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  • Posts Tagged ‘bonhams’

    JAMES JOYCE AND ROGER CASEMENT AT BONHAMS SALE

    Monday, March 20th, 2023

    Annotated typescripts from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, mainly from Paris in 1936-37, will come up at Bonhams sale of fine books and manuscripts in Knightsbridge on March 29. Among them are sections of the third chapter of the second book, typed in black ink with Joyce’s autograph ink additions and two genealogies of “Finn” on two separate sheets. There are further revisions and corrections in the hand of either Joyce or more likely one or more of his amanuenses working on his instructions, in two parts. The lot, with 42 leaves in total, is estimated at £45,000-55,000. The sale also includes a series of six signed letters by Roger Casement to  to Max W. Karstensen of the Münchener Zeitung, 6 November 1915 to 6 March 1916, with supporting material. This lot is estimated at £4,000-6,000. UPDATE: The Casement letters made £4,845, the annotated Joyce typescripts were unsold.

    EARLY IRISH ARCHITECTURAL SECRETAIRE AT BONHAMS

    Tuesday, January 24th, 2023
    Irish George I secretaire cabinet

    An important Irish George I walnut and featherbanded, sycamore, cedar and marquetry ‘architectural’ secretaire cabinet c1725, possibly by John Kirkhoffer, comes up at Bonhams in London next month. It is among the highlights at The Connoiseur’s Library sale in Knightsbridge on February 7 and 8 and estimated at £20,000-£30,000. This is one of a group of four similar walnut and marquetry secretaire cabinets, dated circa 1720, which all appear in the 2007 seminal work on Irish furniture by Desmond Fitzgerald, Knight of Glin and James Peill. The authors re-affirm that such walnut cabinets are of Irish origin.

    John Kirkhoffer was probably the son of a German Palatine called Franz Ludwig, who arrived in Ireland as a refugee in 1709 after escaping the Rhineland-Palatinate area. The Kirkhoffer family of Protestant immigrants made it to the counties of Kerry and Limerick before ultimately settling in Dublin. There is some confusion as to the exact identity of this particular John Kirkhoffer. One was recorded as leasing premises for cabinet making in 1736, others are documented as cabinet makers active in Dublin in the 18th century.

    BEHAN’S NUDES FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIR TERENCE CONRAN

    Monday, December 19th, 2022
    Two Female Nudes, a 1979 watercolour, ink and pencil drawing by John Behan

    This watercolour, ink and pencil drawing of Two Female Nudes by the Irish sculptor John Behan sold for £828.75 at Bonhams in London. From the collection of the late design guru Sir Terence Conran the work came up at the sale of the contents of Barton Court, his country house in Berkshire. Conran died in 2020.

    CASTLETOWN HOUSE PORTRAITS TO HIGHLIGHT BONHAMS SALE

    Tuesday, September 20th, 2022
    William Osborne, R.H.A (1823-1901) – Sarah Conolly, mounted side saddle on a chestnut hunter in a landscape  UPDATE: EACH OF THE PORTRAITS MADE £22,950

    An outstanding and rare pair of equestrian portraits of Thomas and Sarah Connolly of Castletown House by William Osborne are among the highlights of the Elliot Collection at Bonhams next December 6 in The Old Rectory, Chilton Foliat Sale. There are few grander country houses in Ireland than Castletown House and few grander families than the Conollys who in one guise or another occupied the magnificent Palladian mansion for more than 240 years. Built in 1722 for William Conolly, speaker of the Irish House of Commons, the house was, by the mid-19th century, occupied by Tom Conolly, described as ‘the eccentric MP for Donegal’, who lived there with his wife Sarah. He who commissioned these equestrian portraits.

    “These portraits will certainly be the most important equine works by Osborne to appear on the market since they were acquired in 1992. I expect them to generate a great deal of interest – both from collectors of important Irish paintings as well as equestrian art,” Charlie Thomas of Bonhams said. The owners of the Old Rectory felt a warm affinity with Ireland. The memorable dining room was inspired by the important Print Room at Castletown House, and they commissioned murals for their bathrooms from the renowed Irish mural artist and decorative painter Michael Dillon. The portraits are each estimated at £20,000-30,000.

    A GREAT IRISH POET AND A GREAT IRISH PAINTER

    Tuesday, June 7th, 2022
    Psyche or the Legend of Love by Mary Tighe. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £7,012.50

    This is James Barry’s inscribed copy of Mary Tighe’s Psyche of the Legend of Love. The author’s presentation copy of the 1805 private edition is  inscribed for the painter James Barry. Irish romantic poet Mary Tighe (1772-1810) never lived to experience the esteem she enjoys today. She wrote one work only, Psyche or the Legend of Love, which was released in 1805 in a private edition of fifty copies for family and friends. This copy comes up at Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale in London on June 22 with an estimate of £4,000-6,000.

    Matthew Haley, Bonhams Head of Books and Manuscripts, said: “Mary Tighe was a seminal figure in Irish and indeed British Romanticism. She had many influential admirers during her short life including Thomas Moore, Joseph Cooper Walker and the Ladies of Llangollen but chronic ill health restricted her output to Psyche or the Legend of Love. Earlier this year Bonhams sold a notebook manuscript of her poems, so it is a particular pleasure to be offering this sumptuously-bound copy of the printed work.”

