The Yellow Man by Hughie O’Donoghue. UPDATE: THIS MADE 57,000 AT HAMMER
Hughie O’Donoghue’s Yellow Man II from 2008 from a series inspired by a Van Gogh self-portrait known only from photographs and thought lost in a fire, comes up at Adams sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on June 1. It is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. Another 21st century work of note is Barry Flanagan’s Horse on Anvil (€20,000-€30,000). Best known in Ireland for his remarkable sculptural hares exhibited around O’Connell St. at the time of his Dublin retrospective in 2006 Barry Flanagan is celebrated too for sculpted horses, cougars and elephants. There are prominent horse sculptures by him in Cambridge and in Montreal.
The Bridge at Skibbereen (1919) and The Folded Heart (1943) by Jack Butler Yeats are estimated respectively at €400,000-€600,000 and €250,000-€350,000. Gerard Dillon’s Across from Innislacken (€60,000-€80,000) dates to c1951 while Tony O’Malley’s Arrieta-Orzola (Lanzarote) from 1988 is estimated at €25,000-€35,000. Sun Rising; An extensive wooded landscape with fishermen by George Barret (€100,000-€150,000) is described by Adams as a masterpiece of 18th century Irish art. Chiswick Baths by Sir John Lavery is estimated at €80,000-€120,000. The Adams sale, which includes a 1916 copy of The Proclamation (€150,000-€200,000), is on view at St. Stephen’s Green today and every day until next Wednesday at 4 pm and online. There are 118 lots and it gets underway at 6 pm on Wednesday.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 21, 2022)
Horse on Anvil by Barry Flanagan. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
The obstacles faced by James Joyce (1882-1941) in publishing his landmark modernist novel Ulysses would have tested the ingenuity of the hero of the Ancient World after whom the book is named. Judged too risqué to pass the draconian British obscenity laws, the novel was eventually published 100 years ago this year in Paris by Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company, in an edition of 1,000. The original plan to publish on February 2 (Joyce’s 40th birthday) was thwarted by technical issues over the colour of the cover – the writer specified the blue of the Greek flag – and so only two copies were produced that day. To compound the problems, Beach seems to have forgotten to order the extra copies for the press. There should have been 40 press copies but in the event only 13 were produced – unbound and on very poor-quality paper. One of them with a fascinating history of its own is to be sold at Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale in London on June 22. It is estimated at £30,000-50,000.
Bonhams Head of Books and Manuscripts, Matthew Haley, said: “The history of this press copy is as dramatic as the publication of Ulysses itself. It had been sent for review to Jack Squire, editor of the London Mercury. No fan of the Modernists, (the feeling was mutual, Virginia Woolf calling him ‘more repulsive than words can express’), Squire took one look at the novel and ordered his secretary to burn it. But the book was bulky, the stove small and she soon gave up. Some years later this copy, by then incomplete, was found in a cupboard by Squire’s assistant editor, Alan Pryce-Jones, who, defying a further order to consign it to the flames, smuggled it to safety.”
This poetry book signed and inscribed by the Irish patriot Roger Casement on the eve of his execution is at €7,000-10,000 the most expensively estimated lot at Mullen’s Collector’s Cabinet live and online auction on May 28. Lot 104, a Lyrical Chronicle of Ireland published by Burns & Oates, London, c.1900 was gifted by Casement to his confessor in Pentonville Prison. Inscribed by Casement in English and Irish it reads: ” For Father Murnane”, above four stanzas of a poem by Casement, signed with initials ‘R.C.’ and “2 August 1916 – in Pentonville”. Roger Casement was hanged at Pentonville Prison at dawn on 3 August 1916.
There are 537 lots of history, militaria and collectibles including sporting memorabilia and toys in the auction. Lot 1 is the upper section of the skull of a Great Irish Elk on a custom made stand.
THIS PAIR OF ARMCHAIRS BY JEAN ROYERE (1902-1981) MADE €1.6 million
A pair of fauteuils ‘ Boule’ dits ‘ours Polaire’ by Jean Royere sold for €1.6 million at Christie’s Design sale in Paris on May 25. With 167 lots the sale attracted global participation with bidders from 21 countries and achieved €19,436,730. The auction opened with the Perriand by Perriand collection from the apartment-studio of Charlotte Perriand, rue las cases, in Paris. Proceeds from the sale will support the Perriand Archives. The 13 lots, most of which were prototypes designed for the designer’s studio achieved a combined total of €1,457,820. Top lot was a 16 candle chandelier Structure végétale aux papillons by Claude Lalanne, 2009. It made €2,202,000 more than twice its pre-sale low estimate.
Irish paintings and rare Irish whiskeys, antiques furniture and collectibles, clocks and Waterford Crystal, wines and champagnes, stamps and coins will all feature at Dolan’s timed online summer art auction which runs until the evening of Monday, May 30. Among the artists featured are Cecil Maguire, Norah McGuinness, Charles Lamb, Kenneth Webb, Flora MItchell, Arthur Armstong, Arthur Maderson, Mildred Anne Butler, Markey Robinson, Brian Bourke, George Campbell and Susan Cronin.
Flora Mitchell (1890 – 1973), Winetavern Street, Dublin (these houses were demolished in the 1960’s). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A rare 1970’s ‘Non Stop’ sofa by Ueli Berger, Eleanore Peduzzi-Riva and Hans Ulrich for De Sede, Switzerland made a hammer price of 15,500 at de Veres Art and Design auction in Dublin today. This iconic piece of 20th century design is upholstered in black leather and felt composed of 20 individual pieces that zip together. It can configure into a number of different positions and broken down into smaller sofas if needed. It earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest sofa with an example that boasted more than 400 connected sections. This version has 20 sections and measures 5m in a straight length.
