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This watercolour by Gerard Dillon is lot 92 at Whyte’s Christmas sale of art and collectibles. It is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. The timed online only auction ends at 6 pm on December 13. It is on view at Molesworth St., Dublin from 1 pm to 5 pm n December 11 and 12 and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday. There are 278 lots in the auction.
This diamond single stone ring with central asscher-cut diamond weighing 5.20cts within a four-claw setting and baguette-cut diamond shoulders made a hammer price of 40,000 at the James Adam sale of fine jewellery and watches this week. It was the top selling lot in an auction where a four hoop diamond bangle and c2005 diamond necklace by Stephen Webster each made 24,000.
Bogland Connemara by Paul Henry was one of the top three lots at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. It made a hammer price of €100,000. Through the streets to the hills, a 1950 oil by Jack B Yeats made €160,000 on the hammer and Cavanagh, an Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy made €80,000. This sale marked the culmination of a highly successful winter selling season for Irish art, which has finished the year on a high note. At least €12 million worth of Irish art changed hands during the season of winter sales at Sothebys, de Veres, Bonhams, Whyte’s, Morgan O’Driscoll and James Adam.
This c1780 pair of Louis XVI gilt console tables made a hammer price of €14,000 at Sheppards today. Sheppards four day sale of the Cronin Collection of Seafield House, Donabate continunes on December 9 and 10.
This first edition of the 1570 Atlas by Abraham Ortelius made a hammer price of €96,000 over a top estimate of €60,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s Rare Books and Collectibles sale in Dublin today. An original engraved facsimile copy of the American Declaration of Independence issued by Order of Congress in 1823 and executed by engraver William Stone made €48,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €30,000.
The Massacre of the Innocents by Pieter Brueghel the Younger was the top lot at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London this evening. It made £2,422,500 over a top estimate of £1.5 million. The auction launched Christie’s winter edit of Classic Week in London and realised £10.3 million. El Greco’s Portrait of a Gentleman, 1570, one of the earliest surviving portraits by the artist and one of the last to remain in private hands, led three restituted works from the Priester Collection, and made £1,222,500. There were 46 lots offered and 33 were sold.
A marble figure of the Capitoline Aphrodite known as The Hamilton Aphrodite, one of the greatest Roman sculptures in private hands, sold for £18,582,000 at Sotheby’s in London today. It had been estimated at £2-£3million. Dating back to the 1st or 2nd century AD marble lays claim to being the finest single piece of ancient sculpture ever to have resided in Scotland, where it spent 144 years between 1776 and 1919, as one of the main attractions of Hamilton Palace, the seat of the Dukes of Hamilton. The Aphrodite entered the collection of Hamilton Palace in 1776, when it was purchased in Rome by Douglas Hamilton, 8th Duke of Hamilton and 5th Duke of Brandon (1756–1799) from the Scottish neoclassical painter and art dealer, Gavin Hamilton (1723–1798, of no relation to the Duke).
It was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1920 and by the Hungarian born New York based art dealer Joseph Brummer in 1940. It was last sold at auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York in 1949.
Sylvester Stallone’s original handwritten script pages for Rocky, the 1976 Oscar winning Best Picture, sold for $437,500 at Julien’s Auctions in Hollywood on December 5. It had been estimated at $50,000-$70,000. His film worn Rocky III American Flag silk boxing trunks made $200,000, twenty times the original estimate. Hundreds of bidders, collectors and fans across the globe participated in person, on the phone and online in a sale of nearly 500 items from Stallone’s personal collection of costumes, movie props and memorabilia from the Rocky and Rambo movie franchises, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, The Specialist, Assassins, Escape Plan, Cop Land, and The Expendables–as well as awards, fine jewellery, furniture, and other luxury items.
The sizzling winter season of Irish art sales is on track to surpass €10 million this week. Sales at Sotheby’s, de Veres, Bonhams, Whyte’s and Morgan O’Driscoll have already achieved an aggregate of at least €9 million. A big sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam next Wednesday is certain to bring this figure racing past the €10 million post. At Whyte’s the most expensively estimated Yeats painting ever at auction – The Shouting at €1.5 million – €2 million – made a hammer price of €1.4 million (€1.74 million with fees and VAT). Women artists fared particularly well and works by Grace Henry, Letitia Hamilton and Nano Reid shot past their top estimates. The Fortune Teller by Grace Henry made €37,000 at hammer over a top estimate of just €7,000, a new world record for the artist. There was also a new world record for Graham Knuttel.
Adams will offer major works by Yeats and Colin Middleton next Wednesday. Among the le Brocquy’s at Adams is Ancestral Head (€60,000-€80,000) and Cavannagh, an Aubusson tapestry commissioned from the artist for Setanta House (€80,000-€120,000). There is a Composition by Evie Hone (€30,000-€40,000) and Cubist Landscape, Trees, Houses by Mary Swanzy (€20,000-€30,000). The auction features three landscapes by Paul Henry headed by Cottages and Turfstacks in the West of Ireland (€140,000-€180,000) along with sculpture by F E McWilliam, John Behan, Imogen Stuart, Breon O’Casey, Rory Breslin, Cliodna Cussen and paintings by Sir William Orpen, George Campbell, Camille Souter, Dan O’Neill, Tony O’Malley, Basil Blackshaw, John Shinnors, John Boyd and Donald Teskey. This sale promises to bring a remarkable season to an exciting close.
THIS mid Victorian carved walnut Irish throne chair by Jones of Dublin made a hammer price of £44,000 at Thomas R. Callan’s auction in Ayr this afternoon. Though billed as the star lot of the sale it had been estimated at just £2,000-£3,000. Dated 1850 it was probably part of a large suite of furniture made of Irish bog yew or oak by Arthur J Jones and Son of Dublin for The Great Exhibition held in London, in 1851. Decorated to illustrate the history, antiquities, animals and vegetation of Ireland the carved decoration features a harp, oak leaves, stag and Irish Wolfhounds
