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In Dublin viewing opens today for the online art auction which runs at James Adam until February 8. It features a number of lots by the late Fergus O’Ryan and a wide variety of artists. The sale will again be on view at St. Stephen’s Green on Sunday afternoon and on Monday. Pictured here is lot 131, an oil on canvas by Desmond Turner which is estimated at 300-500.
This oil on canvas by Gwen O’Dowd is entitled Claddagh 14 and comes up at the James Adam sale of the Jacqueline Stanley and Campbell Bruce collection. It is estimated at 700-1,000. Viewing for this timed online art sale gets underway in Dublin today and continues over the weekend and on Monday. Bidding is now open and it will begin to close from 1 pm on Tuesday, February 1.
This 20th century Yongle style blue and white Magpie and Prunus pilgrim flask or moon flask made a hammer price of 95,000 at the James Adam Chinese New Year sale in Dublin today. It had been estimated at up to 100,000. The 25 cm high gourd is an adaptation of a much earlier foreign vessel inspired from leather bags or pilgrim bottles. This shape first appeared in Chinese ceramic production during the Han and Tang periods. This flask would have been made after renowned related models dating to the Yongle period, such as that preserved in the Sir David Percival Foundation and now exhibited at the British Museum, London, The United Kingdom, and that preserved at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, China.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 14, 2022)
This Famille Rose hundred bats vase comes up as lot 119 at the James Adam Chinese New Year sale of Decorative Asian Arts in Dublin on January 18. The globular trumpet necked vase with the Guangxu six-character mark and of the period is estimated at €5,000-€7,000. The brightly enamelled vase has a profusion of iron-red bats in flight amidst multicoloured lingzhi clouds, between a band of ruyi heads at the rim and upright lappets around the foot. It is divided at the shoulder by a band of lotus sprays alternating with gilt shou characters on the shoulder above a gilt relief border.
Hang on to that piece of Carrigaline pottery lurking in the deepest recesses of wherever you store your stuff. A pair of Carrigaline baluster vases, each with an attractive blue undulating glaze and 23 cm high, made €280 at the latest James Adam At Home sale in Dublin. From the late 1920’s to the late 1970’s Carrigaline Pottery produced large quantities of everyday striped tableware, as well as items for the tourist market. A rare Irish Killarney work wall mirror made a hammer price of €4,000 over a top estimate of €600 at the same sale. The 19th century bevelled glass mirror is in a classical Killarney wood frame with panels of interlinked shamrocks, oak leaves, acorns and marquetry landmarks.
A hammer price of €160,000 for a small oil by Jack B Yeats at the James Adam sale in Dublin last week is testament to the health of the Irish art market as 2021 draws to a close. Through the Streets to the Hills measures just 9″ x 14″ and easily sailed past the top estimate of €150,000. Bogland Connemara by Paul Henry made €100,000 and an Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy made €80,000 at hammer. A Western Lake and Mountain Landscape by Henry made €75,000 and Composition by Evie Hone sold for €46,000. A Cubist Landscape by Mary Swanzy made €38,000 and Looking Westward by Dan O’Neill made €40,000.At least €12 million euro worth of Irish art changed hands in the winter selling season at Sotheby’s, de Veres, Bonhams, Whyte’s, Morgan O’Driscoll and Adams. The market is rock solid, rather than frenzied in the way it was before the 2008 crash. At Adams three works by Colin Middleton made hammer prices respectively of €29,000, €25,000 and €23,000. A Bahamas painting by Tony O’Malley made €22,000 and Bird in Blue by Breon O’Casey made €20,000 over a top estimate of €12,000.Art by Basil Blackshaw, William Leech, George Campbell, Donald Teskey, Edwin Hayes, Edward McGuire, F E McWilliam and John Shinnors all sold well at Adams last week. Little Blue Piece, an etched, stained and blown cut glass work by the Cork based Maud Cotter made a hammer price of €2,400 over a top estimate of €1,600.
