The work of Irish artist Isabel Nolan features at two venues at the 13th Liverpool Biennial of contemporary art, Walker Art Gallery and St. John’s Gardens. The artist works in sculpture, painting, textiles and text and explores notions of reality and identity, and the human compulsion to understand and define our situations and relationships with others. ‘BEDROCK’ draws on Liverpool’s distinctive geography and the beliefs which underpin the city’s social foundations. It is inspired by the sandstone which spans the city region and is found in its distinctive architecture and acts as a metaphor for the social foundations of Liverpool and the people, places and values that ground all of us. The Liverpool Biennial runs until September 14. In 2026, Nolan will represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale.
The annual group summer exhibition at Cork’s Lavit Gallery offers paintings, prints, photography, culture and crafts at a variety of price points. Exhibiting artists include Wendy Dison, Michael Duhan, Patricia Doherty, Grainne Dowling, Ana Duncan, James English, Angela Fewer, Felicia Garrivan, Etain Hickey, Antonio Julio Lopez Castro, Andrew Ludick, Damaris Lysaght, David Magee, Michaela McCann, Isobel McCarthy, Kate Mac Donagh, Peter McTigue, Paul Murphy, Claire O’Reilly, John O’Reilly, Jenny Richardson, Katherina Tremil, Zoe Velthuysen, Sarah Walker and Catherine Weld. The show continues until August 30. Pictured here is Simi Tree, an archival pigment print by David Magee from an edition of three.
Harry Kernoff – Clare Island from Foynes on the River Shannon (1929) UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,700 AT HAMMER
John Shinnors, Patrick Scott, Sir William Orpen, Harry Kernoff and Dan O’Neill are amongst the stellar line up of Irish artists featured at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until July 28. Don Quixote (Self-Portrait) by Dan O’Neill (€6,000-€9,000) was in the collection of the late Gerald Goldberg, former Lord Mayor of Cork. It featured in the sale of contents from his Rochestown Road residence by Mealy’s back in 2004.
Market Place at Cany by Sir William Orpen, once in the Orpen Family collection, was shown at the Orpen Centenary Exhibition at the National Gallery of Ireland in 1978. The mixed media work is estimated at €3,000-€4,000. An oil on board by Harry Kernoff, Clare Island from Foynes, Co. Limerick on the River Shannon dates to 1929 and is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Falling, an oil on linen by John Shinnors dates to 2000-01 and has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. The catalogue is online.
James Brohan – Harvest Time. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
A set of vintage wishbone Danish dining chairs. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
Danish wishbone chairs, bronze boxing hares, a 19th century French oak refectory table and a Black Forest musical chair are included among nearly 1,000 lots at online evening sales by Victor Mee on July 22-23.
There is nothing in this eclectic selection to prevent the imagination of a collector from soaring to new and unexplored heights. Where to place a pair of cast iron pier caps in the form of a stag standing on a ball? Maybe not to the taste of everyone but they can be yours for an estimated €1,000-€2,000. There is a similar estimate on a fine sturdy three seater cast iron garden bench, a pair of moulded sandstone lifesize models of Great Danes and a pair of 19th century wrought iron entrance gates.
French wrought iron glasshouse. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Hand cut granite gate posts, a 19th century sandstone trough, a wrought iron portable glasshouse, a pair of sandstone lattice urns and an early 20th century French wrought iron greenhouse are all on offer.
A 19th century brass bound campaign chest (€1,400-€1,800), a French William IV centre table with marble top (€800-€1,200), a 19th century lime washed oak chest (€600-€1,200), a walnut inlaid credenza with three glazed doors (€400-€800), a Regency rent table with leather top (€400-€800), a Victorian rosewood and satinwood inlaid side table (€350-€650), a pair of Art Deco bedside lockers (€350-€650) and a bank of four graduated drawers in the shape of drums €300-€600) are included among nearly 400 lots of furniture with estimates of from a little as €10 for an Edwardian three tier cake stand.
A set of eight vintage Danish wishbone dining chairs with woven rush seats carry an estimate of €1,000-€2,000. A 19th century Black Forest rosewood and burr walnut musical chair and table is slightly more expensive, at €1,500-€2,500. This inlaid furniture contains a hidden musical box.
