Adam de Coster (1586-1643) – A young boy reading a music score by candlelight
Just eight days after Adam’s sold an oil on canvas by Adam de Coster (1586-1643) for a hammer price of €60,000 Sotheby’s in Paris sold a different work by same artist for €38,400. At Adams the top lot of the Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall was Concert (Three Figures) by de Coster, regarded as one of the most refined painters of the Flemish Baroque.
In Paris Sotheby’s offered A young boy reading a music score by candlelight by de Coster from the Schlumberger collection with an estimate of €20,000-€30,000. It sold for €38,400. Adam’s had estimated their de Coster at €40,000-€60,000. The subject matters were quite similar but there are three figures in the Irish offering and only one in the French.
Sotheby’s noted that comparable examples include the Man Singing by Candlelight in the National Gallery of Ireland and the Young Woman Holding a Distaff before a lit Candlelight, recently sold at Sotheby’s, New York.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 14, 2026).
This untitled work by Atsushi Kaga, originally from Tokyo and now living and working between Ireland and Kyoto, was the leading lot at Adams Mid Century Modern sale on October 20. It made a hammer price of €24,000 over a top estimate of €12,000. Brick Screen by Eileen Gray made €9,500 at hammer, a vintage steamer trunk by Louis Vuitton made €8,000, Tangram by Patrick Scot made 6,500, Sun from the Icarus series by Anne Madden made 6,500, a teak extending circular dining table by Hans Olsen made 5,500 and Farmhouse North Mayo by Donald Teskey made 4,600.
A walnut desk attributed to Paola Buffa. Italy, c.1950. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,000 AT HAMMER
This walnut desk attributed to Paola Buffa (1903-1970) is at Adams Mid Century modern sale in Dublin next Tuesday (October 20) with an estimate of €2000-€3,000. The architect and designer is best known for his elegant and sophisticated mid century furniture. The timed online auction, with 264 lots in total, is on view at Adams from October 16 to October 20 when bidding starts to close at 2 pm.
PAIR OF CANTONESE 18TH CENTURY EXPORT PORCELAIN VASES AND COVERS
This pair of Cantonese vases made a hammer price of €30,000 over an estimate of €2,000-€3,000 at Adams Townley Hall Country House Collections sale in Dublin yesterday. With a height of 68 they are decorated with views of figures in a court interior and panel of flowering foliage and insects. The covers have finials modelled as temple dogs.
The top lot of the auction was Concert (Three Figures) an oil on canvas by Adam de Coster (1586-1643), regarded as one of the most refined painters of the Flemish Baroque. It made €60,000 at hammer over an estimate of €40,000-€60,000. An Irish 18th century mahogany side table made €38,000, a George III giltwood pier mirror made €36,000, a Louis XIV gold coronation medal made €22,000, a laughing mask by Jean Joseph Carriès made €22,000 and a portrait of the racehorse Bloomsbury with Sam Templeman Up by John Frederick Herring senior made €18,000.
ADAM DE COSTER (1586-1643) – Concert (Three Figures). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 60,000 AT HAMMER
This vintage 1940’s diamond spray brooch is at O’Reilly’s sale in Dublin next Wednesday. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Plenty of jewels to brighten up the dull autumn and winter light will come under the hammer at three auctions next week. The Jewellery Box sale at Adams is on October 6. The design sale at O’Reilly’s of Francis St. in Dublin is on the following day. In Belturbet, Co. Cavan Victor Mee will hold a jewellery, gold and silver sale on Wednesday. All catalogues are online.
IRISH GEORGE III GILTWOOD PIER MIRROR, CIRCA 1765. UPDATE: THIS MADE 36,000 AT HAMMER
This Irish George III giltwood pier mirror in the manner of Matthias Lock is one of the leading lots at Adam’s country house collections sale at Townley Hall on October 13. It was originally owned by the Hamilton family of Hamwood, Co. Meath. It is illustrated in Irish Furniture by The Knight of Glin and James Peill published by Yale University Press in 2007 and featured in Country Life in February 26 in a Jeremy Musson feature on Hamwood, Co. Meath. Hamwood House is now best recognised as the childhood home of celebrated Irish painter Letitia Marion Hamilton (1878-1964) and her sister Eva Hamilton (1876-1960).
