A silkscreen print by John Ffrench (1928-2010) at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE 460 AT HAMMER
The timed online picture sale at Adam’s which ends from 11 am on July 14 offers a highly affordable selection of everything from pencil drawings by Mainie Jellett and prints by Anne Madden and Alice Maher to mixed media and charcoal works by Barrie Cooke and a lithograph by Tony O’Malley. The sale kicks off with a selection from Swedish born ceramicist, sculptor, graphic artist and designer Marianne Agren McElroy (1926-2006), an original creative voice in the Ireland of the 1950’s, ’60’s and ’70’s. Auction estimates range from €50 to €5,000. The silkscreen print by John Ffrench illustrated here has an estimate of €200-€400. Many lots are offered without a reserve.
Pamela Leonard (B.1940) – Evening in Howth Etching 18/30. UPDATE: THIS MADE 150 AT HAMMER
This etching by Pamela Leonard is lot 89 at Adam’s timed online picture auction which runs until July 14. The estimate is 300-500. The sale of 230 lots features a wide variety of artists including Oisin Kelly, Graham Knuttel, Markey Robinson, Nano Reid, Barry Cooke, Mainie Jellett, Patrick Scott and Tony O’Malley and many more at very affordable prices. The catalogue is online.
This Qianlong Famille Rose ‘Boy and Chicken’ cup made a hammer price of €115,000 at Adam’s sale of Fine Asian Art in Dublin today. It had been estimated at €20,000-€30,000. Cups of this type derive from earlier Chenghua doucai prototypes, particularly chicken-decorated examples. All bear the mark Da Qing Qianlong Fanggu ‘made in imitation of antiquity’ reflecting the Qianlong emperor’s strong interest in archaism. The inscription praises earlier artistic traditions, especially Ming dynasty chicken cups.
A possibly imperial Le Shan Tang seal made €55,000 at hammer, a pair of Imperial copper enamel painted dragon and phoenix covered ewers made €50,000, an Imperial white jade lança bowl made €34,000 and a celadon jade carving of a horse of sea made €15,000.
A FAMILLE ROSE EXPORT PORCELAIN ‘SCOTSMEN’ PLATE. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
One of the more unusual lots at Adam’s Asian and Tribal art auction on June 25 is this Qianlong Scotsmen plate. The ‘Scotsmen’ or ‘Highlanders’ decoration count as one of the most important and iconic imageries seen on Chinese export art. The figures in the centre depict a piper and a private from the 42nd Regiment of Foot, a predecessor to the famous Black Watch. Members of the regiment deserted the Stuart cause, known as Jacobitism, which aimed to restore the House of Stuart to the throne. On July 18, 1743, Corporals Samuel and Malcolm McPherson and Private Farquar Shaw were executed at the Tower for the mutiny, and a Piper Macdonnel was sent to Georgia, USA, as a convict. These men were seen as Jacobite martyrs, and memorialised on plates and punch bowls bearing these figures. This plate dates to 1745-50 and is estimated at €1,500-€3,000.
An oil on board by Gerard Dillon soared above its estimate to sell for a record €1.1 million hammer at Adam’s sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. It had been estimated at €150,000-€200,000. The signed and inscribed work from 1955 was purchased by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from the Dawson Gallery in Dublin. It was subsequently sold at Sotheby’s in 1993 to Reeta and Frank Hughes of Warrenpoint. Exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1955 it has since appeared in numerous exhibitions. It is understood that the work will remain in Ireland.
Among other top hammer prices were four works by Jack B Yeats as follows: The Dancer (Rosses Point) €280,000, The Paddock, Naas (€210,000), The Courthouse Steps (€115,000) and Through the Streets to the Hills (€110,000). Study for Riverrun, Procession with Lillies by Louis le Brocquy made €150,000 and Cuchulain IX by le Brocquy made €65,000, The Fair Day, Camlough, Co. Armagh by Frank McKelvey made €42,000, Sheep in a Field by Walter Osborne made €34,000 and The Princess by Colin Middleton made €32,000.
John Luke – The Mournes at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD AFTER THE AUCTION FOR €50,000.
Art by Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor and Gerard Dillon will lead the respective evening sales by Whyte’s, de Veres and Adams in Dublin next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. They carry top estimates of up to €200,000. This might create an incorrect impression that collecting Irish art is an exclusive pastime for the rich. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.
