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    • CONTRASTING LANDSCAPES AT SOTHEBY’S IRISH SALE

    February 16th, 2011

    Paul Henry's Achill Village at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £58,850

    Roderic O'Conor, Landscape at Cassis at Sotheby's Irish sale on March 29. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE; IT MADE £337,250

    Roderic O’Conor and Paul Henry sought inspiration from landscapes in different though beautiful locations.

    O’Conor favoured in France while Henry is most noted for his art in the west of Ireland.

    Each one features at Sotheby’s annual Irish sale in London on March 29.  Roderic O’Conor’s Landscape, Cassis is estimated at £120,000-180,000 (€140,000-210,000) while Paul Henry’s Achill Village is estimated at £30,000-50,000 (€36,300-60,500)

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    BURGES GOTHIC REVIVAL SETTLE SOLD FOR £850,000

    February 16th, 2011

    The Zodiac settle by William Burges. (click on image to enlarge)

    A piece of Gothic Revival furniture with unique architectural, artistic and literary connections has been sold for £850,000.  The Zodiac settle was designed by the leading 19th century architect William Burges (1827 – 1881).  Once owned by John Betjeman and Evelyn Waugh, it has just been sold by the Waugh family.
    Built around 1869 the ornate canopied bench combines the form of an Italian Reniassance day-bed.  Burges, whose first major commission was for St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork in 1863, installed the settle in his home at Tower House in Holland Park, London.  It was acquired by Betjeman in 1961 when he acquired the remaining short lease on Tower House. He gave it to Evelyn Waugh.
    Because of its significance the settle was subject to a temporary export bar from Britain last year after it was sold to an overseas buyer.  Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum, which houses a collection of Burges furniture, led a fundraising campaign to buy the work. Their campaign was successful thanks to a £480,000 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), £190,000 from the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and £180,000 from The Art Fund.
    The settle will now form the centre piece of the Art Gallery & Museum’s new William Burges Gallery, due to open to the public late in 2012.

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    Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds Make Four Times Estimate

    February 15th, 2011

    Gerhard Richters Abstraktes Bild, the top lot at Sotheby's Contemporary sale in London. (click on image to enlarge)

    The first of Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds (Kui Hua Zi) ever to appear at auction made £349,250 (£3.50 per seed) at Sotheby’s auction of contemporary art.  The 100 kilograms of the porcelain seeds made more than four times the pre-sale estimate of £80,000-120,000 in London. Four bidders both in the saleroom and on the telephones battled to acquire 100,000 of the artist’s seeds.  The seeds in this work of art are not from Tate Modern’s 11th Unilever Turbine Hall commission.

    Sunflower Seeds draws together many of the themes and formal concerns of Weiwei’s work to date.  Sotheby’s described it as a sculptural piece which is at once singular and complex in form and meaning.  This one was executed in 2010 and is from an edition of ten unique variants.
    This evening’s Contemporary Art evening sale realised £44,359,900.  When results from last weeks ‘Looking Closely’ sale are added it brings the total for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction series  so far this season to £88,022,550.  This is the  second-highest total for a February Contemporary Art sales series in London, and the highest total since July 2008.
    The top lot was as Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild of 1990, which sold for £7,209,250.
    (see antiquesandartireland.com post for February 10)
    UPDATE: The contemporary art day auction brought in a total of  £13,930,200 at Sotheby’s on February 16.  The result brings the overall total for contemporary art at Sotheby’s this season to £101,952,750. This is well above pre-sale expectations of £56-78million.

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    RARE SILVER A FEATURE AT INAUGURAL LIMERICK SALE

    February 14th, 2011

    This Limerick silver bowl comes up for auction at Hamptons in Limerick on February 23. UPDATE: IT WAS UNSOLD AT THE AUCTION BUT NEGOTIATIONS AFTERWARDS RESULTED IN ITS SALE FOR 20,000.

    An extremely rare plain

    The Kinsale Cup on offer at Hamptons in Limerick. UPDATE: IT WAS UNSOLD BUT NEGOTIATIONS ARE ONGOING

    silver bowl in Limerick silver features at the inaugural sale at Hamptons in Limerick on February 23.  It is one of a number of precious and highly collectable silver items in this sale.

    It is estimated that the ratio of Limerick pieces to Dublin silver is around one in 100.  The rarity, scarcity and quality of Irish Provincial silver  is one reason why it excites such interest among silver collectors.  This bowl, made by John Robinson c1735, is plainly stamped with the Arms of Molloy.  It is estimated at 20,000-25,000.
    The sale of 440 lots features a rare Queen Anne Kinsale cup circa 1710 by J&W Wall.  The organisers say it is the heaviest and most important piece of Kinsale silver ever on the open market. The estimate for this remarkable piece is 40,000-50,000.
    There is also a Limerick marrow scoop by Joseph Johns c1750 and a Limerick bright cut skewer by Connell overstruck by William Ward.  It is estimated at 4,500-5,500. Altogether there are over 30 silver lots in a sale which features furniture, art, jewellery and collectables.
    Hamptons Limerick Auction Rooms is at Garryglass Industrial Estate, Ballysimon Road, Limerick on exit 29 off the M7.


