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    • GONE FROM THE STREET, NOT FROM THE BUSINESS

    August 12th, 2011

    Le Petit Cafe by Mark O'Neill from The Lee Gallery on-line. (click on image to enlarge).

    THE Lee Gallery used to inhabit a prominent location on Lavitt’s Quay in Cork city centre.  It is gone from the street, not from the business.

    Even though the business of selling art is slow in the current climate the Lee Gallery continues to maintain an on-line presence.  The work on the left, Le Petit Cafe, is by the artist Mark O’Neill.  It is available from The Lee Gallery on-line.

    Sad to report on a day when Cork city has been voted one of the top ten European cities to visit  this gallery is just one of a number of art galleries in the city which has closed in the recession.

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    EXTRAORDINARY ELIZABETHAN REVIVAL FOUR POSTER AT CHRISTIE’S

    August 10th, 2011

    This Elizabethan Revival oak four poster bed c1920 from the Cowdray Park sale. (Click on image to enlarge)

    A.E.D.G. Stirling Brown (British, fl. 1920-1929) “Starshot” – A polo pony in the grounds at Cowdray. (Click on image to enlarge)

    THIS extraordinary Elizabethan Revival four poster bed features at Christie’s three day sale at Cowdray Park in West Sussex from September 13-15 next.  Made around 1920 it is a copy of the original carved oak bed made for Rothamsted Manor, Hertfordshire.  It was almost certainly commissioned by Weetman Harold Miller Pearson, 2nd Viscount Cowdray, for The Silver Bedroom at Cowdray.

    It is estimated at £10,000-£15,000.

    The image on the right shows the polo pony Starshot.  It is by the British artist A.E.D.G. Stirling Brown.  The estimate on this is £1,000-£1,500.

    The three day sale at Cowdray Park will include more than 1,000 lots with estimates from £100 to £250,000.

    (See antiquesandartireland.com post for August 6)

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    BBC ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP IN IRELAND

    August 8th, 2011
    Filming for the BBC Antiques Road Trip will take place at the Ashgrove Auction Rooms in Co. Laois on Tuesday August 16.  Antique specialists Thomas Plant and Mark Hales will get a small budget and vintage transportation at the start of their week in Ireland. Thus equipped they will source antiques around Ireland.  The idea then is to grow their kitty by selling the items they have acquired at the sale at Ashgrove Auction Rooms on August 16.  The programme will be aired in the autumn.
    The sale on August 16 at 4.30 p.m. features over 1,000 lots including silver, plate, jewellery, ceramics, glass, books, stamps, clocks, art, lighting, mirrors, antique furniture and ephemera.

    This early 19th century cutlery box on later stand is at the Ashgrove Auction Rooms sale on August 16. It is estimated at 700-900.

    A colour printed poster showing photographic portraits of De Valera and nine members of the first Fianna Fail cabinet against a stylised four leaf clover Celtic motif border. Dublin: Irish Press, 1933. It is estimated at 300-500. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

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    ORPEN SELF-PORTRAIT A HIGHLIGHT AT COWDRAY PARK

    August 6th, 2011

    Self-portrait by William Orpen. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE A HAMMER PRICE OF £115,000.

    This self portrait by Sir William Orpen is a highlight of Christie’sthree day auction at Cowdray Park, West Sussex, next month.  Famous for his portraits of others (his portrait of Gardenia St. George with Riding Crop sold for £1.98 million at Sotheby’s Irish sale in 2001) Orpen made a number of self-portraits.   He scowls from the frame in The Dead Ptarmigan in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
    Self-portrait seated in black was purchased directly from the artist by Mrs. Gertrude Kinnell as a gift for her sister Annie, 1st Viscountess Cowdray, in 1927. It is estimated at £150,000-250,000. The three day sale at Cowdray Park from September 13-15 will offer over 1,000 lots.  Estimates range from £100 to over £250,000 and the sale is expected to realise more than £4 million. It will include works from Cowdray Park, known as the home of polo, and from Dunecht, the Scottish home of Lord Cowdray’s brother, Charles Pearson. On offer is a diverse selection of furniture, art, tapestries, arms, armour, porcelain, glass, textiles, books, manuscripts, silver, clocks, carpets and Oriental art and porcelain

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    IRISH DESK AND GRIERSON PAINTING AT CHRISTIE’S

    August 5th, 2011

    This 18th century Irish desk is at Christie's Interiors, South Kensington on August 9. UPDATE: THIS MADE £3,250

    Homeward Bound by Charles Grierson at Christie's. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

    Among the lots of particular Irish interest at Christie’s Interiors sale in South Kensington, London on August 9 are this Irish desk a painting by the Cork born artist Charles Grierson.

    The mid 18th century Irish George II mahogany kneehole desk is estimated at £1,500-£2,500. The moulded top is above a secretaire drawer above ten further short drawers.

    The artist Charles MacIver Grierson was born at Queenstown in Cork in 1864.  He graduated from the Cork School of Art (now the Crawford) in 1881.  He was apprenticed to the architect William Henry Hill before attending the School of Art.  He susquently settled in London where he studied at Heatherley’s Life School and practiced as an artist. He died in London in 1939.  Homeward Bound, a pencil and watercolour which is indistinctly dated from the 1890’s, is estimated at £600-£800.

