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    • Posts Tagged ‘Fonsie Mealy’

    ART AND LUXURY AT IRISH AUCTIONS NEXT WEEK

    Saturday, October 19th, 2024

    Italian 17th century style copper water cistern at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,800 AT HAMMER

    Art, luxury and the Epsom Gold Cup will vie for the attention of collectors next week.  With a selection headed by Sean Scully’s Wall Dark Green (2021) – on course to possibly become the most expensive painting to be sold this year in Ireland – the Irish and international online art sale by Morgan O’Driscoll on October 22 is a must see.

    A 17th century style Italian copper water cistern at Fonsie Mealys Chatsworth autumn fine art sale in Castlecomer on October 23 and 24 will undoubtedly leave some viewers with a sense of deja vu.  For many decades this unusual piece graced the storied Park Hotel in Kenmare, which came under new ownership last November.  The estimate is €5,000-€7,000.

    The sale offers more than 100 lots from this luxurious hotel including a suite of four landscape scenes from the circle of Flemish baroque painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) which graced the main stairway.  The estimate is €3,000-€4,000.

    Wall Dark Green (2021) by Sean Scully at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    Old Road, Caherciveen by Jack Butler Yeats ( €180,000-€240,000), Study of Self (1994) by Louis le Brocquy (€120,000-€180,000) and Gerard Dillon’s The Table in the Blue Room (€100,000-€150,000) are among leading lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale.  The 172 lots on offer include a seductive selection of work by artists ranging from Roderic O’Conor, George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson and Donald Teskey to Patrick Scott, Genieve Figgis and Felim Egan.

    There is sculpture by John Behan and highly collectible work by Frank Auerbach, Albert Irvin and William Scott in a sale that is on view all weekend  and on Monday at the RDS.

    Meantime Fonsie Mealy offers racegoers a chance to bag the Epsom Gold Cup from 1963.  It was won in 1963 by Mrs Anne Biddle’s homebred L’Homme Arme, trained by Tommy Shaw. Born Anne Bullitt in Philadelphia she was daughter of US Ambassador William Bullitt and became, in 1966, the first woman in Ireland to be allowed a trainers licence. 

    Cork Butter Trade made his Pile  by Stephen O’Driscoll (1825-1895) at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THE COLLECTION MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER

    It is unusual to find at auction a group of no less than eight charismatic Cork silhouettes by Stephen O’Driscoll (1825-1895).  These ones, to be sold as a collection at Fonsie Mealy, have typical titles like Cork Butter Trade made his Pile, The Man Wot Weighted the Cat, Cork Beggars Opera, The Council of War – a Volcano Row and The Two Paddys Blowing up the Mansion House.  The estimate is €2,000-€3,000.

    The most expensively estimated lot is an Irish Victorian giltwood side table (€20,000-€30,000) made by Arthur Jones in Dublin in 1853 and exhibited that year at The Irish Industrial Exhibition in Dublin.  At the other end of the price scale, with estimates from €20 euro up, are silver teaspoons, dessert forks, butter knives and sugar tongs. Viewing at Castlecomer is from 1 pm to 5 pm tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday and Tuesday.  The catalogue with almost 1,000 lots in total is online.

    George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson – HMS Conqueror and HMS Duke of Wellington in Cork Harbour (1858) at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 34,000 AT HAMMER

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    HISTORIC IRISH GILTWOOD SIDE TABLE AT FONSIE MEALY SALE

    Thursday, October 17th, 2024

    Irish Victorian Giltwood Side Table and Mirror. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    This Irish giltwood side table and mirror, crafted by Arthur Jones & Sons for the Great Exhibition of 1853, is the leading lot at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth autumn fine art auction on October 23 and 24 in Castlecomer.  A superb example of mid-19th century Irish craftsmanship and nationalist symbolism it is commonly referred to as “The Table of Ireland” as it captures the essence of Irish identity and national pride through a complex composition of decorative motifs. Among them are a harp, a carved mask of a bearded man crowned with a hat of shamrocks, an Irish round tower and a medieval tower house. This historic piece is estimated at €20,000-€30,000. There are 983 lots in the sale and the catalogue is online.