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    RECORD FOR ANY SURREALIST WORK AT AUCTION

    February 10th, 2011

    Dali's Portrait de Paul Eluard (click on image to enlarge)

    Portrait de Paul Eluard – a masterpiece by Salvador Dali – soared above its pre-sale estimate of £3.5-5 million to sell to an anonymous bidder on the phone for £13,481,250/$21,688,635 at Sotheby’s in London on February 10.

    This is a record for any Surrealist work of art at auction.   This price triples the record established for the artist at Christie’s on the previous evening in London.  It also stands a new record price for any Surrealist work of art sold at auction.

    The single owner sale of Modern and Contemporary Art, Looking Closely: A Private Collection brought a well above estimate total of £93.5 million.  This outstanding result of £93,520,600 / $150,455,941 / €110,307,368 was achieved against an estimate of £39,298,000-54,987,000.

    The top lot of the night was Francis Bacon’s  triptych Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud.

    The sale, which was 100% sold, set records for Dali, Julio González, Jean Fautrier and Wols. Wols’s Sans Titre (1946-1947) is one of only 40 works to have been created by an artist who  became a leading figure in art in Post-War Europe. It went for  £2,617,250, 17 times its pre-sale high estimate.

    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for February 5 and February 10.

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    NEW WORLD RECORDS FOR BONNARD AND DALI AT CHRISTIES

    February 10th, 2011
    There were world records for Bonnard and Dali at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art evening sale and auction of art of the Surreal.  The sales  made £84,879,800, selling 79% by lot and 84% by value, against a pre-sale estimate of £72,580,000 to £107,060,000.
    Purchasers came from 20 different countries with more than 10 clients competing on several lots. The most intense interest was for works released from private collections for the first time. Terrasse à Vernon by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) realized £7,209,250. It dates from 1923.  Works by Derain and Degas also broke the £5 million barrier.  The four works offered by the Art Institute of Chicago, by Picasso (2), Braque and Matisse, brought in  £10,043,400.
    The Art of the Surreal sale realized £22,999,250. The top price was paid for by L’aimant (The Magnet) by René Magritte (1898-1967) which made £4,745,250. Dalí’s Etude pour ‘Le miel est plus doux que le sang’ from 1926-27 made £4,073,250.
    (See antiquesandartireland.com post for February 7)

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    YEATS AND LE BROCQUY FAIL TO FIND BUYERS AT BONHAMS

    February 9th, 2011

    A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey made £18,000 at Bonhams. (Click on image to enlarge)

    The top lots by Yeats and le Brocquy failed to get away at Bonhams first Irish sale on February 9.  Insiders suggested that the timing of the sale, so early in the season and slap bang in the middle of London’s Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art selling season, was wrong.
    Only about half the 108 works on offer found buyers in an auction that brought in around £195,000 including buyer’s premium.  The top lot sold was an oil on canvas entitled A Sunlit Farmyard by Frank McKelvey (1895-1974).  It made £18,000 inclusive of buyer’s premium.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for January 4 and September 15.

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    STRONG BIDDING ACROSS ALL RANGES AT SOTHEBYS

    February 9th, 2011

    Sotheby’s day sale of Impressionist and Modern art on February 9 brought in £21,463,975 against a pre-sale estimate of  £16,934,000 – 23,608,000. The top was La Mandoline Noire, 1926, a late work by Juan Gris. It made £926,050.  Altogether 212 out of 266 lots sold, with strong bidding in all price ranges.  Over 500 people registered to bid from as far afield as Africa, US, Asia, Russia, Australia, North and South America and Europe. The total for Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s over the last two days is £90,298,370.

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    ATTIC SALE AT JAMES ADAM ON FEBRUARY 16

    February 9th, 2011

    This 19th century cut glass celery vase is estimated at 100-150. (click to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE 120

    This 19th century Berlin porcelain urn of amphora form is estimated at 100-200. (click to enlarge) IT MADE 160

    In Dublin James Adam will hold a clearance auction, billed as an Attic Sale, on Wednesday, February 16 at 11 a.m.  As the name suggests, this is a mixed bag sale with around 600 lots, most with low estimates.  Here is a small sample.

    UPDATE: IT WAS A SUCCESSFUL SALE WHICH ATTRACTED GOOD NUMBER OF VIEWERS.  AROUND 90 PER CENT OF THE LOTS ON OFFER FOUND BUYERS.

    This Edwardian display cabinet in the chinoiserie style is estimated at 400-600. (click on image to enlarge) IT SOLD FOR 500

    An Art Nouveau brass fender and a pierced fender, estimated at 200-300. (click to enlarge) THESE MADE 650

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    PICASSO MAKES £25 MILLION AT SOTHEBY’S

    February 9th, 2011

    Picasso's La Lecture (click on image to enlarge)

    Picasso’s La Lecture sold  for  £25,241,250, more than double the low estimate, at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale. There was a heated six minute long bidding contest between seven bidders on the phone and in the saleroom.  The 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter was bought over the phone by an anonymous buyer.

    The sale brought in £68,834,400, well within the pre-sale estimate of £55,630,000-79,250,000.  There were 42 lots on offer and 32 sold, mostly at prices at or above their estimate.  Fifteen works made over one million pounds and the average lot value was £2.15 million.
    Among the works that failed to sell was Alberto Giacometti’s bronze portrait of his younger brother from 1957.  Grand buste de Diego avec bras was estimated at £3.5 to £5 million.  Dealers reckoned it failed to sell because of its pale colour.

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