A SMALL GILT ENAMEL CLOISONNE ‘TAOTIE’ MASK VASE AND COVER, MARKED QIANLONG
This mid Qing Dynasty gilt mask vase and cover made a hammer price of €24,000 at the James Adam sale of Fine Asian Art in Dublin today. Measuring just 8.8 centimetres high and weighing 87 grams it had been estimated at €1,500-€1,800 and the final hammer price is more than 13 times the top estimate. A taotie is an ancient Chinese mythological creature. A pair of 20th century carved cinnabar lacquer vases made €15,000 at hammer over a top estimate of €1,500 and a blue and white porcelain Korean storage jar made €16,000 over a top estimate of €5,000.
A 430 year old table, made from wood from the Spanish Armada, is due up at Adams Country House Collections sale next month. Lord Inchiquin, Conor O’Brien, has made the decision to sell the table with regret. In the autumn of 1588 as many as 27 ships of the Spanish Armada were lost off the Irish coast, two of them were lost off the west Clare coast. After their sinking the timber from the ships started to come ashore. The high sheriff of Clare recovered some of the decorative carvings from the galleon, which were then made into a three metre table. It was at Dromoland Castle in Co. Clare, home of the O’Briens, for 300 years before being removed in the 1960’s to Bunratty Castle, from where it was recently removed. Adams have estimated it at 100,000-200,000.
