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The Lark Sings High, an oil on board by Jack B Yeats, at Bonhams. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £95,650
The Lark Sings High by Jack B Yeats is at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 19. Measuring 9 x 14 inches it is from a private collection in the UK. The estimate is £50,000-£70,000 (€57,000-€80,000).
The Grantham family car, a 1925 Sunbeam Saloon, sold for £172,500 including premium.
The Grantham family car and the Downton Abbey bell wall were highlights of the Downton Abbey auction which ran online at Bonhams until September 16. The car made £172,500, the wall of bells from the servants quarters sold for £216,300 including premium against an estimate of £5,000-£7,000. The bell wall was first seen in Season 1, in the Servant’s Hall and made by the Art Department’s model makers. It was an integral part of the Downton Abbey world and featured from the first season to the last. The 267 lot auction achieved £1.7 million, more than six times the pre-sale estimate, and was 100% sold.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 16, 2025)
The Downton Abbey bell wall sold for £216,300 including premium.
Hard to believe that it has been 15 years since Downton Abbey first hit our screens. The Golden Globe, BAFTA and primetime Emmy winning series ran for six seasons from 2020-2015 and garnered more than 120 million viewers. So the auction of props, costumes and set pieces from one of the most popular programmes in the history of British television at Bonhams will generate global interest.
The sale will run online from next Monday August 18 to September 16, along with a special exhibition at Bonhams London headquarters at New Bond St. Highlights include costumes worn by the ladies including the prop costume and wedding bouquet worn by Michelle Dockery (as Lady Mary), the Downton Abbey bell wall from the servants hall, an autographed script of season one episode one, various cook costumes and pinafores worn by Lesley Nicol (as Mrs. Patmore) and a pair of white leather gloves worn by Rob James-Collier (as Thomas Barrow).
Carnival Films, part of the Universal Studios group, will contribute proceeds from items they donated to Together for Short Lives, the UK’s leading charity for children with life-limiting conditions and their families. A third and final Downton Abbey film is due for release in September.
Michelle Dockery (as Lady Mary) prop wedding costume and bouquet. UPDATE: THIS MADE £21,760 INCLUDING PREMIUM
George Gault (Irish, 1916-2001) – Still life of flowers in a blue vase. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £435
This watercolour and bodycolour still life by George Gault is at Bonhams Discovery Pictures sale at Knightsbridge, London until August 14. It is estimated at £600-£800 (€690-€920). Born in Belfast Gault joined the British Army aged 18 and served until 1946. He studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1948–51, his teachers including William Coldstream, Kenneth Martin, Victor Pasmore and William Townsend. Gault went on to teach painting at the Greenwich Adult Education Institute for 20 years. The auction of 21 lots is now open for bidding and among the artists included are Marcel Dyf, Augustus John, George Chinnery and John Kingerlee.
Margaret Stokes (1916-1966) – Twilight, Merrion Square, Dublin. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,536
This oil on canvas by Margaret Stokes is at Bonhams sale of Modern British and Irish Art at Knightsbridge in London on July 16. The artist was a pupil at The Royal Hibernian Academy School and won the Purser Griffin Scholarship which she used to attend the Glasgow School of Art and later went to the Edinburgh College of Art. Her first influence was her cousin Mainie Jellett who gave her art lessons from an early age. This work is estimated at €800-€1,200.
The Milk Cart by Paul Henry is among the highlights at Bonhams sale of British and Irish art in London next Wednesday (June 18). Painted in 1928-29 it is a rare composition by an artist whose focus was normally on a pure landscape arrangement. This work, exhibited in New York and Boston in 1930 and at the National Gallery of Ireland in 2003, offers a human element as the central focus. In a catalogue note to the 2003 exhibition the late art historian Dr. S.B. Kennedy commented: “Paul Henry defined a view of the Irish landscape, in particular that of the west, that remains as convincing to modern eyes as it was in his own time. Like Constable’s Suffolk and Cezanne’s Provence, once experienced it is difficult to see the landscape of the west other than through Henry’s eyes”. It is estimated at €140,000-€210,000. The auction of 74 lots will include works by Jack B. Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, Sir John Lavery, Norah McGuinness and Rowan Gillespie.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £241,700 INCLUDING PREMIUM
JACK B YEATS – CROSSING THE CITY (€120,000-€170,000)
A exhibition showcasing highlights from upcoming sales at Bonhams in Dublin runs from May 22-28. It displays works by Paul Henry, Jack B. Yeats, Roderic O’Conor, Sir John Lavery and Norah McGuinness, prints by Andy Warhol, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Sybil Andrews and Roy Lichtenstein, furniture by George Nakashima and José Zanine, glass and metal sculpture by Alessandro Pianon and a Martin Brothers stoneware ‘Wally Bird’ tobacco jar. Bonhams sale of Modern British and Irish art is on June 18 in London. The Modern Decorative Design sale is online from June 2-11.