FRANK HURLEY – SHACKLETON ON THE ENDURANCE. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £6,048
THIS rare 1914 photograph of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton on his ship Endurance is lot 109 at Sotheby’s sale online sale of Travel, Atlases, Maps and Photographs which runs until the afternoon of May 24. It is estimated at £5,000-7,000. Frank Hurley was the official photograph on Shackleton’s Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition which set out in 1914 and was marooned until August 1916.
Frattini desk c1960. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
This rosewood c1960 Model 530 desk by Gianfranco Frattini for Bernini is lot 17 at de Veres art and design auction which runs online until May 24. The sale is on view from today in Dublin. The desk is estimated at 1,500-2,500. The sale features Danish and Italian furniture and lighting by some of the major designers of the 20th Century including Arne Vodder, Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Niels Moller, le Corbusier, major labels Desede, Roche Bobois, B + B Italia and Cassina. There is art by Felim Egan, Robert Ballagh, Martin Gale, Terry Frost, Barrie Cooke, William Crozier and a variety of other artists.
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Lynch at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Great Irish Interiors at Sheppards, collectibles at Whyte’s and Mullen’s, art at Morgan O’Driscoll and James Adam, an Irish collection at Sotheby’s in London, design at de Veres and antique furniture at Woodwards should get a busy summer season off to a flying start over the next week or so. Kicking off with an Eclectic Collector sale online at Whyte’s in Dublin today buyers at all price points will find plenty to choose from. Wine drinkers who enjoy Chateau Lynch Bages will no doubt be fascinated by a portrait at Sheppards of Jean Baptiste Lynch (1749-1835), Mayor of Bordeaux, Count of the French Empire, lawyer and son of Thomas Lynch who produced high quality wines under the name Cru de Lynch which eventually morphed into Lynch-Bages. The Lynch family – one of the Tribes of Galway – fled persecution in Ireland in the 17th century and this portrait is from the Derk estate in Co. Limerick, thence by descent. Lot 23 is estimated at €15,000-€25,000.
Three days of sales at Sheppards get underway next Tuesday (May 24). Viewing starts in Durrow today and the catalogue with a fascinating selection of antique furniture, Chinese and African collectibles, ceramics, chandeliers, sllver, jewellery and collectibles is online.
Along with Robert Emmet’s 1803 Proclamation Whyte’s sale today offers 1916 Rising and War of Independence documents and medals, Seamus Heaney signed first editions, Polar exploration volumes, maps, banknotes and coins and entertainment and sporting memorabilia. A Butterfly Spin by Damien Hirst and a silkscreen print of John Wayne by Andy Warhol feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of affordable art which runs until next Monday evening (May 23) A strong selection of 20th century classic design furniture and Irish art will come under the hammer at de Veres next Tuesday afternoon (May 24). There is Danish and Italian furniture and lighting by designers including Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, le Corbuser, Mies van der Rohe and Arne Vodder and art by Felim Egan, Robert Ballagh, Francis Tansey, Terry Frost and William Crozier.
An Irish George III oval mirror at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £10,080
The sale of Monte Alverno: An Irish Collection at Sotheby’s in London next Thursday will give Irish and international collectors a chance to pick up something Irish and special like Regency peat buckets, gilt mirrors, antique furniture and art ranging from 18th century bird gouaches by Samuel Dixon through to Yeats, James Arthur O’Connor, John Luke and Patrick Swift.A pair of Georgian peat buckets and a pair of Edwardian demi-lune side tables are among the top antique furniture lots at Woodwards sale in Cork next Saturday (May 24). Among the Georgian lots are a three pillar dining table, a library table, a card table, a wine cooler, a bureau, a chest of drawers and a lowboy. An Edwardian inlaid sofa table and an office mahogany desk are among around 300 lots here.Next week is bookended by a sale of history, militaria and collectibles at Mullens of Laurel Park.
Photograph of a female climber in Victorian days at Mullen’s UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 380 AT HAMMER
Among the first photographs of rock climbers in action were those taken by the Abraham family at Keswick in the Lake District. Mullens will offer a box of 50 glass stereoscope slides of 19th century images from Cumberland and North Wales featuring climbers in tweeds, flat caps and, in one memorable image, a skirt. In those Victorian times there was no lack of equality on the mountains. The sale kicks off with a skull of a Great Irish Elk. There is a poetry book inscribed by Roger Casement in Pentonville Prison on the night before his execution to Fr. Murnane of The Presbytery, Bermondsey.
William Ashford (1746-1824) – A Two Views of Dublin Bay looking North and South. UPDATE: THESE MADE 340,000 AT HAMMER
A rare pair of 1774/5 views of Dublin by William Ashford, first president of the Royal Hibernian Academy, will highlight the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on June 1. The Two Views of Dublin Bay looking North and South were commissioned by Thomas Dawson, 1st Baron Dartrey and were sold at Christie’s in London the following year with the firm’s founder James Christie wielding the gavel. They are estimated at €500,000-€700,000. Works by many of our best known artists over a 250 year span are included in this sale with over €2 million in estimates. The Bridge, Skibbereen by Jack B Yeats was exhibited at The Dublin Society of Painters in 1920 and is now estimated at €400,000-€600,000. One of the most recently painted works in the sale is a monumental 2008 oil by Hughie O’Donoghue, The Yellow Man II (€40,000-€60,000). Among the artists represented by significant works in this sale of 118 lots are George Barret, Sir John Lavery, Gerard Dillon, Tony O’Malley, Edward Maguire, Barry Flanagan, Dan O’Neill and William Scott.
An unusual highlight at an art sale is an original copy of the Irish Proclamation with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000.
