Sean Scully – Floating Diptych Black White. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $279,400
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The Codex Sassoon is set to become the most valuable historical document or manuscript ever at auction when it is sold at Sotheby’s in May.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
A near pair of Irish late George III side cabinets, c1800
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)
A pair of late Regency library chairs, possibly by Gillingtons, Dublin c1815. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $8,190
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
Mary Palmer, Marchioness of Thomond, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. Portrait of Edward, 1st Lord Eliot (1727-1804). UPDATE: THIS WAS 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).
A rare example of Irish recusant silver, a silver and partially gilt chalice dating to 1636, made £10,080 (€11,670) over a top estimate of £3,000 (€3,473) at Sotheby’s in London last month. Recusancy was the state of loyal catholics who refused to attend Protestant church services after the Reformation. Measuring just eight inches in height it is inscribed in latin with the words: Orate anima moriarti heverin sacerdotis qui me fieri fecit anno domini 1636 (Pray for the soul of Moriarty Heverin, priest, who had me made, year of Our Lord, 1636). It was originally at the chapel of the now destroyed Ballynastragh House, Gorey, Co. Wexford.
This prehistoric pair of fossilised Irish elk antlers comes up at Sotheby’s online sale Emma Hawkins: A Natural World which runs from January 9-19. A pioneering collector and dealer, Emma’s interests range from the extinct to the newly formed, with the natural world an ever-present muse. The auction is drawn from the interiors of townhouses in Edinburgh and London.
‘Irish Elk’ or Giant Deer (Megaloceras Giganteus) originated during the Pleistocene Period of the Great Ice Age and is thought to have initially colonised Siberia before migrating towards the west in response to the deteriorating climate, becoming extinct approximately 11,000 years ago. Although the Elk inhabited a vast expanse of central Europe and Asia, the largest concentration of its remains have been found mainly in the marl underlying bogland of Ireland. The estimate is £20,000-£30,000.
That was the year that was. With more than €16 billion worth of sales at the worlds three biggest auction houses – Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips – 2022 broke all sorts of records. Consolidated sales at Sotheby’s are projected to reach $8 billion, the highest in its 278 year history. One single owner sale at Christie’s made $1.5 billion and millions of people all around the world tuned in to livestreamed auctions to see paintings like Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn sell for $195 million at Christie’s in May to become the most expensive 20th Century artwork ever sold at auction. The market was driven by fresh to market single owner collections like that of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen whose collection – not yet entirely sold – has already made $1.5 billion. Phillips’s total sales reached $1.3 billion. Its highest-valued lot was an untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat of a horned devil which sold in New York for $85 million in November.
It is an exciting time for the market as the year turns. The burning question is: What will 2023 bring?
