Limerick Racecourse is the convenient venue for a two day antique, vintage and collectibles fair today and tomorrow. With dealers from around the country and more than 60 stands offering everything from Irish art and furniture to jewellery, silver, vintage fashion, arms, militaria, coins, banknotes, porcelain and all sorts of collectible items this event is a magnet for collectors and anyone in pursuit of something quirky and different.
This big Limerick fair takes place several times each year, is hugely popular and draws an audience from throughout Munster and beyond. The appetite for fairs like this is undiminished. Hibernian Antique Fairs held their first fair in Cork for more than five years at Corrin Event Centre near Fermoy a couple of weeks ago and more than 1,000 people turned out in what was one of the biggest attendances at a one day fair in 40 years.
This pair of bronze storks come up at Victor Mee’s summer garden sale on June 10 and 11. A total of 955 lots will come under the hammer. The storks come up as lot 58 with an estimate of €600-1,200. The catalogue is online.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. (LONDON 1775-1851) – Lake Brienz, with the Setting Moon
In the 250 anniversary year of his birth a number of works on paper by Turner will come up at Christie’s in London across three sales in London on July 1 and 2 during Classic Week. Showing late Turner at the height of his powers as a watercolourist Lake Brienz, with the Setting Moon is a mesmerizingly peaceful Swiss view, from the 1840’s. Paving the way for the Impressionists, this work shows Turner focusing on the effects of changing light. Property from The Estate of Sanford R. Robertson, it will be offered in the Old Masters evening sale on July 1 with an estimate of £600,000-800,000.
Turner’s View of Stoke House, near Bristol c1790 depicts a figure sketching in the foreground that is thought to be a self-portrait (£20,000-30,000). Pendennis Castle and the entrance to Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall: Scene after a Wreck is from one of Turner’s famous series of watercolours that made his name: England and Wales (£60,000-100,000). Both works are offered inOld Masters, 19th Century Paintings and Drawings from a private collection selling without reserve on July 2.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. – View of Stoke House, near Bristol
SHERATON REVIVAL SIDE CABINET. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This attractive Sheraton Revival inlaid satinwood side cabinet is lot 404 at Adams online only At Home sale on June 11. The rectangular breakfront form has a central panelled door inset with a circular painted plaque decorated with a mother and child. It is flanked by a pair of astragal glazed panel doors and turned independent columns and turned legs. The estimate is €2,000-3,000. More than 500 lots will come under the hammer. Viewing is at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin from June 7 – 10 and the catalogue is online.
A UNION JACK FLOWN FROM HMS SPARTIATE AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, OCTOBER 21, 1805 UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,068,500
A Union Jack flag from the Battle of Trafalgar will come up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London on July 1 with an estimate of £500,000-800,000. One of the most spectacular and consequential naval victories in history, The Battle of Trafalgar ended the threat of an invasion of Britain by Napoleon, setting the scene for a century or more of British dominance of the seas. The flag shows signs of battle damage. Analysis by the Zaricor Flag Collection – from which it is being offered for sale – revealed shards of metal embedded in the fabric in several places, notably in the half-moon shaped loss to one edge, suggesting that this is the ‘footprint’ of a cannon ball. Fragments of wood splinters were also found throughout.
It is one of only three intact Union Jacks known to survive from the Battle of Trafalgar. It has been offered on the market just once before in its 220 year history, having been preserved by Captain James Clephan R .N . (1768-1851) who was the Spartiate‘s second lieutenant and then passed by descent until it was acquired in 2009 by Benjamin Reed Zaricor (1947-2022) for the Zaricor Flag Collection. The design was introduced in 1801 after the Act of Union with Ireland. HMS Spartiate fought at the Battle of Trafalgar under Francis Laforey. With Minotaur, she forced the surrender of the Spanish ship Neptuno, of 80 guns. She was was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line captured from the French at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.
With an outdoor exhibition of 90 large sculptures and various installations Art and Soul opens at Castlemartyr Resort on June 1 and runs until June 29. Hosted by Gormleys it offers contemporary art and sculpture by international and Irish artists including Andy Warhol, Banksy, Damien Hirst and Salvador Dali.
More than 350 artworks will be shown with a full programme of artists talks and daily guided tours. Work by international sculptors like Michael Ayrton, Philip Jackson, Sophie Ryder, Matteo Lo Greco and Lorenzo Quinn who have not previously featured at Art and Soul will be on display. Among the many Irish sculptors taking part are Patrick O’Reilly, Ian Pollock, Eamonn Ceannt, Giacinto Bosco, Bob Quinn, Paddy Campbell, Sandra Bell and John Fitzgerald. Over 10,000 people viewed the exhibition last year.
Miss January dated 1997 by Marlene Dumas became the most expensive painting by a living female artist ever sold when it made $13.6 million (€11.96 million) at Christie’s in New York.
The global art market is not immune to the trade winds of change blowing us all over the place right now. Even though they brought in $1 billion the slimmed down May sales in New York failed to reach their targets.
On the minus side a bust by Alberto Giacometti of his brother Diego, estimated at around $70 million (€61.57 million), failed to find a buyer at Sotheby’s. On the plus side the collection of Barnes and Noble founder Leonard Riggio and his wife Louise made $272 million (€239.46 million) at Christie’s, the only collection to realise this total in the last 18 months.
