A very fine pair of enormous fossilized Irish Elk Horns and Skull, the horns with 14 points and spanning 98″ made a hammer price of €40,000 at Fonsie Mealy’s Chatsworth summer fine art sale in Castlecomer today. Oscar Wilde’s desk made €29,000, a second specimen Irish elk horns made €28,000, a pair of large early 19th century terrestrial and celestial globes by John and William Newton, London, 1818 made €15,000, a French bateau bed owned by Oscar Wilde made €15,000, a Louis XV Cartel clock and barometer set made €12,000 and a bronze of The Cossacks Crossing the Balkans by Evgeny Alexandrovich Lanceray made €9,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 14 and June 9, 2025)
A 19th century French gold brocade royal blue carriage bag owned by Queen Maria Amelia, the last Queen of France. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER
With a range that spans everything from fossilised Irish elk horns to Oscar Wilde’s desk, a landscape attributed to John Butts and a handbag owned by the last Queen of France heritage, history, beauty and rarity are not in short supply at Fonsie Mealy’s summer fine art and antique sale in Castlecomer on June 18 and 19.
Among many highlights are a pair of 19th century terrestrial and celestial globes on stands by John and William Newton, London 1818 (€15,000-€20,000), a Louis XV clock and matching barometer by Julian Le Roy, Paris (1686-1759) (€10,000-€15,000), a bronze of The Cossacks Crossing the Balkans by Evgeny Alexandrovich Lanceray (1848-1886) (€10,000-€15,000), a collection of 19th and early 20th century erotic Indian miniatures (€7,000-€10,000) and a four fold screen The Star of Bethlehem after Edward Burne-Jones (€4,000-€6,000).
Lots like these do not come cheap but this sale of fine art, antique furniture, silver, miniatures, decorative objects and religious artefacts sourced from private estates and collectors across Ireland offers a diverse collection to suit every taste and budget. Estimates are from €30 and €40 up for lots including a figure of Buddha and carved ebony elephants (€60-€80), a pair of Birmingham silver pillar candlesticks (€100-€150) and an Edwardian dinner gong with horn supports (€80-€120). More than 1,000 lots will come under the hammer.
The Irish giltwood side table and mirror by Arthur Jones, featured here last Saturday, is at €15,000-€20,000 among the most expensively estimated items.
The oversized slope front desk used by Oscar Wilde with, inset, a photo of the author, poet and playwright. UPDATE: THIS MADE 29,000 AT HAMMER
Fishermen by a River at Sunset attributed to John Butts (c1728-1765). UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,000 AT HAMMER
There will be literary interest in a large William IV slope top davenport attributed to Gillows with provenance to Oscar Wilde (€6,000-€8,000). Like many items at Wilde’s house at Tite St. in Chelsea it was quietly removed by friends who offered financial support and safeguarding of personal items before the court ordered auction of his possessions after his trial and imprisonment in 1895. The artist Mortimer Menpes, godfather to Wilde’s son Vyvyan, took this desk and a French bateau bed exhibited at the Paris World Fair in 1878. The bed, also in this sale, is estimated at €3,000-€4,000.
A c1740 oil on canvas of Fishermen on a River at Sunset is attributed to John Butts (€4,000-€6,000), the artist who started his career in Cork and was influenced by Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa. In a catalogue note Dr. Peter Murray explains that the attribution of this Claudean landscape to Butts is based both on the subject matter and the style of painting.
A 19th century French royal blue gold brocade carriage bag with coronet and trestle design was owned by the French Queen, Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily (1782-1866) who was married to Louis Philippe I. Maria Amalia, niece of Marie-Antoinette, was the last Queen of France. Gifted to the Ursuline sisters it comes to the auction by direct descent and is estimated at €800-€1,000.
A fine specimen of the elk horns and skull of the Gigantic Irish Deer with 14 points and spanning 98 inches is reputed to have been found in the Bog of Allen. It is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Viewing for this brimful of interest and treasure filled sale gets underway in Castlecomer tomorrow at 1.30 pm and the catalogue is online.
An 18th century Louis XV Cartel clock and matching barometer by Julian Le Roy. UPDATE: THESE MADE 12,000 AT HAMMER
Sir Max Beerbohm – Portrait of Oscar Wilde. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,680
The refined and engaging collection of Barry Humphries (1934-2023) – best known for his characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson – comes up at Christie’s in London on February 13. Driven by knowledge, passion and curiosity his collection was built over more than half a century.
Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse by the Australian painter Charles Conder leads an auction of 250 lots with estimates from £200 to £300,000 (€240 to €360,000). The best of fin-de-siecle decadent literature features a collection of Oscar Wilde related material including a presentation copy of The Importance of being Earnest. There is a selection of 19th century European and Symbolist art with work by Khnopff, Delville and von Stuck. These feature along with examples of Impressionism and modern British art, Modern Design and highlights from Dame Edna’s personal collection from costume and glasses to caricatures.
UPDATE: THE COLLECTION MADE £4.6 MILLION WITH BIDDERS FROM 41 COUNTRIES.
Charles Conder – Sand Dunes, Ambleteuse. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £239,400
The Writings of Oscar Wilde – Keller-Farmer Co. 1907
A finely bound limited-edition collection of The Writings Of Oscar Wilde from 1907 is available at Sotheby’s buy now platform priced at $5,500. The Wilde collection – a set of 15 – was published by Keller-Farmer Co., 1907 and is number 75 out of a limited edition of 200 seta. Profusely illustrated throughout the set is in very good condition.
