EARLY 19TH CENTUY IRISH MAHOGANY FOLD OVER TEA TABLE. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
THIS c1820 tea table comes up at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon, Co. Cork on June 7. Estimated at 800-1,200 it is from the Martello Tower at Cobh and the Haughton family collection. Benjamin Haughton of the well known Quaker family in Cork was an independent member of Seanad Éireann from 1922 – 1928. He was one of a small deputation of business people who went to London to meet with Prime Minister Lloyd George in 1920 in an attempt to seek peace in Ireland. His relative James Haughton was a prominent figure in the Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society. The sale will include a selection of antique furniture, silver, jewellery and collectibles including a number of lots from the Haughton family.
CLARA PEETERS (ANTWERP 1589-1657) Roses, lilies, an iris and other flowers in an earthenware vase. UPDATE: THIS MADE $1.5 million
Old Master paintings, sculptures, and antiquities will come under the hammer at two live auctions at Christie’s in New York on June 9 and 10 and an online sale which runs to June 16. On 9 June, Old Masters | New Perspectives: Masterworks from the Alana Collection, offers one of the most important groups of Italian Renaissance works to come to market in a generation on June 9. On the following day the Old Masters sale features works by Northern Masters, women artists, and two pictures subject to restitution to the heirs of their owners. For the first time, Christie’s is offering an Old Masters sale entirely without reserve online.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 15, 2022)
BASIL BLACKSHAW HRHA RUA (1932-2016) – PENELOPE COLLINS. UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000 AT HAMMER
This unusual four part portrait of Penelope Collins by Basil Blackshaw comes up at Whyte’s Irish and International art sale at the RDS on June 6. She is daughter of the artist Patrick Collins. It is estimated at €10,000-15,000. The catalogue for the sale is online and viewing gets underway at the RDS on June 4.
Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957) – The Bridge, Skibbereen made 440,000 at hammer
The Bridge at Skibbereen by Jack B Yeats made a hammer price of €440,000 over an estimate of €400,000-€600,000 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. It was exhibited at The Dublin Society of Painters in 1920. A Pair of 18th century views of Dublin Bay Looking North and Looking South by William Ashford made €460,000 at hammer. Among the other top hammer prices were: Chiswick Baths by Sir John Lavery (€110,000); Sun Rising: An extensive wooded landscape by George Barret snr. (€90,000); Across from Inishlacken by Gerard Dillon (€65,000): Yellow Man by Hughie O’Donoghue (€57,000); Horse on Anvil by Barry Flanagan (€30,000); Arrieta-Orzola (Lanzarote) by Tony O’Malley (€28,000); Talk (Egglers) – egglers were men who dealt in eggs – by Jack Butler Yeats (€28,000); Sunday by Daniel O’Neill (€22,000); Drawing; Still Life by William Scott and Figure in Woodland by George Russell each made €20,000.
Edward McGuire (1932-1986) – Portrait of Michael Hartnett
The June selling season of Irish art kicks off with an exciting sale by James Adam in Dublin this evening. But one lot will not be included. This portrait of the Limerick poet Michael Harnett by Edward McGuire has been purchased in advance of the auction by the Limerick City Gallery. It was previously at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. The artist is best known for his portraits of literary figures, including Patrick Kavanagh, Paul Durcan, Seamus Heaney, Anthony Cronin, John Montague, Francis Stuart and this one, from 1971, of Michael Hartnett.
This classic McGuire work shows a thirty-year-old Hartnett by which time Hartnett had published Poems 1958-1970, Secular Prayers, Anatomy of a Cliché, Thirteen Sonnets and Notes on My Contemporaries. Hartnett, born 1941 in Croom Co Limerick, was educated locally and at UCD. He worked for a while as curator of Joyce’s tower at Sandycove, lived in Madrid and London, returned to Dublin where he worked at the international telephone exchange, as a house painter and as a lecturer in creative writing. He moved to Newcastle West in 1974 and died in 1999.
At Adams works by many of the most famous and best loved Irish artists dating over the last 250 years are featured – from a pair of rare views of Dublin in 1775 by William Ashford, up to a monumental 2008 oil by Hughie O’Donoghue, and everything in-between.