The mirror is a fantastic example of the style popular in the George III period. Sometimes colloquially referred to as ‘Chinese Chippendale’, the frame is profusely carved in a confluence of C-scrolls, rockwork and leaf fronds, centred by an angelic mask to base and flanked on either side by wyverns, the shoulders providing perch to a pair of ho-ho birds and centre crest surmounted by a canopy of distinctly Eastern design. The estimate is €40,000-€60,000.
Paul Henry RHA RUA (1877-1958) – Errigal, Co. Donegal made €95,000 at hammer
This striking 1929 oil on board by Paul Henry made a hammer price of €95,000 over a top estimate of €70,000 at Adams sale of important Irish art in Dublin this evening. The sepia monochromatic conception is especially significant in its rarity. Henry’s debt to James McNeill Whistler was profound: having travelled to Paris in 1898, he studied at the Académie Julian before attending Whistler’s Académie Carmen. Whistler’s insistence upon tonal harmony, restraint and the subordination of local colour to mood left a lasting impression on the younger artist. This painting of cottages beneath Mount Errigal was selected as the frontispiece to the 1932 Saorstát Éireann: Irish Free State Official Handbook, edited by Bulmer Hobson.
Other top hammer prices at the sale include the following: Cattle on a road by Gerard Dillon (€46,000); View of Pullough Bay by Paul Henry (€42,000); Kerry Interior by Sean O’Sullivan (€38,000); Roundstone by Letitia Marion Hamilton (€36,000); Connemmara Quayside with fishermen by Gerard Dillon (€30,000); The rake by Jack B Yeats (€22,000); Still Water by William John Leech (€22,000); After the Meal by Dan O’Neill (€20,000) and Design for St. Maculind window by Harry Clarke (€19,000).
Paul Henry – Gubellaunaun from the Bog at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
What’s not to like? From west of Ireland landscapes by Paul Henry to Cantaloupes by Andy Warhol and a shimmering nude by Mainie Jellett the early autumn art auctions by Gormley’s, Adams,Whyte’s and de Veres are brimful of goodies.
Paintings by Louis le Brocquy, Paul Henry and Gerard Dillon make up the top six lots at Adam’s evening sale of important Irish art next on September 23. Paul Henry is the sort of artist people invest in. HIs paintings are sought after and expensive. At Adams the offerings this season are small scale works. Painted at a momentous moment for the artist Gubbellaunaun from the Bog at Adams measures just ten and a half by fifteen and a half inches and is estimated at €50,000-€80,000. “The currents of life had carried me to this remote spot (Achill Island) and there seemed no current strong enough to carry me away” Henry wrote in his autobiography. “I made another of my quick decisions, which I never regretted and taking my return ticket to London out of my pocket tore it into small pieces and scattered the fragments into the sea which foamed round the rocks of Gubellaunaun”.
The 126 lots on the catalogue at Adams caters to a wide variety of tastes, styles and prices. They range from Hot Spots III, an oil and mixed media on canvas by Tim Goulding, an abstract figural bronze sculpture by Leo Higgins and a coloured pencil drawing of Figures, Coconut and other Trees, Samoa by Mary Swanzy to a large oil on canvas, Woman (1960) by Louis le Brocquy, A Connemara Quayside by Gerard Dillon and An Early View of Pullough Bay, Achill by Paul Henry.
Maurice MacGonigal (1900-1979) The Tailor’s House, Clifden, Connemara at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,200 AT HAMMER
Fascinating works like the Tailor’s House, Clifden by Maurice MacGonigal, which somehow calls to mind The Little Street by Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum, expose a surprising commonality between a quiet street in Delft during the Dutch Golden Age and an Irish street in Clifden in the mid 20th century.
