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Information about Art, Antiques and Auctions in Ireland and around the world
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  • LAVERY’S PORTRAIT OF LADY CASTLEROSSE AT PALM SPRINGS

    February 24th, 2021

    Sir John Lavery’s painting of the Viscountess Castlerosse at Palm Springs. comes up at Christie’s Modern British Art evening sale in London on March 1 with an estimate of £400,000-600,000. With all its connotations of the rich at play in the years between the First and Second World Wars it is redolent of an era long gone. Doris Delavigne married the 6th Earl of Kenmare in 1928. A similar version of the scene sold for €50,000 at de Veres in Dublin in 2014.

    Christie’s list the provenance as: The artist, and by descent to his granddaughter, Lady Ann Sempill.
    Her sale; Christie’s, London, 13 May 1966, lot 77, as ‘Portrait of Lady Castlerosse, seated on a springboard at Palm Springs’.
    Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 22 May 1997, lot 264, as ‘Lady Castlerosse on a diving board’, where purchased by the present owner.

    SIR JOHN LAVERY, R.A., R.S.A., R.H.A. (1856-1941) The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs (the version sold at de Veres). UPDATE: THE WORK AT CHRISTIE’S SOLD FOR £862,500, A RECORD FOR A PORTRAIT BY LAVERY

    METEORITES HOLD UNIVERSAL APPEAL AT CHRISTIE’S

    February 24th, 2021

    All lots sold and 72 of the 75 on offer made more than their top estimates at Christie’s Deep Impact: Martian Lunar and Other Rare Meteorites online only sale from New York. It brought in $4,351,750 and attracted bidders from 23 countries across five continents. A slice of the moon, the fourth largest in this world, made $525,000 over a top estimate of $350,000 and a sphere fashioned from a lunar meteorite made $500,000 over a top estimate of $25,000. A 1.7 gram sample of the planet Mars sold for $13,750, worth more than 100 times its weight in gold.

    This stone meteorite made $175,000

    SPRING ART SALE AT WHYTE’S IN DUBLIN

    February 23rd, 2021

    Wet Sands at Booterstown by Desmond Carrick (1928-2012) is among the lots at Whyte’s Spring Art sale in Dublin on March 1. It is estimated at 1,000-1,500 in a timed online auction which runs until March 1. Whytes say that this is an ideal sale for new and seasoned collectors. More than 260 with estimates from 50-5,000 will come under the hammer. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300 AT HAMMER

    A SALE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN RESTORATION

    February 21st, 2021

    Restoration specialists will find much to occupy themselves with at a two day  online auction by Doneraile based Aidan Foley next weekend.  A large selection of antique and reproduction furniture, paintings, porcelain and collectibles from Springmount House in Sunday’s Well, Cork will be on offer on February 27.  Some furniture like a Victorian side or hall table, is simply too large for most modern homes.   Most of it is in need of some tender loving care.  A bit of elbow grease will be enough to revive a selection of occasional tables, side tables, a dining table, a set of eight dining chairs, gilt framed overmantle mirrors and various  bureaux.  Other works, such as a fine antique red lacquered boulle bureau plat, an old drum table, a Georgian bureau with astragal glazed doors (one broken pane), an early Victorian card table and a library table will need more specialist intervention.  There is a decidedly continental feel to some of the furniture, like some gilt framed drawing room chairs which were almost certainly imported into this country from mainland Europe several decades ago. A selection of Victorian style gilt framed landscapes, seascapes and townscapes in gilt frames include two smaller townscapes. attributed to Fr. Prout, humorist, literary journalist and author of The Bells of Shandon. A large dark shipboard scene is signed Marstrand, possibly the Danish artist Wilhelm Marstrand (1810-1873).  And there is a print of John Butts View of Cork from Audley Place, painted around 1750. Another lot to attract a different sort of specialist interest is an 07 registration Mercedes 500 SEL with leather interior and 5.5 V8 petrol engine.  According to Mr. Foley it originally cost €180,000. This time round it is estimated at €12,000-€16,000 as lot number 2.   The sales will be live on easyliveauction.com from 11 am on February 27 and 28.

    Gilt overmantle mirror. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER

    RARE PLOUGHMAN’S NOTE AT DIX NOONAN WEBB

    February 20th, 2021

    A particularly rare Irish £10 Ploughman’s note is estimated at £22,000-£26,000 at Dix Noonan Webb’s live and online auction in London on February 24. The Northern Bank note dated May 6, 1929 is being offered by a private collector at a sale of British, Irish and World Banknotes which features the only known example of a £50 note from the Belfast Banking Company Ltd. This note, dated December 7, 1917, is estimated at £8,000-£10,000.

     Founded in 1783 the Bank of Ireland was the first national bank in this country and a £1 note from its Westport branch dating from 1838 is estimated at £9,000-£11,000. Surviving pre-1850 notes are very rare. 

