Among the more unusual lots at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth Winter Fine Arts sale in Castlecomer on November 26 is this one. It is a 19th century Maori Pounamu green stone blade of about seven inches long. By tradition said to be used by a Maori chief it was subsequently gifted to Dr. T.W. Croke whilst he was Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand from 1870-1874. After this he became Archbishop of Cashel and Emly in Ireland and was an important figure in the Irish nationalist movement. He was a Champion of the Irish National Land League in the 1880’s and Croke Park in Dublin is named after him. The auction will include antique furniture, paintings, Old Masters, Irish art, silver, collectibles, taxidermy and a private Irish collection of Oriental ceramics and art.
A 19th century Maori Pounamu green stone blade (600-800). UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 AT HAMMER
THE Hunt at Woolwich Drag by Gilbert Halliday (1879-1937) made a hammer price of 7,500 at Fonsie Mealy’s sale at Glengarriff, Thurles, Co. Tipperary on October 1. Other hammer prices included a pair of watercolour portraits by the same artist of Brigadier and Mrs. E.T. Boylan of Hilltown on horseback (6,000); Evening on a Highland River by Alfred de Breanski junior (6,600); A Rocky Landscape attributed to Jean Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808) (5,600); Market Scene by Pieter van Bredael (4,500) and a Busy Street Scene by David Teniers (4,200). A pair of Famille Verte Warnier vases made 2,600, an Arts and Crafts chaise longue made 3,200, an Irish fold over tea table from Ely House made 2,800 and a specimen table made 2,500. An Irish 18th century giltwood mirror made 4,600 and a cased pair of 12 bore double barrelled shotguns by William Powell made 3,400.
The auction realised 250,000 on the hammer with 80% sold.
A carved French bed at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Thurles on October 1 is reputed to have belonged to the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The 4’6″ 18th century bed has been at Glengarriff, Thurles – home of the Carrigan family for over 100 years – since 1962. It was purchased that year at the contents sale of the Duke de Stacpoole, Tobertynan, Longwood, Co. Meath where it was reputed by strong family tradition to have been originally owned by Josephine. Longwood House on the island of St. Helena where Napoleon was exiled was his final residence and he died there. The bed is estimated at 2,000-3,000.More than 500 lots including heirlooms from the Carrigan family and items from other private clients will go under the hammer. There is furniture, paintings, prints, silver, Chinese porcelain, sporting guns, garden furniture, books and maps. A set of 19th century Irish miniatures of the Shipsey family of Cape Clear is estimated at 700-800. An early watercolour by Peter Curling, Caught in the Ditch, depicts a jockey and a distressed horse and was painted in 1974 when the noted equestrian artist was just 19. It is estimated at 1,000-1,500. Among other equestrian artworks is an oil by Gilbert Halliday “The Hunt, at Woolwich drag” (10,000-15,000). There are some Old Master paintings and prints including a portrait of Jan de Middelste (1561-1623) by a follower of Anthonisz van Ravesteyn (2,000-3,000).The highlight of over 70 lots of silver is an 18th century Irish provincial sauceboat with the makers mark PW, possibly Peter Webb of Limerick (2,000-3,000). There is a collection of sporting guns, a first edition of the History of Clonmel by Rev William P Burke (1907) and a hand coloured copy of the 1843 Ordnance Survey of Tipperary North Riding. The catalogue is online.
Bed reputedly owned by Empress Josephine UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 2,200 AT HAMMERA group of five miniature portraits of the Shipsey family of Cape Clear UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,500 AT HAMMER
Fonsie Mealy’s sale of contents of Glengarriff, Thurles, Co. Tipperary on October 1 will offer more than 500 lots of furniture, paintings, prints, silver, Chinese porcelain, sporting guns, garden furniture, books and maps. The auction will include heirlooms from the Carrigan family and items from other private clients. Viewing is on the premises on September 29 and 30, the sale will be held at the Anner Hotel in Thurles at 11 am.
An Arts and Crafts Library Table with the label Battam, Heywood and Hanks, Oxford St. and Berners St., London (2,000-3,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,700 AT HAMMER
A shillelagh from the massacre in the quiet Cork village of Ballinhassig in 1845 sold for a hammer price of 5,100 at Fonsie Mealy’s summer auction in Castlecomer last week. From the collection of the noted Cork antiquarian Robert Day it had been estimated at 300-400. The massacre followed faction fighting after the fair day and eleven people, ten men and a woman, were shot dead by police. The shillelagh came with an engraved plaque, mounted and inscribed: “Retrieved after Fair Day Massacre, Ballinhassig, 30 June “45”. The vast collection of Robert Day (1836-1914) was dispersed at major auctions before and after his death. It included gold, Viking silver, jewellery and medieval religious items. Much of it ended up in museums or in the hands of the world’s richest men, including Randolph Hearst. Robert Day was the president of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. The family business in saddlery and sporting goods meant he had a Cork city centre location for anyone wishing to sell something to him.
