 |
 |
This Transat chair designed by Eileen Gray (1878 – 1976) comes up as lot 29 at the James Adam Mid Century Modern sale on November 7. In leather, lacquer and metal the c1980 chair is estimated at 4,000-6,000. There is a selection of modern design, art and collectibles on offer in this timed online auction. The catalogue is online.
This bronze statue of the Emperor Napoleon was the top lot at the opening day of the James Adam Country House Collections sale today. It made a hammer price of €8,000 over an estimate of €2,000-3,000. The statue is on a grey marble bow front plinth with imperial gilt bronze appliques to the front and sides. An oil on canvas signed and dated by Joseph Sempill, Belfast 1873 made €4,800 over a top estimate of €4,000 and a c1800 Thames Valley Windsor chair made €4,600 over a top estimate of €4,000. This was a timed online only sale.
The Country House Collections sale continues live and online at St. Stephen’s Green at 11 a.m on October 10.
The Jewellery Box, a timed online auction at James Adam in Dublin, runs until October 2 and is now on view in Dublin. It offers over 200 lots of affordable jewellery including cluster rings, pendants, bracelets, necklaces and ear studs. Meantime Matthews will hold an evening sale of jewellery, gold and silver in Kells, Co. Meath on October 3. It features over 490 lots of executor and solicitor instructions and pawnbrokers unredeemed pledges. Lot 488 is a Faberge brooch set with Russian sapphire and diamonds. Catalogues for both sales are online.
THE Blessington Commode – created by a refugee and asylum seeker and arguably the single most important piece of mid 18th century Irish furniture at auction in decades – comes up at the annual Country House Collections sale by James Adam at Townley Hall in Co. Louth on October 9 and 10.
Attributed to John Kirkhoffer the commode has been linked directly to a signed 1732 piece dated 1732 by the same maker in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The Kirkhoffers were Protestant asylum seekers who arrived in Ireland as refugees from the Rhineland Palatinate area. They were in counties Kerry and Limerick before settling in Dublin. The influx of asylum seekers then – including silversmiths, clock and furniture makers from Germany, Holland and France – gave Irish craft and skill an enormous shot in the arm. John Kirkhoffer is recorded in Dublin in the early 18th century and founded a cabinet making business that lasted into the 19th century. His father Franz Ludwig arrived in Ireland in 1709. The walnut and seaweed marquetry chest was originally made for William Stewart, 1st Earl of Blessington. He had a house at Henrietta St. in Dublin and a mansion at Blessington, Co. Wicklow which was burned down in the 1798 Rebellion. The attribution to Kirkhoffer was made by Desmond Fitzgerald, the late Knight of Glin and it is estimated at €100,000-€150,000. Earlier this year a George I secretaire by Kirkhoffer was donated by benefactor David Boles to the Irish Museum of Time in Waterford.
Adams 757 lot auction draws together period furniture, paintings, silverware anddecorative objects from some of Ireland’s finest country houses and more modest collections with an emphasis on quality and rarity. Among the main furniture lots are a pair of c1776 elliptical side tables to a design by architect James Wyatt (€60,000-€100,000), a pair of c1785 Irish side tables with inlaid marble tops attributed to Pietro Bossi and a c 1740 Irish hall table each estimated at €50,000-€80,000. An Irish giltwood rectangular mirror is estimated at €20,000-€30,000, as is a pair of Irish red walnut and parcel gilt mirrors attributed to John Booker once at Adare Manor. They lead a large selection of elegant mirrors in the sale.
There is a Killarney davenport (€8,000-€12,000), a George II chevron banded walnut bureau (€15,000-€20,000), a pair of Irish marble topped side tables (€15,000-€20,000), a pair of c1790 torcheres (€20,000-€30,000) and a c1770 mahogany cased barometer by John Alment, Dublin set with a hydrometer and a thermometer. Other top lots include a portrait bust of Henry Grattan by Peter Turnerelli, a set of four silver entree dishes by James le Bas, Dublin, four Irish Georgian silver candlesticks and a Cork George III coffee pot by John Nicholson c1770.The Salmon Leap at Leixlip by Thomas Roberts and Lady Nugent’s Hunter by John Ferneley snr. are each estimated at €30,000-€50,000. The first 281 lots will be sold in a timed online sale on October 9. There will be a live auction at Adam’s salerooms in Dublin on the following day. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing at Townley Hall, Drogheda on October 7, 8 and 9.