What these auctions demonstrate in spades is that art is for everyone and art collecting is too. A quick look at the lowest estimates reveals all. At Whytes work by well known artists like Philip Flanagan, Mark O’Neill, John Butler Yeats, James Brenan and Sir William Orpen are estimated at under €1,000.
A painted plaster female head by Brian Bourke is, at €300-€500, the lowest estimate at de Veres. You can take an under €1,000 pick here from artists like Henry Healy, Sean O’Sullivan, Michael Cullen, Jane O’Malley, Maureen Bushe, Flora Mitchell and internationally renowned Cork ceramicist Sarah Flynn.
Jane O’Malley – Still life by the Sea 2007 at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,400 AT HAMMER
From €500 up to €1,000 at Adams there is art by Frank Egginton, Anita Shelbourne, Harry Kernoff, Imogen Stuart, Sir William Orpen, Martin Gale, Sean McSweeney and plenty more. Work by any of the above mentioned artists will reward study and is capable of setting in motion a lifelong, life enhancing and enriching interest.
Compared to other years estimates at the top end of the scale at these summer art sales are on the low side. Various reasons for this exist. There is in the Irish art market an innate caution. It looks now as if sellers are holding back in the hope of less uncertain times to come. We remain conservative in our approach to art collection, suspicious of the avant garde. A new generation of collectors might forge a change in approach that is long overdue.
On the international side the art market, which is performing strongly this year, is driven by collections like the Mnuchin collection at Sotheby’s which made $163.3 million (€143 million) in New York this month. It was headed by Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds which made $85.8 million (€73.8 million). The sale of the collection of the late investment banker at Goldman Sachs who subsequently became an art dealer was characterised by deep bidding. There was an average of twelve bids per lots from the Mnuchin collection by bidders from 24 countries.
Gerard Dillon – Tea Party at Adams. UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,100,000 at hammer
The sales in Dublin are all on view this weekend and catalogues are online too. The Mournes (1939) by John Luke at Whyte’s must have been on the avant garde side when first shown at the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery in 1946. This colourful landscape is estimated now at €60,000-€80,000. Travelling People from 1945 by Louis le Brocquy (€100,000-€150,000) is one of the more significant works from his Traveller series in which he takes a Modernist approach to an Irish theme. In sharp contrast is Paul Henry’s Dapping on Lough Mask, Co. Mayo, 1928-1936 with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000.
The top lot at de Veres is a Moonwalk screenprint by Andy Warhol (€200,000-€300,000) and the leading Irish lot in the sale is a c1892 Breton Farmstead with Haystack by Roderic O’Conor (€140,000-€180,000).
Set in a cottage in Roundstone Tea Party (1955) by Gerard Dillon leads the auction at Adam’s on Wednesday with an estimate of €150,000-€200,000. Art by Jack B Yeats features prominently in the sale and there is sculpture by F E MacWilliam, Imogen Stuart, Eamon O’Doherty, John Behan and others.
Taken together these auctions – all now on view in Dublin – offer a feast for the eyes and will richly reward close scrutiny. They will not break the bank either.
Victor Richardson – Nohoval Cove at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Louis le Brocquy (1916-2012) Cuchulainn IX (1991). UPDATE: THIS MADE €65,000 at hammer
This Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy, from an edition of nine, is at Adam’s evening sale of Important Irish Art on May 27. The estimate is €30,000-50,000. The live and online sale of 91 works spans the 19th century to the present day. The leading lots are by Gerard Dillon, two Yeats paintings from the 1920’s and two late works by the artist and a village landscape by Paul Henry. Viewing for the auction gets underway today in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
Mainie Harriet Jellett (1897-1944) – Abstract Gouache. UPDATE: THIS MADE €7,000 AT HAMMER
A pair of Irish George II style side tables with green marble tops. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
This pair of side tables is among the leading lots at Adam’s House to Garden auction in Dublin on May 19. The estimate is €12,000-€15,000. There are 470 lots of garden furniture, statuary and architectural salve in the sale. The catalogue is online.
William Van Der Hagen – A Harbour scene and a Coastal scene both dated 1838. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Dutch born artist William Van der Hagen, who settled in Ireland in 1722, is regarded as the founder of the Irish school of landscape painting. He visited earlier because his View of Drogheda, now at the Highlanes Gallery, dates to 1718. “Corke Harbour” dates to 1738 and is the earliest surviving oil painting of the harbour. Sold at Woodwards in 2004 for €360,000 it remains in a private collection.
