An Empire design centre table. UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 AT HAMMER
Temptation beckons in a live online sale of ecclesiastical and decorative items from the Franciscan Community in Ireland and some other clients on May 16-17 at 5 pm on each day. A variety of paintings, Oriental rugs, statues, garden seating, pedestals, desks, candlesticks and antique furniture among 874 lots. Leading the auction is a 19th century oil on canvas titled The Inquisition, an inlaid marble fire surround in the manner of Pietro Bossi and a marble statue of St. Joseph and Child. All are estimated at €2,000-€4,000. Collectibles include an early carved wood Penal cross (€800-€1,200), a baroque oak dome top chest (€600-€1,000), an outdoor limestone font with inscription (€500-€1,000) and a finely made model of a church complete with oak furnishings (€400-€800). There is a Georgian brass dial long case clock, an early Victorian d-end dining table, a pair of Chippendale style wingback armchairs and an Empire centre table with an amboyna and macassar top and ebonised supports among a good selection of furniture. The auction will be conducted by Aidan Foley in co-ordination with Niall Mullen. It is on view at Cook St., Dublin 8 today, tomorrow and Monday and the catalogue is online.
An inlaid fire surround in the manner of Pietro Bossi UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,900 AT HAMMER
A 17th/18th century birthing chair at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,800 AT HAMMER
The growing market for collectibles and memorabilia is reflected in an increasing number of sales by auctioneers across the board. A 17th/18th century Irish yew wood birthing stool will lead Sheppards Irish Vernacular Part II sale in Durrow on March 28. This rarity has an estimate of €5,000-€8,000. An 18th century Irish Penal Cross has a well carved figure with a skull and crossbones at the base and is estimated at €2,000-€3,000, as is an 18th century Irish mether, the sort of four handled Celtic friendship drinking vessel on which the design of the Liam McCarthy Cup is based. At Sheppards you can take your pick between an Irish jaunting side car or a classic Honda 50 cc motorcycle. Among the earlier examples of Irish life are an 18th century sycamore hedge chair, a cock fighting dugout stool and a dugout chair. All are conversation pieces.
There are flour bins, griddle pans, copper measures, a one legged milking stool, a metal bound milk churn, pine dressers and tables, bookshelves, plate racks and even an early Irish dugout food cupboard. More and more collectors are opting for objects like these, laden with memory and redolent of a vanished lifestyle or homeplace. Sheppards will offer 368 lots online from Durrow.
A home bar styled as a VW camper van front at Aidan Foley’s sale. UPDATE: THIS MADE 480 AT HAMMER
Further up the country, at Blacklion, Co. Cavan there is viewing today and tomorrow for a retirement sale at McNean antique and salvage which Aidan Foley will conduct online only on March 27 and 28 The catalogue, with 1,232 lots, is online and features lots of enamel signs, road signs, street signs, vintage car parts, pub signs, garden furniture and Victorian mahogany furniture. With everything from a home bar styled like the front of a VW camper van to a decorative dug out canoe to a larger than life unique sculptural carved teak figure of a bull this sale will be a draw. Part one of the auction at McNeans last year drew enormous interest from right around Ireland.
The top lot this time round is a 1970 Rover 3.5 litre V8 (€8,000-€10,000). There are enamel signs advertising Player’s Please and Will”s Capstan cigarettes, once ubiquitous in Ireland. A London Underground Boston Manor sign might do it for all the Irish who once lived in west London and managed to make it home, an antique cast iron clothes wringer might still function and save money for someone energetic and if you feel so inclined you could light up a dark corner with an Esso petrol pump globe. The selection on offer is memory jogging for all sorts of reasons and the market likes it.
In Dublin James Adam plan to hold their first Irish Vernacular sale on April 12. This is a new auction category for Adams and the sale will feature original furniture featured on the set of The Banshees of Inisherin.
19th century Chinese export sterling silver tea set
Items from the estate of the late antique dealer Stephen Stock will come under the hammer at Aidan Foley’s two day sale at Sixmilebridge on March 13 and 14. Belfast born and Dublin based for over 30 years he did not have a shop of his own, but was a respected source and supplier the antique trade. The auction will include tribal art, Oriental items and an early abstract work attributed to Sean Scully.One of his last commissions, with Niall Mullen, was an interior fit out of the upstairs bar at The Queens in Dalkey. His collection, curated by Niall Mullen, will come up in a two day Spring sale of more than 1,400 lots of art, antique furniture, rugs, jewellery and collectibles. The top lot is a 19th century Chinese export sterling silver tea set with an estimate of €4,000-€6,000.