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Marlene Dumas, South African born Netherlands based 71 year old set a new auction record for a living female artist with Miss January, 1997. She has explored portraiture for 40 years and this monumental nine feet tall work of a beauty queen naked from the waist down apart from a pink sock sold for $13.6 million (€11.96 million) at Christie’s. There were records too for previously overlooked 20th century women artists like Grace Hartigan, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Vara and Kiki Kogelnik.
Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue made $47.6 million (€41.87 million) at Christie’s.
Christie’s global president Alex Rotter said that what we are seeing is an emphasis on individual taste among collectors. “The market is no longer about following the crowd. It is about individual taste and passions. What art makes you feel. That is a very interesting and exciting development for the market”.
The global downturn is influenced by factors like a decline in the number of Asian buyers and the absence of Russian wealth. These do not affect the market for Irish art. Underlying global uncertainty does play into the Irish market but not at a level where the highs are stratospheric and the lows catastrophic. Our very conservative market is characterised by slow, steady growth. It operates in a relatively low value segment which shows up in all current statistics as most immune to all that is going on.
Homme assis by Picasso made $15.1 million (€13.28 million) at Sotheby’s.
One segment that has proved to be not at all immune is the market for young contemporaries. Entirely absent from the sales this month were prices in the millions for young artists that few people had ever heard of. One possible explanation is that buyers of mid-career artists can afford to wait as this work will continue to be available in the future, especially at a time of uncertainty.
The top lot of the week was Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Riggio collection. It made $47.6 million (€41.87 million) . Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumieres from the same collection made $35 million (€30.79 million). There was a record at Christie’s for Monet when his Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crepuscule, sold for $43 million (€37.82 million) and set a new record for his celebrated Poplars series.
At Sotheby’s Picasso’s Homme Assis from 1969 made $15.1 million (€13.28 million) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Leaves of a Plant made $12.9 million (€11.35 million). Roy Lichtenstein’s Reflections – Art made $5.4 million (€4.75 million), one of nine Lichtenstein’s which collectively made $29 million (€25.51 million).
Leaves of a Plant by Georgia O’Keeffe made $12.9 million (€11.35 million) at Sotheby’s.
Lady Mount Cashell – The Sisters of Nansfield: A Tale for young women
Among the new arrivals at Peter Harrington in London in May is this 1824 work by Margaret King, Lady Mount Cashell, a first edition of the author’s only published novel. It is the story of two young women who are induced by the untimely death of their father to consider society and its conventions with a more critical eye. King was a one-time pupil and great admirer of Mary Wollstonecraft, and a mentor to Mary Shelley and Claire Clairmont. In her novel King critiques the education normally bestowed upon upper class women and their financial dependency on men.
Born into the Anglo Irish Kingsborough family Margaret’s mother was Caroline Fitzgerald who had been married at 15 to Viscount Kingsborough, later Earl of Kingston whose family seat was Mitchelstown Castle in Co. Cork. Caroline was a first cousin of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. One of Margaret’s governesses at Mitchelstown was Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1791 Margaret married Stephen Moore, 2nd Earl of Mount Cashell. She opposed the abolition of the Irish Parliament and counted Robert Emmett among her circle. In Rome in the early 19th century she began an affair with George William Tighe of Ashford, Co. Wicklow whose political views were close to her own and legally separated in 1812. In Germany, disguised as a man, she studied medicine at the University of Jena and is known to have conducted a dispensary for the poor of Pisa. She published a very popular medical guide, Advice to young mothers on the physical education of children by a grandmother. Styling themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Mason George and Margaret set up a home in Pisa where they were visited often by the poet Shelley, his wife Mary Shelley (author Frankenstein and daughter of Wollstonecraft) and their translator Claire Clairmont. The Sisters of Nansfield is priced at £2,500.
There was a new world record for Mainie Jellett at Whyte’s in Dublin when Achill Horses, painted in 1933, sold for a hammer price of €210,000. This is the second highest price for a painting by an Irishwoman. The painting was the focus of a battle between two telephone bidders and went to a private collection. A Sarah Purser portrait of Constance and Eva Gore Booth made €240,000 in the Lissadell House auction in 2003.
Whyte’s auction demonstrated continuing confidence in the market for Irish works of rarity and quality. Paul Henry’s West of Ireland Bog sold for €125,000, while Anglesea Market, Dublin, 1933 by Harry Kernoff made the top estimate of €40,000.
William John Leech’s Gardeners Joy nearly doubled its lower estimate of €15,000 to sell at €28,000, and a Louis le Brocquy watercolour Image of Francis Bacon, 1980, made double its lower estimate of €12,000. An Evie Hone watercolour Abstract Composition estimated €2,000 to €3,000 made €5,400, Charles Vincent Lamb oil West of Ireland Landscape, estimated at €1,500 to €2,000 made €3,600, Bridget Riley Magenta And Blue, 2002 lithograph, estimated at €8,000 to €12,000 made €14,500.
The previous record for Jellett was €110,000 for The Land Éire 1940 at Whyte’s in 2019. This painting can be seen at the National Gallery of Ireland’s current exhibition Mainie Jellett Evie Hone The Art of Friendship.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 24 and May 20, 2025)
One of a pair of hide upholstered Chesterfield settees which made a hammer price of €11,500
The two day Great Irish Interiors sale at Sheppards in Durrow got off to a flying start today when a pair of hide upholstered roll back Chesterfield settees sold for a hammer price of €11,500. Estimated at €2,500-€3,500 they were the subject of a bidding battle between a buyer in the room and another on the internet. The auction continues today and tomorrow.