Eden is the title of the 1952 tapestry by Louis le Brocquy from the sale of Important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin this evening (September 27). Lot 12 is estimated at €25,000-€35,000. According to the catalogue note the artist was approached by Edinburgh Tapestry Weavers in 1948. They wanted him to design a tapestry. Interested in how colour could convey emotion and the pure colour of tapestry could convey this he complied. He created his own detailed, precisely colour-coded patterns, or linear templates, a pre-Renaissance technique learned from Jean Lurçat. Le Brocquy created several series of tapestries with Edinburgh and with Aubusson in France andthe Eden series spans both studios. The woman’s heel on the upper right refers to the divine pronouncement that the serpent, blamed by her for her fall from grace, will bruise her heel – though she will crush it.
In his catalogue note Aidan Dunne states: “The dazzling, twisting form of the snake suggests that the artist takes a more uplifting view of the possibilities presented by the tree of knowledge, and the dawning of human consciousness and imagination, than religious judgement might decree.” This tapestry is from an edition of nine by Atelier Tabard Frères & Soeurs.
Anyone of a certain age would not have too much difficulty dating this oil on board by Maurice MacGonigal. The short skirts, the cars, the tarpaulin sheets are all aids to placing this charming painting redolent of its own time sometime in the late ’60’s and early ’70’s. It comes up as lot 29 at the James Adam sale of Important irish Art on the evening of September 27. Viewing gets underway at St. Stephen’s Green on September 22 and the catalogue is online.
The James Adam catalogue contains an eye watering selection of jewellery and watches from an Art Deco diamond bracelet designed by Austrian Imperial jewellers Kochert in 1929, later re-designed as a tiara by Bulgari in Rome in the 1950’s, to necklaces, bracelets, rings, dress rings, pendants, brooches and watches by makers from Rolex to Breitling. The fine jewellery and watches sale takes place on September 12 and is now on view in Dublin. The catalogue is online.
UPDATE: The top lot of the sale was an Art Deco diamond bracelet designed by Erwin Lang. It made €95,000 at hammer.
Two fine sleepers emerged from the James Adam At Home sale in Dublin yesterday. This pair of 19th century marquetry side tables, estimated at €1,500-€2,500, made a hammer price of €10,000. Attributed to Edwards and Roberts a trade label showed the tables had been with David Zork, Chicago and were once in the collection of Rear Admiral F R Harris, New York.
An English School watercolour tondo portrait of a young woman also made €10,000 at hammer. The c1900 work was estimated at just €300-€500.
f you seek to add beauty and interest to your surroundings the timed online At Home sale at James Adam in Dublin on September 4 is a good place to start. The appetising selection of large and small pieces across various price points ranges from conversation pieces like a French Art Deco figure of a young woman in a green dress to mirrors, desks, antique furniture, silver, lanterns and even a cast iron garden bench modelled with oak boughs. The catalogue cover lot is a Still Life with Flowers by Lily Williams ARHA (1874-1940) the artist and Republican who fell out with her Unionist family during the Easter Rising. Work by Williams, who designed the Cross of Cong postage stamp used in Ireland from 1922-1968, does not turn up very often at auction. The oil on board is estimated at €1,000-€1,500. Among other art lots are miniature portraits from an Irish collector and a painting of Sunset over a Churchyard by the English artist Daniel Sherrin. The highly collectible silver on offer includes a pair of serving spoons by the Cork maker John Toleken, an 18th century butter dish by Paul Storr and a fruit basket by the English silversmith Hester Bateman (1708-1794) renowned both for her flatware and ornamental work.
The Arts and Crafts Movement features in the sale with lots including a secretaire with classic decorative motifs by George Montgomery Ellwood (1875-1955), large copper chargers, an oak dresser and an oak chest. There are examples of 19th century French furniture in Kingwood and marquetry including a marble topped credenza and a secretaire in the Louis Quinze taste along with a good choice of useful domestic antique furniture pieces from curio tables to chairs, teapoys and a circular burr walnut tilt top table. There is a selection of overmantles and mirrors, as well as various types of lighting from chandeliers and a brass standard lamp to a hexagonal hall lantern and an unusual pair of brass and polychrome enamel column lamps. English, European and Oriental porcelain on offer includes dinner and tea services and there is a range of carpets, kilims and rugs.
This 1861 History of the County and City of Cork is the most expensively estimated lot at the James Adam timed online only Books and Works on Paper sale which runs until August 1. The first volume begins with an account of the rivalry of the MacCarthy and O’Brien Gaelic clans, the 12th century Norman conquest and the creation of the Earldom of Desmond, centuries of Gaelic rebellion and the defeat of the Gaelic Irish at the Battle of Kinsale. The second volume covers the 17th century Civil War, the Cromwellian invasion, the Williamite Wars and the 1798 rebellion. The remainder of the second volume describes the government of the county Cork , its baronies and parishes, their histories, notable family dynasties and residences. The estimate is €1,000-2,000.
The catalogue is online. Viewing gets underway in Dublin today at Adams warehouse in Rathcoole for which the postcode is D24 DY77.
