The Grantham family car, a 1925 Sunbeam Saloon, sold for £172,500 including premium.
The Grantham family car and the Downton Abbey bell wall were highlights of the Downton Abbey auction which ran online at Bonhams until September 16. The car made £172,500, the wall of bells from the servants quarters sold for £216,300 including premium against an estimate of £5,000-£7,000. The bell wall was first seen in Season 1, in the Servant’s Hall and made by the Art Department’s model makers. It was an integral part of the Downton Abbey world and featured from the first season to the last. The 267 lot auction achieved £1.7 million, more than six times the pre-sale estimate, and was 100% sold.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 16, 2025)
The Downton Abbey bell wall sold for £216,300 including premium.
Paul Henry – In Connemara. UPDATE: THIS MADE 90,000 AT HAMMER
This oil on panel by Paul Henry with an estimate of €90,000-€120,000 is among the leading lots at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art in Dublin on September 29. Painted in the open air three cottages viewed from above are located in the bottom third of the image. In a catalogue note Dr. Mary Cosgrove observes that: The freedom and spontaneity that this little sketch demonstrates was learnt by Henry in Paris. The technique derives from the ébauche stage of the academic system of painting that affected the practice of landscape painting in particular and led to the development of Impressionism. Henry’s genius lay in amalgamating his artist’s eye with this training whilst still leaving space for the emotion to dwell in. At the same time he was painting what he saw and what people recognised, a new realism in Irish art.
NEW CORK AIRPORT MURAL BY Shane O’Driscoll & Peter Martin
The new Cork Airport Mural by Shane O’Driscoll and Peter Martin is the latest project by Ardú Street Art, the open-air gallery which has been working in Cork city since 2020. This years projects will bring more colour and creativity to the streets of the city. The Wonder of Travel at Cork Airport is the first of three projects in 2025. It celebrates the history of air travel through Cork Airport since 1961 while looking forward to a bright future and further development. The creation of two new large scale murals in the city centre is now underway. With deep roots in graffiti culture the multidisciplinary artist Kone.one is working at Water Street in the city centre. The other by Jo Hicks (aka Hixxy) is located at Liberty St. Ardu is supported by Creative Ireland, Cork City Council Arts Office, Pat McDonnell Paints, and Cork Airport.
Thorvald Hellesen – Abstract Constructivist Composition (Study) UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Viewing is underway in Durrow for Sheppards evening sale of important Irish art on September 16. With 263 lots the sale spans two centuries, from 19th century landscapes from artists like William Ashford (1746-1824) to bold contemporary work from artists like Felim Egan and Sean Scully. My Country, a c1956 work by Dan O’Neill is estimated at €20,000-€30,000 as is Ballycastle Bay, Co. Mayo (2021) by Donald Teskey. There is sculpture by John Behan, Sionbhan Bulfin, Rory Breslin and others, a box set by Banksy of the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem City, Palestine, a watercolour by Jean Dufy and a c1920’s Abstract Constructivist Composition (Study) by the Norwegian artist Thorvald Hellesen (1888-1937), an early adopter of Cubism in Scandinavia, influenced by Leger and the Parisian avant-garde.
Getting to see Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Banksy, Julian Opie and Salvador Dale in Kerry – where Jack B Yeats went to study Irish in 1913 – is not an opportunity that arises every day. In latter years Gormley’s have attracted tens of thousands of people to exhibitions of Irish and international art and sculpture in luxurious settings like the K Club, the Culloden Estate and Spa and Castlemartyr Resort.
Set in stunning natural surroundings Sheen Falls Lodge in Kenmare will be added to this list from tomorrow.
There will be a striking collection of outdoor sculpture along with an exhibition of new work by the renowned Kerry artist Liam O’Neill. Art at the Falls runs from tomorrow until October 12, but there are certain days when it will be closed so it is advisable to check before travelling.
The artist Jack B Yeats spent time learning Irish in Kerry in 1913 and produced a series of landscapes from around Mount Brandon, Lough Gill, Castlegregory and Tralee Bay. A small oil on board from that period entitled Hot Weather/A Hot Day will feature at the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on September 24. The estimate is €40,000-€60,000.
Jack B Yeats – Hot Weather/A Hot Day 1913. UPDATE: THIS MADE 69,OOO AT HAMMER
Some of the guns to be sold from the collection at Castle Matrix.
Hidden in plain sight the treasures of Castle Matrix – mostly to be sold without reserve at three online evening sales by Aidan Foley – are many and varied. Militaria, books and collectibles from a collector with an inquiring mind who led a fascinating life will come under the hammer.
Col. Sean O’Driscoll was aide to General Douglas MacArthur when he accepted the Japanese surrender in 1945. On retirement in 1961 the Irish-American officer bought and restored Castle Matrix near Rathkeale, originally built around 1420, opening it for mediaeval banquets in 1971. Castle Matrix served as headquarters of the International Institute of Military History and the Heraldry Society of Ireland and it remained open for tours until the colonel’s death in 1991.
A large rug and some uniforms
Take a deep dive into the auction by Aidan Foley in Doneraile on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday week (September 22, 23 and 24) and there is no knowing what you might find. More than 300 lots of books will be sold in an auction with a total of 997 lots.
