Pair of composition stone garden urns, 62 inches high
A pair of terracotta coloured composition stone urns, an Italian sandstone model of three cherubs at play, a pair of Gothic Revival cast iron garden seats, a three tier marble fountain and a famine pot from Ballyduff, Co. Waterford are among the top lots at Fonsie Mealy’s summer garden furniture and outdoor effects sale in Castlecomer on August 12. Viewing for the auction of 192 lots gets underway today. The catalogue is online.
A set of Victorian wrought irons gates, 110 inches wide.
Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) – La physique du sol. Courtesy Christie’s
It is a tribute to the Parisian taste of Jeanne Marie de Broglie that the furniture she collected in the 1970’s and ’80’s is of a type that makes vast sums of money in today’s market. Maybe the key is thinking outside the box. Princess Jeanne-Marie, the forward looking daughter of a duke who established Christie’s Paris office in 1968, did not go for the fashion of the time. Instead she followed the avant-garde.
Her private collection of over 150 lots, to be sold at Christie’s in Paris on September 30, reflects an expertise in art and friendships forged with artists. Close friends with gallery owner Daniel Cordier she was active in a visionary artistic circle where she met and became friends with Jean Dubuffet. Physique du sol (€200,000-€300,000) from her collection forms part of Dubuffet’s Texturologies series developed from the late 1950’s in which the artist uses a language of textures, layers and vibrations to transform painting into a physical and sensory experience.
Diego Giacometti (1902-1985) – Table basse ‘Berceau’.
Jeanne Marie de Broglie, who died last year aged 95, made an early acquisition of a Structure végétale chandelier by Claude Lalanne (€200,000-€300,000). The centrepiece of her collection is a unique piece by Diego Giacometti, a cradle table modelled on her dog Séraphim (€400,000-€600,000).
In an apartment emblematic of the elegant characteristics of great Parisian collections ceramics by Picasso, Charles X era candlesticks and an 18th century Limoges porcelain service sat alongside art by Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Dorothea Tanning, Léon Spilliaert, Henri Michaux, Miodrag Dado, Edgar Degas and Eugène Delacroix.
Claude Lalanne (1925-2019) – Lustre Structure végétale
Daughter of Gilles de Maillé de La Tour-Landry, Duke of Maillé and Anne-Marie Radziwill, Jeanne Marie became a princess through her marriage to Guy de Broglie in 1949. The aristocratic lineage is evident in several pieces in the collection like a diamond brooch in the shape of a Maltese Cross from the Radziwill family (€30,000-€50,000) and a portrait of her grandmother Dolly Radziwill by Adrian Désiré Étienne Drian. A service bears the cipher of her ancestor Princess Louise of Prussia.
For Francois Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe, she was a mentor. “After a year’s apprenticeship in London as a young specialist, I had the privilege of working alongside her in Paris in the 1970s. At that time, she was writing a crucial chapter in the history of the auction house as it expanded internationally. It was under Jeanne-Marie’s watchful eye that I embarked on this adventure, which has now lasted for over 50 years.”
Christie’s, now celebrating 260 years in business, describe this sale as a tribute auction to a major figure in the European art market who helped to shape the rapidly changing landscape of post war Europe.
A sandstone heart shaped pendant with a gold plated chain
The last she saw of her husband was from the lifeboat. He was waving to her from the upper decks of Titanic . Florence Agnes Angle, who died in 1969 aged 93, never remarried. A brooch and pendant which the Titanic survivor and nurse cherished will come under the hammer at the next Lynes and Lynes auction in Co. Cork. Florence eventually settled in Leamington Spa in her native Warwickshire.
She did not talk about it a lot. But when in 1961 the Coventry Evening Telegraph reported the death of Finnish born Helga Hirvonen in New York – describing her as the last survivor of the Titanic – the elderly but feisty Mrs Angle went to the newspaper office to set the record straight. She was then a very much alive Titanic survivor and was certain that other living survivors were out there too. In an interview at that time she recounted how she had been asleep when Titanic hit the iceberg. Her husband woke her and told her to get dressed. Instead she went back to sleep. Woken up again by the commotion outside the cabin the couple went to the upper decks together. There she was separated from him and placed in a lifeboat.
A newspaper cutting reporting the death of Mrs. Angle
The story of Titanic is as potent as it ever was. Memorabilia and artefacts continue to command huge auction prices. A gold pocket watch recovered from the body of Macy’s co-owner Isidor Strauss made £1.78 million (€2.08 million) at Aldriges in Wiltshire last year. A letter written by his wife Ida on Titanic stationary and posted in Cobh (Queenstown) sold for £100,000 (€116,880). Denis Lynes has put more modest estimates of €5,000-€10,000 on a sandstone heart shaped pendant with a gold plated chain, emblematic of all the heartbreak and tragedy of the Titanic disaster, and on a c1900 gold pink tourmaline and half pearl brooch. Eat your hearts out Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Willed to an Irishwoman by Mrs. Angle the jewellery will come up as lots 349 and 350 at his sale in Carrigtwohill on August 29.
A c1900 pink tourmaline and half pearl brooch pendant.
White plaster portrait bust of Charles Stewart Parnell
A plaster portrait bust of Charles Stewart Parnell is the leading lot at the sale by South Dublin Auctions on August 9. Created by artist Mary Grant in 1892 it is likely that this is a cast after the one in the National Portrait Gallery in London. The estimate is €3,000-€6,000. Among 1380 lots on offer are contents from a Limerick antique shop, a London penthouse, jewellery and small collectible pieces.