    UPDATE: The Northern Bank Ploughman’s Note sold for £18,000, the Belfast Banking Co. £50 note sold for £10,000 and the Westport note sold for £9,500.

    Rare Ploughman’s Note from the Northern Bank. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £18,000

    BECKETT BY LE BROCQUY AT GORMLEYS

    February 20th, 2021

    A watercolour of Samuel Beckett by Louis le Brocquy is among the highlights at Gormley’s evening online art auction in Belfast  on February 23).  It is estimated at €19,100-€22,750. A bronze standing Irish wolfhound by Stephen McKeown is estimated at €11,500-€17,000.  There is a print by Damien Hirst, a lithograph by Salvador Dali and work by Maurice Wilks, Charles McAuley, Brian Ballard, Gladys McCabe, Markey Robinson and other well known Irish artists.

    Portrait of Samuel Beckett by Louis le Brocquy UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £16,000

    ANYONE FOR A PIECE OF THE GIANT’S CAUSEWAY?

    February 19th, 2021

    A little bit of Ireland in the form of a stone from the Giant’s Causeway comes up at Victor Mee’s online Decorative Interiors sale on March 3 and 4. Stones from the Giant’s Causeway were used for hundreds of years for housebuilding around the north west coast. They can been seen in old stone walls and are regularly found when ancient houses fall down. The three stones coming up as lots 436-438 in this sale were once part of a structure located near the causeway. Each one is estimated at 200-400.

    The Giants Causeway was a commercial quarry from the 1940’s until the 1960’s. A quarry a short distance away with the same stones from the same lava flow was called Craignahulliar. It was worked by Portrush Columnar Basalt Company Ltd until the 1980’s. The basalt columns formed from the same lava flows 60 million years ago, which cooled slowly forming the unusual shapes.

    UPDATE: The three stones sold for 140, 180 and 280 respectively

    TOP PRICES FOR IRISH FURNITURE IN US SALE

    February 18th, 2021

    An Irish George II mahogany side table with a top estimate of $50,000 sold for $130,000 at Brunk Auctions in North Carolina on February 12. The c1760 table was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago show Ireland: Crossroads of Art and Design, 1690-1840 in 2015. It is illustrated in Irish Furniture, Yale University Press by the Knight of Glin and James Peill. The table has a single board mahogany top on carved stand with leaf, scroll, and rocaille ornament in deep relief and a carved winged mask of Venus issuing from a shell. Based in Asheville, North Carolina Brunk Auctions is a national auction service with an international clientele specialising in fine art and antiquities.

    At the same sale an Irish George II made $70,000; an Irish carved figured bookcase cabinet made $30,000 and two pairs of chairs from Russborough House made $44,000 and $46,000 respectively.

    Irish George II mahogany side table

    MEDAL AWARDED TO BRITISH SOLDIER AT EASTER RISING SELLS IN LONDON

    February 17th, 2021

    A medal awarded to Lieutenant Basil Worswick, killed on April 29, 1916 at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin during the height of the Easter Rising sold for £1,300 at Dix Noonan Webb  in London today. He was shot by a guard, who thought he was a Sinn Fein spy.   The 1914-15 Star plus was expected to fetch £400-500. Worswick went with the 2nd Battalion to Ireland to help quell the disturbance in the Dublin. On the night of April 28/29 a detachment of the Dublin Fusiliers was stationed at the malt house. When the night clerk of the brewery, accompanied by Lieutenant Lucas of the King Edward’s Horse, was making his nightly round he was challenged by the very nervous guard of Royal Dubliners. Mistaken for Sinn Feiners trying to infiltrate the brewery premises, the guard shot both the night clerk and Lucas dead. Worswick heard the commotion. He arrived at the malt house to find that his fellow officer had been killed. Challenged and searched by a sergeant of the Dublin Fusiliers he rushed at him. Seeing this the guard believing Worswick to be a Sinn Fein spy, killed him instantly.

    The Company Quartermaster Sergeant in charge of the party of Dublin Fusiliers, Robert Flood, was court-martialled and acquitted for the deaths of Lieutenants Lucas and Worswick. His actions were attributed to the confusion and panic of the Easter Rising. He died in action in Macedonia the following year.

    PRIVATE COLLECTION OF IRISH ART AT DREWEATTS

    February 16th, 2021

    A private collection of Irish art passionately collected over the past 30 years will come up at Dreweatts live online auction in Newbury, Berkshire on March 18. There is art by Gerard Dillon, William Conor, Colin Middleton, Markey Robinson, Gladys Maccabe, Maurice MacGonigal, Maurice Wilks, Frank McKelvey, Kitty Wilmer O’Brien, Henry Healy, Basil Blackshaw, Graham Knuttel, Sean McSweeney, Ciaran Clear and Felim Egan.

    Maurice MacGonigal (Irish 1900-1979)
    Landscape towards Letterfrack (£2,500-£3,500). UPDATE: THIS MADE £2,400 AT HAMMER