The extensive library contains works on everything from war, ancient and modern Irish culture, English homes and Scottish castles to mystic Madame Blavatsky who once told WB Yeats: “There are only about half a dozen real Theosophists in the world. And one of those is stupid”. O’Driscoll must have had a real interest in the occult. His castle is reputedly haunted by the murdered 9th Earl of Desmond and in an address to the Fellowship of Isis in 1976 he claimed the poet Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh and the wizard Earl of Desmond had practiced magic there.
Isis Unveiled by Madame Blavatsky
You can’t shoot a ghost but more than 50 guns from a military man and a collector are on offer. Flintlock pistols, double barrel shotguns, rifles with bayonets and even a Colt revolver along with accoutrements like an armoured tank telescope and the tunic of an American platoon sergeant are there to be picked up.
In storage at Collins Barracks, Cork over the years the guns will be sold under strict conditions. Some are decommissioned, others not, and no drug dealers need apply. There will be limited viewing of the firearms at the Doneraile auction rooms where the sale will be on view for four days from next Friday (September 19).
Many of the Japanese swords he collected with discrimination were sold by Whyte’s in 2017. Available now is a selection of art, Irish silver, Persian rugs, porcelain, antique and vintage furniture. Among the artists featured are Ivan Sutton, Markey Robinson, Graham Knuttel, John Kingerlee, James Humbert Craig, Michael Hales, Louis le Brocquy, Picasso (a lithograph) and pencil drawings by John Butler Yeats. The catalogue is online.
KASHMIR SAPPHIRE: A VERY RARE EARLY 20TH CENTURY SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND BROOCH, CIRCA 1905SOLD FOR €540,000 AT HAMMER
Two Kashmir sapphires made just under €1.1 million at the James Adam sale of fine jewellery in Dublin. A c1900 sapphire and diamond brooch with a central stone of 8.24 carats (pictured below) made a hammer price of €550,000 over a top estimate €300,000. The c1905 sapphire and diamond brooch pictured above with a central stone of 6.53 carats made €540,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €250,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for August 22 and May 13, 2025)
This c1900 sapphire and diamond brooch made €550,000 at hammer.
Mark O’Neill (b.1963) – Sunlight in the Old Town, Nice (2010). UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,000 AT HAMMER
This oil on board by Mark O’Neill is at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current Irish art online auction which runs until September 15. The estimate is €4,000-6,000. The auction offers a wide variety of artists, from Graham Knuttel and Mr. Brainwash to Sir William Orpen and Sean Scully. The catalogue is online.
BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662) – LA PASCALINE Christie’s Images Ltd., Anna Buklovska UPDATE: THE SALE DID NOT GO AHEAD AFTER A PARIS COURT PROVISIONALLY STOPPED THE MACHINE FROM BEING EXPORTED.
Described by Christie’s as the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction La Pascaline – the first attempt in history to substitute the human mind with a machine – comes up at auction in Paris on November 19 with an estimate of €2 million – €3 million.
Author of a Traité des Sons [treatise on the communication of sounds] at the age of 12, of an essai de géométrie [essay on conic sections] at 16, Blaise Pascal developed the first calculating machine in history at the age of 19. He did so to assist his father, Etienne Pascal, President of the Cour des Aides de Normandie [Board of Excise]. As such, Etienne Pascal was responsible for re-organising the province’s tax revenues – a task requiring countless mathematical operations, accounting calculations and other topographical surveys. To simplify the process, Blaise Pascal designed calculating machines. For the first time in history mental arithmetic had been mechanised. Blaise Pascal designed three types of machines: one for decimal calculations (additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions), one for accounting (for monetary calculations) and one for surveying (for calculating distances).
Only nine original models of this major scientific and technical revolution remain in existence, and nearly all are held in museums across Europe: These include a model in Clermont-Ferrand, a model in Dresden, a model in Bonn belonging to the IBM collection, and a later version at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. This is the only one in private hands, the only known model dedicated to survey calculations and this particular 17th century arithmetic machine is still fully functional. It will highlight the the Bibliothèque Léon Parcé sale.
William Gronow-Davis – Seefin Castle, Co. Galway at Sheppards. UPDATE: These were unsold
More than 60 years later the name John Profumo retains a whiff of scandal. The Tory politician resigned in 1963 after lying about his affair with Christine Keeler to the House of Commons – politicians caught out in a lie had to resign in those far off days – but ultimately rehabilitated himself through charity work in east London. It all adds interest to a pair of oils on board by William Gronow-Davis at Sheppards sale of Important Irish Art in Durrow on September 16.
The paintings of Seefin Castle near Craughwell were presented to Major Philip Profumo, younger brother of John, by the Galway Blazers. The presentation was made by members of the County Galway Hunt for the seasons 1966-69. Both paintings retain their original frames and presentation packs. The estimate is €2,000-€3,000.
The auction offers 263 lots of Irish and international art spanning two centuries. Top lots include a complete set of 14 Custom House Keystones representing Irish rivers by Rory Breslin along with art by William Ashford, Dan O’Neill, Peter Curling, Donald Teskey, James Brohan, James Humbert Craig and a watercolour by Jean Dufy. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Durrow from September 12 until September 15.
Donald Teskey – Ballycastle Bay, Co. Mayo (2021) UPDATE: THIS MADE 19,000 AT HAMMER