Rare Irish delftware shell pickle stand or epergne, circa 1760. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £4,480
This very rare Irish delftware shell pickle stand or epergne comes up at Bonhams in London on April 15. Made around 1760, probably in Dublin, it is from the collection of the late antiquarian Graham Slater. With three tiers formed of seven upturned scallop shells lot 155 is estimated at £1,200-£1,800 (€1,400-€2,100).
The Window with a view of the town by Jack B Yeats at Adams. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD AT THE AUCTION AND SOLD LATER FOR €250,000
The record for an Irish artwork sold in 2024 was broken three times in quick succession at Sotheby’s and Christie’s this month. It was a similar story on the global market. Expectations around sales of Irish art at Whyte’s, Adams and Bonhams next week are high.
First Orpen’s portrait of Evelyn St. George made £720,000 (€864,010) at Sotheby’s, then The Thinker on the Butte de Warlencourt by Orpen made £756,000 (€907,210) at Christie’s followed later in the sale of the Hobart collection by O’Connell Bridge by Jack B Yeats which made £886,000 (€1,063,210).
The art market is proving to be robust in the face of two years of downturn and continuing global uncertainty. The global market breached the $100 million barrier only once this year when Magritte’s Surrealist masterpiece L’empire des lumieres made $105,000,000 ($121,160,000 with fees) at Christie’s last week. The more conservative and resilient Irish market got a million euro plus artwork in 2024.
On the home front the combined top estimate of €2.5 million for the top four lots at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin on December 4 speaks volumes about the current state of the Irish art market. The four, three by Yeats and one by Orpen, are from the collection of Jacqueline and Vincent O’Brien. Horsemen (1947) (€500,000-€800,000) and He Reads a Book (1952) (€500,000-€700,000) both feature horses, a subject by Yeats that is particularly prized by collectors.
Old John’s Cottage, Connemara by Sir William Orpen at Adams depicts an American wake in 1908. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD AT THE AUCTION AND LATER SOLD FOR €250,000
There is much excitement around these works, and no wonder. They are from the collection of Ireland’s greatest trainer, voted the greatest influence in horse racing history in a worldwide poll in 2003. Orpen’s Old John’s Cottage, Connemara is estimated at €300,000-€500,000 as is another Yeats from their collection, The Window with a view of the Town from 1951.
John Joseph Tracey (1813-1873) – THE IRISH PEASANT’S GRAVE, 1843 AT WHYTE’S. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER
Paul Henry and Jack B Yeats share the top billing at Whyte’s sale of Irish and International art in Dublin next Monday evening (Dec 2). Killary Bay by Paul Henry and The Dust on thy Chariot Wheel by Yeats are each estimated at €100,000-€150,000. A self portrait by Roderic O’Conor has an estimate of €70,000-€90,000.
The sale at Whytes includes nine lots from the Bank of Ireland collection including Colin Middleton’s Evening Star, Clonelly, Co. Fermanagh from 1970 (€18,000-€22,000). There is art by Maurice MacGonigal, William Crozier, Michael Farrell and Peter Collis. Amongst other lots Walter Osborne’s Girl Feeding a tortoiseshell cat is estimated at €60,000-€80,000 and the sale offers art by Nano Reid, Flora Mitchell, Letitia Hamilton and many more artists. The large sculpture section includes work by Rowan Gillespie, John Coll, Eamonn O’Doherty and Linda Brunker.
The Irish Sale: Vision and Voice online at Bonhams until December 5 features work by Sir John Lavery, Mainie Jellett, Mary Swanzy, John Doherty, Dan O’Neill and a collection of 20 works by Norah McGuinness consigned by her family.
The Long Memory (Westerness Series) by Colin Middleton at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
In New York last week Standard Station – Ten cent Western being torn in half by Ed Ruscha sold for $68.5 million at Christie’s. A monumental Water Lilies by Claude Monet made $65.5 million at Sotheby’s.
The question now is will more records be broken in Ireland in December?
Norah McGuinness (1901-1980) – Snow on the hills, Rockbrook, Co. Dublin. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €20,480
The Irish Sale: Vision and Voice, open for bidding at Bonhams, runs until December 5 and is now on view in Dublin. The auction features female pioneers of Irish modernism like Mary Swanzy, Mainie Jellett and Norah McGuinness and artists like Sir John Lavery, Dan O’Neill and John Doherty among a collection of 82 lots.
Mary Swanzy H.R.H.A. (1882-1978) – South of France landscape. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €43,520
