Barges on a canal attributed to Dutch artist Jacob Maris UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
A work believed to be by one of the most influential Dutch landscape painters of the last quarter of the 19th century will highlight Woodwards special sale of Irish and English silver and paintings in Cork on April 29. The characteristic oil of sailing barges on a canal attributed to Jacob Maris (1837-1899) has been in the collection of a Cork family for three generations. Details of its acquisition have been lost. Maris, with his brothers Willem and Matthijs, belonged to The Hague School of painters and Woodwards reckon this work might sell for around €20,000.
Prime examples of Irish Provincial silver include a c1780 cream jug by Samuel Reilly, Cork (€1,500-€2,000), a c1748 Limerick tablespoon by George Moore (€500-€600) and a set of five George III tablespoons by Joseph Gibson, Cork c1790 (€500-€600). There is a c1830 Irish silver dish ring by the Dublin maker Edmond Johnson (€1,800-€2,200). A dish ring by this maker is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Among the other Irish pieces are a sugar basket by Joseph Jackson (€800-€1,200), a George III teapot by Edward Power (€500-€700) and a bright cut soup ladle by Michael Keating (€800-€1,200).
Set of six Cork inlaid mahogany 11-bar dining chairs. UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,200 AT HAMMER
A set of Cork 11-bar chairs (€3,000-€4,000) will highlight Woodwards sale in Cork on March 25. There is a selection of affordable antique furniture like a William IV Mahogany lowboy, a Regency sofa table and a Georgian peat bucket (each €400-€500). Other pieces have estimates that are even smaller. An Edwardian walnut sewing table (€300-€400), a Louis XV bowfront chest (€200-€300), an Edwardian bonheur du jour (€200-€300), a Georgian bureau (€200-€300), a Regency walnut card table (€200-€300), a boulle bombe chest (€200-€300) and a Victorian dining table (€100-€200) are some examples of lots with value. This sale offers a five piece cast iron garden set and a Coalbrookdale cast iron garden bench as well as Wateford Crystal, mirrors and collectibles.
“The Finest Keeping Butter in the World” at Marshs. UPDATE: THIS MADE 750 AT HAMMER
A good selection of great value and attractive antique furniture and collectibles will feature at two Cork city sales on December 3. Local interest will be stirred by a painting of Mahon Golf Club by Josef Keys at Woodwards (€400-€500) and a double washstand from the State Bedroom of the White Star liner RMS Celtic which ran aground off Roches Point in December 1928 at Marshs (€4,000-€6,000).
Memories of the storied industrial past of the city will be awakened by not just any old tin but one labelled grandly “The Finest Keeping Butter in the World”. The advice on the 28 lb tin packed by M. Barrett, Cork is to store in a cool place. Marshs estimate it at just €200-€400. Among a selection of cased longcase clocks, wall and mantel clocks at Marshs are two Cork clocks, one by William Ross, the other by a maker called Mansfield. Each is estimated at €2,000-€3,000. A large bronze bust of Napoleon on a pedestal (€1,500-€2,500) and a selection of silver and plated cutlery from the Ursuline Convent in Blackrock will create interest too.
Not so much interest perhaps in the antique furniture, which has not been doing well for what seems to me to be inexplicable reasons. Marshs will offer a highly collectible pair of large mahogany wine coolers and an early Georgian mahogany corner cabinet each estimated at €1,500-€2,000. The estimates for these might have been higher two decades ago. There is a mere €400-€500 on an arbutus wood Killarney work table and a Queen Anne armchair comes with an estimate of just €250-€300.
George II kneehole desk at Woodwards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 300 AT HAMMER
At Woodwards a pair of cast iron garden benches is estimated at €1,600-€2,000 and a large Persian Mashad rug is estimated at €500-€600. Among the antique furniture in the estimate range of €400-€500 is a Georgian mahogany breakfast table, a George II kneehole desk, a pair of inlaid console tables, an Edwardian inlaid sofa table and an eight piece Chippendale style drawing room suite. The estimates are even less on a William IV inlaid walnut sewing table, a William IV oblong hall table, a Georgian walnut card table and a large kneehold desk, all reckoned to make around €300-€400. A bachelors chest, a Victorian oval centre table and an Edwardian envelope card table are all estimated at just €200-€300.
We’ve all become unhappily accustomed to restrictions on our movement. One lot at Woodwards first ever online only auction in Cork on May 30 demonstrates that lockdown comes in many forms, and there is nothing new about it. People can be confined to their own property, then forced to flee in most dramatic circumstances, as happened in Cobh long ago.
Lot 285 at Woodwards is a detailed painting of The Queens Hotel, Queenstown, Ireland (now the Commodore Hotel, Cobh) by Walter Richards. It dates to the first decade of the last century. Around that time the hotel, which first opened in 1854, was taken over by Otto Humbert, a naturalised British subject of German birth. The noted hotelier had electricity and phones installed and an American style bar on the ground floor. Fast forward to May 1915. Survivors of the Lusitania were brought ashore at Cobh. Some were billeted in The Queen’s Hotel. Feelings about the killing of 1,200 civilians aboard a passenger liner torpedoed by a German U-boat ran very high. Survivors were horrified to discover the proprietor of the hotel was a German. The fact that he was blameless, that nothing against him was known, counted for nothing. A mob surrounded the hotel demanding it be burned to the ground.Otto Humbert and his family were forced to hide in the wine cellar for three days until the rioters dispersed. By then he had prudently decided to leave. He fled from his own hotel and made it to Liverpool. There he boarded a ship bound for New York, a fact reported by The New York Times on May 30, 1915. Many of those who died on the Lusitania are buried at Old Church cemetery in Cobh, just five minutes from the hotel.The sinking propelled America into the First World War and Queenstown into global war headlines. The painting depicts a much more tranquil, Edwardian style, harbour front hotel with attractive red and white awnings. It is estimated at just €400-500. A few years earlier, in 1912, some of those who set off on the Titanic spent their last night ashore at this historic hotel with its long history of servicing the liner trade.
Woodwards will offer 338 lots antique furniture, fine art, silver and collectibles in an online auction which has already aroused much interest.
The Queen’s Hotel, Queenstown by Walter Richards. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500 AT HAMMER
