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Mother and Daughter by F. E. McWilliam comes up as lot 49 at Sotheby’s Made in Britain sale online until March 14. The bronze is 45 and a quarter inches tall and 22 inches wide. Conceived in 1957 it is number 2 from an edition of 3. The estimate is £30,000-£50,000.
Sean Scully’s Wall of Light, Red sold for £1,137,000 at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary evening auction in London on March 1. The monumental work from his most celebrated and instantly recognised Wall of Light series was made in 1998 and is among the largest and earliest works in the series. The oil on linen is on two joined canvases. The inspiration came from a visit to Mexico in the early 1980’s where he was fascinated by the stones of ancient walls on the Yucatan peninsula. When animated by light they seemed to reflect the passage of time.
“I can’t exactly explain it, but seeing the Mexican ruins, the stacking of the stones, and the way light hit those facades, had something to do with it, maybe everything to do with it” the artist is quoted as saying in an exhibition catalogue at the Metropolitian Museum, New York in 2005.
There was a new auction record for Kandinsky at Sotheby’s in London last night when Murnau mit Kirche II sold for £37.2 million. The painting was created in 1910 as Kandinsky began to shift from the figurative towards abstraction, forging a new experimental path in his already distinguished career. It had been recently returned to the heirs of original owners, Siegbert and Johanna Margarete Stern, who were seasoned collectors and respected members of the Berlin cultural circle in the 1930s, counting Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein as peers. The outbreak of war and Nazi occupation meant they were parted from many of their beloved paintings when in exile from Germany.
Another restituted work, Munch’s Dance on the Beach £16.9 million. Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes made £24 million and Ib Reading by Lucian Freud made £17 million. Picasso’s Fillette au Bateau (Maya) sold for £18 million.
Earlier the Now auction was led by Cecily Brown’s The Nymphs have Departed, which made £3.4 million. Sweet Spot by Florna Yukhnovich made £939,800, double its estimate. The London evening sales reached a combined total of £172.6 million.
Floating Diptych Black White by Sean Scully comes up at a timed online sale running at Sotheby’s in New York on February 23. The oil on aluminium in two parts was acquired by the present owner at Galerie Lelong, New York in 1997, the year in which it was executed. Lot 114 at Part II of the Mallin Collection is now estimated at $30,000-40,000.
The sale embodies Joel and Sherry Mallins’ unique and innovative curatorial eye. Incorporating a variety of media and artists, from sculptures by Robert Irwin, Michael Heizer, Tau Lewis, and Tara Donovan to video artworks by Marina Abramovic and Ann Hamilton. The sale provides a glimpse into the remarkable works of art that emerge from the Mallin’s legendary Buckhorn Sculpture Park and Artbarn in Pound Ridge, New York.
The Codex Sassoon is set to become the most valuable historical document or manuscript ever at auction when it is sold at Sotheby’s in May. This bridge from the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible of today is estimated to make $30-$50 million. It has been dated as the earliest, most complete definitive text of its kind. Dating to the late 9th early 10th century it is the most complete extant Hebrew Bible. It is named for its prominent modern owner David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) and comes to auction from the renowned collection of Jacqui Safra. The auction is to take place in New York in May alongside Sotheby’s marquee sales of Contemporary and Modern Art. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $38.1 MILLION
This near pair of Irish late George III satinwood and amaranth and mahogany banded side cabinets made $11,970 at Sotheby’s in New York. The c1800 cabinets were described as in good restored condition. They came up as lot 457 at Sotheby’s Hyde Park Antiques, Past Present and Future sale (Part II). They had previously been with Partridge Fine Arts in London and were last sold at auction at Christie’s in London in 2003.
The Attallah Cross, a unique piece of jewellery, said to have been favoured by Princess Diana, sold for £163,800 / $197,453 to Kim Kardashian at Sotheby’s Royal and Noble sale in London. There were four bidders in action before the lot was bought by a representative for Ms. Kardashian at more than double its pre-auction estimate.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for December 22, 2022)
This pair of late Regency mahogany klismos library chairs, possibly by Gillingtons of Dublin c1815 come up at Sotheby’s in New York on January 31. They are of almost identical form to a set of fourteen supplied by the firm of Gillingtons to Euseby Cleaver, Archbishop of Dublin from 1809 -1820. An identical pair of chairs attributed to Gillingtons was sold Sotheby’s London in 2016 and a single chair of almost identical model previously with Apter Fredericks was sold Sotheby’s London in 2010. A klismos chair is a type of ancient Greek chair with curved backrest and tapering outward curving legs.
John Gillington (fl.1787-1809) was made a Freeman of the City of Dublin in 1787 and worked as a cabinetmaker with his sons George and Samuel, trading as John Gillington & Sons from 1810-1814, after which his sons took over the business, recorded in Abbey Street. They were one of the leading furniture making firms in Dublin during the first third of the 19th century along with Mack Williams & Gibton, also located in Abbey Street. The chairs are among several Irish lots at Sotheby’s live auction entitled Hyde Park Antiques: Past, Present and Future, in New York. The estimate is $8,000-12,000. There is a similar estimate on an Irish George II bureau cabinet and a pair of early 19th century brass bound Irish peat buckets is estimated at $5,000-8,000.
UPDATE: THE bureau cabinet made $6,300 and the peat buckets made ¢9,450.
This pair of scagliola pedestals comes up at Sotheby’s timed online Stone IV sale which runs in London on January 17. Described as c1830 and made in England or Ireland, measuring 146 cms in height, they are estimated at £4,000-6,000. A pedestal of identical design is in the collections of Chatsworth House. UPDATE: THESE WERE UNSOLD
A portrait by Mary Palmer (1750-1820), wife of Murrough O’Brien, Marchioness of Thomond and niece of Sir Joshua Reynolds, comes up at Sotheby’s annual Royal and Noble auction online until January 18. Her portrait of the activist, abolitionist and reformer Edward James Eliot, 1st Lord Eliot, MP and Treasury minister during the government of Pitt the Younger, is an almost direct copy of Reynold’s original from 1781. No signed work by Mary Palmer is known but Sotheby’s say the inscription on the back would appear to securely identify this one as by her hand. Mary married the fifth Earl of Inchiquin in 1792. They were created Marquis and Marchioness of Thomond in 1800 as a result of their support for the Act of Union. Mary was chief beneficiary of Sir Joshua’s will, receiving nearly £100,000 and his art collection. The portrait is estimated at £7,000-£10,000 (€7,914-€11,305).
