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    • TREASURE AT SOTHEBY’S

    June 7th, 2010

    North German amber box made 627,250 at Sotheby;s in London on July 6. (click on image to enlarge).

    UPDATED

    This North German amber casket bearing the arms of Prince William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal of Great Britain, probably made in Danzig around 1734 goes on sale at Sotheby’s in London on July 6.

    Prince William IV of Orange (1711-1751) was a son of Johan Willem Friso, Prince of Orange, who stood to inherit the Principality of Orange under the terms of the will of William of Orange (1650-1702), popularly known as King Billy in parts of this country. He had no children.

    The beautifully crafted box was probably made to celebrate the union of Prince William IV of Orange and Anne, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of King George II of Great Britain. Their marriage at St James’ Palace in 1734 enhanced the strong ties between Great Britain and the Netherlands. The amber from which the casket is made would have been dredged from the Baltic Sea, where it had been collected as fossilised resin from the forested land there over 100,000 years ago. Individual pieces are rarely over two inches long and this casket is made with hundreds of pieces. It is estimated to make £200,000-300,000.

    The casket is one of 21 works with exceptional provenance at Sotheby’s “Treasures” sale in July. The quality of each piece is matched by extraordinary provenance. The decorative art pieces in the sale, from porcelain to silver, snuff boxes, furniture and textiles, range in date from the 16th to the 18th century. Previous owners include Queen Marie Antoinette and the Medici Family.

    A monumental silver wine cooler weighing 168 pounds and measuring well over a meter across is reckoned by Sotheby’s to be the most important piece of English silver to come to the market in 50 years. It was made for Lord Raby when he was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary to Berlin in 1706 by Queen Anne. It is estimated to sell for £1.5 – 2.5 million, the highest estimate for any piece of English silver.

    This monumental silver wine cooler made a record 2,2505,250 at Sotheby's on July 6. (click on image to enlarge).

    An Italian engraved ivory inlaid rosewood centre table made for the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II Della Rovere (1549-1631), c 1596-7, and subsequently part of the collection of the Medici family is estimated at £500,000-1,000,000.

    There is  a set of three parcel gilt stools made for Queen Marie Antoinette’s Salon des Jeux at the Châteaux of Compiègne and Fontainbleau, Louis XVI, circa 1786-87 by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné (1748-1803). They are estimated at £150,000-250,000.

    Mario Tavella, Sotheby’s Deputy Chairman Europe, who spearheaded the sale, explained: “Someone asked me once: what makes something a treasure? I thought about it…. It struck me that, in the general course of life, encounters with real treasures happen all too rarely. And so I made it my job to set about finding them.”

    The pieces in this sale have been associated with names like Marie Antoinette, the Dukes of Devonshire, the Rothschild family, the Imperial family of Russia, the Princes Carafa of Roccella, the Duke of Urbino, the Medici family and the Earls of Macclesfield, Strafford and Dartmouth. What they share is a freshness to the market.

    UPDATE, JULY 6:  THE amber casket sold for £657,250 – well beyond its pre-sale estimate of £200,000-300,000.  The wine cooler sold for £2,505,250, establishing a new record price for English silver. T



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    ADAMS BONHAMS GROSS 1.5 MILLION

    June 3rd, 2010

    Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983) Opus I No. 41 Esmeralda 1942 Sold for €62,000

    THE Adams Bonhams sale of important Irish art in Dublin on June 2, 2010 brought in 1.5 million euro with 75 per cent of 168 lots sold. The top lot was Gerard Dillon’s Mending Nets which made 80,000.

    Next was Lavery’s portrait of Mrs. Arthur Franklin which brought in 75,000, followed by Colin Middleton’s Esmerelda, which made 62,000, a Yeats oil on panel entitled Dusty Lane, Kerry (1913) which made 50,000 and a watercolour entitled Procession by le Brocquy which sold for 46,000.

