Arthur Maderson – Evening shadows on the beach. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,800 AT HAMMER
This small oil on canvas by Arthur Maderson is lot 28 at Dolan’s timed online autumn auction of Irish art, rare whiskies and collectibles which runs until September 29. The sale features the work of 20th century and contemporary Irish and international artists and emerging talents in the world of Irish art. This lot is estimated at €2,800-€3,500. A collection of nine Midleton Very Rare Irish Whiskeys leads the auction with an estimate of €4,800-€6,500.
Colourway by the Dublin artist Maser, who first made his mark on the grafitti scene in 1995, is lot 81 at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art on September 29. He has created immersive installations in cities including Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Milan, Hamburg, Munich and Amsterdam. The unframed acrylic and spray paint on canvas is estimated at €2,500-3,500. Artists in the auction include Roderic O’Conor, William Orpen, Harry Clarke, Mainie Jellett, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy, Donald Teskey and Rowan Gillespie. Viewing for the sale is underway at Whyte’s on Molesworth St. in Dublin.
A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape attributed to Basawan, Mughal India, circa 1575-80. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,245,000 (€11,689,545), 14 times over estimate and a world record auction price for a classical Indian or Islamic painting.
A landmark auction of exceptional paintings from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan at Christie’s London on October 28 will present the market with an opportunity to acquire masterpieces of Indian and Persian painting. Comprising 95 works, the sale features the paintings that Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan chose to live with at their home, Chateau de Bellerive, on the shores of Lake Geneva. This is truly a personal collection that reflects their impeccable taste and discerning eye for quality, rarity and beauty. The group includes some of the most important examples of their kind in any collection in the world, many having been studied and published by leading scholars of the 20th century and featured in ground-breaking exhibitions. With estimates ranging from £2,000 to £1,000,000, this personal collection is expected to realise in excess of £8 million.
One of a pair of satinwood inlaid side cabinets. UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 2,300 AT HAMMER
A pair of exceptional satinwood wide cabinets will feature among the top furniture lots at Victor Mee’s auction of contents from the former Convent of Mercy at New Inn in Co. Tipperary on September 28 and 29. The catalogue features lots from other clients too. A total of 1230 lots will come under the hammer.
William IV combination games/sewing table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 320 AT HAMMER
A Regency inlaid teapoy, William IV games/sewing table or a Georgian davenport. Any of these petite antique furniture items would grace a modern house or apartment and all three will come under the hammer with reasonable estimates at Woodwards in Cork on September 27. The teapoy and the games table are reckoned to make €400-€600 each while the davenport has an estimate of €500-€800.
There is a good selection of antique pieces in this sale, from a harlequin set of Cork 11-bar dining chairs (€1,000-€1,500), a Victorian walnut tallboy (€400-€600) and a Georgian hexagonal cellarette (€600-€800) to an Irish Regency secretaire bookcase (€1,000-€1,200), a Georgian walnut bureau (€800-€1,200) and a Georgian kneehole desk (€400-€600). All have provided sterling and elegant service for many years and can do so for many more. The auction offers a large gilt framed mirror (€600-€800), a set of four gilt framed mirrors (€1,000-€1,500), a selection of Persian rugs and three French chandeliers and many other items of interest. The catalogue is online.
A rare Cork Queen Anne fireplace surround UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The lifetime collection of Nobel Antiques, the Cork antique fireplace specialists, will be included in Hegarty’s online auction on September 24. Exceptional marble fireplaces and accessories will feature, including a rare Queen Anne Cork fireplace made from locally quarried stone, similar to one at Howth Castle. Among the period 19th century fireplaces is one from Cork’s South Mall. A c1880 Italian marble fireplace was in the Jack Lynch room at the Metropole Hotel in Cork where Michael Collins is believed to have stayed once. The collection includes club fenders, insets, period Georgian accessories and columns and the sale includes antique furniture, jewellery and collectibles.
The Lady of the Decoration by Harry Clarke UPDATE: THIS MADE 110,000 AT HAMMER
The largest and most spectacular ink and watercolour by Harry Clarke highlights a collection of important works on paper by the artist at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on the evening of September 24. Commissioned by the Glasgow based paint manufacturers John Duthie and Sons for a wall calendar The Lady of the Decoration was executed in 1914 and carries an estimate of €60,000-€80,000.
It is one of a number of illustrations by Clarke from various collections in the auction. The artist illustrated a number of books for the publisher George Harrap including Geothe’s Faust. An ink and watercolour drawing for the title page, an unpublished illustration for the 1925 edition, is estimated at €40,000-€60,000. An unfinished 1915 drawing for The Playboy of the Western World has an estimate of €20,000-€30,000. There are five original ink illustrations used in Harrap’s Faust (1915), Swinburne’s Selected Poems (1928) and The Fairy Tales of Perrault (1922) along with signed limited edition illustrated books and two stained glass panels by Harry Clarke of Dante and Beatrice.