At Gormley’s online auction of 125 lots of Irish and international art – now on view at Francis St. in Dublin – there is work by Dan O’Neill, Patrick Scott, Colin Davidson, Markey Robinson, Harry Kernoff and Mildred Anne Butler alongside art by internationally acclaimed luminaries like Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Anish Kapoor.
Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I by Andy Warhol at Gormley’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
The most expensively estimated lot is by the Victorian artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, best known for his nocturnal scenes of urban landscapes. Moonlit Carriage by a River carries an estimate of €30,000-€50,000. Andy Warhol’s screen print from 1979, Space Fruit: Cantaloupes I (FS II.20I) is estimated at €12,000-€18,000.
This evening auction is on September 22. The Jellett nude is a Whyte’s on September 28. The sale by de Veres is on October 6.
Art is for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. With estimates from €400 up these sales offer a feast for the eyes without necessarily breaking the bank. Be warned. Most true collectors will sooner or later fall in love with a painting they must have at all costs. The habit of collecting can be both a gift and a curse. Personal banks are occasionally broken for the sake of art. What of it. Where is the art of living if we never ever over extend?
These sales offer far more than mere opportunities to stretch the budget. There is art here to be savoured long into an unknowable future, a chance to enhance a collection or to get one started.
The Fourth Day by Patrick Scott at Gormleys. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000 AT HAMMER
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983) – Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964) UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This 1964 oil on board by Colin Middleton comes up as Lot 11 at Adams sale of important Irish art on September 23. The painting, built with repeated patterns across the board, featured in a number of major exhibitions and was previously owned by the Duchess of Westminster. It is estimated at €15,000-€25,000. Viewing for the auction of 126 lots is now underway at Adams in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
A Killarney davenport UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
Some spectacular though not strictly speaking vernacular Killarney furniture has crept on to the catalogue for a sale now on at Adam’s. Headed by a profusely inlaid davenport the four top lots at the timed online Irish Vernacular auction which runs until Monday September 7 are fine Killarney wood pieces.
Highly decorated pieces like this were crafted for the commercial tourist trade. Vernacular furniture like dressers, sugán chairs, larders and blanket boxes locally made throughout Ireland was designed and built for utilitarian purposes in rural homes and farmhouses. Some of it is very fine and collectible.
The exceptional davenport, complete with carved bog oak pillars includes marquetry vignettes and trailing foliate motifs of shamrock, dog rose, oak leaf and ivy and would grace any sale. The estimate is €12,000-€16,000. A Killarney centre table has an estimate of €8,000-€10,000. There is as well a chess and draughts table and a circular centre table each estimated at €6,000-€8,000.
An 18th century painted larder. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER
Among an interesting selection of vernacular furniture on offer is a cerise painted shelved larder with panel doors, a green painted pine cupboard, a stained pine kitchen dresser, a green painted plate rack stand, a buttermilk painted kitchen table, a red and white painted three seater settle bed, an open spit rack, an unusual set of sugán ladder back chairs, a railback chair with a stained elmwood seat, various farmhouse kitchen tables, a sage green painted Irish folk chiffonier with an ornate carved gallery back,a green painted marriage chest and a bog oak book slide.
A red and white painted three seater settle bench. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
There is a decorative wrought iron harnen stand, used near open fires to dry and crisp oatcakes, a beechwood butter table, a 19th century wooden rocking cradle, a milking stool, a coopered churn and paddle, a domestic butter churn, a wrought iron rush light, willow baskets, a stained oak hedge chair, toleware cannisters and a carved bog oak quaintly named fisherman’s priest. This object was used to humanely and quickly kill a catch. The name derives from the idea that it administers the last rites to the fish.
There is no doubt about it. Vernacular furniture is attractive, evocative and suits many contemporary settings. In this auction it is matched with early 19th century Irish glass decanters, pedestal bowls, jugs and dishes, there is a selection of spongeware and a glazed ceramic mether cup, a stoneware flask, contemporary ceramics, art, Irish harps, duck decoys, Claddagh rings, banknotes and a number of smaller Killarney wood pieces. The catalogue is online.
John Crampton Walker (1890-1942) – A cottage by the dunes. UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