    There were top prices too for Paul Henry whose Evening in Connemara made 45,000, Middleton’s Ecstatic Figure, Largymore made 40,000, as did Walter Osborne’s A Glade in Phoenix Park, William Conor’s The Street Dance made 38,000, Basil Blackshaw’s Fighting Cockerel made 32,000, Middleton’s The Sister Voice made 30,000 and so did Sean Keating’s Segregation, 1972.

    An oil on board by George Collie RHA (1904-1975) The Fruit and Vegetable Market, Smithfield, Dublin 1927 made 28,000 at Adams Bonhams on June 2, 2010

    This oil by Gerard Dillon (1916-1971) Mending Nets, Aran made 80,000 at Adams Bonhams on June 2, 2010

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    U WHO?

    June 3rd, 2010

    A rare 1978 image of U2 at Limerick (click on image to enlarge)

    An historic set of photographs of U2 at the Stella Ballroom, Limerick, during the Limerick Civic Week Pop ’78 Competition, on March 17, 1978 is due to come under the hammer at Bonhams in Knightsbridge, London on June 23, 2010.

    It was the first time the band appeared under the name of U2. There was a prize of £500 and the promise of a record deal. They had entered the competition under the name they were using at the time, The Hype. However, they felt that if they did well in the competition, they would be stuck with this name and so changed to U2 at the last minute, a choice they had been considering adopting for a while.

    On the evening of the event the band found themselves up against a number of other, seemingly more experienced entrants and felt there was little hope of success. Bono recalled in the book ‘U2 On U2’, ”There were bands there that could play in time and in tune and with great confidence, all of which we couldn’t pull off. But, you know, some bands have everything but ‘it’. We had nothing but ‘it’.” They played three tracks, ‘Sweet Missions’, ‘Life On A Distant Planet’ and ‘The TV Song’ and, much to everyone’s astonishment, they were awarded first place. It was a pivotal moment for the band and Larry has commented that ”…We had no real idea how winning in Limerick would change our lives.”

    One of the images has been used in the photographer’s own publicity material in the past but the remainder are unpublished. The photographs, comprising thirteen strip negatives and a corresponding set of prints, 20.5 x 30.5cm (8 x 12in), to be sold with copyright, are estimated at £10,000 – 15,000.  www.bonhams.com

    UPDATE:  The images failed to sell.


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    PARIS CONTEMPORARY SUCCESS

    June 2nd, 2010

    A work by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1984 entitled Joy was the top lot at the Sotheby’s summer evening sale of contemporary art in Paris on June 2. It was bought by a European private collector for €1,464,750, a figure well above the top estimate of 900,000. The sale achieved a successful total of €9,517,050, a figure well above the pre-sale expectations of €5.1-7.0 million. Sell through rates of 93% by lot and almost 100% by value rank among the highest ever seen at a contemporary sale at Sotheby’s Paris. A remarkable 74% of sold lots realised prices in excess of their high estimate.

    Sotheby’s Summer Sales of Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary Art in Paris concluded on the evening of June 3 having brought an outstanding total of €31,332,325.  The Impressionist and Modern sale brought in 17.5 million and the evening and day contemporary art sales brought in a total of 13.8 million.  There were new auction records across the two days for Helena Viera da Silva, Jacques Villeglé and Louis Marcoussis. Four works sold for over one million euro and 14 for over 500,000.

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    TOP SECRET PHOTO

    June 2nd, 2010

    Marilyn, JFK and Bobby in 1962 (pic: Cecil Stoughton, copyright Keya Morgan)

    A total of nine copies of The Secret Photo, the only known photograph of Marilyn Monroe with JFK and Bobby Kennedy, have been sold out on the first day of sale at 23,000 dollars.  The rare image was on offer at the Art and Artifacts Gallery in West Hollywood, California.

    The photo is on exhibition there until June 20. It was taken after Monroe sang Happy Birthday Mr. President at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, the last major public appearance before her mysterious death the following August. Had she lived she would now be 84.