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    BEST QUARTER RESULTS EVER AT SOTHEBY’S THIS YEAR

    August 4th, 2011

    Venetian Guardi achieved an Old Master record. (click on image to enlarge)

    SOTHEBY’S in New York has just announced their best quarter in the company’s history.  Sotheby’s consolidated sales reached a record $3.4 billion in the first half of 2011. For the three and six months to June 30, 2011 net income increased by 48% and  54% to $127.2 million and $129.7 million, respectively, when compared to the prior year. This improvement is principally due to significantly higher auction and private sale commission.

    Competitive pressure to win high value consignments resulted in lower commission margins.  General and administrative expenses increased $7.9 million, or 24%, in  the second quarter and $9.8 million, or 15%, in the first half, largely due to increased consulting fees to develop Sotheby’s strategic initiatives and unfavorable movements in foreign currency exchange rates.

    “This is the best quarter in Sotheby’s history,” said Bill Ruprecht, President and Chief Executive  Officer.  “Great works of art are enormously desirable to collectors from every corner of the world right now….As I look back on these extraordinary six months for our business, the global appeal of art was one of the few constants in a period of  continued economic uncertainty”.  He said that an exciting fall season is already taking shape: “Clients around the world can expect a number of wonderful sales and objects at Sotheby’s this autumn”.
    London sales included tremendous successes.  Contemporary art surpassed the high estimates. Egon Schiele’s Hauser mit bunter Waesche (Vorstadt II) made $40 million, almost double the previous auction record for the artist and  Guardi’s Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon, made $42.9 million, the second highest price ever achieved for an Old Master Painting.  (See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 6)

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    WILLIAM CONOR’S THE RED SCARF MAKES 10,000 AT DOLAN’S, BALLYNAHINCH

    August 3rd, 2011

    The Red Scarf by William Conor made 10,000 at Dolan's.

    The Red Scarf by the Northern Ireland artist William Conor (1881-1968) was the top lot at the Dolan’s summer Irish art auction at Ballynahinch Castle, Connemara, Co. Galway on August 3.  It made 10,000.

    The artist is celebrated for his portrayals of working class life in Belfast.  The Red Scarf, a wax crayon on paper piece, is signed and dated 1922.  It was estimated at 10,000-12,000.

    The Ulster Museum holds more than 50  works in crayon and watercolour by William Conor.  He exhibited in London at the Royal Academy in 1921 and in Dublin at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1918 to 1967.  He was awarded an OBE in 1952 and was president of the Royal Ulster Academy from 1957 to 1964.

    The auction was over 80 per cent sold and the majority of the most expensively estimated lots found buyers.

    See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 26.

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    VICTORIAN ENGLISH IMAGES AT CHRISTIE’S INTERIORS SALE

    August 3rd, 2011

    There is something nostalgic and even retrospective about these two Victorian images created by English artists abroad in the 19th century.  Neither work is expensive.  Each one features at the next Christie’s Interiors sale at South Kensington in London on August 9.

    The work on the left is by Elijah Walton (1832-1880).  No prizes for guessing the title of this pencil watercolour and body colour on paper.  An Alpine Landscape  is estimated at just £400-600.  The other work, which Christie’s have catalogued as English School 1847 is called Cypresses on the Bosphorus, inscribed and dated ‘Cyprepes – on The Bosphorus 1847’ (on the mount).  It is unframed and the lot includes another image of the mouth of the Bosphous at the entrance to the Black Sea by W.B. Urmston.  The estimate is £500-700.  Both images are © Christie’s Images Limited 2011.

    Elijah Walton's Alpine Landscape (click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £625.

    Cypresses on the Bosphorus (click on image to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS MADE £850


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    WEST CORK NO RESERVES ART AUCTION 100% SOLD

    August 1st, 2011

    THE Morgan O’Driscoll no reserves art sale of work by west Cork based artists on July 31 was 100 per cent sold.  The top lot was Martin Stone’s oil of Ballydehob, which made 1,600.  In general the 111 works sold for prices which were generally under the low estimate.  There was a big attendance at the Skibbereen viewing and sale. The no reserve auction demonstrated a strong appetite for value in the market in the teeth of Ireland’s continuing recession.

    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for July 15 and July 28.

    MARTIN STONE'S BALLYDEHOB WAS THE TOP LOT. IT MADE 1,600.

    This 1984 photograph of Al Pacino by John Minihan sold for 225.

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    MAGNIFICENT PIECES FROM THE SAFRA COLLECTIONS

    July 29th, 2011
    The French commode and Russian vases pictured below will feature at the four day sale of  the Lily and Edmond J. Safra Collections  at Sotheby’s in New York in October.  Of interest to connoisseurs worldwide the sale offers lots that Sotheby’s say are at the pinnacle of their respective collecting categories.
    The six dedicated sales of the collection from October 18-21 are expected to realise more than $40 million.  A two day sale of the Safra collections at Sotheby’s in 2005 brought in $49 million.
    UPDATE:  The group of French 18th century lacquer furniture headed by the lacquer commode pictured which made $6,914,500 brought in a total of $12.5 million.  The four day sale realised $45,900,064.
    (See antiquesandartireland.com post for July 10, 2011.)

    A pair of Imperial Porcelain Vases, decorated with portraits of Alexandra Fedorovna and her father, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, after the portrait by Franz Krüger now in the 1812 Gallery of the Hermitage (est. $1.5/2.5 million). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD.

    A Louis XVI Ormolu-Mounted Japanese lacquer commode with secretaire en suite, attributed to Adam Weisweiler (est. $5/7 million). (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $6,914,500


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