David Ffrench Le Roy – STILL LIFE CHEESE WINE & GRAPES
This oil on board by David Ffrench le Roy is at an online auction of Irish paintings by Adams Blackrock which runs until August 12. Lot 33 is estimated at €500-€600 in a sale of 421 lots. Online sales of jewellery and watches and of antiques and furniture are running concurrently at Adams Blackrock. The furniture sale includes this canteen of assorted silver flatware, with an estimate of €1,000-€1,200. All catalogues are online.
This Italian sandstone model of three cherubs at play following a classical design heads up Fonsie Mealy’s sale of garden furniture and outdoor effects in Castlecomer on August 12. The estimate is €1,500-€2,000. There are 192 lots on offer with estimates from €40 to €2,000. Among them are statues, urns, garden seats and tables, a horse trough, a 19th century pony trap, mill wheels, bird baths and advertising signs. The catalogue is online.
Nude by the Sea is the title of this arresting 1941 oil on canvas by Ireland’s pioneering abstract and modernist artist Mainie Jellett (1897-1944). With its intensity and flowing background it must have seemed beyond futuristic to most Irish viewers in 1941. It was shown at the Jellett exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from December 1991 to March 1992 and at a retrospective of the artist at the Municipal Gallery in Dublin in 1962. The painting was catalogued for that show as Composition with Figure. Nude by the Sea is among a selection of works already consigned to Whyte’s next sale of Important Irish Art, which is to take place on September 28. Not surprisingly Whyte’s anticipate significant interest in this bright and highly polished work by an important figure in Irish art history.
This George III side table made €1,200 at hammer at Adams.
At a time when stylish but everyday antique furniture has been all but ignored by the market it was cheering to see a number of pieces making above estimate prices at Adam’s warehouse auction in Dublin last week. The top lot in the sale, a Georgian semi-elliptical side table with an inlaid top and compartmental frieze, made €1,200 at hammer over a high estimate of €800.
Then an Edwardian mahogany wardrobe with twin astragal glazed doors made €1,200 at hammer over a top estimate of €700.
An Edwardian mahogany Carlton House desk made a hammer price of €800, at the top of the estimate. An Edwardian brass framed four glass ceiling lantern made €550 over a top estimate of €400. While these are bargain prices when compared to what the same pieces might have made decades ago things are different now. It might be over optimistic to view such results as a straw in the wind but they are nonetheless encouraging.
Adams will conduct valuations on jewellery, watches, Irish art and fine and decorative art in Cork by appointment only on Tuesday August 4, in Belfast on August 5 and in Dublin on August 6.
An Edwardian wardrobe with astragal glazed doors made €1,200 at hammer at Adams.
A c1750 Irish silver coffee pot UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000 AT HAMMER
Irish silver, furniture by renowned Dublin maker Robert Strahan and a white gold diamond flower head cluster ring are among the offerings at Hegarty’s online auction in Bandon on August 5.
The faded and now indecipherable maker’s mark on an ornate c1745 Dublin made Irish silver cream jug with a shaped rim and C scroll handle offers a timely lesson. It is important to preserve hallmarks by keeping a thumb upon them when polishing and shining the silver. The cream jug is estimated at €600-€800.
An elegant George II silver coffee pot made by William Townsend in Dublin c1750 is estimated at €3,500-€4,500. The baluster form pot has an ebonised handle, a domed hinged cover with finial, an acanthus leaf mounted on the spout and a circular spreading foot.
An 18 carat white gold diamond flower head cluster ring features a central round cut diamond surrounded by eight diamonds in a raised setting. The total diamond weight amounts to 1.8 carats and the estimate is €2,500-€3,500.
Lot 128 is a two door side table by Robert Strahan. Just 20 inches deep it would fit in most modern homes. There is a raised gallery back and a carved border, with fleur de lys carving on the two doors. The estimate is a mere €400-€800. The catalogue for the auction is online.
A diamond flower head cluster ring UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Johnny Marr’s Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo 1982. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.
Johnny Marr, regarded as the guitar genius of a generation, co-founded the groundbreaking 1980’s band The Smiths at the age of 18 in 1982. Since then the Manchester born Irish musician originally named Maher has been a member of The Pretenders, The The, Electronic, The Healers, Modest House and The Cribs. He has collaborated with a roll call of greats across indie, rock, pop and film including The Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads, Bryan Ferry, Beck, Hans Zimmer, Oasis, Pearl Jam, Noel Gallagher, Billie Eilish, Blondie, Gorillaz and Franz Ferdinand.
Around 80 guitars along with amps and equipment integral to his extraordinarily wide ranging career will come under the hammer at Marr’s Guitars: The Johnny Marr Collection at Christie’s in London on September 17. A 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355 will lead the sale (£100,000-£150,000) (€117,000-€175,600). His 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, for many the guitar most strongly associated with his melodic Smiths era sound, is estimated at £60,000-£80,000 (€70,250-€93,660). Estimates in this auction of 95 lots range from £1,000 tp £150,000 (€1,170-€175,600). Johnny Marr will donate 100% of the sale of ten lots to benefit the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society. In June Marr released “Spin” as the lead single for his album The Age of Everything due to be released in October.
Johnny Marr’s 1960 Cherry Red Gibson ES-355. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd.
