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Among more than 70 dealers at the National Antiques, Art and Vintage fair at Limerick Racecourse on June 15 and 16 will be Edwin and Lorna Mercer. Among the items they will have on display is a selection of tea strainers, a Georg Jensen serving spoon, tea caddy spoons and Norwegian ladle. There will be dealers in antique furniture, art and more than 15 jewellery dealers along with dealers in porcelain, glass, coins, banknotes, militaria and all sort of collectibles.
Hillside Cottages, Connemara at Woodwards summer auction in Cork on June 22 is believed by the auctioneers to be an untraced work by Paul Henry – possibly The Wilds of Connemara exhibited at the Fine Art Society in London in 1934 or In the Hills of Connemara exhibited in New York and Boston in 1930. Dr. S.B. Kennedy, the late art historian, curator and author of the definitive work on Henry, reported that a number of Paul Henry’s paintings remained untraced or unidentified. “Paul Henry often made paintings from drawings done perhaps years earlier. Consequently his pictures can be difficult to date and too he often painted variations on a theme”. The setting for this one, which the artist painted many times, is a remote group of cottages in the townland of Loughanillaun with the road from Ballynahinch to Clifden hidden in the valley below the mountains. Framed by Gilberts, Cork in the 1930’s the painting was last at auction at Woodwards around 1964. UPDATE: THIS AUCTION HAS NOW BEEN PUT BACK TO JUNE 29.
An Art Nouveau silver belt, a set of six Cork silver tablespoons by Carden Terry and Jane Williams and a c1775 silver sauce boat by Matthew West of Dublin are among the appetising lots at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon on June 12. The belt, estimated at €500-€800, is made up of 16 shamrock shaped plates with raised relief decoration linked by looped chains. It dates to 1902. The sale, titled the Dromkeen country house collection, offers a selection of silver, art, antique furniture and collectibles. UPDATE: THIS MADE 380 AT HAMMER
19th century Irish landscape mirror in the Rococo style. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,000 AT HAMMER
If you are searching for mirrors, Irish furniture, art or a piece of interesting silver there are good examples to be found at the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin on June 11. This online only sale offers interesting, affordable and collectibles antiques and furnishings.
The catalogue cover features an attractive giltwood mirror (€500-€800) and a giltwood and marble topped console table (€1,500-€2,000). An early 19th century circular wall mirror with a gilded and decorated frame is estimated at €2,000-€3,000 and a large overmantle with scallop shell and scrollwork cornice has an estimate of €1,500-€2,000. There is a similar estimate on a c1880 overmantle surmounted by a faience dish. A 19th century Irish carved giltwood landscape mirror in the rococo style is estimated at €600-€1,000.
A pair of George III mahogany dining room urns on pedestals. UPDATE: THESE MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Among the more expensive antique furniture pieces are a pair of George III dining room urns on pedestals with domed fluted covers and acorn finials, a pair of mahogany framed Gainsborough armchairs and a c1790 Irish sycamore and rosewood banded demi-lune pier table. All are estimated at €3,000-€5,000. Signed pieces include a Victorian love seat by Robert Strahan (€400-€600) and a pair of marquetry inlaid mahogany settees by the British maker James Schoolbred whose workshop was on Tottenham Court Road (€1,000-€1,500).
A Korean ebonised storage chest UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
The selection of furniture ranges from a Georgian hunt table, a Dutch marquetry display cabinet and a Georgian bowfront sideboard to some Irish George III brass bound plate buckets, a Louis Quatorze walnut bureau de dame, a Victorian circular breakfast table and a Georgian slope front bureau.
The auction of more than 400 lots kicks off with a selection of garden furniture headed by a large Victorian cast iron Warwick Vase garden urn (€2,000-€3,000). A pair of 20th century pottery waisted planters (€300-€500), garden benches, terracotta plinths, Italian terracotta lions and a Victorian cast iron classical figure all feature.
Art offerings include landscapes and still lives, portraits and seascapes and the array of collectibles includes a 19th century French gilt and porcelain clock, a Waterford Crystal nine branch chandelier and a large Edwardian hexagonal hall lantern. A c1775 silver salver made in Cork by Stephen Walsh will attract interest as will an Irish provincial silver sauceboat struck “Sterling” and a pair of Irish George III silver oval trays. This will be the last At Home sale by Adams before the summer break.