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    REALITY CHECK REVEALS HUGE VALUE TO BE HAD IN ANTIQUE FURNITURE

    Monday, August 12th, 2024

    This Empire style pier table made €160 at Adams in June.

    Beautiful, green, sustainable and unwanted …. good antique furniture continues to offer spectacular value to consumers.  Armed with just €100 euro you can pick something up at many sales. The choice widens considerably with €300, €500 or €1,000. Disinclined to believe me?  There are lots of examples from auctions in the first half of the year in Ireland as follows:

    An Empire style circular pier table with brass sphinx head capitals sold for a hammer price of just €160 at the last At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin in June.  At the same auction a 19th century circular convex mirror surmounted by an eagle with outstretched wings made €320, a Victorian walnut and parquetry games table made €130 and a Victorian mahogany hall chair made €170.

    This George III bureau made €150 at Sheppards in May.

    At Sheppards Great Irish Interiors sale in May a 19th century pine pedestal plant stand made €50 at hammer, an Irish 19th century drop leaf kitchen table made €90, a George III mahogany wash stand made €160 and a George III writing bureau sold for €150.

    At Woodwards in Cork in April an Edwardian occasional table on tripod base made €40, a Victorian Sutherland table made €90, a Victorian chest on stand made €120 and a Victorian lowboy with herringbone crossbanding made €140. At Marshs in June a two tier centre table made €40, a French escritoire made €120 and a Victorian lady’s work table made €160.

    This Victorian lowboy made €140 at Woodwards in April.

    An Edwardian oak hall stand made €90 at Lynes and Lynes in April, a Victorian dressing table made €100, an antique side table made €160, a Victorian circular dining table made €50 and a Victorian dumb waiter made €140.

    An Edwardian four tier waterfall what not sold for €40 at Fonsie Mealy in February, while at an auction in Castlecomer in May a Georgian glazed bookcase made €210, a Pembroke table made €170 and a Victorian walnut lady’s work table made €180.

    The late Cork auctioneer Joe Woodward once remarked that: “There is a bargain at every auction”. That was then and this is now. When it comes to good serviceable antique furniture that has already given years of service and is ready for much more many bargains can be found at every sale nowadays.  The prices quoted here are hammer prices and do not include auctioneers fees, but fees on €100 euro do not amount to much.  Some auctioneers will even refuse to accept  some furniture for sale.  Who can blame them?  When pieces do not attract any bids and are unsold they must be returned and carriage costs money.

    This Victorian dining table made €50 euro at Lynes and Lynes in April.

    Not everything is unwanted.  Some furniture is sought after and some particularly good pieces make lots of money.  Just last October a pair of c1760 George II carved giltwood armchairs, one with a Strahan label, made $152,400 (€139,949) at Sotheby’s in New York. It helps when something is exceptional, with impeccable provenance and preferably a celebrity owner or two.

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    LOTS OF CHOICE AT FONSIE MEALY RARE BOOK AND COLLECTORS SALE

    Saturday, July 27th, 2024

    The US-European shipping archive of The Widow Bermingham & Sons. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    A lock of Michael Collins hair, a large Tara brooch, the first edition of the 1843-44 Ordnance Survey Atlas of Co. Limerick, a Historic Guide to the White House, 1963 signed by John F. Kennedy, a 1912 Louth All Ireland football winners medal, a first printing of de Valera’s new Constitution signed by the cabinet and a rare lady’s blue shirt uniform all feature at Fonsie Mealy’s rare book and collectors sale in Castlecomer on July 28 and 29.

    Sales like this offer all kinds of everything, from Jack B Yeats illustrations to rare Harry Potter editions, a heavy Webley .44 revolver believed to have belonged to John MacBride, an Irish 20 pence trial piece coin from 1985 and a collection of long playing records signed by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Roy Rogers and Frankie Laine.