The Travelling Baby House was the top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s summer sale in Castlecomer today. The rare small mahogany two room house made a hammer price of 48,000 over an estimate of 3,000-4,000. The c1810 English house was of a type mentioned in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. It was from the Vivienne Greene collection and proceeds from the sale are being distributed to various Irish childrens charities. Another dolls house, Portobello, sold for 12,000 at hammer.
The sale realised in excess of 420,000 on the hammer with 85% of lots sold.
The dramatic 1885 rescue of the expeditionary force sent to relieve General Gordon of Khartoum made Admiral Charles Beresford, second son of the 4th Marquis of Waterford, a national hero. Albums, scrapbooks and material relating to the Admiral come up at Fonsie Mealy’s summer sale in Castlecomer on July 23. Beresford, who joined the navy aged 13, had a long and spectacular career In 1882 as captain of the gunboat condor he sailed his ship inshore to bombard the gun batteries of Alexandria during the Egyptian campaign. Three years later, in command of the Safie, he rescued the Khartoum Expeditionary Force. In 1916 he was awarded the title Baron Beresford of Metemmeh and Curraghmore and when he died in 1919 he was given a ceremonial funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Other materials relating to Beresford in the sale include a 1909 advertising poster for Michael Power of Main St.,Carrick on Suir, grocer, tobacconist, wine importer and whiskey merchant, with an image of the Admiral standing on deck with his dog. The auction of 744 lots is brimful of interest. It includes maritime paintings relating to Admiral Beresford, items formerly housed at Tara Palace Museum of Childhood, dolls houses, a collection of Ronnie McDonnell miniature apprentice furniture pieces, Irish, English and European art, silver, porcelain, militaria and collectibles as well as a small selection of wines, port and whiskeys.
Co. Tipperary advertising poster featuring Admiral Beresford UPDATE: THIS MADE 800 AT HAMMER
This Maltese School painting by G. d’Esposito depicts “H.M.S. Hibernia,” docked in Valletta Harbour surrounded by rowing boats. It comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s summer sale in Castlecomer on July 23 with an estimate of 2,000-3,000. This is one of a number of works from the collection of Admiral Charles Beresford, second son of the 4th Marquis of Waterford, who had a long and distinguished naval career in which he rescued the Khartoum Expeditionary Force sent to relieve General Gordon. HMS Hibernia was a 110-gun first rate ship of the line, launched in 1804 – the only ship of her draught – and sold for breaking up in 1902. In 1807-08 she led the British escort that carried the Portuguese royal family and court to Brazil just days before the French attacked Lisbon. From 1816 to 1855 she was the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet; thereafter she was the flagship of the Royal Navy’s base at Malta. Beresford, who died in 1919 and received a ceremonial funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral, served briefly on her as a midshipman in 1863 while awaiting passage home.
This early mezzotint portrait of Mrs. Elizabeth Aldworth (1695-1775) in full masonic robes comes up at Fonsie Mealy’s summer auction in Castlecomer on July 23. Born Elizabeth St. Leger and famous in her time as The Lady Freemason she was the first recorded woman to be initiated into Freemasonry. Daughter of the 1st Viscount Doneraile she witnessed a meeting of the freemasons in her fathers house at Doneraile Court. Now newly opened to the public after refurbishment by the OPW, Doneraile Court in Co. Cork was also refurbished in the late 18th century and loose bricks in a wall of the room where the masons met enabled the young Elizabeth to see what was going on. The portrait was published in 1811 by S. Kennedy of Patrick St, Cork and sold by Bro. R. Spencer, Masonic Booksellers, London. It is in a Hogarth type frame with a printed “Biographical Memoir of The Hon. Mrs. Aldworth of Newmarket, Co. Cork” framed on the back. Mrs. Aldworth was buried in the old St. Fin Barres Cathredal in Cork and there is a plaque near her remains in the present cathedral. The print is estimated at 300-500.
A rare first edition of Ulysses signed by James Joyce was the top lot at Fonsie Mealy’s sale in Dublin today. It made 85,000 at hammer in an auction that realised more than 390,000 on the hammer. No less than 85% of lots were sold. Unpublished accounts of the First Dail, described as the financial sinews of the struggle for Irish Independence made 18,000 on the hammer and the Toddy Pierse GAA medal collection relating to Wexford and Dublin between 1918 and 1922 made 12,500. A 1936 French translation of James Joyce’s essay from a banned writer to a banned singer, a tribute to the singer John Sullivan, sold for 9,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 15, 10 and 6, 2019).