    RARE COPY OF ULYSSES WITH FASCINATING HISTORY AT BONHAMS

    Friday, May 27th, 2022
    PRESS COPY. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    The obstacles faced by James Joyce (1882-1941) in publishing his landmark modernist novel Ulysses would have tested the ingenuity of the hero of the Ancient World after whom the book is named. Judged too risqué to pass the draconian British obscenity laws, the novel was eventually published 100 years ago this year in Paris by Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company, in an edition of 1,000. The original plan to publish on February 2 (Joyce’s 40th birthday) was thwarted by technical issues over the colour of the cover – the writer specified the blue of the Greek flag – and so only two copies were produced that day. To compound the problems, Beach seems to have forgotten to order the extra copies for the press. There should have been 40 press copies but in the event only 13 were produced – unbound and on very poor-quality paper. One of them with a fascinating history of its own is to be sold at Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale in London on June 22.  It is estimated at £30,000-50,000.

    Bonhams Head of Books and Manuscripts, Matthew Haley, said: “The history of this press copy is as dramatic as the publication of Ulysses itself. It had been sent for review to Jack Squire, editor of the London Mercury. No fan of the Modernists, (the feeling was mutual, Virginia Woolf calling him ‘more repulsive than words can express’), Squire took one look at the novel and ordered his secretary to burn it. But the book was bulky, the stove small and she soon gave up. Some years later this copy, by then incomplete, was found in a cupboard by Squire’s assistant editor, Alan Pryce-Jones, who, defying a further order to consign it to the flames, smuggled it to safety.”

    YEATS ONCE OWNED BY PETER O’TOOLE AT BONHAMS

    Thursday, May 19th, 2022
    The Train through the Woods by Jack Butler Yeats. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    A painting by Jack B Yeats once in the collection of actor Peter O’Toole comes up at Bonhams sale of Modern British and Irish Art in London on June 22. Painted in 1925 The Train through the Woods is estimated at £40,000-60,000. There is art in the sale by Hughie O’Donoghue and Sir John Lavery.

    SONJA LANDWEER LIDDED POT AT BONHAMS

    Tuesday, April 26th, 2022
    Sonja Landweer (1933 – 2019) – Lidded pot, 1976. UPDATE: THIS MADE £892.50

    This lidded pot by Sonja Landweer comes up as lot 64 at Bonhams Design sale in London on April 28. It is estimated at £800-£1,200. The sale also includes a vase by Sonja Landweer. The Amsterdam born artist came to Ireland to teach ceramics at the Kilkenny Design Workshops. Her work came to the attention of Irish gallerist David Hendricks, and she held many successful solo exhibitions of her unique ceramics in his Dublin gallery from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Along with Barrie Cooke she founded the Kilkenny Arts Festival (formerly the Kilkenny Arts Week) and hosted many Irish and international writers, poets, and artists, including Seamus Heaney. In 1995 when accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, Heaney read his poem To a Dutch Potter in Ireland, inspired by his friendship with Sonja. Her work is held in many public collections including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Princessehof Ceramics Museum in Leeuwarden, the Hildesheim Städtisches Museum in Germany, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Copenhagen, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and the Ulster Museum, Belfast. She was awarded the prix artistique at the Biennale Internationale de Ceramique d’Art at Vallauris, France in 1974 and an honorary award from the National College of Art & Design in Dublin in 1992 

    WORKBOX WITH LINKS TO ELIZA O’NEILL AT BONHAMS

    Saturday, March 26th, 2022

    This Chinese Export lacquered work box and writing stand has provenance by repute to the Drogheda born Irish actress Eliza O’Neill, Lady Wrixon-Becher (1791-1872). Regarded as the foremost tragic actress on the London stage and  worthy successor to Sarah Siddons she earned a reputation for meanness, possibly because she had a large family to support. Thackery included this trait  in his portrait of Irish actress Emily Costigan in his novel Pendennis.  At the height of her fame she returned to Ireland in 1819 and concluded her career. Eliza married Sir William Wrixon-Becher (1780-1850), improving landlord, MP for Mallow and an amateur actor.  Mother of three sons and two daughters she spent the greater part of her retirement at her family home at Ballygiblin, Co. Cork.  The workbox comes up at Bonhams Home and Interiors sale in Knightsbridge on March 29-30 with an estimate of £600-£800 (€714-€953). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    LIMERICK SILVER MARROW SCOOP AT BONHAMS

    Friday, March 18th, 2022
    George III Irish provincial silver marrow scoop – Thomas John Burke, Limerick, 1784 – 1800. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £573.75

    A rare Limerick silver marrow scoop comes up at Bonhams Home and Interiors sale in London on March 29-30. Made by Thomas Burke it is estimated at £800-£1,000. The sale features a number of items of Irish silver from the Peter Ticher collection which includes a pair of George II Irish cast silver candlesticks by Matthew Walker, Dublin, 1730–1731. Estimates range from £100-£4,000. Highlights include An 18th century Irish silver cream jug with no maker’s mark, only crowned harp and Hibernia, circa 1750 (£500-£600); a collection of Irish silver bright-engraved flatware, varying makers (£400-£600) and eleven Irish provincial silver teaspoons by Carden Terry & Jane Williams, Cork, stamped with maker’s mark CT over IW, and stamped Sterling, circa 1810 (£300-£400).