    A lock of Michael Collins’s hair. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,400

    The early US/European 19th century maritime shipping papers of the St. Sebastian Basque trading company for The Widow Bermingham & Sons is, at €7,000-€10,000, the most expensively estimated lot.  The Berminghams were a prominent Galway family, some of whom emigrated to San Sebastian to establish a shipping agency. These original, unresearched papers from 1800-14 provide details of the issues faced by early shipping entrepreneurs during the Napoleonic Wars and the Barbary War.

    The Blueshirts – the paramilitary organisation of the Irish Free State many of whose members went on to fight for the nationalists in Spain – did not have women on board. Membership was subsequently opened to those who had not served in the armed forces but the woman’s blue shirt with elasticated waist, Fine Gael badge and Army Comrades insignia is an extremely rare item (€3,000-€4,000). 

    The lock of hair was given after the death of Michael Collins to his friend Felix Cronin and is estimated at €5,000-€7,000.  A veteran of the War of Independence and the Civil War he married Kitty Kiernan three years after the death of Collins in 1922.  Lot 634 is a collection of eight Irish army brass uniform buttons complete with a letter from Michael Collins Powell to General O’Duffy dated 27/1/33 asking for a receipt for the enclosed: “found in Michael’s pocket, August 22nd, 1922”. Mary Collins Powell was a sister of Michael Collins. The estimate is €7,000-€10,000.

    A large Tara Brooch in 18 carat gold  UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000

    A large Tara brooch in 18 carat gold by Hopkins and Hopkins, Dublin is estimated at €5,000-€6,000.  It belonged to Alice Milligan, poet and playwright and founder of the influential Shan Van Vhoct periodical.

    A copy of Some Experiences of an Irish R M and other books by Edith Somerville and signed by her in 1948 are estimated at €120-€180.  Collectors interested in travel will be interested in an 1825 book entitled The Pleasure Tours in Ireland (€160-€220), an 1812  book of Illustrations of the Scenery of Killarney and the Surrounding Country (€150-€200),  Vanishing Dublin by Flora Mitchell (€200-€300), Life in the West of Ireland by Jack B. Yeats (€400-€600) and a good album of 300 original postcards of Cork city, Bandon, Queenstown, Crosshaven and Ballycotton (€600-€800).

    The catalogue with 831 lots is online and there will be viewing in Castlecomer from 1 pm to 5 pm tomorrow and from 10 am to 5 pm on Monday.  Sales are at 11 am sharp on Tuesday and Wednesday.

     A first Australian edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,150 AT HAMMER

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    RARE SIGNED PRINTING OF DE VALERA’S CONSTITUTION AT FONSIE MEALY

    Thursday, July 25th, 2024

    First Printing of De Valera’s new Constitution, approved by referendum in 1938. UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,500

    An important copy of de Valera’s new Constitution, approved by referendum in 1938 and signed by all ten members of his 1938 cabinet comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s summer rare books and collectors sale in Castlecomer on July 30 and 31. The special printing on heavy paper finely bound in dark green patinated morocco is estimated at 7,000-9,000. It is signed by  Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh, Oscar Traynor, Patrick Lynh, P.J. Rutledge, Sean F. Lemass, Séamus Ó Riain, Tomás Ó Deirg, Gearóid Ó Beoláin, Frank Aiken, Seán MacEntee, Patrick J. Little and Attorney General Patrick Lynch.

    Only a handful of copies were prepared with all the signatures, one for each cabinet member, and a few went to favoured members of the diplomatic corps; an unsigned copy went to Áras an Uachtaráin.. 
    No more than two or three signed copies have come to light in recent years.

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    ARTIST JAMES HUMBERT CRAIG REPRESENTED IRELAND AT OLYMPICS

    Saturday, July 6th, 2024

    The Sunlit Valley, The Rosses, Co. Donegal by James Humbert Craig. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,000 AT HAMMER

    Art as an event in the Olympic Games was abandoned after 1948 because artists were considered to be professional and the games were for amateurs.  That was then and this is now so our professional golfers Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, both qualified to represent Ireland at the games this year which get underway in Paris on July 26, have nothing to worry about.

