World, and the book being widely copied and pirated by at least three separate publishers. In the four hundred years since its publication, there are few characters who can have been as mythologised as Don Quixote. The subject of countless books, plays, performances, statues and works of art, he has been – and continues to be – both a fixture in the popular imagination and an inspiration to the great writers and thinkers of the world.
As the four Folios of Shakespeare are the highest prize of English book-collecting, and the Foligno Dante of Italian, so the early editions Don Quixote printed during of Miguel de Cervantes’s lifetime – are the highest prize of Spanish book-collecting. This edition of the world’s first modern novel is from the library of Jorge Ortiz Linares (1894-1965).
Turner in all his glory will be available to view at the National Gallery of Ireland from October 8 to February 6, 2023. Turner: The Sun is God offers visitors a rare opportunity to see 89 artworks by the English artist from the Tate Collection in London. This once in a lifetime exhibition marks the first time these works have been displayed in Ireland where Turner is widely celebrated. The exhibition covers a range of themes including memory, imagination, nature, light and atmosphere. Visitors will be presented with a range of superb oil paintings filled with dramatic contrasts of light and dark and various weather effects.
Every year in January the National Gallery in Dublin displays a wonderful collection of watercolours by Turner bequeathed by the English collector Henry Vaughan in 1900. This show is a popular annual fixture and a huge crowd puller.
On October 5 – James Bond Day – Christie’s and EON Productions’ two part official charity sale Sixty Years of James Bond concluded with Part I and Part II making a total of £6,874,494 which will benefit over 45 charities. Comprising a total of 61 lots overall, which were 100% sold, spanning the 25 films to date, the sale as a whole featured vehicles, watches, costumes, props, posters, memorabilia and experiences. This result surpasses not only all previous official Christie’s 007 sale totals, but also the combined total of £4,812,525 for all three previous sales. The top lot of the live sale was the No Times to Die Aston Martin Replica DBS stunt car which made £2,922,000. It was sold to benefit The Prince’s Trust; The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund; and three charities supporting serving and former members of the UK Special Forces.
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.