Joseph Walsh – Unique “Lumenoria” Table. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This unique Lumenoria table by Joseph Walsh comes up at Sotheby’s Important Design sale in New York on June 9 with an estimate of $150,000-200,000. This beautiful and dynamic dining table marks a pivotal moment in the career of celebrated contemporary Irish designer Joseph Walsh according to Sotheby’s. Since 1999, Walsh has been experimenting with laminating and bending wood, creating highly expressive and sculptural furniture and installations. Some of his career-defining commissions include work for the Embassy of Japan, the National Museum of Ireland, and the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The catalogue notes that: “In his woodworking practice, Walsh infuses techniques from his broad and deep understanding of other traditional craft methods. This innovative approach to making yields masterfully crafted furniture as evidenced in this dining table. Here, Walsh has expanded his material experiments by combining a slowly hand-poured clear resin top over a custom freeform base, resulting in poetic interplay between the materials. “Each piece is unique, speaking of the materials, process and a moment in time,” reads his artistic statement for the series. This unique dining table presents as a visual marvel where light twinkles through the transparent top to rain down and animate the swirling ash wood base below”. It was acquired directly from Joseph Walsh by the present owner. The catalogue also features an Enignum II chair by Walsh with an estimate of 10,000-15,000. UPDATE: THE CHAIR MADE $12,600.
Pair of Irish carved giltwood compartmental Console Mirrors, UPDATE: THESE MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
This pair of Irish giltwood mirrors attributed to James Hicks of Dublin will feature at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer fine art sale on June 14, 15 and 16. Each one is around eight feet high and crested with stylised shell and flowers. There is trellis work and interlaced ribbons and foliage on the outer panels and they are estimated at 7,000-9,000. The catalogue for this sale of 1,478 lots is online now.
Claude Monet – Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume(1904) UPDATE; THIS MADE £30,059,500
Monet’s atmospheric London series view of Waterloo Bridge comes up at Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale on June 28. Last seen at auction in 1939 it has been in the same family collection since it was acquired by Arde Bulova, chairman of the Bulova Watch Company in 1951. Prestigious early provenance also includes Paul Durand-Ruel, Adolph Lewisohn and the D.P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College in Ohio. Of the 41 iconic paintings of Waterloo Bridge that Monet painted between 1899-1904, 26 are in public institutions, including The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Bührle Foundation, Zürich; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Kunstmuseum Bern. Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume was most recently on long term loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel.
The sale of Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume follows the exceptional price achieved for Le Parlement, soleil couchant, from the collection of Anne H. Bass, which sold for $75.9 million on May 12 in New York, setting a record for a painting from Monet’s Vues du Londres. The estimate for this work is in the region of £24 million.
THIS exceptional three tiered moulded stone French fountain is the top lot at the summer garden sale by Victor Mee on June 15. The surround is decorated with shells and lion’s masks and is estimated at 5,000-10,000. The online sale of 430 lots features benches, planters, animal models, statues, gazebos and various objects designed to enhance the garden. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000 AT HAMMER
JACK BUTLER YEATS RHA (1871-1957) – THE LITTLE SISTER OF THE GANG [FITZWILLIAM SQUARE], 1944. UPDATE: THIS MADE 200,000 AT HAMMER
A particularly tender oil by Jack B. Yeats – The Little Sister of the Gang (Fitzwilliam Square) 1944 (€150,000-€200,000) – comes up at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International Art at the RDS on June 6. It shows one of a gang of boys holding the hand and carefully looking after a much younger yellow haired girl. In complete contrast is Patrick Heron’s Emerald with Reds and Cerulean (1977) (€150,000-€200,000). These two works demonstrate the widely differing styles of art on offer at Whyte’s sale of 156 lots. They range from an Untitled 1977 Tuft Wall Hanging by Patrick Scott (€15,000-€20,000) to A Horsefair at Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny by Peter Curling (€30,000-€40,000). The Patrick Scott work was commissioned by McGarry Ni Eanaigh for the s3 Building at Leopardstown in 1997 and made by V’Soske Joyce of Oughterard. The entire proceeds of the sale of this lot will be donated to the Irish Red Cross Ukraine Appeal courtesy of s3 Connected Health and Whyte’s.
An unusual four part portrait of Penelope Collins, daughter of the artist Patrick Collins, by Basil Blackshaw is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.The catalogue cover lot is Fair Day, Westport, Co. Mayo c1943 by Lillian Lucy Davidson (€20,000-€30,000). Viewing gets underway on June 4.
PATRICK HERON CBE (1920-1999) – Emerald with Reds and Cerulean UPDATE: THIS MADE 140,000 AT HAMMER