    At a time from 1912 to 1948 when medals were awarded for painting and sculpture inspired by sport, as well as to musicians, writers and architects, the northern Irish artist James Humbert Craig (1877-1944) was part of the Painting Event at the 1932 summer olympics in Los Angeles.  He did not win but his landscapes are very highly regarded. One of them, an oil on canvas titled The Sunlit Valley, Rosses, Co. Donegal, will lead Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer art sale in Castlecomer on July 10 with an estimate of €6,000-€8,000.  It is the most expensively estimated artwork at the sale.

    The auction, on view in Castlecomer next Monday and Tuesday, features 345 lots of Irish and international art and sculpture along with Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian paintings.

    Athlone Castle by James Lawson Stewart. UPDATE: THIS MADE 300 AT HAMMER

    A topographical View of Athlone in 1853 from an elevated site attributed to George Vincent Cole is estimated at €300-€400 and a watercolour of Athlone Castle by  British artist James Lawson Stewart (1829-1911) shows many features now disappeared (€400-€500).  A hand coloured print of Edinburgh Castle from Holyrood House by Charles Windsor, now King of England, signed and dated on the lower right, is estimated at €800-€1,000.  There is a similar estimate on an abstract landscape attributed to Andre Lhote.

    Lot 261 is a bronze bust of Roger Casement attributed to Marshall Hutson.  Though unsigned it is similar in style to the work of the Cork artist who died in 2001 and is estimated at €1,000-€1,500.  Among his sculpted works is the stone crest of the City of Cork at the headquarters of Cork Harbour Commissioners at Custom House Street in Cork.

    Ar an Costa by Daniel Corkery (1878-1964). UPDATE: THIS MADE 360 AT HAMMER

    Ar an Costa is a watercolour of a coastal scene with figures on a beach by Daniel Corkery (1878-1964), a close friend of Terence McSwiney who became Professor of English at UCC in 1930.  One of a group who established the Cork Dramatic Society in 1908 he wrote plays and short stories, played the cello, took night classes in painting at the Crawford and was author of The Hidden Ireland, a 1924 study of the poetry of 18th century Irish language poetry in Munster.  Lot 44 at Mealy’s is estimated at €180-€220 and was formerly in the collection of  An t’Athair Eric Mac Fhinn (1895-1987) of Galway.

    There is a portrait of Walter Osborne by Augustus Burke (€3,000-€4,000), a pencil sketch of John O’Leary at trial by John Butler Yeats (€400-€500), a watercolour of the Rock of Cashel by Patrick Hennessy (€400-€600) and an oil of Country Cottages, Ireland c1810 by William Mulready (€700-€1,000) among a selection on offer that is both varied and affordable.  

    The sale will be on view in Castlecomer on July 8 and 9 and will begin at 2 pm on July 10.  The catalogue is online. Nowadays the Venice Biennale is often referred to informally as the Olympics of art.

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    ANYONE FOR SOME IRISH FREE STATE CHICKEN?

    Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024

    Attributed to Sean Keating (1889-1977) – Irish Free State Chicken. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER

    In 1928 Sean Keating painted a finished design in gouache entitled Irish Free State Chicken. Commissioned by the recently-formed Empire Marketing Board it was part of a campaign to promote the sale of agricultural produce, including Irish produce, internationally. Keating produced three images for the campaign, to be used as the basis for posters and billboards; the other two designs were for bacon and dairy.   In his finished version of Irish Free State Chicken, along with a donkey and cart and a multitude of white poultry, he included the figures of men and women he had sketched on the Aran Islands, building up an image that conveyed the spirit of independence he so admired in the West of Ireland. This work, which comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer art sale in Castlecomer on July 10, is close to Keating’s finished design. There are also significant differences, and it is possibly a preparatory sketch. Mealys say that the provenance of this work also suggests it is by Keating.  The estimate is 3,000-5,000. The catalogue for the sale is online.