Ox Blood Leather Chesterfield Three Seater Settee UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
This three seater Chesterfield comes up as lot 210 at Aidan Foley’s two day online auction of contents from a number of five star hotels on January 17 and 18. A total of 1115 lots of furniture, artwork and collectibles will come under the hammer. The most expensively estimated lot, at 5,000-7,000, is an artwork by Graham Knuttel titled Cocktail Girl. The chesterfield comes with an estimate of 600-1,000. There are lots from Dublin’s Four Seasons (now Intercontinental), Westin and Trinity City Hotels, Glenlo Abbey in Galway and Powerscourt Resort and Spa in Wicklow along with memorabilia from Buck Whaley’s nightclub and Larry Murphy’s pub. The sale is on view today, tomorrow, Sunday and Monday at 67 Prussia St. in Dublin and the catalogue is online.
UPDATE: The auction was 97% sold and realised more than €200,000.
The handle to the side is the giveaway. This is what an antique washing machine looks like. This one comes up at the sale of the Tommy Shannon Collection by auctioneer Aidan Foley in Co. Cavan on October 24 and 25. On offer is a collection of farm machinery gathered over the last seven decades and farm implements used to tend the land in bygone days in Ireland feature. They will all be on view at Tommy Shannon’s Yard at Killeshandra from October 20-23. The auction 1,310 lot by Aidan Foley will take place at MacSeains pub in Cornafean, Co, Cavan and online. He anticipates enormous interest from collectors from right around the country. The washing machine is estimated at €100-€200.
An AA Crosshaven road sign at Aidan Foley’s sale (€100-€200). UPDATE: THIS MADE 700 AT HAMMER
From antique wooden butter churns,Tilley lamps and antique weights to vintage tools, old road signs, petrol pump tops and tractor seats the Aidan Foley online sale of the John Smith Collection at noon on August 30 will be a memory jogging exercise for many. The auction, in conjunction with Niall Mullen antiques, features 672 lots of hardware and collectible kit. There is a vintage Ford tractor (€4,000-€6,000) and some cast iron ploughs (€200-€400) along with a fully restored horse trap, some cartwheels and a selection of milk churns.
THIS Killarney davenport made a hammer price of 11,000 at Aidan Foley’s sale in Sixmilebridge, Co. Clare, today. The 19th century piece is inlaid with yew and arbutus wood profusely decorated with shamrocks and an Irish Harp, a deer and an eagle. A Victorian mahogany serving table made 2,500 and a pair of satinwood commodes made 2,200.
An unframed, unsigned pencil sketch – “Bridge over the Awbeg at Buttevant Castle” – comes up at Aidan Foley’s online auction at Doneraile today. Lot 301 dates to the 1840’s and seems to be in good condition. A purchaser might set out to solve the mystery of who made it. The auction features a broad mix of antique furniture and collectible items as well as art by Albert Hartland, Arthur Maderson, Pauline Bewick, Con Campbell, Lorna Miller, Marie Carroll and others.
A selection of furniture, art, silver , garden furniture and jewellery will come under the hammer at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon tomorrow. Among the highlights are an 18th century Irish silver teapot made in Dublin in 1796 and a silver fork by the Limerick maker Maurice Fitzgerald. Lots of note include an exceptional pair of bronze garden classical lions and a mid 18th century Irish Georgian tea table.
This unsigned 1840’s pencil sketch “Bridge over the Awbeg River at Buttevant Castle” UPDATE: THIS MADE 140 AT HAMMER
No matter what the weather turns out to be like over the May Bank Holiday weekend the hunter gatherers of the world of collecting will find plenty to occupy themselves with at Aidan Foley’s four day sale online from Sixmilebridge on May 1, 2, 3 and 4. Furniture ranges from a Linley designed sycamore twin pedestal dining table to Victorian card tables and oval gilt mirrors.There is a range of collectibles from U2 ephemera, tour promotional materials and U2 T-shirts to a gold cigarette case inscribed: “to Captain L A Wilkins by Viscount Trenchard and the directors of the United Africa Company Ltd. in commemoration of his actions in escaping from the Germans in France May 1940 – July 1941”. The Highland Cradle by the Cork artist John Brennan is estimated at €1,500-€2,000 and there is art by Louis le Brocquy, Patrick Copperwhite, George Gillespie, Ivan Sutton and others. More than 2,000 lots are scheduled to come under the hammer.
A military cannon measuring nine feet in length is among the more unusual lots at Aidan Foley’s three day online sale from Sixmilebridge which gets underway on October 11. Viewing for this sale of 2,000 lots gets atarts next Friday. The auction will feature lots from houses on North Circular Road and Ennis Road in Limerick, a period Co. Kerry house and various other Munster properties.
