FRANCIS BINDON (c1690-1765) – PORTRAIT OF JONATHAN SWIFT. UPDATE: THIS MADE 234,000 AT HAMMER
This portrait of Jonathan Swift by Francis Bindon has been at Howth Castle since 1735 and will come up at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents of the castle on September 8 and 9. A second sale of the library at the castle takes place on September 22 and 23. More than 800 lots will come under the hammer in the fine art and antiques sale.
Howth Castle has been the home of the St. Lawrence family since the Norman Invasion. Since 1919 the castle has been held by the distaff heirs, the Gaisford-St. Lawrence family. In 2018 the family announced their agreement to sell the castle, demesne and Ireland’s Eye to the Tetrach investment group who intend to develop an hotel and luxury resort. A seven acre portion has since been sold to Glenveagh homes who plan to build 200 apartments.
THIS summer of auctions is continuing at a brisk pace. A variety of interesting and one off lots will come under the hammer in Ireland over the next few days. More than 600 lots will come under the hammer at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents from Osberstown House, Naas on July 27. Osberstown is an elegant country home with all the trappings that make such places special. Hunting through the catalogue you will find everything from a four poster bed and garden statues to antique furniture and rugs, a console mirror and even an Irish silver replica of the Phoenix monument at Phoenix Park. There are comfortable button back leather library armchairs, painting and limited edition prints by Pauline Bewick, a Victorian breakfront wardrobe, a walnut dining suite, an Arts and Crafts five drawer chest, a selection of artworks, a cylinder bureau, a cheval mirror and much more to choose from.Viewing by appointment will be available on Monday. The catalogue is online and the sale will be online only from Castlecomer.
UPDATE: The Osberstown House sale realised over €370,000 on the hammer. The top lot was a massive pair of recumbent Great Danes by Triton 2001 in a limited edition 21/100 which made €5,800 at hammer.
This four poster bed is lot 61 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale. UPDATE: THIS BED WAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE AUCTION
If you picture yourself as a Viking warrior slashing and burning your way through oodles of Covid restrictions and combatting bureaucratic enemies more fearsome and confusing than any ancient dragons then Sean Eacretts auction in Ballybrittas, Co. Laois on July 26 is for you. He is selling MGM props from Vikings and Game of Thrones online on Monday. International interest is guaranteed but estimates are reasonable. A pair of tall metal candleabra from Game of Thrones is estimated at €400-€800 and King Ivor’s throne from Vikings season four is estimated at €300-500. Or you might prefer King Alfred’s throne from season five. There are special tables and boat chairs along with a selection of axes, cabinets and chests in highly decorative hardwood from the Great Hall of Kattegat as filmed in Ashford, Co. Wicklow. The sale features fine art, antiques and collectibles as part one and MGM props as part two.
Meantime Aidan Foley’s summer sale of antiques and interiors online from Kilcolgan, Co. Galway takes place today and tomorrow. There is art by George Gillespie, Maurice Wilks, Graham Knuttel, Arthur Maderson, John Skelton, Colin Middleton and others. The auction offers Persian rugs, antique furniture, silver, Waterford Crystal, a pair of 19th century military epaulettes, old banknotes and garden furniture.The pub section, which is always popular, includes a Bendigo Tobacco mirror from a pub clearance in Ballyhaunis as well s prints, collectibles and glassware. The online sale is on view today in Kilcolgan and the online auction is at 11 am tomorrow and on Monday.
There will be 627 lots at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents from Osberstown House, Naas online from Castlecomer on July 27. There is a fine selection of antique furniture, art, lamps, mirrors, garden furniture and a variety of collectibles.
Patricia Jorgensen – Arum Lilies ’94 watercolour (150-250). UPDATE: THIS MADE 520 AT HAMMER
Contents from Osberstown House, Naas, Co. Kildare will come under the hammer at an online sale by Fonsie Mealy on July 27. More than 600 lots will come under the hammer. Viewing will be available by appointment on July 23, 24 and 26. The sale will be live online in Castlecomer, but there will be no public attendance.
THIS gilt side chair by John Trotter made a hammer price of €10,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s Killoughter House sale today. The chair was part of a set supplied to Leinster House in 1759 and was moved to Carton House in 1815. Originally from Berwickshire, John Trotter was cabinet maker to George II. His firm at Frith St. in Soho, London is recorded in directories and the Royal Accounts.