Fresh from the success of an At Home sale today Adams will spread a bit of Christmas cheer with their final sale of the year tomorrow. Their auction of 251 lots of fine wines and spirits gets underway online from 2 pm. On offer is an appetising selection of Christmas bonhomie – the right tonic to help you enjoy yet another Covid Christmas. The sale kicks off with one bottle of 1959 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac which is estimated at 1,500-2,500. A case of Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf du pape from 1995 has an estimate of 900-1,100 and there is no shortage of choices to browse online.
An etching by David Hockey, a watercolour by Robert Gregory, son of Lady Gregory who was mourned by Yeats, a sculpture by Edward Delaney and Christmas cards by Patrick Scott all feature at Whyte’s affordable timed online Christmas art and collectibles sale of 278 lots. It runs until next Monday evening. Digging up Glass by Hockney, number 53 from an edition of 100, dates to 1969 and is from a suite of illustrations for Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. It is estimated at €700-€1,000.
Meantime with everything from some Midleton Very Rare Whiskey to a 1960 Chateau D’Yquem from Sauternes (€900-€1,100) the selection at the James Adam timed online sale is enough to tickle any palate. The timed online sale runs to next Wednesday (December 15).
Christmas is coming and there is still time to pick up stuff. In fact next week is unusually busy with a raft of last minute Christmas auctions. Given that the need to make merry is very great under the sorry circumstances of this year a pair of very large Irish George III silver sauceboats at the James Adam At Home sale next Tuesday might be just the thing for the festive Christmas table. Made by Matthew West in Dublin in 1794 this pair, complete with scroll handles and hoof feet, are functional, big and beautiful. Estimated at €2,000-€3,000 they take pride of place in a silver section where the selection ranges from decanters, cutlery and strawberry dishes to wine funnels, ladles, plated candlesticks and salts. Lot 20 is a Cork silver sugar bowl stamped sterling and estimated at €600-€800.
An attractive George IV serpentine front bookcase with twin glazed doors would definitely add a touch of superiority to any home office. It is estimated at just €600-€1,000, The catalogue cover lot is a burnt orange leather Chesterfield sette (€1,500-€2,000).Reproductions of the distinctive Art Nouveau work of Czech illustrator Alphonse Mucha were all the rage with the advent of high street art print shops in the 1970’s and are never out of fashion. A pair of lithographic poster prints on board by Mucha with the trade label G Garrault, Rue Pigalle, Paris – Spring and Summer – are estimated at €4,000-€6,000.
Lot 386 is an unusual and historic papier mache picture frame made for the Royal Art Union by the English artist Charles Frederick Bielefeld. The union was established in 1839 to promote fine arts in Ireland. The frame is estimated at €1,000-€2,000.This At Home auction is ideal for those looking for a less traditional gift from a selection of furniture, furnishings, paintings, silver, glass, ceramics and jewellery. The catalogue with 485 lots is online. This is just one of a larger than usual number of last minute pre-Christmas auctions in Ireland next week. Normally the season in Ireland would have more or less wrapped up by the first week of December. It underlines how 2021 has been different. In terms of auctions, easy availabilty and online activity it has not been at all bad for much of the antique trade.
Meet the young Lucian Freud as seen by the Irish artist Patrick Swift. Between 1948 and 1956, when he was a frequent visitor to Ireland, Freud developed a friendship with Patrick Swift, whose studio on Hatch Street he regularly shared. During this time, the two artists observed one another’s work closely; both were interested in portraiture and, to a lesser extent, still lifes. Swift was still in the early stages of his career while Freud had been critically lauded and celebrated in London with a string of acclaimed solo exhibitions. His work had been added to public collections in England and the US before he was selected to represent Britain (with Francis Bacon and Ben Nicholson) at the Venice Biennale in 1954.
Swift’s first solo exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries in Dublin in 1952 was met with critical acclaim. He was, by now, part of a more-or-less bohemian set of artists and writers that included Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, Nano Reid, and John Ryan; he was also connected to the art dealer Deirdre McDonagh. Freud was introduced to this cultural network through the artist Anne Dunn on his first visit to the city in the late 1940s. On his regular visits to Dublin thereafter, Freud participated in this artistic milieu.
This portrait of Freud at Swift’s studio in Hatch St., Dublin comes up at the James Adam sale of Imporant Irish Art in Dublin on December 8 with an estimate of €20,000-€30,000.
