18th century Irish penal cross – UPDATE: THIS MADE €3,700 AT HAMMER
This 18th century Irish penal cross comes up at Sheppards Irish Vernacular Part II sale on March 28. It is dated 1729 with a well figured corpus among a skull and crossbones. Sheppards will offer 368 lots in a private collection of Irish ceramics, furniture and metalwork. The catalogue is online and there will be viewing in Durrow from March 25-27. The cross is estimated at 2,000-3,000.
This type of auction is developing as more and more collectors opt for rare and unusual collectibles. Auctioneers James Adam will hold their first Irish vernacular sale in Dublin on April 12. This is a new category for Adams.
Morning Prayer, Cottage Interior, Co. Cork, 1901 by James Brenan at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 9,500 AT HAMMER
Collectors of Irish art have an array of choice across all price levels in the run up to Christmas. The fun gets underway on Tuesday as timed online Irish art sales at Sotheby’s and de Veres get underway with artists and sculptors from F.E. McWilliam, Rowan Gillespie, Roderic O’Conor, Patrick Scott and William Crozier at Sotheby’s to Tony O’Malley, John Shinnors, Donald Teskey, Sir John Lavery and Colin Middleton at de Veres.
Still Life and Window by Tony O’Malley at de Veres. UPDATE: THIS MADE 44,000 AT HAMMER
The selection at de Veres includes a collection of Irish 18th century landscapes and Irish Georgian tables from a private Cork collection as well as oils by Paul Henry, Jack Yeats, Roderic O’Conor and many eminent artists.The online sale at Sotheby’s will introduce a strong representation of contemporary Irish artists and sculptors to worldwide clients.
Irish highlights at Sotheby’s sale of Modern British and Irish art in London next Wednesday include two early oils by Yeats, Going to the Races, 1917 (€230,400-€345,600) and Sunday Morning, 1921 (€172,800-€288,000) and The Fisherman’s Cottage c1950 by Gerard Dillon (€92,170-€138,300).
Woman of Kinsale by Patrick Hennessy at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £7,560
Viewing for Whyte’s evening sale of Important Irish Art on November 28 gets underway in Dublin next Wednesday. There are major works by Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy, Mainie Jellett, Walter Osborne, Sean Keating, Mary Swanzy and Roderic O’Conor. Morning Prayer, Cottage Interior, County Cork, 1901 by James Brenan (1837-1907), headmaster at the Cork School of Art in the 1860’s, is the only known oil painting to show a canopy bed with a boarded, canted roof. The art historian Dr. Claudia Kinmonth reports that these highly functional beds endured throughout Ireland well into the 20th century as they enabled poor families to huddle together and stay warm. At a time when TB was rampant they were condemned by medics. Lot 6 is estimated at €10,000-€15,000.
Currachs Returning, Moonlight, Connemara Coast by Ciaran Clear at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,600 AT HAMMER
Artists from Kenneth Webb and Norah McGuinness to Sean Scully and Mainie Jellett will feature among the highlights at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current online sale of Irish art. This continues until November 29 and like all the sales mentioned in this piece, the catalogue is online. The appetising selection includes work by Ciaran Clear, Martin Gale, Charles Harper, George Campbell and Arthur Maderson.
The autumn/winter art selling season will draw to a close with an evening sale of important Irish Art at James Adam in Dublin on December 7. There are 144 lots in total with two works by Yeats and an important triptych by John Shinnors entitled Line. This is a response by the Limerick artist to a painting by the British post impressionist Frank Bramley entitled Domino at the Crawford Gallery in Cork.
This pair of c1800 full size “The Land we Live In” decanters made a hammer price of €1,000 on day one of the James Adam Country House Collections sale today. The opening day is an online only sale. An Empire window seat made €1,700, a compact club fender made €1,600, an Irish George III mahogany square piano made €2,200, seven 1796 aquatints of Views of the River Lee after Nathanial Grogan made €2,600, a Nocturnal Scene by Edward Charles Williams made €5,000, an Aubusson pattern wool rug made €2,200 and a monumental Irish Regency cheval mirror made €1,000.