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    FOLEY STATUES MAKE €13,000 AT HAMMER AT FONSIE MEALY

    Wednesday, May 29th, 2024

    John Henry Foley, RA (1818-1874) – Statues of Oliver Goldsmith and Edmund Burke

    These 51 cm high statues of Oliver Goldsmith and Edmund Burke made a hammer price of €13,000 over an estimate of 4,000-6,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer fine art sale in Castlecomer today. They are maquettes for the full-size bronzes erected at the gates of Trinity College Dublin in 1863 and 1868. The original plaster models are in the Birmingham City Art Gallery.  Foley is best known for his statutes of Daniel O’Connell at the O’Connell monument in Dublin and of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London. A 16th century tapestry once in the Rathcormac collection of American actor Hurd Hatfield made 9,500.

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    PROVINCIAL IRISH SILVER MAKES IT MARK AT FONSIE MEALY

    Tuesday, May 28th, 2024

    An important Irish Provincial 18th Century two handled Loving Cup, by Joseph Johns, Limerick c. 1760’s

    Irish silver made its mark at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth two day summer fine art sale which got underway today. This two handled Limerick loving cup by Joseph Johns made €4,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €2,500. Other hammer prices included the following: an 18th century rococo style Irish silver coffee pot by William Reynolds, Cork (€3,800); An 18th century soup ladle by George Halloran, Limerick (€3,100); a c1770 provincial soup ladle by George Moore, Limerick (€3,000); a c1919 Dublin presentation salver by West (€2,600); a pair of 1770’s basting spoons by Phillip Walshe, Limerick (€2,500); a pair of c1750’s serving spoons by Joseph Johns, Limerick (€2,300); a c1740-50 pair of Irish table spoons by George Moore, Limerick (€2,200); a mid Victorian silver claret jug in the form of an Armada jug by Richard Martin and Ebenezer Hall (€2,100); a c1780’s Irish silver coffee pot by William Thompson and Michael Cormick (€2,000) and an 1841 tea and coffee service by William Hunter (€1,900).

    18th Century Irish rococo Provincial Coffee Pot by William Reynolds, Cork

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    ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES AT SALES BY FONSIE MEALY AND VICTOR MEE

    Saturday, May 25th, 2024

    An oversized bronze of a crab at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS MADE 10,000 AT HAMMER

    The possibilities seem limitless at two day sales by both Fonsie Mealy in Castlecomer and Victor Mee in Belturbet on May 28 and 29. A 16th century tapestry once in the Rathcormac collection of American actor Hurd Hatfield and the advertising mirrors from the old Clancy’s Bar in Cork city centre give some idea of the breadth and scope of Fonsie Mealy’s two day summer fine art auction with 1,200 lots. 

    You could opt instead for a seven foot tall bronze sculpture of a crab (€8,000 – €12,000) or a wrought iron Victorian style conservatory with remotely controlled windows (€15,000-€25,000) at Victor Mee’s annual summer garden sale.

    Fonsie Mealy will offer art by Montague Dawson, Gerard Dillon, Harry Kernoff, Augustus Burke, Dan O’Neill, Sean Keating and others, quality affordable and decorative furniture, Irish Provincial and Dublin silverware, clocks and jewellery.  Lot 723 in this sale is the Ladbrokes Epsom Gold Cup from 1963 (€3,000-€5,000).  The Choice of Hercules, the Flemish tapestry from the Hatfield collection is estimated at  €10,000-€15,000.  The actor was best known for playing the lead in the Oscar winning 1945 film of The Picture of Dorian Gray.

    Among the feature lots at Victor Mee are the Victorian bandstand from the famed St. Louis Convent in Co. Monaghan, a 19th century Carrara marble bath, a cast iron statue of a pig, a pair of majestic moulded sandstone lions, a sandstone fountain, a statue of boxing hares, a tree trunk bench and an Art Nouveau style stone figure of a lady along with an array of planters and gates, piers, pillar caps, steps and exterior lighting.  Full catalogues for both sales are online.

    A mirror advertising Paddy from Clancy’s Bar in Cork at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER

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