The sale offers a highly desirable selection by stalwarts of the Irish art scene like Jack B Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, William Scott, Sean Scully, Mainie Jellett, John Doherty and Gerard Dillon.
Love Alloy and Perspex by Rowan Gillespie. UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
The inspiration for Love, an alloy sculpture by Rowan Gillespie (€12,000-€18,000) is universal. It depicts two figures divided by a sheet of perspex. “One of the first pieces I made after getting married in 1976” the sculptor explained, “when I realised that it wasn’t so easy. All the best intentions, but so often a barrier of misunderstanding separated us”.
The universality and timelessness of art is apparent in the inspiration for Sean Scully’s watercolour Robe (€30,000-€50,000). The source is a medieval manuscript, the Book of Durrow at TCD. The artist was struck by the elaborate geometric chequerboard pattern on the robe worn by St. Matthew the Evangelist resembling nothing so much as an abstract composition transported back through time. The auction is now on view at Adams and the catalogue is online.
The autumn art sale season is well and truly upon us. Whytes sale of Irish and International art in Dublin on September 29 offers many exciting opportunities for collectors and will be on view at Molesworth St. from next Monday. The catalogue cover lot is le Brocquy’s Image of Samuel Beckett from 1980 (€100,000-€150,000).
The catalogue for the Irish Art Auction by de Veres on September 30 is online and the sale of 230 lots is open for bidding. It offers lots by Martin Gale, Barbara Warren, Robert Taylor Carson, Basil Ivan Rakoczi and many more. There will be a sale of Irish and International art by Gormley’s on September 30.
The Vet’s Surgery, Schull by John Doherty. UPDATE: THIS MADE 16,000 AT HAMMER
Sean Scully (b.1945) – Robe (2002). UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
This watercolour over pencil by Sean Scully comes up as lot 40 at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art on September 24. The estimate is €30,000-€50,000. The initial inspiration for the robe series was the Book of Durrow at Trinity College, Dublin, dated to the latter half of the 7th Century. Scully was taken with a page featuring a remarkable representation of St Matthew the Evangelist. The saint is attired in a lavish robe with a flatly rendered geometric chequerboard pattern, incorporating diagonal panels. It’s so striking it appears anachronistic, as though an abstract composition has been transported back through time. Viewing for the auction gets underway in Dublin on September 19 and the catalogue is online.
RORY BRESLIN (B. 1963) – Custom House Keystones. UPDATE: THESE MADE €125,000 at hammer
A complete set of 14 patinated bronze masks of the Custom House keystones of the rivers of Ireland by Rory Breslin made a hammer price of €125,000 at Sheppards Irish and International art sale in Durrow. The Original Set of 14 – Liffey, Erne, Foyle, Slaney, Nore, Suir, Lagan, Lee, Shannon, Bann, Atlantic, Blackwater, Barrow and Boyne – were from the artist’s private collection. They are cast after the original keystones carved by Edward Smyth (1749–1812) for the Custom House, Dublin, c. 1791. This exceptional series reimagines one of the great achievements of Irish neoclassical sculpture: the monumental keystones personifying the Atlantic and the principal rivers of Ireland. Smyth’s original carvings, designed under architect James Gandon, embodied the aspirations of an Irish Parliament-era Dublin. Each head is laden with symbolic attributes — maritime emblems, flora, fauna, and produce — evoking the geography, economy, and folklore of its river basin. Breslin’s Variations project captures these qualities with striking fidelity while revealing the energy, texture, and modelling of the originals through the medium of bronze.
An Abstract Constructivist Composition (Study) c1920’s by Thorvald Hellesen made €33,000 over a top estimate of €9,000.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 15, 2025).
Living as he does on the edge of Europe at Allihies in west Cork the artist Charles Tyrrell is fascinated by borders, grids and edges. His latest body of work, Matters Arising at Taylor Galleries in Dublin until September 27 centres on ten new paintings that map, celebrate and expand ideas about how a cohesive whole can emerge from random elements not easily compared. Now in his mid ’70’s Tyrrell said: “I am simply paying homage to what I’ve realised is a constant throughout my painting life. It happens at every level…. dealing with matters arising, the continuous process of reacting to preceding moves”. The show at Taylor includes a selection of new drawings, drypoint prints and a timber wall piece. Pictured here is CG2.25, an oil on canvas.