The live Country House Collections at Townley Hall sale with lots 300-830 takes place at St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and online tomorrow.
Cork Mansion House service tureen. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420
About 300 lots of Cork and Irish silver and the biggest collection of Cork Mansion House mayoral service plates to come to auction for many years feature at Woodwards special auction of silver, art and collectibles on October 22. It is part of a feast of rare and collectible pieces due to come up at auction in Ireland in the coming week. Not least of these is a set of six Arts and Crafts dining chairs given by Michael Collins as a wedding present to his sister Mary which comes up at the Collector’s Cabinet sale at Mullen’s in Laurel Park today (€1,800-€2,200).
A rare pair of Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors with Celtic lettering is lot 282 at Victor Mee’s pub memorabilia sale on October 18 and 19 with an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. And collectors will be offered a wide range of appetising choices of quality antique Irish furniture, art and collectibles at the annual James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall near Drogheda next Monday (online) and Tuesday (live in Dublin). Viewing at Townley Hall is now underway.
One of a rare pair of 19th century Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Matthews Auctioneers of Kells will hold a two day sale next Tuesday and Wednesday with 1,338 lots of antique furniture, jewellery, art and collectibles.
Woodwards will feature the collection of Lt. Col. Michael C Nolan of Cork. Prime lots of silver include a c1750 Cork silver cream jug by Croker Barrington (€1,200-€1,600), a silver sugar bowl by Matthew West (€800-€1,200) and a silver strawberry dish by William Egan and Sons (€500-€700). Other Cork silver pieces include a sugar tongs by James Salter, a pair of tablespoons by Isaac Solomon, four dessert spoons by William Reynolds and a fish server by Richard Garde and there are examples from Cork makers like Samuel Green, Carden Terry and Jane Williams and John Nicholson.
More than 20 pieces from the old Cork Mansion House service – designed by the renowned Cork based architect Richard Pain (1793-1838) who was a pupil of John Nash – are included in the sale. The service was designed for the elegant old mansion house, now the Mercy Hospital. There is a tureen with a lid and plate, a large platter and a selection of dinner plates and soup bowls. Selling as individual lots or pairs they are expected to make from €500-€1,200 per lot. There is an interesting selection of art at Woodwards headed by Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats and The Mountain Pool by Patrick Hennessey. Each of these works is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. There is art by Kenneth Webb, Anne Yeats, Peter Curling, Gladys Leach, Douglas Alexander, Norman Teeling, John Schwatschke, Marie Carroll and others.
Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,800
This diamond single stone ring with central asscher-cut diamond weighing 5.20cts within a four-claw setting and baguette-cut diamond shoulders made a hammer price of 40,000 at the James Adam sale of fine jewellery and watches this week. It was the top selling lot in an auction where a four hoop diamond bangle and c2005 diamond necklace by Stephen Webster each made 24,000.
Paul Henry RHA (1877-1958) – Bogland Connemara (1930 – 32) sold for €100,000 at hammer
Bogland Connemara by Paul Henry was one of the top three lots at the James Adam sale of Important Irish Art in Dublin this evening. It made a hammer price of €100,000. Through the streets to the hills, a 1950 oil by Jack B Yeats made €160,000 on the hammer and Cavanagh, an Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy made €80,000. This sale marked the culmination of a highly successful winter selling season for Irish art, which has finished the year on a high note. At least €12 million worth of Irish art changed hands during the season of winter sales at Sothebys, de Veres, Bonhams, Whyte’s, Morgan O’Driscoll and James Adam.