    The black-and-white photo, taken by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton, showed Monroe still wearing the infamously tight-fighting, sheer rhinestone-studded dress she wore when singing earlier at Madison Square Garden. The dress sold at auction in 1999 for £860,000. President Kennedy appears to be turning away from the camera, something he rarely did, while his brother, the U.S. attorney general, looks toward them.

    They were photographed many times but the Secret Service and the FBI confiscated every picture.  The negative for this one was missed because it was in the dryer when the agents came searching.

    Stoughton, who died in 2008, was reluctant to allow the image to become public until after former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s death in 1994. He made and signed 10 prints and sold them to filmmaker Keya Morgan. Nine go on sale next Tuesday. The 10th print was given to singer Michael Jackson, a big Monroe fan, two years ago.

    Email: info@art-artifact.com

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    WHYTE’S GROSS ONE MILLION

    June 1st, 2010

    The Turn of the Road by Paul Henry made 80,000 at Whyte's on Monday, May 31

    THE Whyte’s sale in Dublin on Monday, May 31 brought in over one million euro and achieved a 90 per cent sell through rate. The top lots were Paul Henry’s The Turn of the Road which made 80,000 and Tony O’Malley’s Spectral Garden, Bahamas, which made 38,000.

    It was a good sale for contemporary Irish artists with works by Tony O’Malley, Gerard Dillon,  John Shinnors, Hughie O’Donoghue, William Crozier, Charlie Tyrell and Patrick Scott all hotly contested.

    Tony O'Malley's Spectral Garden, Bahamas, 1987 made 38,000 at Whyte's on May 31, 2010

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    LOUISE BOURGEOIS DIES

    June 1st, 2010

    Louise Bourgeois, the world renowned French born New York based sculptor, died on Monday, May 31, 2010. Though 98 she worked up to the end. She died of following a heart attack. Her influential sculptures explored the deepest feelings of women about birth, sexuality and death.

    Bourgeois was the first sculptor commissioned for The Unilever Series to celebrate the opening of Tate Modern in 2000. The monumental female spider, Maman, carrying her white marble eggs beneath her, was the work visitors first saw when they entered the vast space of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern at Bankside in London. Hers was the first new work to be commissioned for the gallery.


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    SKIBBEREEN SALE ON SUNDAY

    May 31st, 2010

    This antique Regency rosewood sofa table with satinwood crossbanding and string Inlay over one drawer and splayed legs made 2,000 at Skibbereen on June 6. It had been estimated to make 3,000 - 4,000

    UPDATED

    Morgan O’Driscoll held a successful a sale of 400 lots of antique furniture, silver and art at the Old Railway House on the by

    Sweet Pea by Kenneth Webb was the top lot.

    pass road in Skibbereen Sunday, June 2.  He plans to hold another mainly furniture sale in Skibbereen in July.

    The top lot was Kenneth Webb’s Sweet Pea which made 5,750. Another work by Webb sold for 3,600.
    A Regency sofa table (pictured left) made 2,000.

    Other top antique  furniture lots were a good Georgian chest of drawers which sold for 1.900,  a William IV library table made 1,800, a 19th century crossbanded chest on chest made 1,600 and  a Victorian walnut credenza sold for 1,400.

    There were 50 lots of silver and the top lot here was a Birmingham tea set which made 775.

    Chairs sold well too. A pair of William IV upholstered armchairs made 1,100 and a set of ten 19th century dining chairs made 1,200.

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    IRISH PAINTINGS FARE BADLY AT CHRISTIE’S

    May 28th, 2010

    Irish paintings fared badly at the Christie’s sale of 20th Century British and Irish art in London on May 27.  The auction house was hoping to achieve a price of over a million pounds for a 1949 Yeats entitled Until we meet again. The painting, which was probably over estimated, failed to sell.

    In fact only three of the 13 Irish lots found buyers in a sale which was largely unpromoted in Ireland.  The view in this country is that the new policy at Christie’s of mixing Irish with British 20th century art in the same auction does not work.   One of the four works by Paul Henry, his only known still life, entitled Chrysanthemums, sold. It made 51,600.  The Music has come by Yeats made 55,000.  A William Scott, entitled Together, made 22,500 and another Scott failed to sell.  Christies failed to sell works by Louis le Brocquy,  Sir John Lavery, Colin Middleton, Sir William Orpen and William Conor.

