THE most iconic treasure of early western history – the gun Pat Garrett used to kill Billy the Kid – comes up at Bonhams in Los Angeles on August 27. Sheriff Pat Garrett’s Colt Single Action which he used to kill Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881, at Pete Maxwell’s Ranch, is a relic of one of the most important and well-known stories of the Wild West. Now part of American mythology, Garrett’s friendship with the Kid, their mutual respect, and his subsequent hunt, capture, escape and death have become the stuff of legend.
Estimated at $2-3 million, this gun is one of the most important and well documented historical firearms and has never appeared at public auction. It is part of a collection of historical firearms belonging to Western Lawmen and Outlaw Legends, along with manuscripts, photographs, and memorabilia. The private collection which features rifles and revolvers from Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin was amassed over five decades by Jim and Theresa Earle. There will be 265 lots in the sale.
Pat Garrett’s Colt Single Action Army Revolver. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6,030,313 A WORLD RECORD FOR ANY FIREARM
Leading international dealers from New York to London to Paris to Mumbai and Tokyo and all points between will take part in the online version of The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) online fair. This daddy of all fairs will run from September 9-13 with no less than 255 world class exhibitors available to everyone at the click of a keyboard. TEFAF is normally held in Maastricht and in New York in latter day pre-pandemic years. Exhibitors are known for the unrivaled quality of the works they present from antiquity to the present day. Organisers say the event will offer exciting new digital features to showcase a rich array of more than 700 works. There will be 12 next exhibitors.Meantime the British Museum, with the support of TEFAF, has announced a project ot restore eight ancient glass vessels severely damaged in the Beirut port explosion last August. Dating from the Roman and Islamic periods they were on display at the Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut, 3.2 kms from the blast. The collaboration will see hundreds of glass fragments pieced together and restored at the conservation laboratories at the British Museum.
A 1st/2nd century AD marble Head Fragment of a Polykleitan Youth at TEFAF. Image Courtesy of Kallos Gallery London.
Big house sales and hidden treasures go hand in hand. The sale next week by Sheppards of Woodfield House, Broadford, Co. Clare – and from other clients too – is no exception.Lot 400 is an oval portrait of a young girl wearing a white dress and floral turban. It is by Thomas Hickey, the Dublin born artist who died in Madras in 1824. The work of this widely travelled artist can be found at the National Gallery of Ireland, the Courtauld in London, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Tate. There are a number of his sketches in the culturally rich city of Srirangapatna near Mysore.In Ireland in 1797 he was commissioned by the State Physician Dr. Robert Emmet to paint a portrait of his son Robert and daughter Mary. This was the nationalist and patriot Robert Emmet who died on the gallows in 1803 after an impassioned and oft quoted inspirational speech from the dock. The portrait at Sheppards is estimated at €500-€800.
Portrait of a young girl by Thomas Hickey (1741-1824). UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER
The auction of more than 900 lots goes on view in Co. Clare today and it will take place online from Castlecomer on August 17-18. The catalogue is online and the auction will be divided into four sessions.The selection ranges from a pair of large moulded recumbent stone lions (lot 657) to a 19′ lake boat on a trailer (lot 748). Highlights include a neatly sized Chippendale style pedestal desk, a George III mahogany breakfront bookcase, a designer wardrobe and a number of other pieces by Roche Bobois, an 18th century Irish gilt console table, a 19th century bronze figure of Mercury seated and a Waterford Crystal six branch chandelier. The auction kicks off with a George III cased stick barometer. Among many lots of antique furniture is an attractive Regency sofa table, a pair of French Empire armchairs, a Williams and Gibton circular centre table, a 19th century Adam side table, a pair of Dutch marquetry armorial chairs, an Edwardian marquetry cabinet, a George III Chippendale silver table, a satinwood waterfall bookcase, an 18th century Irish gilt console table, a Regency library table, a marquetry bow front cabinet and a large mahogany brass bound peat bucket.
Interior shot of Woodfield House
There is much to choose from in ceramics from Chinese porcelain to Meissen pieces, a Qing blue and white charger, a Sevres plate, an Ottoman polychrome plaque and an 18th century Chinese blue and white plate.Paintings include a landscape attributed to James Arthur O’Connor, an Italian School renaissance portrait, a half length portrait of a young lady by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, a set of three 19th century lacquered and gilded panels and an 18th century Flemish tapestry.This comprehensive auction offers a good selection of garden furniture and sculptural pieces, wines and jewellery, mirrors, Persian and Oriental rugs and a variety of collectible items.
FRANCIS BINDON (c1690-1765) – PORTRAIT OF JONATHAN SWIFT. UPDATE: THIS MADE 234,000 AT HAMMER
This portrait of Jonathan Swift by Francis Bindon has been at Howth Castle since 1735 and will come up at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents of the castle on September 8 and 9. A second sale of the library at the castle takes place on September 22 and 23. More than 800 lots will come under the hammer in the fine art and antiques sale.