A pair of oil panels by Van der Hagen will lead the Irish Old Masters sale at Adam’s in Dublin on May 14. The estimate for A Harbour Scene, Men-of-War Anchored in a Calm Sea with Fishermen beside a Tower and A Coastal Scene with Ships in Heavy Seas off a Rocky Coast is €25,000-€35,000. A catalogue note points to the fact that these small works share both the European tradition and the nascent Irish landscape school with whose genesis the artist is so closely linked.
A set of 13 canvas wall hangings painted by Van der Hagen designed to transform the walls at Dublin Castle into an Italian fantasy complete with garden follies, palaces and landscapes ahead of a grand ball will soon be displayed at the State Apartments in Dublin Castle. They were acquired by the OPW after being re-discovered under layers of wallpaper during alterations at Knole, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Dorset in Kent.
A Prospect of Kinsale after Charles Smith (1715-1762) published c1750. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
There are 61 lots at Adam’s Irish Old Masters sale which kicks off with a 25 strong set of James Malton’s Picturesque and Descriptive Views of the City of Dublin (€5,000-€7,000). A set of 12 coloured engravings of the built glories of Georgian Dublin after Samuel Brocas is estimated at €3,000-€5,000.
A set of three coloured lithographs of Cork rivers after Henry Morgan printed and published in Exeter in 1849 estimated at €300-€500 would enhance any local collection as would A Prospect of Kinsale taken from Ye Old Fort after Charles Smith (1715-762) published in Dublin c1750 (€500-€700). These are among a number of topographical works from around Ireland in the sale.
Charles Lewis (1753-1795) – A Still life of Peaches, Plums and Figs UPDATE: THIS MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
A painting of peaches, plums and figs in a silver bowl by Charles Lewis dated 1788 is a rare survivor of still life painting from Georgian Dublin. Born in Gloucester Lewis moved to Dublin in 1776 and his art, though little known today, was much admired by his contemporaries and circulated widely in the 19th century.
Maria Spilsbury Taylor (1776-1820) was the most significant female artist to work in 19th century Ireland. She is represented by an oil on canvas titled Family Group: A Mother with her Children Dancing and Playing the Tambourine. It carries an estimate of €3,000-€5,000. Market Day, Derryvarragh, Co. Westmeath by Erskine Nicol is signed and dated 1857 and estimated at €5,000-€7,000.
Thomas Hickey (1741-1824) – an 1801 drawing of Sir Barry Close. UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
In an auction with landscapes, seascapes, genre scenes and topographical views there is only one portrait, a charcoal, pastel and pencil drawing by Thomas Hickey (1741-1824). The subject is Sir Barry Close (1756-1813), the Armagh born British East India Company army officer and diplomat who played a crucial role in expanding British power in India. A skilled linguist he played a pivotal role in the Mysore campaigns against Tipu Sultan. A dress sword set with diamonds in 18 carat gold presented to Close made a hammer price of €280,000 at Adam’s Townley Hall sale last October. The Irish Old Masters auction is now on view at Adams
KASHMIR. A VERY RARE SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND CLUSTER RING, CIRCA 1890-1900. UPDATE: THIS MADE €102,000 at hammer
This Kashmir sapphire ring is at Adam’s sale of fine jewellery and ladies watches on May 12. The estimate is €50,000-90,000. It is accompanied by a report dated December 2025 from the SSEF laboratory in Switzerland, stating that the antique cushion-shaped sapphire weighing 3.532 carats is of Kashmir origin with no indications of heating. Kashmir sapphires hold a unique place in the world of gemstones and are distinguished by their colour and velvety appearance. The catalogue for the sale is online. Adam’s will not allow internet bidding on this lot.
This was a hugely successful sale for Adam’s. A pair of early 20th century pearl and diamond earrings made €340,000 at hammer, a fancy intense yellow diamond pendant made €190,000, a c1970 diamond demi parure attributed to Harry Winston made €150,000 and a pear shaped 12.48 carat diamond single stone ring of fancy intense yellowish brown colour made €115,000.
THIS PAIR OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY PEARL AND DIAMOND PENDENT EARRINGS MADE €340,000 AT HAMMER