A large Edwardian hexagonal hall lantern. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
Confidential notes on IRA activities in the period from 1941-47 are included Purcell Auctioneers sale of the Library of the late Dr. Garret FitzGerald (1926-2011) and another private library in Birr on June 26. The proceeds from the auction of the library of the former Taoiseach will be donated to Focus Ireland, the homeless and housing charity. A total of 656 lots will come under the hammer and the catalogue is online.
Confidential IRA notes were prepared in the office of the Minister for Justice. This copy No. 26 was issued to Colonel Dan Bryan, the renowned Military Intelligence officer. It contains detailed information mostly unavailable elsewhere on activities of the IRA in Ireland and Britain during the Second World War, Stephen Hayes’ kidnapping, government executions, and other incidents plus biographies of those involved. According to one researcher the documentation relied on intelligence from the Special Branch. Nevertheless they are an exhaustive record of the years following the establishment of the state. Relatively few copies of these handbooks were produced and they were not given to every cabinet minister. Six copies of the ‘Notes on events 1931-1941’ were distributed, while ‘Notes on IRA activities’ had also a very limited circulation. This copy is estimated at 750-1,200. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
WILLIAM IV GILTWOOD AND MALACHITE CIRCULAR TABLE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This malachite topped circular William IV table comes up as lot 29 at the James Adam At Home auction. The top is supported on a fluted centre column with carved cabochons and rim masks on scroll legs carved with leaves. The estimate is 1,500-2,500. The timed online only auction is now up and running and will begin to close from 11 am on June 11. Viewing for the sale gets underway in Dublin today.
Dublin Metropolitan Police reward poster for the Irish Crown Jewels. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,600 AT HAMMER
This rare poster issued by the Dublin Metropolitan Police in the wake of the theft of the Irish Crown Jewels in 1907 comes up at Whyte’s Eclectic Collector timed online auction which runs until June 7. Issued by John Lowe, Superintendent with three illustrations of the jewels – all of them for the Order of Saint Patrick – the lot is estimated at 600-800.
The Jewels of the Order of St Patrick were the heavily jewelled badge and star created in 1831 for the Grand Master of the Order of St. Patrick established in 1783 by George III to be an Irish equivalent of the Order of the Garter in England. They were stolen along with the collars of five knights of the order. The theft was never solved and the items were never recovered. Viewing for the auction gets underway at Whyte’s today and the catalogue is online.
Barry Flanagan – Lament. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £180,000
Barry Flanagan’s bronze sculpture Lament (2007) at Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish evening auction in London on June 6 is a late exemplar of perhaps the artist’s most celebrated series of works. Cast only two years before Flanagan’s death it combines figuration and abstraction, whimsy and sorrow. The hare becomes anthropomorphic, its arms raised in a theatrical gesture. The hare is captured in a moment of expressive exultation or anguish, as the contorted and twisted body appears to be fluctuating on the verge between the two. Number 1 from the edition of 8, plus four artist’s casts, it is estimated at £150,000-£250,000.
What a difference a professional restoration can make. Pictured here are before and after conservation images of The Madonna of the Cherries by Quentin Metsys, which will be a highlight at Christie’s Old Master sale in London on July 2. Painted in the 1520’s in Antwerp all trace of the work was lost following the death of its then owner in 1668. It resurfaced in Paris in the 1920’s with an altered composition including a curtain across the window and was no longer recognised as work by Metsys. With its overpainting and varnish it was offered at Christie’s in 2015 as a studio variant deriving from the original, reflecting scholarly opinion at that time. Subsequent conservation was transformative and enabled scholars to recognise it as the original. The estimate for the work is now £8 million – £12 million (€9.40 million – €14.09 million).
A pair of Art Nouveau figures on marble bases UPDATE: THESE MADE 300 AT HAMMER
Lovers of antique furniture, and there are still plenty of them out there, will find plenty of options that are both affordable and attractive, not to mention sustainable, at Marshs sale in Cork on June 12. The selection on offer ranges from an antique Queen Anne walnut bureau bookcase (€2,000-€3,000) and a pair of early Irish Georgian dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) to an early walnut secretaire campaign chest (€500-€800) and a set of eight Cork dining chairs (€800-€1,000).
There is a choice of card tables led by a Regency marquetry inlaid example (€500-€1,000) as well as a large oval end Victorian dining table with an estimate of just €1,000-€1,500. There are collectible lithographs of Cork Harbour scenes by Robert Stopford and others, some Waterford Crystal and a private collection of around 150 lots of Irish, English and European coins.
A pair of Edwardian knife boxes. UPDATE: THESE MADE 600 AT HAMMER