Howth Castle has been the home of the St. Lawrence family since the Norman Invasion. Since 1919 the castle has been held by the distaff heirs, the Gaisford-St. Lawrence family. In 2018 the family announced their agreement to sell the castle, demesne and Ireland’s Eye to the Tetrach investment group who intend to develop an hotel and luxury resort. A seven acre portion has since been sold to Glenveagh homes who plan to build 200 apartments.
In a major push to focus on diversity and inclusion MGM Resorts plans to sell its Picasso’s. MGM Resorts and Sotheby’s will present a one of a kind marquee evening sale of Picasso masterworks worth millions live from Bellagio in Las Vegas on October 23. The world renowned entertainment company plans to re-shape its public art portfolio. The unique collaboration between Sotheby’s and MGM represents the first time Sotheby’s has hosted a marquee sale in North America outside its signature New York venue. It will feature a recreated version of the New York saleroom in Las Vegas. The sale will be broadcast around the world via a livestream viewable on Sothebys.com
Featuring 11 works that showcase the range and breadth of Pablo Picasso’s celebrated career, the auction includes a highly curated selection of paintings, works on paper, and ceramics that span more than 50 years of artistic output from 1917 to 1969. The highlight of the collection is Femme au béret rouge-orange ($20/30 million), one of Picasso’s defining portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter. The artist’s muse and lover inspired many of his most iconic portraits of the 1930’s.
This Qing polychrome dish with poetry inscriptions and the seal mark of Qianlong to the base comes up as lot 36 at Sheppards two day sale of contents from Woodfield House, Broadford, Co. Clare online on August 17-18. More than 900 lots are to be sold in four sessions over two days. The auction will include the entire contents of the house, gardens, stables and outoffices, as well as lots from other clients. There will be viewing at the house in accordance with Covid guidelines from August 14-16. The online sale will take place from Castlecomer and the dish pictured here is estimated at 1,500-2,500. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800 AT HAMMER
LOUIS LE BROCQUY HRHA (1916-2012), “THE TÁIN. THE BULL OF CUAILNGE [BLUE]”, 1989. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
This lithograph by Louis le Brocquy comes up at Hegarty’s art auction online until August 15. Number 84 from an edition of 140 it is estimated at 2,000-3,000. The catalogue for the sale, with more than 150 lots, is online. Among the artists included are John Butler Yeats, Martin Finnan, Tom Cullen, Michael Gemmell, John Kingerlee, Norman Wilkinson, Maurice Canning Wilks, Gretta O’ Brien, Anne P. Jury, Ann Mueller, Lorna Millar, Colin Flack, Markey Robinson, Terry Delaney, Con Campbell, Declan Marry, George Gavin Duffy, J. P Rooney, Annie Robinson and Adam Kos
Andy Warhol’s Trucks Series (1985) will be offered at Christie’s Prints & Multiples online sale which runs from September 16-28. In June 1986 the German Federal Road Haulage Association (BDF) hosted the 20th World Congress of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) in Frankfurt am Main. It was for this occasion that the BDF commissioned Andy Warhol to produce a set of screenprints depicting a cargo truck. The series is being offered from the archive of the Association.
German art dealer Hermann Wünsche – one of the first gallerists to bring Andy Warhol’s work to Germany – was co-publisher. In 1976 he had arranged for Warhol to make a portrait of Willy Brandt, Germany’s first Social-Democratic Chancellor after the war, and went on to commission portraits of other prominent Germans, such as the president of the Cancer Society, Mildred Scheel (1980), and the goalkeeper of the National football team, Toni Schumacher (1983). Trucks Series is estimated at £50,000-70,000.
A question is posed by an online Sotheby’s sale running until August 12. Do you want merely to set the table for dinner or is a creative tablescape more to your taste? If the answer is the latter then “Dining IN” – running as two concurrent auctions in London and New York – is the sale to set your post lockdown celebrations underway. With content ranging from the 19th to the 21st centuries this auction celebrates the dining experience in all its formats. There is a focus on modern silver and ceramics, including Tiffany and Georg Jensen, Meissen and Versace porcelain. From Regency splendour to Victorian whimsy the creative teams involved have brought together a selection of silver, porcelain, glass, furniture and table linen to cater for a variety of tastes. Highlights include a George III silver soup tureen and a Martin Brothers grotesque stoneware spoon warmer from 1881 but there is enough of a selection here to let the imagination run riot.
A pair of silver sculptural candelabra by Patrick Mavros, Zimbabwe 1999 UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR £10,080
This amber chess set, made in Gdansk by Michael Redlin c1690, is regarded as one of the most impressive Baroque amber artworks in existence and dates from the same period as the famous Amber Room. Comparable sets are rare and the few that have survived are in public museums of princely origin like the Green Vault in Dresden and the State Hermitage in St. Petersberg. This one was in the possession of the Dukes of Atholl at Blair Castle in Scotland until a few years ago. It was presented last year at TEFAF Maastricht by Kunsthammer Georg Laue and has now been integrated into the collections of the Amber Museum in Gdansk. This museum has just re-opened its doors after several years of reconstruction.