UPDATE: The sale realised just under 500,000 on the hammer. The top lot was Travellers on a Woodland Path by James Arthur O’Connor which made 12,000. Caernarfon Bay by Kyffin Williams and Wooded Landscape by Gerrit van Hees each sold for 9,500. An Irish Georgian silver bullet teapot made 9,000 and a large Louis Vuitton travelling wardrobe trunk made 6,400.
This 18th century engraved Irish Map containing Plans of Drogheda, Derry, Kinsale Harbour, Charlemont Fort, City of Dublin, Coleraine, The Harbour of Cork, Galway, The City of Kilkenny, Carrickfergus, The City of Cork, Athlone, Waterford, Belfast, The Royal Fort of Duncannon and Limerick comes up as Lot 321 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents from Killoughter House, Ashford, Co. Wicklow online on May 18. It is estimated at €200-€300. UPDATE: THIS MADE 360 AT HAMMER
From Italian and Danish furniture in the 1950’s, ’60’s and ’70’s at de Veres to a crocquet set and an 18th century engraved Irish map with plans of Drogheda, Derry, Kinsale Harbour, Cork Harbour, Kilkenny, Cork, Waterford and Limerick at Fonsie Mealy’s there is plenty to choose from at online sales next week. The Design of our Times timed online sale at de Veres until May 18 offers classic 20th century design, period Irish Georgian and Victorian furniture and contemporary and traditional art. Among the artists featured are Donald Teskey, Bridget Riley, Mark Francis, Kenneth Webb, Erskine Nichol and Edwin Hayes. Renowned designers from Eileen Gray, le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe to Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, Eero Saarinen, Ron Arad and Verner Panton all feature in a sale of nearly 400 lots.
The Egg chair designed by Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 8,000 AT HAMMER
Fine furniture, antiques, ceramics, paintings, outdoor and garden effects and wines will feature at Fonsie Mealy’s online sale of contents from Killoughter House, Ashford, Co. Wicklow on May 18. Among more than 600 lots are a pair of miniature pencil portraits of Philip Somerville of The Prairie, Schull, Co. Cork and his wife Henrietta Townsend, an 18th century engraved Irish map, a pair of minature portraits of Brisbane Warren of Union Hall and his wife Mary, daughter of Philip Somerville. Furniture includes a large 19th century French gilt console table once in the collection of Sir Alfred Chester Beatty.
A rare and original Advertising Mirror, “The Shamrock Whiskey” by Kirker, Greer & Co. Ltd., Belfast,” c. 1910 at Fonsie Mealy. UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
Here is a video on Killoughter House, Ashford, Co. Wicklow. Fonsie Mealy will conduct an online auction of contents from the house on May 18. The website allows a client to register, view and bid through the company’s own platform.
This large 19th century French gilt console table at Fonsie Mealy’s Killoughter House online sale on May 18 has a distinctive provenance. The triple breakfront table, measuring 102 inches wide and with white veined marble top, came from the Sir Alfred Chester Beatty estate sale at Clonmannon House near Rathnew in Co. Wicklow in 1968. That sale was conducted by James Adam, Dublin. This time around the table is lot 382 and is estimated at €4,000-€6,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800 AT HAMMER
A match ticket to the fatal Bloody Sunday game at Croke Park in 1920 sold for a hammer price of 7,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s collectors sale on March 3. It had been estimated at 2,000-3,000 and after competitive internet bidding it went to a buyer in Ireland. Shootings at the game followed the early morning assassination of eleven British Intelligence Agents, “The Cairo Gang,” in an operation organised by Michael Collins. The British retaliated later that day at Croke Park. Military and Auxiliary Forces fired into the a crowd indiscriminately, killing twelve people and wounding about sixty. A total of 73 issues of Limerick War News, later the South Western Command War News from July to October 1922 sold for 6,500 at hammer. This is one of the rarest of all Civil War journals.
De luxe edition of the Harry Potter series aroused much interest. A first edition of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets signed by J.K. Rowling made 5,000 at hammer; a signed first edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made 4,800 and a signed de luxe edition of Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone made 4,000.
