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Chess pieces created by Graham Knuttel. UPDATE: THE TABLE AND CHESS SET MADE €40,000

Affordable art and one expensive rarity feature at online sales ending at Adam’s and de Veres in Dublin next week.  A collector wishing to enhance their holding or someone wanting to dip their toe into the market will find these sales a great place to uncover the unending joy and discovery of a journey into art.  First get the eye in shape, then learn how to look.  Who knows where it will lead?

The expensive rarity that is lot five at the timed online Graham Knuttel II sale at Adam’s which ends from 2 pm on February 10 is a limited edition chess table with a silver and bronze chess set from around 2003.  One of an edition of 12 it was designed by artist Graham Knuttel (1954-2023) and furniture maker David Linley, first cousin of King Charles III.  The square table with marquetry chess board top is by Linley, the black and white silver and bronze chess pieces by Knuttel.  The estimate is €50,000-€80,000.

Everything else in this auction of 123 lots is more affordable.  Estimates are from €300 up and most works are to be sold without reserve.  There is a large selection of signed prints by the popular Dublin artist whose striking and distinctive art was collected by various celebrities and who designed stamps for An Post to commemorate the Beijing summer olympics of 2008.  

His themes have become familiar and his colourful art features cats, fish, birds, sheep, chefs, portraits and sculpture.

The Sinking of the Titanic by Graham Knuttel UPDATE: THIS MADE €14,000 at hammer

The most expensively estimated painting is a relatively cheerful (under the adverse circumstances) work titled The Sinking of the Titanic with a deep blue sea, four calm characters in lifebuoy rings with bottles of some sort of hooch, circling sharks, a distant iceberg and the elevated stern of doomed ship.  The estimate for this oil on canvas with disaster everywhere is €10,000-€15,000.

William Crozier, Elizabeth Brophy, Richard Croft, Michael Farrell, George Campbell, Brian Bourke, Hilda Van Stockum, Sean McSweeney and Barbara Warren are all featured at the timed online auction at de Veres which ends from 2 pm on February 11. Estimates range from €100 to €3,000.

It is an interesting selection with work by artists who might not be as well known as they deserve to be. Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft (1935-2025), President of the Royal Ulster Academy from 1997-2000, is estimated at €600-€900. En Andeche et la Ruche from the Paris Press Series by Michael Farrell (1940-2000)  is at €2,000-€3,000 the most expensively estimated work in the auction.  It dates to 1977-78.  Farrell represented Ireland at the Biennale de Paris in 1967 and there was a retrospective of his work at the Crawford in 2013-14.

The catalogue, which is online, will reward a slow trawl.  Art which makes gazillions grabs headlines and can create the incorrect impression that the art market is the preserve of the rich.  These two sales demonstrate that this is not the case.  Get the eye in and good art can be acquired for little more than the cost of a night out in 2026.

Still Life, Red Teapot and Apples by Richard Croft at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 650 AT HAMMER