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THIS Edwardian corner cabinet comes up at Hegarty’s fine interiors sale in Bandon on March 29 with an estimate of just 200-300. The auction offers a selection of 270 lots of antique furniture, art, silver, jewellery and rugs. The catalogue is online.
This rare Parnell commemorative fender with central amorial cartouche depicting Parnell and Erin go Brach inscribed beneath, framed by scrolling shamrocks and flanked by Irish harps comes as lot 219 at Sheppards sale of Irish vernacular objects on March 29. It is estimated at 300-500.
The sale features a medieval carved wood Mether or communal drinking vessel and a 19th century penny farthing bicycle, each estimated at €4,000 – €6,000. The private collection of ceramics, metalwork and furniture assembled over three generations ia on view in Durrow. There is everything from a 18th century Kildare rush light, a Gibson hedge chair and a 19th century model shop front to an Irish elk skull and antlers. The catalogue for this auction of 403 lots is online.
A moonlit seascape by Roderic O’Conor will highlight the live and online sale of Important Irish Art by James Adam in Dublin ON March 30. Marine, au Clair de Lune is estimated at €150,000-€200,000 and is one of a number of Irish works with contrasting styles and approaches from the 19th century onwards to highlight this sale.Along with O’Conor there are leading lots by Jack B. Yeats, Tony O’Malley and James Arthur O’Connor. The Boat, a late Yeats from 1948, is estimated at €80,000-€120,000, Valley Wind, Jemisa, a 1995 Lanzarote painting by Tony O’Malley comes with an estimate of €30,000-€40,000 and James Arthur O’Connor’s Wooded Defile with Figures and Distant Cattle dates to 1827. This masterpiece of Irish Romanticism has an estimate of €25,000-€35,000. These very different works highlight the dynamism and diversity of an Irish art sector that in terms of the art market is going from strength to strength.
Following the highly acclaimed Yeats exhibition at the National Gallery there are three works on paper by the artist at Adams, a 1906 interior of a shebeen, an untitled street scene and work entitled A Rest by the Wayside. Dalkey Sound by Edwin Hayes shows a number of boats caught up in a storm in the straits and makes a strong case for the artist to be considered Ireland’s finest maritime painter. The Modern Irish School is represented with works from the 1940’s to the present. Being (No. 44) by Louis le Brocquy dates to 1957. Girl with Flower by Dan O’Neill also dates to the 1950’s. There is work by James Humbert Craig, Colin Middleton, Gerard Dillon, George Campbell, Patrick Swift and F E McWilliam.
In Dublin Irish art in all price ranges will feature at sales of affordable Irish art at Whyte’s on March 28 and at de Veres the following day. The timed spring online auction at Whytes offers work by many well known Irish artists who are represented by lots at price ranges which are not stratospheric. This is an auction designed for potential collectors tempted to dip their toes in the market. At Whyte’s major sale of Irish and International Art earlier this month Paul Henry’s Lobster Fishermen off Achill sold for a hammer price of €200,000.
Works by Colin Middleton, Dan O’Neill and Louis le Brocquy, each estimated at €10,000-€15,000, highlight the Irish art auction at de Veres now open for bidding. This timed online sale of 156 lots ends on March 29. There are estimates from €100 up.
This Chinese Export lacquered work box and writing stand has provenance by repute to the Drogheda born Irish actress Eliza O’Neill, Lady Wrixon-Becher (1791-1872). Regarded as the foremost tragic actress on the London stage and worthy successor to Sarah Siddons she earned a reputation for meanness, possibly because she had a large family to support. Thackery included this trait in his portrait of Irish actress Emily Costigan in his novel Pendennis. At the height of her fame she returned to Ireland in 1819 and concluded her career. Eliza married Sir William Wrixon-Becher (1780-1850), improving landlord, MP for Mallow and an amateur actor. Mother of three sons and two daughters she spent the greater part of her retirement at her family home at Ballygiblin, Co. Cork. The workbox comes up at Bonhams Home and Interiors sale in Knightsbridge on March 29-30 with an estimate of £600-£800 (€714-€953). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The Rock, the largest white diamond ever to appear at auction, will come up at Christie’s in Geneva on May 11. Mined and polished in South Africa over two decades ago the 228.31 carat pear-shaped diamond is estimated at $20-30 million. Graded by the Gemmological Institute of America as G colour, VS1 clarity, The Rock is accompanied by a letter from the GIA stating that it is the largest existing D-Z colour pear-shaped diamond ever graded by the laboratory. The previous auction record for the largest white diamond was a 163.41 carat gem, which sold at Christie’s Geneva in November 2017 for US$ 33,701,000.
Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s International Head of Jewellery said: “The Rock will join the very best of legendary gemstones which have passed through Christie’s global salerooms since 1766. The market for diamonds is particularly vibrant and we are confident that this sensational gemstone will capture the attention of collectors across the globe this Spring season.”
Girl with a Flower by Daniel O’Neill is lot 26 at the James Adam evening sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on March 30. It is estimated at 20,000-30,000. Viewing for this sale gets underway today and continues every day until March 30. The auction offers a comprehensive selection of 156 lots and the catalogue is online.
Watching the fishing boats by Markey Robinson comes up as lot 12 art Whyte’s Spring online art auction which runs to the evening of March 28. It is estimated at 800-1,000. The auction is online only but viewing is now underway at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin. The sale of 273 lots offers a selection by well known artists at affordable prices and is designed to encourage first time buyers as well as more seasoned collectors.
THIS dramatic oil on board of Sybil Head in Co. Kerry by Richard Brydges Beechey made a hammer price of 56,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of Irish and International Art today. It had been estimated at 30,000-50,000. One of Beechey’s finest marine paintings, Sybil Head depicts three currachs braving rough seas beneath jagged rocks at the north west tip of the Dingle Peninsula. To the left, a sailing vessel, perhaps a naval brig, bears down on the currachs, while to the right a hooker approaches from Ferriter’s Cove. Cormorants take flight and seagulls land on the rough seas. A floating tree trunk lies in the path of the brig; Beechey used details such as these to introduce a sense of danger to his paintings. To the right, a mountain, one of the ‘Three Sisters’, is silhouetted against the stormy sky. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14 and art formed part of his training. He rose to the rank of Admiral and became one of Ireland’smost accomplished marine painters. This work is from the Joe McGrath Collection of Cabinteely House, Dublin.
Among other hammer prices a pencil portrait of a young woman by Augustus John made 5,000; a portrait of Iseult Gonne by Maud Gonne made 12,000; a watercolour Connemara landscape by Paul Henry made 17,000: a landscape by William Ashford made 15,000; a portrait of the artist’s wife Grace Knewstub by Willam Orpen made 16,000; a portrait of James Hugh Smith Barry by Orpen made 19,000: Soleil en Foret by Roderic O’Conor made 40,000; Aran Folk by Maurice MacGonigal made 17,000 and Sunshine and Shadow by Dorothea Sharpe made 11,000.
There was a new world record for Sir John Lavery at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London last night. The Croquet Party, which was making its auction debut, sold for £2,922,000. The auction achieved £25.5 million and attracted registered bidders from 14 countries across three continents. According to Christie’s this demonstrates continued growth in the international collector base for the category.
Bridget Riley’s Gala from the curving colour series was the top lot. It made £4,362,000, a new world auction record for the artist. No less than 60% of lots sold above the top estimate.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 8, 2022)
Poised to be the most expensive 20th century artwork ever at auction Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Andy Warhol wilL lead Christie’s marquee week sales in New York in May. The estimate is in the region of $200 million. Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is a definitive work. Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe following her death in August 1962. He would create reproductions of her visage multiple times in bright colours, often with the features somewhat askew. In 1964, he developed a more refined and time-intensive screen printing technique, antithetical to the mass production he was best known for, and created a limited number of portraits of the Hollywood legend. This technique was so difficult that he never returned to it again. The artwork has been exhibited widely at leading institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Royal Academy of Arts in London, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Netherland’s, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen and the Pasadena Art Museum.
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is from the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich. All proceeds will benefit the foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of children the world over by establishing support systems centred on providing healthcare and educational programs. This single painting will constitute the highest grossing philanthropic auction since The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller in 2018.