Black Forest musical chair and table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
A Martian meteorite discovered in November 2023 in Niger, Africa, sold for $5,296,000 at Sotheby’s in New York. The largest piece of Mars on earth was ejected by a massive asteroid strike. It journeyed 140 million miles through space and finally the earth’s atmosphere before crashing into the Sahara Desert. Pieces of Mars are rare. Of more than 77,000 officially recognised meteorites only 400 are Martian. Weighing 24.67 kilograms this one represents approximately 6.5% of all Martian material currently known.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue
Auction house Christie’s has projected auction sales of $2.1 billion in the first half of 2025. Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Leonard & Louise Riggio Collection sold for $47.6 million to become most valuable work of art sold at auction so far. Key performance indicators, including overall sell through rate at 88% and hammer versus the low estimate index at 115%, have all showed strength and demonstrated the market leadership of Christie’s. The global auction house sold seven of the top 10 artworks and all top four works of art sold at auction in the six months. In addition, overall auction sales in the leading 20/21 category were stable to last year at $1.3 billion. Luxury sales were up 29%, which includes car sales at Gooding Christie’s (up 12% without Gooding Christie’s). In Jewels, Christie’s sold nine of the top 10 jewels at auction in the first half of the year. This has driven growth of 25%. The Old Master Group drove a 15% rise in auction sales in the first half of the year. Confidence for this continued momentum in the second half has been demonstrated by the record breaking $43.9 million sale in London of Canaletto’s masterpiece Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day.
18TH-CENTURY SINO-TIBETAN GILT BRONZE FIGURE OF A MANJUSHRI
This finely cast 18th century Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze made a hammer price of €9,500 over an estimate of €800-€1,200 at Sheppards two day sale of the collection of Philip and Constance Murphy in Durrow today. The figure of a Manjushri, the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom, is seated in the meditation position atop a double-lotus throne with beaded rims. It is richly adorned with beaded jewellery and a five-pointed crown, with detailed facial expression and blue pigment remaining in the hair and crown crevices. A folder of 24 Chinese Qing watercolours made €14,000, a Chinese Qing period Hu shaped vase made €7,650 at hammer, a 19th century oil painting of a volcanic eruption by moonlight made €7,500, a 19th century marine chronometer made €5,400, a Chinese Qing Period blue dragon plate made €5,000, an Arts and Crafts carpet made €4,300, a 19th century automaton bird clock under a glass dome made €4,000 at hammer, a Persian Tabriz carpet made €4,200, an 18th century Dublin bracket clock made €3,600, a trio of Chinese gold commemorative coins made €2,800 and a Chinese lime glazed bowl made €2,800.
19th century French polished steel and brass centre table. UPDATE: THE CLOSING BID WAS 3,000
This white veined marble topped table is the leading lot at Mullen’s of Laurel Park timed online Classic and Contemporary Interiors auction which runs in Bray until July 20. The marble rests on a pierced foliate cast frieze on scroll supports. The estimate is €3,000-€4,000. The catalogue lists over 650 lots and is online.
NEVILLE BATH – The County of Cork surveyed. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,600 AT HAMMER
A linen backed map of The County of Cork in 1811 by the land surveyor Neville Bath leads the timed online books and works on paper auction by James Adam in Dublin. The sale runs until July 17. The survey, carried out by order of The Grand Jury of the County, is estimated at €2,000-€3,000.
Sheppards will auction contents from this room at Royal Terrace West in Dun Laoghaire
Take a close look at this photograph of one of the reception rooms at 6 Royal Terrace West, Dun Laoghaire and you will undoubtedly agree that it is elegant, comfortable, lived in and loved. This was home to the late collectors Philip and Constance Murphy and Sheppards will auction their contents on July 15-16.
Because this room might not appear to be particularly fashionable in the current sense this auction offers a real opportunity for collectors. Take another look at the furniture in the room. The view from left to the middle of the picture reveals a Georgian sofa table, a Regency teapoy on tripod base in the window, a 19th century upholstered mahogany footstool, a mahogany open bookcase with fluted uprights and a three seater sofa.
At 2025 prices these five pieces are respectively estimated at €500-€800, €250-€350, €150-€250, €200-€300 and €300-€500. The lower estimates add up to just €1,400, the upper ones to €2,200. Even with the addition of fees of around 25%-30% including VAT prices like this represent startling value. Wonderful for buyers, not such good news for sellers.
Donegal runner designed by CFA Voysey UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,400 at hammer
At the very least the Murphys, as real collectors, will have experienced the joys of putting that room together over many years, of adding, subtracting and replacing pieces and greatly enjoying their home.
Continuing on our visual journey around this room we come across two Victorian armchairs, one with scroll arms, a Victorian Canterbury, a Victorian circular mahogany table, an Edwardian inlaid mahogany cabinet on stand, two upholstered wingback armchairs and a pair of Chinese red lacquer blanket chests doing duty as side tables.
The Victorian button back armchairs are each estimated at €200-€300, the Canterbury at €200-€300, the circular table at €400-€600, the cabinet on stand at €400-€600, the upholstered wingback armchairs at €150-€250 each and the pair of Chinese lacquered chests at €400-€600.
The front of a Georgian bureau bookcase can be glimpsed to the far right of the picture and this is estimated at just €500-€800.
A white Jambala Thangka or traditional Tibetan Buddhist painting on fabric. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 301
The auction is on view at the classic Victorian terraced house at Royal Terrace West on today, tomorrow and Monday from 10 am to 5 pm on each day. The sale of just over 1,000 lots will take place in Durrow and online.
19th century French gilt mantle clock with Daniel in the Lion’s Den. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