William Hurst Ashpitel’s prizewinning 1805 design for Ormond Bridge, Dublin. UPDATE: THIS MADE 11,000 AT HAMMER
A bound copy of one of the most elaborate 19th century publications on the Near East leads Fonsie Mealy’s two day rare book and collectors sale on December 12 and 13. This brimful of interest sale, being held this year in Castlecomer, offers rarities like the first edition of the first book by the first Irish author to write for a printing press rather than a scriptorum, important 1916 documents, the first Dublin All Ireland Hurling Championships medal from 1889, a lock of Oscar Wilde’s hair and the 1805 design for Ormond Bridge in Dublin (now named O’Donovan Rossa Bridge) by William Hurst Ashpitel (1776-1852). The design for O’Donovan Rossa Bridge near the Four Courts in Dublin is important because it was William Hurst Ashpitel of London who won the design competition in 1805. The bridge as it stands is as shown in his drawing, but the architects had previously been identified only as George Knowles and James Savage. This piece of architectural history is estimated at €5,000-€7,000.
A 1926 All Ireland hurling final programme (won by Cork). UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
Among more than 1,000 lots are a variety of GAA medals and other sporting memorabilia like a Bloody Sunday match ticket, a set of 26 views of Dublin by James Malton, a collection of Irish literature, travel plates and books and an unpublished letter by Michael Collins dated July 29, 1922 – just three weeks before his death – in which he states: “I am against shooting down unarmed men in any circumstances”. The first three volumes of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia by David Roberts and George Croly, published in 1842-43, is estimated at €10,000-€15,000. Duns Scotus Joannes by Maurice O’Fihily, Archbishop of Tuam – an edited commentary on the metaphysics of Aristotle believed to be the work of Duns published in Venice in 1497 – has an estimate of €8,000-€12,000.
An original Army issue Blueshirt tunic. UPDATE: THIS MADE 950 AT HAMMER
Among the other top lots are Dublin’s first All-Ireland medal from 1889 (€7,000-€10,000), a collection of 1916 documents including a rare copy of Irish War News printed during the Rising (€6,000-€9,000), Malton’s Dublin views and a lock of Oscar Wilde’s hair, each estimated at €6,000-€8,000. An edition of Bog Poems by Seamus Heaney illustrated by Barrie Cooke is estimated at €4,000-€6,000, as is a facsimile edition of the Book of Kells, and a copy of An Ideal Husband inscribed by Oscar Wilde.
A dummy rifle used in North Cork training during the War of Independence. UPDATE: THIS MADE 280 AT HAMMER
Among many lots of note is an original Army issued Blueshirt tunic (€1,000-€1,500), a rare dummy wooden training rifle used in the early stages of the War of Independence in North Cork (€300-€500) – this lot highlights the lack of basic equipment by those in Ireland who took on the might of the British Empire just over a century ago and won! – and a cheque written in 1920 by Terence MacSwiney during his brief tenure as martyred Lord Mayor of Cork to the Good Shepherd Convent. He disbursed his entire mayoral salary in charitable donations.The auction will take place at the saleroom in Castlecomer and online next Tuesday and Wednesday at 10.30 am on each day. The catalogue is online and viewing continues in Castlecomer tomorrow afternoon and all day on Monday.
An exhibition to mark the 120th anniversary of the death of Oscar Wilde opens today on a dedicated page of the Bonhams website. Man of our Times will run from February 15-23. There are manuscripts, letters, first editions, association copies and ephemera from the collection of bibliophile and former dealer in Oriental antiques Jeremy Mason. He has been collecting Wilde memorabilia for the past 55 years. Shown here is the bill for flowers at Oscar Wilde’s funeral made out to Robert Ross and amounting to 77 francs. The poet, dramatist and novelist died in a rundown Paris hotel in November 1900.
A questionnaire filled in by a young Oscar Wilde comes up at Sotheby’s online Summer Miscellany sale of Books and Manuscripts which closes on August 4. Recording preferences across 39 questions he responds as follows:
Your idea of happiness?‘Absolute power over men’s minds, even if accompanied by chronic toothache’
Your idea of misery?‘Living a poor and respectable life in an obscure village’.
What is your dream? ‘Getting my hair cut’
‘What is your aim in life?’‘Success: fame or even notoriety’.
Wilde was in his early twenties when he contributed to the album of “Mental Photographs” in 1877. He was still at Oxford and yet to publish a book, but had already established a keen following. It is signed grandiosely with his full name, ‘Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde’.
It is from the collection of actor and director Steven Berkoff (b.1937), famed for his villainous on-screen roles including General Orlov in the James Bond classic, Octopussy (1983). Berkoff began collecting Oscar Wilde material around the time he directed Wilde’s great tragedy, Salome, in the late 1980s. The show opened to acclaim at The Gate Theatre, Dublin, on the sixtieth anniversary of Salome’s first controversial public viewing there in 1928, and went on to sell out at London’s National Theatre, before travelling to Japan, Germany and beyond. The estimate is £40,000-60,000.
1st edition, 1813, Pride and Prejudice: A Novel in three volumes.
Jane Austen, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde will all feature at Peter Harrington’s stand at the Paris Antiquarian Book Fair from April 22-24 at the Nef du Grand Palais. The Paris Fair, one of the most prestigious of its kind, offers its ever increasing number of visitors a panorama of the highlights of our written heritage, together with a vast selection of engravings and drawings.
Nearly two hundred national and international dealers will attend to unveil thousands of exceptional documents, representative of cultural history.
Among the books at London dealer Peter Harrington is a 1st edition of Pride and Prejudice 1813 priced at £87,500, a 1st edition of Bran Stoker’s Dracula 1897 priced at £17,500 and and a trade issue 1st edition of Oscar Wilde’s Salome 1893 priced at £27,500.
