John Behan’s bronze sculpture Birds in Flight will highlight the online sale at Woodward Auctioneers in Cork on November 23. One of our most renowned contemporary sculptors, Behan is the subject of a new feature-length film titled Odyssey directed by Donald Taylor-Black documenting his involvement with migrant camps in Greece.
A commitment to social justice has always been part of his work and John Behan, now in his mid-80s, has given art workshops to migrants and refugees in Athens. The bronze at Woodward’s is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
Tropical by Jane Willoughby at Art Source at the RDS
Art Source is at the RDS in Dublin from today until November 17. The fair offers everything from pristine prints of Andy Warhol’s iconic Marilyn series to Irish and international artists and a good selection of affordable art. Organisers anticipate that more than 15,000 people will visit over the weekend.
19th-century ormolu-mounted marquetry Boulle cabinet. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This historically important Irish cabinet is one of a pair that will highlight Sheppards three day sale of contents from Grange Manor, Kilkenny and other clients on November 26, 27 and 28. Research indicates that the ebony, pewter, brass and tortoiseshell marquetry cabinets were sold as separate lots at the Kilkenny Castle dispersal sale in 1935 as lots 311 and 312. One of the cabinets was sold for 37 pounds and ten shillings then. Almost 90 years later the estimate for the pair of €100,000-€150,000. There is a photograph by Robert French showing them in the Long Gallery at the castle in 1865.
Each sports a rectangular shaped top above two glazed leaf scroll inlaid doors flanking a bacchic mask and ram’s head. There is a decorated central panelled door between fluted brass inset columns. These magnificent cabinets stand on gadroon moulded bases fronted by lion masks terminating on turned toupie feet. The auction will be on view at Grange Manor from November 23-25 and the sale will be in Durrow and online.
Alexander Calder – Weeds. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $3.6 MILLION
Mauvaisesherbes or Weeds by Alexander Calder comes up at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York on November 18 with an estimate of $3 million – $5 million. Composed of 15 elements arranged along a central axis in a tapered cascade it is an example of his career-long, transformative exploration of sculptural abstracted forms. The artwork is invigorated through its tensions—between the geometric and the organic, the structural and the fluid and between spatial and volumetric weight. It is precisely this dynamism for which Calder’s mobiles garnered their widespread acclaim and which has made his sculptures some of the most recognisable of the twentieth century. Executed in 1963 Weeds comes to market from the collection of Erica Jong, American poet and novelist whose trailblazing work within her own field complements the innovation Calder charted in sculpture. The auction features artworks that capture the spirit of artists working around the globe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who dared to challenge established norms of artistic practice to create a new and wholly modern vision of art.
A Mamluk enamelled glass mosque lamp made for Chief of Corps Saif ad-din Sarghitmish (d.1358) Egypt or Syria, 1351-1358 AD.
There was a new world record for a glass object at auction at Bonham’s in London when an example of Islamic glass sold for £5,130,400. The Mamluk enamelled glass mosque lamp made for Chief of Corps Saif ad-din Sarghitmish (d.1358) Egypt or Syria, 1351-1358 AD is the highest priced glass object ever sold at auction. It had an estimate of £600,000-1,000,000.
The lamp was consigned by a descendant of Egypt’s first Prime Minister, Nubar Pasha, having been in the family for more than a century. It had been regarded by the family as a decorative piece – it had been used as a vase for dried flowers. Mosque lamps are considered some of the most technically accomplished examples of medieval glassware anywhere in the world. The technique of simultaneously gilding and enamelling glass was almost unique to the Mamluk court, where they were produced in the 13th and 14th centuries for decoration and provision of light in Mosques.
A major European criminal network forging and selling artworks by some of the biggest names in modern art including works attributed to Banksy, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso has been broken up by police in Italy. Six forgery workshops were uncovered – two in Tuscany, one in Venice as well as in Spain and in Belgium – and 38 people were arrested.
Those arrested face charges of conspiracy to handle stolen goods, forgery and illegal sale of artworks, the Carabinieri cultural squad and the Pisa prosecutors’ office said in a joint statement on Monday. Authorities were tipped off in 2023 after they seized about 200 fake pieces from the collection of a businessman in Pisa, including a copy of a drawing by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani. Other artists impersonated included Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Salvador Dali, Henry Moore, Gustav Klimt, Joan Mirò, Jackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Piet Mondrian. More than 2,100 forged artworks were recovered with a potential sale value of about €200 million.
Roderic O’Conor, 1860-1940 – Breton Farmstead with Haystack, c1892 (€180,000-220,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Breton Farmstead with Haystack, a c1892 work by Roderic O’Conor, will highlight the Outstanding Irish Art evening auction at de Veres in Dublin on November 26. It is one of three oils by the artist in the sale, which also features leading lots by Walter Osborne, Jack B. Yeats, William Leech and Louis le Brocquy. There are important examples of work by Irish female artists Norah McGuinness, Mary Swanzy, Camille Souter, Grace Henry, Rose Barton, Letitia Hamilton, Nano Reid and Anne Madden. This will be the first in-room auction by de Veres since 2019 and it will be live online too.