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    A total of 390 lots of important Irish Art comes under the hammer at two sales in Dublin this week.

    May 25th, 2010

    In Davy's Back Snug, Dublin (1936) by Harry Kernoff at Adams Bonhams

    ADAMS BONHAMS

    The Adams Bonhams sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on Wednesday June 2 at 6 p.m. will feature 168 lots.

    There are three large works by Tony O’Malley from the McClelland Collection, recently on loan to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Various Events 1979 is estimated at 40,000-60,000, Irish Inscape with Skull, Callan 1981 is estimated at 20,000-30,000 and Two Winter Drawings with Panels 1981 is estimated at 10,000-15,000.

    Harry Kernoff’s In Davy’s Back Snug (1936) is estimated at 50,000-70,000 and Gerard Dillon’s In the London Flat has an estimate of 60,000-80,000. There are four works by Colin Middleton in the sale, the top two estimated at 40,000-60,000, another with an estimate of 30,000-50,000 and one at 20,000-30,000. Also featured are two tapestries by Louis le Brocquy estimated at 25,000-35,000 each and a watercolour from his Procession Series. Sir John Lavery’s Portrait of Mrs. Arthur Franklin is estimated at 40,000-60,000, Edward McGuire’s Owl with Oak Leaves has an estimate of 15,000-20,000 and George Collie’s monumental depiction of the fruit and vegetable market at Smithfield in 1927 is estimated at 30,000-50,000. Other artists featured include Daniel O’Neill, George Campbell, Jerome Connor, William Conor, James Humbert Craig, Lilian Davidson, Charles Lamb, Markey Robinson, Patrick Collins, Evie Hone, Letitia Marion Hamilton, Patrick Hennessy, Paul Henry, George Russell Æ, Mary Swanzy, J.B. Vallely and Jack B. Yeats. Viewing at St. Stephen’s Green is from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 30, from 9.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, May 31 and June 1 and from 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday June 2.

    Downloadable catalogue on www.adams.ie

    In the London Flat by Gerard Dillon at Adams Bonhams

    The Turn of the Road, c1941 by Paul Henry at Whyte's

    WHYTE’S

    The Turn of the Road, a classical Connemara landscape by Paul Henry, features in the Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art on Monday May 31 at 6 p.m. Discovered during Whyte’s valuation day in Belfast in January it is estimated at 60,000-80,000. In Henry’s oeuvre this painting was previously untraced or unidentified by Henry expert Dr. S.B. Kennedy.

    There is particular Cork interest in this 222 lot sale as it includes 81 works from the collection of the late senior counsel Jim O’Driscoll, a former director of the Fenton Gallery in Cork and a supporter of local and national artists. Some of these are relatively new to the auction market, as their work is more likely to be found in contemporary galleries. Cork artists featured include Diarmuid O Ceallachain, Bridget Flannery, Maurice Desmond, Jill Dennis, Michael Mulcahy, William Harrington with sculptural works by Eilis O’Connell and John Burke.

    Of the contemporary artists championed by Jim O’Driscoll, Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Charles Tyrrell and William Crozier dominate in this sale. His collection also features works by Gerard Dillon, Nano Reid, Brian Bourke, Patrick Scott and Louis le Brocquy. A le Brocquy watercolour from 1946 entitled Tinker Children at a Fair is estimated at 30,000-40,000 and there are works by Daniel O’Neill, Jack Yeats, Paddy Graham, Francis Bacon, George Campbell, Hughie O’Donoghue, Ciaran Lennon, Cecil King, Mainie Jellett and Basl Ivan Rakoczi. Viewing and the sale will take place at the Clyde Rooms in the RDS from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 28 and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, May 29, 30 and 31.

    Downloadable catalogue on www.whytes.ie

    Spectral Garden, Bahamas, 1987 by Tony O'Malley at Whyte's

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