Afterimage is the title of this acrylic on board by Bridget Flannery. It comes up as lot 6 at the James Adam timed online art auction which runs to March 3 with an estimate of 1,000-1,500. The online catalogue lists 193 lots and bidding will begin to close at 2 p.m. on March 3. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 700
AS this strange, unsettling year draws to a close auction houses are looking back with relief and forward with optimism. Twelve months ago when 2020 dawned there was little inkling of the pandemic that has since engulfed the globe causing at least 1.8 million deaths and 82 million cases so far. In the art and antiques market online sales and private sales did much to alleviate the pressure caused by the lack of live sales nationally and internationally. Preliminary figures from Christie’s suggest that sales were down 25% to $4.4 billion. Demand remained strong and online sales (up 262% in 2020) and digital innovation are seen as major drivers of future growth. Private sales achieved a record total projected at $1.3 billion. No less than 36% of all buyers were new to Christie’s and 32% of new online only buyers were millennials (23-38 years old).
CEO Guillaume Cerutti commented: “In 2020, the global pandemic deeply impacted the art market, as it did for almost all industries. We are now looking forward to 2021 with optimism, for two major reasons: global demand for art and objects remains strong with an impressive influx of new clients, especially millennials; and Christie’s has introduced digital innovations that significantly strengthened our business model, providing clients with greater flexibility to transact with us through our live auction, online-only, and private sales platforms.”
In Ireland lockdowns caused four months of closure in 2020 and a new lockdown for the month of January 2021 has just been announced. At James Adam they reckon that business overall was about two thirds of what would normally have occurred in sectors like Irish Art and jewellery. The level of sales, 16 in categories like vintage wine and spirits, period and mid century furniture, jewellery, watches, art and decorative arts and the Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall, helped to make up some of the shortfall. James O’Halloran reports that sell through rates at Adams were higher in every category with some auctions recording 90% plus. There is a readiness to drive on from this in 2021.
The Kildare House giltwood chairs made 18,000 at James Adam
Mille Tetes is the title of this Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy at the James Adam online sale of Important Irish art on December 9. According to a catalogue note by Niamh Corcoran Mille Tetes (1,000 Heads) is a distinctive example of both Le Brocquy’s sustained interest in representing the human head and the visual effect of inverting colour and tone. Signed and dated 1973 this is number 1 of an edition of 9. It is estimated at 50,000-80,000.
Louis le Brocquy HRHA (1916-2012) Mille Tetes B, No.1929. UPDATE: THIS MADE 54,000 AT HAMMER
Irish collectors are faced with a dizzying array of online choices in a whole series of end of year sales in the run up to Christmas. Historically rare archival items, collectibles, antique furniture, Irish glass, porcelain, jewellery, silver and art will all come under the hammer. And there will be a series of major art sales in Dublin from December 7. The Woodwards online sale in Cork on December 5 offers a good selection of antique furniture, rugs, collectibles and art. There is a set of eight Cork 11-bar chairs (€2,500-4,000); a GCeorgian secretaire (€1,000-€1,500); an Edwardian drawingroom suite (€1,000-€1,500) and a pair of Waterford Crystal chandeliers (€800-1,500). At Sixmilebridge in Co. Clare Aidan Foley has a four day online sale with more than 2,000 lots starting on December 5 with a large collection of books, records and CD’s. This will be followed by auctions of antique furniture, mirrors, Persian rugs and art on the following three days. One of the prime lots is a large Killarney davenport with an estimate of €6,000-€8,000. The Collectors Cabinet sale by Mullens of Laurel Park, postponed from October, takes place on December 5. More than 500 lots of all sorts of everything from books and cinema posters to a facsimile of the Book of Kells, Irish Republican memorabilia and a collection of nearly 4,000 football programmes including the famous Irish v Germany games in 1936 when the Tricolour was published alongside the flag of Nazi Germany are due to come under the hammer.
In Dublin James Adam is running a timed online only At Home sale until December 2. There is silver, jewellery and watches, antique furniture, old Irish glass, art and collectibles with nearly 600 lots to chose from. More than 900 lots will come under the hammer online at a two day Christmas auction by Sean Eacrett of Ballybrittas, Co. Laois on December 5 and 6. The sale contents from an antique shop and a stamp collection.
A pair of Waterford Crystal chandeliers at Woodwards. UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
