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This carved wine cooler c1772-74 after a design by Robert Adam and attributed to Sefferin Nelson comes up at The Exceptional Sale at Christie’s in London on July 4. It is among seven items from the 7th Earl of Harewoods Will Trust in the auction, being sold by order of the trustees and is estimated at £120,000-180,000.
A first edition of Gulliver’s Travels 1726-27 is among a number of Irish lots at Sotheby’s online sale of English Literature, Books, Childrens’ Books and Illustrations. The sale will include a 1654 Summary of Government Expenditure, Ireland, a copy of the Irish Proclamation estimated at £50,000-70,000 and lower half only copy of the Proclamation with an estimate of £8,000-12,000, paintings by Edyth Starkie, a pencil and watercolour caricature of George Moore by Max Beerbohm and various other lots. The sale opens for bidding today and runs until July 9.
FROM Jacobo Bassano to Picasso to Richard Diebenkorn and Sean Scully the Masterpiece fair at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea in London until July 3 offers an unmissable selection of art and antiques. Masterpiece offers the finest works of art, design, furniture and jewellery from antiquity to the present day. It gives collectors and unparalleled opportunity to discover exceptional works across a range of price points. Launched in 2010 to fill the gap created after the end of the old Grosvenor House Antique Fair Masterpiece has established itself as the world’s leading cross collecting fair. Exhibitors include many of the leading art dealerships in the world spanning all eras and disciplines.
As in all top global fairs now there is scrupulous vetting in operation.Exceptional Irish antique furniture is offered by Rory Rodgers on stand B20 and fine antique furniture can be found on stands like Ronald Phillips, Apter-Fredericks and Edward Hurst.Modernity of Stockholm offers vintage Scandinavian design with a focus on furniture, lighting and textiles. The large collection here includes design classics by Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Alvar Aalto, Axel Salto and Josef Frank.There is ancient art and antiquities, contemporary jewellery, rare books and illustrated manuscripts, Indian art and a huge selection of contemporary art. Book dealer Peter Harrington will showcase an exceptional collection of Ian Fleming material which includes inscribed first editions of every James Bond book published in the author’s lifetime.
The At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin at 11.30 a.m. on June 30 features a wide variety of lots including silver, art, antique furniture, jewellery and collectibles including a Lalique Ceylan glass vase and some Russian Gardner porcelain figures made in Moscow in the 19th century. The catalogue is online.
Nearly 200 rare artefacts celebrating space exploration 50 years after Apollo 11 will come up at Christie’s in New York on July 11. One Giant Leap: Celebrating Space Exploration 50 Years After Apollo 11 includes nearly 200 artifacts from NASA missions of the Sixties and Seventies including the Gemini and Apollo programs. The sale highlight is the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Timeline Book ($7- 9 million) used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to navigate the lunar module Eagle onto the surface of the moon in July 1969.
The Masterpiece Fair gets underway in London today and runs until July 3. Located at the South Grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea Masterpiece has established itself as the world’s leading cross-collecting fair. It offers the finest works of art, design, furniture and jewellery, from antiquity to the present day and is billed as unmissable at the height of the London summer season.
Among the works on show is a beautiful Enignum ash console 2017 by internationally acclaimed Cork furniture maker Joseph Walsh at the Sarah Myerscough stand. It is priced at 48,000 euro.
A selection of more than 400 lots of affordable Irish art is offered at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online auction. The sale runs until July 1 between 6.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. and the catalogue is online.
A pair of 12 bore Irish silver mounted pistols by William and John Rigby, Dublin will come up at Thomas Del Mar’s auction of antique arms and armour in London on July 10. The DB Percussion carriage pistols are Numbers 10959 and 10960 for August 1859 and estimated at £12,000-15,000. They are in very good condition throughout.
This painting of Judith and Holofernes – believed to be a long lost work by Caravaggio – will come under the hammer in Toulouse on June 27 with an estimate of 100-150 million. The case for this being a work by the master is compelling, not categoric. It was discovered by auctioneer Marc Labarbe in an attic in Toulouse five years ago. The family that owns it have lived for decades in Toulouse and descends from a Napoleonic officer who took part in the Spanish campaign from 1810-1814. After the discovery of what was instantly recognised as an important 17th century Italian work Labarbe called on art appraiser Eric Turquin. Aided by a team they researched the work for two years. The French Ministry of Culture classified it as a major treasure, which prevented it from being taken out of the country for a period of 30 months. The Louvre, which has three works by Caravaggio and a budget that is not limitless, decided not to buy it. The deadline expired last December. There are 68 known paintings by Caravaggio, only four in private hands. Marc Labarbe discovered an Imperial Chinese scroll in 2011 which subsequently sold for 22 million.
UPDATE: THE PAINTING WAS SOLD TO A FOREIGN BUYER SAID TO BE CLOSE TO A MAJOR MUSEUM TWO DAYS PRIOR TO AUCTION. THE PRICE WAS NOT DISCLOSED.
A newly discovered portrait of Olimpia Pamphilj by Diego Velazquez comes up at Sotheby’s Old Master sale in London on July 3. Lost for almost three centuries, this captivating portrait once formed part of the collection of Don Gaspar Mendez de Haro y Guzman, 7thMarques del Carpio. It was last recorded in 1724. Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj – sister-in-law, reputed lover and puppet master of Pope Innocent X – controlled all aspects of Vatican life and was known as Papessa. Her influence over the pontiff was well-known with one Cardinal, Alessandro Bichi, on the election of Innocent in October 1644, supposedly angrily declaring, “Gentlemen, we have just elected a female pope.”
Painted in 1649-50 during Velázquez’s second trip to Rome, the Portrait of Olimpia Maidalchini Pamphilj is estimated at £2 – 3 million. Sotheby’s say that this is one of the strongest Old Master sales ever staged with major works by the titans of British Art – Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner – as well as leading Renaissance and Baroque painters Botticelli, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Sir Peter Paul Rubens.