Mary Swanzy HRHA, 1882-1978 – Cubist Still Life with Yellow Jug (€40,000-60,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 48,000 AT HAMMER
George I coffee pot with side handle by Thomas Walker, Dublin (1726)
The National Antique Fair at Limerick Racecourse next weekend, magnificent jewels in Geneva and Irish art in London are among upcoming events which will draw large numbers of collectors to the fascinating world of art, antiques and collectibles at all price points this month.
Among the many treasures for which the hunt is hotting up are an antique Irish silver coffee pot, a Georgian officers gorget or throat covering from the Royal Meath Militia, vintage fashion and Irish art and collectibles at the Limerick fair, a Cartier diamond necklace at Christie’s in Geneva on November 12, jewellery from the Royal Court of Bulgaria at Sotheby’s in Geneva on November 13, masterpieces by William Orpen and John Lavery at Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish art evening sale in London on November 14 and a selection of Irish art from Paul Henry, George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson and Nano Reid to contemporary works by Jack Coulter, Richard Hearns, John Behan, Orla de Bri and more at Sotheby’s day sale in London on November 15.
Eily Henry vintage fashion will feature this headwear at the National Antiques Fair in Limerick
Opening times for the National Antiques, Art and Vintage fair at Limerick Racecourse are from 11 am to 6 on November 16 and 17. There will be 80 dealers from right around Ireland with everything from a pair of vases by Zak Scherzer of Vienna with paintings by Rembrandt at Edwin Mercer, vintage flagons, clocks and collectibles at Dan Hartnett and an exceptional George I coffee pot by Thomas Walker (Dublin 1726) which Weldon’s will display on November 17.
Vintage fashion and jewellery is enduringly popular. Among the choices available are an eyecatching Philip Treacy type hat at Eily Henry and a nine carat yellow gold wide gate bracelet at Bedlam antiques. There is porcelain and glass at Brian Hurley, Irish art at the Purple Onion gallery, militaria including the gorget of Lt. Col. Thomas Pepper of the Royal Meath Militia and selections of antique furniture, jewellery, books and collectibles to inspire and delight.
Art Deco diamond necklace, signed Cartier London, 1935, at Christie’s UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR US$5,090,571
It is rare to encounter a group of jewels from the 1920’s and ’30’s which have remained in the same family and have not been remodelled. A magnificent Cartier Art Deco Indo-Persian diamond necklace from 1935 will highlight a collection of superb jewels from the Sassoon family at Christie’s in Geneva next Tuesday The bank where they were stored was completely in World War II. A helpful policeman advised the owner at the ruins to check with a local police station. It transpired that her deposit box had been transferred there. Never at auction before the necklace is estimated at US$1 million – $1.5 million (€920,000-€1,380,000). At Sotheby’s in Geneva on the following day more than 100 pieces from Tsar Ferdinand and the Royal Court of Bulgaria will come under the hammer.
Sotheby’s will bring a great selection of Irish art to the international stage at sales in London next Thursday and Friday. A portrait of Mrs. St. George by Orpen and a Venetian scene by Lavery will feature in the evening sale on Thursday. A Cork collection of maritime paintings by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson and art and sculpture by Gareth Reid – Sky Portrait Artist of the Decade, 2023 – Tony O’Malley, Rowan Gillespie, Patrick Hennessy, Felim Egan, John Kingerlee and William Conor and others feature at the day sale next Friday.
Still Life with Butterfly by Patrick Hennessy at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Regency bird cage wine cooler. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,050 AT HAMMER
Is it a bird cage? No it is a bird cage wine cooler among the lots at Victor Mee’s two day online sale in Co. Armagh on November 13 and 14 at 6.30 pm on each day. On offer are complete contents from Umgola house and gardens, Monaghan Road, Armagh in conjunction with the retirement sale of Peter Derry, antique dealer of Annaghmore, Portadown. A total of 960 lots will come under the hammer. The wine cooler is lot 153 and estimated at €1,500-€3,000.
A vase designed by Constance Spry. UPDATE: THIS MADE €875 AT HAMMER
Constance Spry is best remembered nowadays as the creator, with Rosemary Hume, of coronation chicken. The spicy, mayonnaise concoction- filling for millions of 21st century airport sandwiches – must have been revolutionary in these latitudes in 1952. Derby born Spry, who lived for a time in Ireland, was a creative independent innovator and ahead of her time businesswoman who ultimatey employed 60 people at her flower decoration shop on South Audley St. in London.
A vase designed by Spry comes up at Hegarty’s Stoneview Collection Part II online sale in Bandon on November 13. The twin fern handled vase on pedestal with unglazed exterior and glazed interior was produced around 1930 at Fulham Pottery. The estimate is €400-€800. The sale offers antique furniture, silver, art, jewellery and collectors items including a Strahan console table and a landscape by William Langley. Highlights from the first part of the collection included a Lusitania life jacket which made €1,050 at hammer over a top estimate of €400 and a pair of George II Irish silver candlesticks which sold for €2,900.
A console table by Robert Strahan. UPDATE: THIS MADE 460 AT HAMMER
